A letter from David Evans, President of the Kenmore Community Club
"Hello,
The Board and I are reaching out to those of you who are Members in good standing with the Kenmore Community Club. We hope you are coping well with turbulent times.
We're asking that you take a moment to vote on some changes to our club's Constitution and ByLaws that will help the Club weather this crisis and put us on firm ground for another 90 years.
Members will be invited to vote during a live phone/web conference on Oct. 14 from 5:30pm - 7pm by CLICKING THIS LINK or calling 1-425-616-0754 and entering conference code 991907603#
We're sorry, the old constitution does not allow email voting (but the new one will).
To review the changes these links take you to the current constitution and bylaws and the proposed constitution and bylaws. In addition there is a table that summarizes what we have changed and what stays the same.
But let me give you a little more context.
I have served as President for 6 years together with a host of Officers and Trustees who deserve my highest compliment: that of dedicated Volunteers.
We have learned a lot in that time and our goal here is to capture that learning in a modernized Constitution.
For the most part, this means clarifying day-to-day things we have found to be confusing, operating questions like quorum sizes, vacancies, etc. The somewhat deeper change is to clarify the mission of the Club. The existing constitution, amended last in 2009, was contradictory as to whether we are a charitable organization or a lobbying and business-promoting organization. In practice, this meant we could be neither very effectively. Since the Board modified this constitution in 2009, and even more so over the past six years, we have been moving toward being a true charitable organization. This revision that we are asking you to vote for is to make that clear. In the 1940s 50s and 60s, our Club was needed to promote business, but in 2012, we found we could be exempt from costly state property taxes if we limited ourselves to renting to businesses fewer than 10 days each year. This put the Club on good financial footing thanks in part to volunteer accountant and Club Member John Hendrickson, but it means we are long overdue to shift our core mission in our Constitution away from promoting business, and toward promoting community.
The Summary Table of Changes simplifies for you the lobbying prohibitions that existed already, and those we should add. It shows how we replaced passages about promoting business with passages about promoting arts, youth, education, civics, celebration, worship and community well-being. Your approval of this Constitution is only the first step for us. With a constitution that clarifies our mission as being fundamentally charitable, we can move forward with exploring how to seek donations to help us bridge to a time when we can again rent our Club. That should give you the big picture, and some of the details, to guide your vote. I am proud of the process that produced this draft. It began with dozens of hours involving Vice President Omur Muhittinoglu, Trustee Nick Freeman, and myself to reflect on our time volunteering and the changes we needed to make. Then, before bringing this to you, we met with all 8 members of the Board of Trustees over two months and included their input, resulting in our unanimous approval to present this new constitution to the members for a vote. If you are one of 31 Members of KCC who are current in your dues you will be sent an invitation to vote on this proposed constitution and revised bylaws at the virtual meeting Oct. 14 (see link above). To adopt the revised constitution and bylaws, a two-thirds majority of the votes cast at the Oct. 14 meeting are needed, so every vote counts. Please join our live call to have your impact on Kenmore. Thank you, David Evans Ph.D. President, Board of Trustees Kenmore Community Club
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