At the beginning of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. Fremont Arts Council‘s Committee of the Whole Meeting at the Powerhouse (3940 Fremont Ave. N.), there will be discussion of a proposal to make a change to the organization’s bylaws that will attempt to deal with the logistical problems of a simple majority of the voting members being the only way to change the bylaws. The suggestion, coming from FAC board member Maque daVis, also a member of FAC Board subcommittee on bylaw changes, is to add that a whole consensus of the FAC Board could enact bylaw changes too.
At the last FAC Board meeting, a proposal was made to make one change out of many proposed changes to the FAC bylaws. Out of that, a FAC Board subcommittee was formed to look at the FAC Bylaws, which found that the FAC bylaws need to be updated and made more clear as to how the FAC is actually run.
Some proposed changes involve tax requirements, clarity on procedure, Board elections, the COW (Committee of the Whole) process, and function of the committees. But before anything is enacted, these proposed bylaw changes will be discussed over several months, by the members, the COW and the FAC Board.
The first change proposed involves the process of updating the bylaws, by incorporating a consensus vote of the FAC Board as another way to make bylaw changes. Currently the only way to update the bylaws is by a majority vote of all paying members. The FAC has not been able to get a majority of members to vote on any proposal yet – which may have something to do with the fact that at one point, there were 300 members in the FAC. Currently there are about 67 members.