Zone ByLaws Committee Chairperson Herb Cartmell

A Blog on ByLaws

Lions Zone 19B-3
Send comments and inquires to lionszone19B3@gmail.com.

July 25, 2011

Meeting: Committee Chairperson Herb Cartmell and Zone Chairperson Tom Karchesy met and discussed the merits of documenting the goveroning documents of our zone and clubs. Members are more likely to participate when they know the rules and boundries and more likely to bail when they are confronted with a situation where the rules are made up as we go along. So far we have found no unique documents that any of the clubs have orginated. It appears that our clubs in the zone follow the generic bylaws and constituton provided by the LCI. The District 19B does have a constitution and we are reviewing it.

July 28, 2011

Letter requesting clearificatin regarding the District Constitution: Zone Chair Tom Karchesy emailed the District Secretary with the following message: "I have a couple questions about the constitution and bylaws. First to make sure I have the current one, I am including it as an attachment to this email. Q1: On page 15 Article VIII Section 2 a. 1 , last sentence: "... on or before December 31 of the current Lions year." Does this conflict with page 19 Article XIII section 3 a , second to last sentence: "... no later then December 31st prior to the year of the election." Q2: What is meant by "proxy vote"? This is on page 9 Article VI, section 15. How should this be interpreted in the case of an "official representative" as stated on page 15 Article VI Section 7. I suppose that I should ask if there exists any constitution and or bylaws for District 19 B, Zone B3, or any of the clubs in that zone? "

August 1, 2011

Response by Exec Sec Patty Allen to inquiry: The two Sections in the MD19 By-Laws are not in conflict. They say the same thing using different words. A candidate must declare his candidacy by December 31st of the Lions Year. This Lions year runs from July 1, 2011 until June 30, 2012. The election of officers takes place in the spring of 2012, but the candidates must declare their candidacy on or before (or by) December 31, 2011, which is in the calendar year prior to the year of election, which is in the spring of 2012. Proxy voting is when a club has 12 votes and even when there are only 6 delegates attending the convention, those delegates are allowed to cast all 12 votes in the election. Lions Clubs International does not allow us to have proxy voting. LCI requires that you must have a delegate present and registered for each allowable ballot to be cast. If the club is allowed 12 votes, they must have 12 delegates present in order to cast all 12 of the allowed votes. In the case of a Zone Meeting, each club is allowed two delegates, which is the Club President and Secretary, to vote for the club. If the President or Secretary cannot attend, an official representative may be chosen by the officer not attending to represent that office at the Zone Meeting; thus the Official Representative at that meeting.