Iron Warriors MC Nation

I received this forwarded email today from Southern Region Secretary Toe Jam. It read exactly as follows:

Amendment to By-Laws: Appeals to Regional Board

By mutual agreement among the National Advisory Board Members, the following proposed amendment is introduced:

Appeals to Regional Board

If a member feels that an adverse action has been unfairly levied against him by a chapter, then that member shall have the right to appeal to the regional board for relief. This appeal will be limited to the following actions: Removal from the IWMC as a member not in good standing. The pertinent By-Law Articles affected are Article 13, Article 14, and Article 15 of the IWMC National By-Laws.

ARTICLE 13

SUSPENSION AND EXPULSION

A. THE REGIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS WILL HAVE THE POWER, AFTER NOTICE AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD, TO VOTE TO RESCIND THE CHARTER OF ANY CHAPTER AND REMOVE THE NAME OF ANY MEMBER FROM THE REGIONAL ROSTER FOR CONDUCT OF A CHAPTER OR INDIVIDUAL MEMBER WHICH THE REGIONAL BOARD DETERMINES IS CONTRARY TO THE PHILOSOPHY OR OBJECTIVES OF THE IWMC.

B. THE RESPECTIVE CHAPTER EXECUTIVE BOARDS WILL HAVE THE POWER, AFTER NOTICE AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD AND UPON A VOTE OF A MINIMUM OF 75% OF THEIR MEMBERSHIP, TO SUSPEND OR EXPEL AND TERMINATE THE MEMBERSHIP OF ANY CHAPTER MEMBER FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. FOR CONDUCT WHICH, IN THE OPINION OF THE BOARD, DISTURBS THE ORDER, DIGNITY, BUSINESS, HARMONY, OR IMPAIRS THE GOOD NAME, POPULARITY OR PROSPERITY OF THE IWMC; OR

2. FOR CONDUCT WHICH, IN THE BOARD’S OPINION, ENDANGERS THE WELFARE, INTEREST OR CHARTER OF THE IWMC. THE PROCEEDING AND DECISION OF THE BOARD IN SUCH MATTERS WILL BE FINAL AND CONCLUSIVE.

ARTICLE 14

REINSTATEMENT

A. ANY MEMBER WHOSE MEMBERSHIP IS SUSPENDED, OR ANY CHAPTER WHOSE REGIONAL CHARTER IS RESCINDED AS PROVIDED IN ARTICLE 13, MAY HAVE HIS/HER MEMBERSHIP, OR CHARTER REINSTATED ON SUCH TERMS AS THE RESPECTIVE CHAPTER EXECUTIVE BOARD OR REGIONAL BOARD DEEMS APPROPRIATE.

MEMBERS AT A CHAPTER LEVEL MUST PAY A FEE TO THE CHAPTER REGIONAL BOARD FOR SUSPENSION REINSTATEMENT, PLUS ANY OTHER FEES OWED.

CHAPTERS, WHOSE CHARTER HAS BEEN SUSPENDED, MUST PAY THE REGULAR NEW CHAPTER FEE OF $250.00 FOR REINSTATEMENT.

ALL APPLICATIONS FOR REINSTATEMENT MUST BE SUBMITTED, IN WRITING, TO THE APPROPRIATE REGIONAL BOARD.

ARTICLE 15

TRANSFERABILITY OF MEMBERSHIP

A MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING MAY TRANSFER HIS/HER MEMBERSHIP FROM ONE CHAPTER TO ANOTHER UNDER THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:

BY APPROVAL OF BOTH CHAPTER BOARDS (IF SOLELY SEEKING TO JOIN ANOTHER CHAPTER)

IF TRANSFER IS DUE TO RELOCATION, THE MEMBER SHALL BE ADMITTED INTO THE NEW CHAPTER UPON APPROVAL OF THAT CHAPTER’S EXECUTIVE BOARD.

IF THE MEMBER RELOCATING IS A CIVILIAN MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING, THEY SHALL UPON APPROVAL OF THE NEW CHAPTER BOARD BE ADMITTED TO THAT CHAPTER REGARDLESS OF THE NUMBER OF CIVILIAN MEMBERS ALREADY IN THE CHAPTER. HOWEVER, THAT CHAPTER CANNOT ADD NEW CIVILIAN MEMBERS UNTIL THEY HAVE REACHED THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF MEMBERS TO ALLOW APPLICATION OF THE 10% RULE.

LIFE MEMBERS SHALL RECEIVE NO SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF MEMBERSHIP.

In an instance where a member in good standing wishes to transfer membership to another chapter because of a conflict with member(s) of his/her current chapter, is refused the transfer by the current Chapter Board; OR is expelled from the IWMC as a member not in good standing because of the transfer request, that member may appeal to the Regional Board for relief.

Upon receiving the appeal, the Regional Board will require the Chapter Board imposing the adverse action to put its reasons in writing with supporting documentation, if appropriate and pertinent.

An appeal to the Regional Board may also be filed by the gaining chapter, if the gaining chapter feels that it is being adversely affected by the losing chapter’s decision. That Chapter Board must also file its reasons in writing to the Regional Board with supporting documentation, if appropriate and pertinent.

The Regional Board will examine the appeal with all supporting documents, and make a determination and a recommendation. That determination and recommendation will be sent to all chapters to vote to either accept or reject the Regional Board’s recommendation. Upon completion of the vote, the Regional Board will issue a decision which will be FINAL.

Now as I read this proposed amendment (which is on the agenda for the Southern Region meeting this month), the National Board has pitched this to the regions to allow the respective regional boards to have final say over who is allowed to stay in each individual chapter. I'm assuming each region is voting on this at their regional meetings this year and the amendment will be on the agenda at Nationals in 2011.

But the larger question is why do the regional and national boards want control over who is allowed membership in local chapters? And why would local chapters want to give up the control they now have over who they spend time with at local club events?

Question on Article 14????

ANY MEMBER WHOSE MEMBERSHIP IS SUSPENDED, OR ANY CHAPTER WHOSE REGIONAL CHARTER IS RESCINDED AS PROVIDED IN ARTICLE 13, MAY HAVE HIS/HER MEMBERSHIP, OR CHARTER REINSTATED ON SUCH TERMS AS THE RESPECTIVE CHAPTER EXECUTIVE BOARD OR REGIONAL BOARD DEEMS APPROPRIATE.

The way this reads to me is that a CHAPTER that is suspended by the Regional Board can reinstate themselves via their CHAPTER EXECUTIVE BOARD. If the Regional Board is to be the governing authority then the word "or" needs to be changed to "and" in the last sentence above.

Rizzo, I agree that Article 14 is written so that it can be interpreted that a Chapter with a suspended charter could reinstate itself. I'm pretty sure the spirit of the Article is that if a Regional Board suspends a Chapter's charter, only the Regional Board can re-instate it. That's an error in wording that should be corrected.

However, to me, the larger issue about these proposed changes is that the Regional Board is trying to take the power to have final say in chapter membership away from the Chapters and grant it to the Regional Board. I know that I certainly don't want 7 men that I see once or twice a year having FINAL say in anything about what the group of friends and brothers, that I associate with on a regular basis, choose to do regarding our chapter membership.

During the Southern Region Meeting, the region voted to send this proposal back to the board for correction and clarification on certain points of the change to the amendment. If the proposed change is once again submitted to the Southern Region chapters for consideration, and the region votes to propose the change at Nationals next year, I will post the proposed amendment in its final form on this website.

Hey Matt .  Hopefully you got a copy of the revised language in the proposal.  For anyone who is interested, this proposal is not to give regional boards more authority over chapters.  It actually is an attempt to protect members and chapters from any vindictive actions which are not supported by the by-laws.  In a sense, it really puts more limits on chapter and regional boards.  Our by-laws have a lot of room for interpretation, which can be bad, and it can also be good.  When the by-laws were written, one of the main concerns was not to "paint oneself into a corner".  If you have inflexible rules, then chapter autonomy might suffer.  If the rules are too liberal, then anarchy reigns.  The purpose for having elected regional boards is to govern their respective regions.  This by-law was written so that governance is not abused by one person or a small group of people.