July 2006

Summary minutes – see ICG-BOD Mailing List on the ICG web site (http://www.costume.org/) for original emails

There were many comments responding to CGW’s message – see web site for posts.

From Nora Mai on ICG promotional materials and letterheads:

Since we want to get the PR Juggernaut rolling again; Karen (& I) were wondering if there were any extant flyers or other promotional materials. Anyone have such an animal?

If you have in your possession (or know of something that someone else has) any sort of official document, record, template or flyer pertaining to the ICG - please forward a copy of same to me. Electronic would be great (unless it's in some sort of peculiar file type), or hardcopy.

I'd like to accumulate whatever resources we have in to one type of storage which could be readily distributed to officers of the corporation as needed.

So - what have you got in your files?

July 13 from the ICG Member Transition Committee

Nora established a committee after CC24 to look into how we could preserve the rights and privileges of ICG members when their primary chapter withdraws for any reason from the ICG, and until such time those members join other ICG chapters or their ICG memberships expire.

Committee Members:

Jan Price, Chair

Nora Mai

Elaine Mami

Betsy Delany

Pierre Pettinger

Bruce MacDermot

Kevin Roche

As a result of our work, we, the members of the ICG Member Transition Committee, move to create a new Standing Rule 13.

Proposed new SR13:

"Whereas membership in the corporation requires membership in a chapter in good standing with the corporation, to accommodate those members whose chapter, for whatever reason, becomes disassociated with the corporation and to maintain their full rights and representation as members of the corporation, an ICG Member Transition Chapter, hereinafter referred to as the T-Chapter, shall be created.

(A) This chapter shall exist when and only when there are ICG members of disassociated chapters who qualify for membership in the T- Chapter, as outlined below. When the T- Chapter exists, a corporate officer appointed by the President of the corporation shall become a de facto member of the chapter.

(B) When a chapter disassociates itself from the corporation, its corporation members shall automatically be transferred on the corporate membership roster to the T-Chapter. Additionally, said members shall be notified in writing of this action. Such written notification shall include a description of the rights and obligations of T-Chapter members.

(C) For multi-chapter members(as defined in SR5), if the disassociated chapter was not designated as the primary chapter, no action shall be taken and those members shall not be transferred to the T-Chapter.

(D) Membership tenure in the T- Chapter shall be limited to:

(1) the remaining "paid through date" on the corporation membership roster, or

(2) one year, which ever comes first.

(E) To remain members of the corporation, T- Chapter members must join another chapter in good standing with the corporation before their membership in the T-Chapter expires.

(F) The T-Chapter members shall elect a representative to serve as a Director on the Board of Directors within sixty (60) days of its becoming active. If no representative is elected within that period, the appointed corporate officer, as a member of the T- Chapter, shall appoint a representative from within its membership."

Renumbers SR 13-30 as SR 14-31

Moved by Jan Price

Seconded by Betsy Delaney

July 14 from Nora Mai

Having been Motioned (Jan Price - VP) & Seconded (Betsy Delaney - SiW), the proposal for new SR #13 is designated Motion #07-06-01.

We will have 15 days of discussion ending Saturday July 29, followed by 15 days of voting.

July 15 Question from Dora Buck

What would be the location of the chapter? As per our By-Law chapters shall be in defined geographic areas

July 15 Suggested change from Betsy Delaney

Add a section to theamendment: The T-Chapter shall be established in the state of Maryland, the location of the corporation's registered office, for the purpose of complying with the requirement in the corporation's By-Laws. (See Article II _CHAPTERS_ Section 1, Organization.)

July 16 Comment from Pierre Pettinger as parliamentarian:

I see nothing procedurally incorrect in this concept. Since it is presented solely to assure complete compliance with the by-laws and is a minor change, I don't see why it could not be treated as a friendly amendment which would require only the assent of the mover and seconder.

The other alternative I would see would be to declare the geographic site to be identical to that of the dissolving chapter. Again, I think this could be seen as a friendly amendment for the same reasons as above.

July 18 Section change accepted as friendly amendment by Jan Price & Betsy Delaney. New section is section A, original sections re-lettered

July 19 – call for roll call by Karen Heim, ICG Corresponding Secretary.

Responding (dates not included):

Karen Heim, ICG Corresponding Secretary

Jan Price, ICG VP

Bruce MacDermott, Treasurer

Bruce Mai, St. Louis Costumers Guild

Betsy Delaney, VP/BOD Rep, Silicon Web

Diane Harris, President, SWCG

Nora Mai, ICG President

Ann Hamilton, GCFCG rep

Kate McClure, President (Grand Pooh-Bah) of Beyond Reality Costumers Guild

Rob Himmelsbach, Treasurer, DVCG reporting on behalf of Sandy Swank, DVCG President

Dora Buck, Prez NJ/NY chapter

Janice Dallas, Northern Lights CG Rep

Alexandra Dysinski, Fibre Fantasy Artists, Canada Secretary, and BOD alternate

Valerie Roberts, President Chicagoland Costumer's Guild

Frances Burns, ICG recording secetary

Saturday July 29, 2006

Motion 07-06-01

July 29 is the last day for discussion of this motion. Per the President, starting July 30 there will be 15 days for all BOD members to vote on the motion as stated.

Sat, 29 Jul 2006

Motion 07-06-01

From: JP

Since today is the last day to discuss it, I thought I'd repost the proposed SR (a little late in the day, yes, however input is still valued). It includes the friendly amendment suggested by Betsy addressing the geographic boundary requirement that Dora noted was missing (thanks to you both!).

Will we be using the Poll option in yahoo groups for the vote? If so, I can set it up.

Thanks again to all the committee members! Looking forward to the voting which we hope will approve this for our members.

Proposed new SR13:

(A) The T-Chapter shall be established in the state of Maryland, the location of the corporation's registered office, for the purpose of complying with the requirement in the corporation's By-Laws. (See Article II _CHAPTERS_ Section 1, Organization.)

(B) This chapter shall exist when and only when there are ICG members of disassociated chapters who qualify for membership in the T-Chapter, as outlined below. When the T-Chapter exists, a corporate officer appointed by the President of the corporation shall become a de facto member of the chapter.

(C) When a chapter disassociates itself from the corporation, its corporation members shall automatically be transferred on the corporate membership roster to the T-Chapter.

Additionally, said members shall be notified in writing of this action. Such written notification shall include a description of the rights and obligations of T-Chapter members.

(D) For multi-chapter members(as defined in SR5), if the disassociated chapter was not designated as the primary chapter, no action shall be taken and those members shall not be transferred to the T-Chapter.

(E) Membership tenure in the T- Chapter shall be limited to:

(1) the remaining "paid through date" on the corporation membership roster, or

(2) one year, which ever comes first.

(F) To remain members of the corporation, T-Chapter members must join another chapter in good standing with the corporation before their memberships in the T-Chapter expire.

(G) The T-Chapter members shall elect a representative to serve as a Director on the Board of Directors within sixty (60) days of its becoming active. If no representative is elected within that period, the appointed corporate officer, as a member of the T- Chapter, shall appoint a representative from within its membership."

Renumbers SR 13-30 as SR 14-31

Vote Results

CHOICES AND RESULTS

- Yes, 13 votes, 100.00%

- No, 0 votes, 0.00%

- Abstain - courteously, 0 votes, 0.00%

INDIVIDUAL VOTES

- Yes

- casamai@sbcglobal.net

- Janice@dallas-family.com

- adysinski@stitchme.ca

- ricrader@mindspring.com

- dfbuck@hotmail.com

- kate.mcclure@dexmedia.com

- valroberts@yahoo.com

- axejudge@accessus.net

- Bruce-BoD@mnouveau.com

- taknflyte@yahoo.com

- Robbiker@comcast.net

- sewsue22@yahoo.com

- bdelaney@hawkeswood.com

- No

- Abstain - courteously

Motion passes

Sat, 15 Jul 2006

More food for thought on the subject of exiting chapters, not specifically regarding the current motion -exiting chapters

Via Betsy

In response to the message I sent to my chapter, informing them of the new motion and asking for feedback, I got this message back. It seems like an excellent start to a ï»¿corollary rule for managing the exit of a chapter. (Not that we want to encourage the event to happen, mind you, but to manage the process if the issue should arise.)

Here's what Aurora {Jackie Bowin} said:

I mentioned this in the meeting at CC, but I think it was misconstrued or misunderstood. I think it's within the ICG's responsibility to also outline a procedure for seceding and dissolving. Not saying that we are disallowing chapters to leave, but if they have to apply to join, why not apply to leave as well? The steps could be simple, but they would insure we have the information we need. For example, I think they should be: notify the president in writing, notify the treasurer, providing a complete updated membership roster so members may be contacted about the T-chapter, and prove membership has been contacted/pay for ICG treasurer to contact membership concerning the disassociation/otherwise specify whose cost it is to contact members. I don't think these are hard steps to do, but they ensure that the transition is smooth and no one gets left behind."

Aurora

Sat, 15 Jul 2006

From Bruce

This sounds like a new standing rule would be required - covering the process required to assure all member's rights are understood as they prepare to depart.

New Committee?

Wed, 19 Jul 2006

From Bruce SLCG

Having a procedure for chapters that secede sounds all well and good, but as history has shown, if people are of a mind to leave, they don't really give a lot of thought of how it may concern the parent organization. Apathy has set in some cases, and there's no one to both to follow procedure, even if there was one. More than one just failed to communicate anymore.

Record Keeping

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:04:13 -0000

From Nora Mai:

I'm going to be blunt the ICG has a horrible history as far as record-keeping is concerned. Part of the problem stems back to the fact that we were organized before much of the technology we take for granted was widely available. But that's changed & we need to change. Most of us have access to all the electronic tools we need to make our records cleaner, consistent & much more readily available.

Here are my thoughts on record keeping:

All officers should keep running records of their own activities & reports, while having them available for other officers as needed. To me this means keeping e-files of all documents, updating as required, storing on a disc & passing that disc on to your successor. That means that the C-sec needs to keep records of who they correspond with & why; the R-Sec should keep records of all minutes; Treasurer well that's kind of obvious, & more.

Committee heads should keep summaries of all their discussions; PR committee should include flyers & a tally where & why they sent flyers, etc. Newsletter Editor needs to keep budget info & an archive of the newsletter; Webmaster needs to backup the site & keep records of any transactions or business involved with the web.

Board members here's where it gets interesting; sounds like it might be a good idea for you all to take these recommendations to the local level. Each chapter ought to have some kind of archive history of their actions & activities.

The Master File:

Key general records such as incorporation papers, account info, IRS papers and corporate records need to be stored in a centralized way (which I'm calling the Master File). These records should be stored on a disc and multiple copies would be kept with different officers; which again would be passed on.

Files on the Yahoo list:

Current files & pertinent documents should be available here for easy access by the Board.

All 4 versions of the incorporation papers (including 2 revivals) are stored with the Yahoo list files for the BoD; I intend to leave those there but also pull copies for the Master file. There are a number of budget statements & newsletter files stored there that are out of date by several years. I will be reviewing these, saving copies & then removing from the list files.

Feedback?

Mon, 24 Jul 2006

Newsletter

From Denisen Hartlove – Newsletter Editor

International Costumers Guild, Inc.

dhartlove@ix.netcom.com or newsletter@costume.org

Letitia/Stephanie posted to the ICG-D list several times recently regarding the ICG's various responsibilities and legal requirements. One of her points in particular hit home with me as newsletter editor, specifically that of the ICG's lack of publicity and support for its member chapters' activities. And she has a point. For some time now, the newsletter has posted a listing of various conventions and costume-related activities around the country and world, but little to nothing has been chapter-specific, and that's an omission that shouldn't be ignored. Accordingly, I've opened up a space in the newsletter to list the individual chapters' activities, meetings, etc., starting with this coming issue. By this I mean chapter-specific activities, not just regular cons (who place paid ads and articles in the newsletter). This includes chapter meetings, picnics, symposiums, etc., and can also include events co-sponsored by the chapters with other organizations.

In order for the newsletter to give chapters the support they deserve (which is a LOT!) in the form of publicity and flag-waving , I need to get info on those events from the chapters, their reps and Presidents. If you post the info to your chapters' websites, cool. I'll hunt it down while I'm putting together the newsletter and find the info there (though as of last Saturday night's attempts to fill this space, I found almost nothing listed, save for on the SWCG's site - yay for you guys!!!). Better yet, send me info - whether two sentence notes to entire articles - about your chapter meetings, get-togethers, even just outings to the movies if you've got 'em, via email, via phone, mail me a chapter newsletter, anything.

Part of my job as newsletter editor is to give the chapters support via the newsletter, but without input from the chapters, that becomes much more difficult. This way, the chapters get plenty of free publicity, traveling ICG members have events to visit, and I get Letitia off my case. ;-)

Thank you so much for your time and efforts. I'm looking forward to hearing from the chapters shortly, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sat, 29 Jul 2006

From Bruce MacDermott, ICG Treasurer

To All,

I am preparing the address labels for the next issue of the ICG Newsletter. All members whose "paid-thru" date is "Jun-06" will be dropped from the mailing unless their renewal is sent to me by July 31.

If there were any address corrections since the last mailing, I must have them, as well, by July 31.

Treasurers Reports are, as always, Due by the 6th of the month. Please plan your efforts accordingly.