Twenty-three to 24 people will be needed to hold a Haines Chamber of Commerce meeting, compared to a recently dropped 14-person threshold.
The chamber’s members adopted that rule, along with many other bylaw changes, on Friday at its annual membership meeting. The new bylaws go into effect on Nov. 1.
Currently, the chamber has 116 members with a quorum of 12 percent needed to conduct business. That translates to 14 members needed to be present.
The new bylaws called for 20 percent to be present for a quorum. That translates to 23.2 people – or 23 or 24, depending if the number is rounded up or rounded down.
At Friday’s meeting, 14 people – the minimum 12 percent – showed up to vote on the new bylaws drafted by a chamber committee.
But also Friday, the chamber members adopted a new bylaw that allows people to attend a meeting by speaker phone, which chamber board president Kyle Gray and chamber executive director Debra Schnabel contended would increase participation in the meetings.
Other bylaw changes included:
The board of directors will consist solely of people from for-profit businesses. They can serve two consecutive three-year terms before having to step down for at least one year before being nominated for the board of directors again.
Public officials and people from nonprofit groups are now not eligible to become a board member.
The annual dues will all be invoiced on Oct. 31 and the payment deadline will be Dec. 31. That replaces a requirement that dues would be paid on the anniversary of a person joining the chamber.
Most of the people at Friday’s meeting voted down a proposal to reduce the board members from nine to seven. Members voted down a proposal to appoint the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer to be a committee of four to respond to unexpected events. The bulk of the members did not want a four-person minority on the board to make board-related decisions.
Meanwhile, five of the nine board seats are up for election this year. One seat is empty. The other four are held by Gray, Thom Ely, Bill Kurz and Scott Sundberg.
Members nominated Jeremy Stephens, Gregg Richmond, Gray, Sundberg, Kurz and Ely for election. The members also set a 10-person limit for candidates, so four more people can be nominated by Nov. 18.
Details of the actual board elections are still being set up, but the voting will likely be done electronically, Schnabel said. The new board will be nailed down no later than Dec. 31.