The story so far

The Gang of Three was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas VHF-FM Society in August 2003. They ran on a platform of sweetness, light, motherhood, and apple pie.

Once elected, they alleged a dark conspiracy to Do Wrong in coordination in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. (Cue the sinister music.) Instead of working with the Board and the Coordinator to correct the problem - an approach that has, in the entire 40-year history of the Society, never failed to correct any wrongs that may have been committed - they demanded access to the entire frequency coordination database and records so they could perform their own audit of the records, in secret. They refused to promise not to release those records to all and sundry, including private records such as the exact location of coordinated repeaters.

They fought that battle for a year. When a compromise was reached - to which they agreed, involving the entire Board auditing a fraction of the over 1500 coordinations, in closed session - they failed to come to the audit meeting. It was held anyway. Some problems were found and corrected, and one zone coordinator resigned.

At the August 2004 meeting, they proposed a slate of candidates who, if elected, would have given them control of the Board. They were shot down in flames. This must have scared the Gang badly.

The January 2005 meeting was held in Arlington. At that meeting, many new members joined the Society, paying with crisp new $10 bills. These new members proceeded to provide the necessary support to ram through the vote-by-mail amendment. In the process, they shouted down all attempts to assert the rule of order. The meeting was loud and contentious, and could have easily devolved into a riot had the rules been insisted upon.

It quickly became clear that the vote-by-mail amendment would cause an enormous drain upon the Society. The wording on how it was to be handled was lifted, almost word-for-word, from Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, and as such was reasonably clear (although not completely clear, as those trying to implement it would soon discover) and secure. However, the costs of producing, mailing, and processing 800 ballots were astronomical compared to the Society's annual budget. It was at this point that I was asked by several members to examine the situation; they felt that my parliamentary expertise would be useful.

I consulted with the folks at the Robert's Rules web board, and it was they who first suggested that a vote on a motion to appeal the decision of the chair (which, in the view of the proponents, allowed the vote to proceed) could be rescinded, as well as pointing out that any motion adopted in violation of a rule protecting the rights of absent members was null and void. I worked with several directors to develop the agenda for the special meeting, once it was determined that one would be called.

The meeting was called for Saturday, 9 April. Notice of the meeting was sent to the membership, as required by the bylaws, on 7 March. The special meeting was properly called under the bylaws provision that requires one if five directors request it - which did happen.

This sent the Gang of Three into a twitter. They finally threatened a lawsuit on or about 24 March, through their friend Steve Agee, N5ZUA, if the items which would correct the invalid amendment remained on the agenda after 1 April. The Gang themselves sent a second letter a few days later demanding the same thing.

The agenda was not modified. Plans for the meeting went ahead. I'd already purchased airline tickets and reserved a rental car for the trip when the meeting was first called, and nothing happened to lead me to believe those plans would be wasted.

As I was driving from Fairmont to Minneapolis to catch my flight (a two-hour drive) about 10:45 AM on Friday, 8 April - a week after their deadline - the Gang's attorney called Paul Baungardner to tell him they'd be in court that day. That was the last Baumgardner heard, while the attorney was in court filing a lawsuit and arguing for an emergency temporary restraining order. The petition claimed everything but the end of civilization if the meeting went ahead without requiring that all substantive votes be held by mail, as the bylaws allegedly required. Since they carefully made sure that Baumgardner was not aware of the exact location and time of the hearing in time to be there with legal representation (or, indeed, to be there at all), the judge, hearing no opposing facts, granted the TRO. Since the suit was filed the Friday before the meeting on Saturday, there was no opportunity to get a court to lift the TRO before the meeting.

This particularly cowardly act meant that the special meeting could not accomplish its intended purpose. The meeting was held anyway, and at that meeting, I proposed a resolution that said the members at that meeting felt that the amendment was adopted improperly and should be voided. That resolution passed by a vote of 40 to 16.

When the case came up for a hearing for a temporary injunction, the attorney who agreed to represent the Society argued, quite successfully, that the courts in Dallas County had a long history of not interfering in the internal affairs of voluntary organizations, and that the amendment was improperly adopted. The judge agreed, and refused to order a temporary injunction. While the Gang of Three calls this a victory for their view, I fail to see how it could be anything but a stinging loss. The Gang's attorney proposed a settlement of the lawsuit: they'd drop it if the Board agreed to abide by the invalidly adopted amendment. The Society's attorney declined.

Since the Society was no longer under any sort of court order to conduct voting by mail, the Board was free to recognize that the amendment was not in effect. It did so at a meeting at Ham-Com in Arlington on Saturday, 4 June, over the objections of the Gang of Three. Remember this date...it'll be important in a moment.

The Gang had apparently been planning to follow through on their "victory" by campaigning hard for their slate of candidates. They wrote a letter, supposedly on 3 June, proclaiming their worthiness to be reelected, and setting forth their bold vision for a brighter future if they could just get control of the Board. They went ahead and sent that letter on 8 June - after the Board threw out the vote-by-mail procedure. They knew they were sending out a pack of lies, but they did it anyway.

The letter also mentions their website, http://www.texasvotebymail.info/. That domain was registered by Don Stevenson on 6 June, also after the Board meeting. It's possible they planned to register that domain before the meeting and simply forgot, but the act of checking for its availability and the act of actually registering it are usually so closely connected that there's little reason to believe this is what happened.

I believe that the letter and web site were dreamed up and done after the Gang of Three had their plans stymied by the Board at the meeting at Ham-Com. The letter was written as though they didn't know that would happen, but why send it - it starts with "We are excited to inform you that soon you will be receiving the Society's very first Directors election ballot in the mail!" - when events four days before it was sent proved it to be wrong? The only conclusion I can reach is that they're trying to mislead people into thinking that a ballot would be sent when they knew darned well that there would not be one, in order to stoke the fires of rebellion. That they lied to the membership seems to be beside the point to them. It's not to me, and it shouldn't be to you.

The letter was sent first class mail. The Society has approximately 800 members. That means that someone spent somewhere around $300 to mislead the membership. What do they want so bad that they're willing to spend that kind of money on it? This is a ham radio organization, for crying out loud!

As things stand now, the vote-by-mail amendment is not in effect. It is in the same status as any other motion that falls under the 6-month rule: it will be published in the next edition of the Society NEWS, and a poll will be taken of every trustee of a coordinated repeater in Texas asking what they think. The results of that poll will be disclosed to the membership before the motion is voted on, as unfinished business at the summer meeting, on 6 August at the Summerfest convention in Austin.