3 January 2006: They haven't given up yet!

Despite getting soundly defeated - even though they had tried to skew the election by bringing in proxy votes, in violation of the Society bylaws - at the meeting in August, the Gang of Three and their cronies haven't given up. They're now trying to cast their failed proposal into concrete, by putting it into the Articles of Incorporation.

In Texas, the document that gives a nonprofit corporation such as the Society its legal existence is called the Articles of Incorporation. It's approved by the Secretary of State and filed in that office. Normally, it only contains the minimum required to pass legal muster, leaving the rest in the hands of the membership by way of the bylaws. That's because amending the Articles of Incorporation is a process that takes a lot of work.

Nevertheless, circumstances change, and so the Articles of Incorporation may be amended. In the Texas VHF-FM Society, this requires that the proposed amendment be sent to the secretary at least 60 days in advance of the meeting, and sent to the members at least 30 days in advance. Once the required notice has been given, the propsal requires a 2/3 vote for adoption. No proxy voting is allowed, since the bylaws prohibit it, and Texas law allows them to do so.

The Gang of Three, as noted elsewhere on this site, got their collective heads handed to them in August. Their vote by mail proposal was shot down in flames, by nearly a 2-1 margin. Their slate of candidates for director lost by enough votes that their attempt to stuff the ballot box with 87 proxies wouldn't have made a difference had it been allowed to go through. Instead of accepting the will of the membership at the meeting, though, they're trying an end run.

One of their cronies, Carl Noblitt, N5CN, has submitted an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation that would overturn the membership's decision in August. It would have all of the same problems that their proposal then did, with the added disadvantage of being nearly impossible to fix should any detail, no matter how small, be found to be unworkable. In addition, it would explicitly legitimize proxy voting.

This is an attempt to overturn what the membership, at the best-attended meeting in at least two decades, voted for overwhelmingly. They're hoping that they can sneak it through at the winter meeting in San Antonio two Saturdays from now, when attendance has traditionally been lower than it was at the meeting last August.

It's vital that they not get away with it. They've lost in court, they lost big when the membership stood up and was counted, and they need to lose again - and keep losing until it's clear to them that all they're doing is wasting time and energy trying to take over a Society that wants no part of them.

Come to the winter meeting on Saturday, 14 January. The details are at the San Antonio Radio Club website. Vote against the latest attempt by the Gang of Three and their cronies to take over the Society. Tell them that you're tired of their shenanigans.