Posted on: June 5th, 2018

Bylaws  – changes proposed by the bylaws committee: Tony Vrba, Peter Swift, Rick Sheingold, and Gretchen Diefenderfer as of May 30, 2018

Article III

Members Meetings

 Present language 

Section 4, Written notice: Written notice of all members’ meetings shall be delivered to members residing locally and sent by U.S. Mail to members who do not reside locally at least two weeks prior to all regular, annual, and special meetings.

 

 Proposed change (in red)

 Section 4, Written notice:  Written notice of all member’s meetings shall be emailed to all members and or sent by U.S. Mail to those who request them at least two weeks prior to all regular, annual, and special meetings.

 Proposed addition to Article III Members Meeting, after Section 2, Annual meetings

 

Insert as – Section 3, Budget Meeting: The annual budget meeting of the Gold Hill Town Meeting, Inc. shall be held on the second Monday of October of each year.  The Treasurer of the Town meeting shall submit estimated expenses for the following year.  Requests for funding from the general fund may be made by the various Committees or any constituency of the GHTM at this meeting, and at any regular members meeting. 

Change the present Section 3 to 4

And change section 4 to 5

 Article IV

Town Council

 Present Language

 Section 2, Eligibility: The Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer must be a year-round resident defined as an individual who has lived within the bounds of the Gold Hill Town Meeting area at least nine consecutive months prior to the election.  All five council members shall be a minimum of 21 years of age.

Proposed change(in red – only the age from 21 to 18)

 Section 2, Eligibility: The Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer must be a year-round resident defined as an individual who has lived within the bounds of the Gold Hill Town Meeting area at least nine consecutive months prior to the election.  All five council members shall be a minimum of 18 years of age.

Article V

Committees

 Proposed addition to Article V

Section 3, Cemetery Committee:  

The Cemetery Committee existed outside the GHTM before the GHTM incorporated in order to hold the Town Meadow, the Cemetery, and the People’s Park.  It was designated a standing committee of the GHTM.  This committee brought it’s own funds into the TM and receives funds designated for the cemetery.  The CC shall remain autonomous in expenditures from its funds, with input from the Town Meeting.

Change the present Section 3 to Section 4

Article IV Town Council

Present language

Section 4, Removal: Any council member may be removed according to the following procedure:

1. At a regularly scheduled meeting, where a quorum is present, the removal of a council member may be proposed by a simple majority of those members present.
2. The proposed removal of a council member must be included with the minutes of the meeting and distributed to the members at least two weeks prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting.
3. At the next regularly scheduled meeting, the council member may be removed by a majority vote of the Gold Hill Town Meeting.

 

Proposed change is to eliminate the term “regularly” in order for the removal to be possible at special meetings, in case this seemed necessary

 Section 4, Removal: Any council member may be removed according to the following procedure:

1. At a scheduled meeting, where a quorum is present, the removal of a council member may be proposed by a simple majority of those members present.
2. The proposed removal of a council member must be included with the minutes of the meeting and distributed to the members at least two weeks prior to the next scheduled meeting.
3. At the next scheduled meeting, the council member may be removed by a majority vote of the Gold Hill Town Meeting.

 Present language

 Article II

Membership

Section 1, Eligibility: Those residing in the following area are members and may vote at town meetings, provided they fulfill the voting requirements set forth in Article II, Section 2, Qualification.   This area to be described as the territory within these lines: On the north from the junction of Left Hand Creek and Lickskillit eastward to Snowbound, south to Bighorn Mountain, southwest to Monument Hill, west to Oxbow curve on the Mt. Alto Road, north to Left Hand Creek, and east to the starting point, this area to exclude Summerville.

See the present map on the town website (goldhilltown.com) under https://goldhilltown.com/what-it-is/

 We will  bring maps of the present area and our ideas for changes to the meeting boundaries and see what folks think.  The main options, as we saw them, are to just clean up the boundaries so that people are included that we always thought were included (Morning Sun, Rim Road, Gunung Mas, Snowbound Mine folks, etc.) or to expand out to the west in order to include Dina and Mark Elder and Julie Carpenter and simply let people know that if they don’t want to be included, just don’t come to meetings. Because of our status as an unincorporated town, and because of the structure of the Gold Hill Town Meeting, Inc. (incorporated as a 501(c) 3 only), the Town Meeting has no power to impose anything on anyone.  That’s what we did with Summerville.   The advantages of being included in the Town Meeting are the Town Clean Up, the Emergency Relief Fund, and the Chipping Grant.

Also, we talked about a Section under either Article V Committees or Article VI Contracts, Checks, Deposits, Etc. regarding management, protection, and segregation of dedicated resources (I.e. designated funds and resources donated for specific purposes), and are still working on language for that.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary of the Gold Hill Town Meeting and member of the Bylaws Committee.

How the Bylaws may be amended

Article VII

Amendments

These Bylaws may be altered, amended, or repealed and new Bylaws may be adopted according to the following procedure:

Section 1.  At a regularly scheduled meeting, where a quorum is present, Bylaw change(s) may be proposed by a simple majority of those members present.  Proposed Bylaw changes are to be made and approved section by section.

Section 2.  The proposed Bylaw sections(s), and the Bylaw section(s) that are intended to be replaced,  must be included with the minutes of the meeting and distributed to the members at least two weeks prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting.

Section 3.  At the next regularly scheduled meeting, the sections of the new Bylaws may be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Gold Hill Town Meeting, Inc. who are present.  Bylaw changes are to be voted on section by section.