Posted on: June 5th, 2025

Report on GHTM 5-12- 25 suggested Bylaw revisions

by Gretchen Diefenderfer

A few Members of the Town Council have been advocating for updating the GHTM bylaws for some time.  The first group of amendments consisted mainly of cleaning up language and clarifying terms.  The second group, presented at the May Town Meeting, are more extensive and I think it’s important for us to look at the effects these suggestions for revising our bylaws will have on our Town Meeting as it has served us for so many years.  Our bylaws, as  amended so far this year, are on our town website, goldhilltown.com,  click on What is the Gold Hill Town Meeting  on the left (https://goldhilltown.com/what-it-is/).  To review our previous bylaws as approved 12-14-2020, before these changes, please contact me and I’ll send them.

 

To see all the latest proposed changes, go to Google Apps by clicking on the box of dots in the upper R corner of the Google page, then selecting Drive, then on the left click home and you will see it  https://drive.google.com/drive/home

 

At our May 12 GHTM,  Chrissy presented this next round of proposed changes.

Article II: Membership Proposed Addition    

Section B, Membership Voting Procedures: 

The GHTM shall establish procedures and methods to ensure that only eligible members participate in elections, that all members are properly notified of the election and that the nomination and voting processes—including all relevant deadlines—are clearly communicated in advance.

Election procedures may allow for voting to take place over a period of up to three (3) days and are not required to occur during the annual meeting.

The Town Council shall determine the methods of voting, which may include any combination of:

• In-person voting by show of hands or written ballot;
• Absentee voting by written ballot;
• Voting by electronic means

This generated quite a bit of discussion.  Do we want to provide for absentee voting?  (And how would that work?)  And, do we want the Town Council to decide on this or the Town Meeting to?  Here we are presented with the underlying, core change being proposed – that the Town Council should have a great deal of decision making authority and responsibility versus the Town Meeting, which has been a very basic Democracy with fundamental decision making authority resting with the Town Meeting as a whole for years and years.

 

Who can vote, From the last Bylaws, approved 12-13-2020

Section 2, Qualifications: In order to vote, a member of the Gold Hill Town Meeting, Inc. must:

1. Be a minimum of 18 years of age.
2. Have lived in Gold Hill for sixty days during the twelve months prior to the meeting or for sixty days during the previous five years with no less than five days in any one year.
3. Be registered with the Secretary at the meeting.
4. Be present at the meeting to be certified to vote at that meeting.

#2  This was to accommodate the summer people who were not full-time residents, but were always involved in the affairs of Gold Hill, so that they could vote when they were here.  There has always been a residency requirement.

Next, with Proposed Article V, we hit on the core question again.  It’s big, it’s totally a new bylaw, and will affect us all – do we want to continue as a basic democracy, with decisions being made by town residents, or do we want to change the entire structure of our town government to be more like an HOA?  When big issues have hit the town, there has always been extensive discussion, sometimes petitions and/or surveys taken to determine the consensus.  Smaller issues have then been delegated to specific people, or a specific council member, to handle.  This authority and responsibility has notautomatically rested with the town council, but with town members.

Article V: Town Council Proposed Addition

Section I, Authorities and Responsibilities of the GHTM Town Council:

The Town Council has the authority and responsibility to make administrative and business-related decisions essential to the ongoing management of the nonprofit. Organizational decisions shall be made by a quorum of Town Council members.

These authorities and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Representing the GHTM in interactions with county officials, donors, community partners, and other external organizations to advocate for the organization’s interests and needs;
• Overseeing website maintenance, marketing efforts, and community communications;
• Purchasing merchandise and organizing fundraising activities;
• Authorizing and supporting GHTM committees;
• Establishing and enforcing the organization’s policies and procedures;
• Applying for grants and managing grant-related obligations;
• Entering into contracts, leases, or agreements necessary to advance the organization’s mission;
• Acquiring, managing, improving, encumbering, or disposing of real or personal property;
• Managing the organization’s financial resources and overseeing financial transactions;
• Securing insurance and indemnifying officers, agents, employees, and independent contractors for liabilities arising from their work on behalf of the organization; and
• Taking any other lawful action in the best interest of the organization.

 

Please consider this carefully.  This will come up for a vote at our June 9 GHTM.  If you have not been attending Town Meetings, this would be an important one to consider attending.  It will be Zoom as well as in person.