Members dismissed charges against 802 President David Lennon by a vote of 196 to 83 at the Oct. 17 membership meeting.

An overflow crowd spilled from the Club Room into Room B. The membership heard the arguments pro and con and voted by more than 2 to 1 to dismiss charges of malfeasance — which had been filed by Jay Blumenthal, Bill Dennison, Maura Giannini, Mary Landolfi and Jay Schaffner — on the grounds that the allegation was “poorly defined” and the alleged act was “not in fact malfeasance.”

Members also voted to adopt two new bylaws, which would affect meeting notifications in Allegro and voting procedures of the Executive Board (see below).

The first would reduce the amount of time required to publish notifications of membership meetings and special meetings. Membership meetings can now be called 60 days after notification in Allegro — instead of 90. Special meetings called by the president or recording vice president would only need 30 days’ notice in Allegro. Additionally, urgent bargaining unit meetings may be called with five days’ notice by telephone or mail.

The second bylaw passed specifies that if the president is not present at an Executive Board meeting, then the officer chairing the meeting may not vote except in the case of a tie.

Both bylaws passed unanimously.

The following bylaw proposals passed unanimously at the Oct. 17 membership meeting.

PROPOSAL: MEETING NOTIFICATION

Whereas: Local 802 bylaws call for only three membership meetings per year, in February, June and October and,

Whereas: Additional meetings are sometimes desirable and,

Whereas: Meetings may be called by the president at any time and by the recording vice president upon the written request of 75 members in good standing and,

Whereas: The only reference to the requirement to publish the date, time and place of any membership meeting is in article VII, section 4, paragraph (b) which requires publication of this information in the official journal no less than ninety (90) days before the scheduled date and,

Whereas: This requirement and the fact that publication of Allegro can often require an additional 30 days for publication and delivery (producing a possible total delay of 120 days) has made it difficult to place important matters on meeting agendas in a timely manner and,

Whereas: The whole point of calling special meetings is contradicted by such lengthy notification requirements,

Therefore BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

Article VII, section 4, paragraph (b), shall be amended and new paragraphs (c) and (d) be added as follows:

(b). The date, time and place of the each of these meeting(s) shall be published in the official journal of the local no less than ninety sixty (90) (60) days prior to the scheduled date of each meeting. All resolutions to be proposed to a membership meeting must first be submitted to the recording vice president of the local and published in the official journal at least thirty (30) days prior to the meeting.

(c) Meetings called by the president under article 1, section 1, paragraph (e) or by the recording vice president under article VII, section 8, paragraph (a) may be scheduled with notice to the membership (in the official journal) of thirty (30) days after the publication date of the issue in which it appears.

(d) Urgent bargaining unit meetings may be called by the president with the approval of the Executive Board and the appropriate rank-and-file committee with notice of five (5) days by telephone and/or mail.

Submitted by Jack Gale (G-04456)

PROPOSAL: VOTING BY THE CHAIR ON THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Whereas: Article 1, section 5, paragraph (b) requires all board members present at a meeting, except the president, to vote on all matters before the board and,

Whereas: With no exception in the known past, the acknowledged policy of the Executive Board has been that officers chairing Executive Board meetings in the absence of the president shall vote only in the case of a tie and,

Whereas: The local’s bylaws should accurately reflect the parliamentary importance and longstanding past practice in this area,

Therefore BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

Article I, section 5. (b), shall be amended by adding the following words after the second comma:

“or, in his or her absence, the officer chairing the meeting”

So that the first sentence will read:

(b). Every member of the Executive Board present, other than the President or, in his or her absence, the officer chairing the meeting, must vote on all matters before the board unless having a direct or pecuniary interest therein.

Submitted by Jack Gale (G-04456)