[Old182]

Gentlemen - calm down! My name is Joe valentine and I'm the former secretary who is responsible for the text in the Constitution changes. They were handed to me in draft form in 2014 and our Board worked on them for the years following to arrive at this proposal. Thanks to Mr. Terry and Mr. Carne for the explanations regarding insurance, "significant other" and the reasoning for a rationale for negative votes. Liability insurance does drive much of the operation of clubs these days and a club the size of MARC (~7,200 members) requires strict adherence to the rules set forth by the carrier. Recall our dues increases a few years ago - all for an excellent ($4,000,000!) liability policy. It's not cheap to run MARC but we made it our business to provide the best for our members. And yes, you need to be a member for the coverage. "Significant other" is a term the insurance carrier will ACCEPT as "spousal" and so it was added to the text of the document. For negative votes to be discussed and adjudicated by the Board, the reasoning behind the negative must be known. I don't see how this can be difficult to grasp. A "No" vote without a rationale is meaningless; how can the Board make decisions with little or no information? The American Society for Testing and Materials - ASTM, has used this technique to handle and adjudicate negative votes for decades and for the reason stated. BTW: ASTM writes all the specifications and test methods for gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, concrete, steel, PVC pipe, pool covers and just about anything else you can name. Your Board does, in fact, want to hear from you because it's only with your feedback that they can make this a better club. Please don't read anything into these proposed changes than what's there. Thanks.