2) CREED:
The Creed of The Fellowship of Humanity shall be the sentence
quoted from Thomas Paine that appears on the lower
Fellowship banner that hangs above the stage of
The Fellowship's building, Humanist Hall. It reads:
The World is my Country and To Do Good is my Religion.
3)
Charter:
The Charter of The Fellowship of Humanity
shall be:
:
to pursue the philosophical quests and fill the
social and spiritual needs of Humanists and those
who seek to be Humanists;
to
serve all groups and persons not served by corporate
capitalism and the predatory banking system.
To fulfill this Charter, The Fellowship shall:
A) Offer a Spirituality and Church
without Deities, Supernatural Ideas, and
Superstition.
The Fellowship shall be an alternative church for
non-theistic Humanist people who eschew traditional
religions. It shall make every effort to fill human
needs that traditional religions fill,
without buying into traditional religious beliefs. Fellowship
Humanists, philosophical compassionate, and
progressive people of
high character, shall find social support,
connection with nature, hope in understanding, and faith
in the goodness of life and humanity in the fullness
of relationships with one another, the environment,
the earth, and all good people. They shall be
desirous of expanding the philosophy of Humanism to
incorporate a spirituality and ethics appropriate to
living sustainably within a relevant environment and
the ecology of the earth. Fellowship Humanists
shall make every effort to build a Humanist Church
that exemplifies a cooperative community lifestyle
that rounds out Humanist lives it touches at the
same time that it is mindful of the needs of the
earth and all life forms.
B) Offer Progressive
Activist
and Oppressed
Minority Groups Infrastructure for their Activities.
i)
Infrastructure:
Humanist Hall,
the church building of The Fellowship of Humanity, shall be an
affordable meeting and festivity space
for low-income progressive activist groups and
oppressed minority communities. It shall be
especially reserved for progressive political,
cultural, or spiritual purposes. The progressive
community at large and oppressed minority groups
shall be especially welcome to
celebrate or otherwise
mark
the
big moments of their lives:
births, birthdays, coming of age, weddings,
anniversaries, graduations, funerals, memorials,
rallies, victories, historic meetings, important
benefits, study clubs, spiritual ceremonies, and so
on. To this end, The Fellowship shall accept modest
donations from these groups for the use of its
church building, Humanist Hall.
ii)
Sacred Space:
The premises of The Fellowship, Humanist Hall and its Grounds, shall be a
sacred space
especially reserved for The Fellowship and
progressive and oppressed minority persons and
communities at large. Humanist Hall shall be a
haven, center,
and platform
for The Fellowship and progressive and oppressed
minority
persons and groups. Progressive communities
and persons extend from progressive activist,
protest, reform, charitable, educational, and
business organizations to progressive study groups.
Oppressed minority communities and persons extend
from ethnic, religious, racial, cultural, gender,
and outcast organizations to
former prisoners.
The Fellowship of Humanity shall be dedicated to
serving the needs of both these communities.
iii)
Labor-Friendly Hall:
The church building, Humanist Hall, shall be a
labor-friendly Hall
and The Fellowship of Humanity shall
offer a
work environment desirable to laborers ─
as long as the laborers remain within the
progressive activist or oppressed minority
communities. Human effort on a worthwhile task,
chore, job, or project; with a worthwhile team, organization, or movement;
behind a worthwhile craft, work of art, or vision
─
right livelihood
─
shall be regarded at The Fellowship as the most
valuable treasure on Earth after Nature herself.
The decision as to what counts as worthwhile shall
rest with the Board of Directors. Because The
Fellowship supports progressive activism and
progressive laborers, any such activist or laborer
cleaning up the church building and the Grounds, and
working
on
the building, the Grounds, the administration, or
the organization of The Fellowship, whether for pay
or volunteer, shall be richly encouraged and well
respected. A laborer for The Fellowship shall
receive the highest hourly pay that The Fellowship
shall afford; she shall choose her jobs and work at her own pace;
she shall choose the tools and materials to work
with within the constraints of the job and its
budget; she shall work under a minimum of supervision; she shall make as many decisions relating to her
job, in conjunction with Directors of The
Fellowship, as possible.
4)
Independence:
The Fellowship of Humanity shall remain an independent
Humanist Church.
The Fellowship shall
NOT
be beholden to any outside person(s) or
organization(s);
it shall not be a chapter, branch, section,
subsidiary, department, division, subdivision, or
part of any organization(s) whatsoever, with
one exception:
it shall remain affiliated with the American
Humanist Association (AHA).
i)
AHA Affiliation:
The Fellowship shall continue its affiliation with
the American Humanist Association which began with
the founding of The Fellowship. It shall behoove
The Fellowship, known as the first and oldest
affiliate
of the American Humanist Association, to honor this tradition and retain its affiliation with the
AHA. With this one exception, The Fellowship shall
NOT belong to, be beholden to, or
merge with any other organization whatsoever.
ii)
Umbrella:
The Fellowship shall
strive to
embrace
EVERY
progressive organization
and never pit one against another.
Without taking sides
with ANY
(except the AHA), The Fellowship shall support
ALL
progressive organizations and persons insofar as it
is able. It shall itself be an
umbrella organization,
serving ALL
progressive activities and persons, and network them
together to help build the broad
progressive movement.
5)
Traditions:
Three traditions of The Fellowship of Humanity shall be ever
honored at The Fellowship through the generations
because The Fellowship was founded in order to
create these traditions and it
fought so hard in order to continue them. The
three traditions are: Humanism, Humanist Church,
and
EPIC Socialism.
In this New Millennium these three traditions shall
be updated to:
Progressive Spiritual Humanism, Eco-Humanist Church, and
Cooperative
Economics
─
Socially Responsible Economics as opposed to
corporate capitalism and predatory banking.
A)
Humanism:
Humanism shall be the
first tradition of The Fellowship. The Fellowship was
founded by a rogue group of atheist and Humanist
Unitarians, led by Reverend Absolom David Faupell, a
Unitarian minister who split off from the First
Unitarian Church of Oakland (on 14th
Street and Castro)
─
a church too theistic for Humanist Unitarians. This
was in the earliest days of Humanism when Secular
Humanism was just being conceived as a viable
philosophy/religion. A Humanist Manifesto was created
in 1933, and The Fellowship was started as an
organization in 1934 (though it was not incorporated
by the State of California until 1935). The
creation of Secular Humanism as a separate
philosophy/religion was a long, hard struggle among
atheist Unitarians in the 1920s and 1930s. The
Fellowship of Humanity was an early, arduous
accomplishment of Unitarian atheists who were
founders of the Humanist movement
─ beginning a proud tradition of being Humanist that shall be
honored at The Fellowship in order to remember its
hard-won
origin as a home for the earliest Humanists.
B)
Church:
Church shall be the
second tradition of The Fellowship. The Fellowship was and
is officially a Humanist Church on record with the
State of California. The Fellowship went to court
in 1957 to prove itself a Church
─
against gainsayers who denounced Secular Humanism as
irreligious. The Fellowship won the day in court.
The religion of The Fellowship was declared by the
court to be
Secular Humanism. The Fellowship’s famous court battle was
a long, hard struggle for The Fellowship to regain
its title, reputation, and dignity as a Humanist
Church, as it was intended to be when it was founded
in 1934. The Fellowship enjoys being one of very
few Humanist Churches, having the same status in
their localities that all churches have. The
Fellowship’s tradition of being a church shall be
honored at The Fellowship in order to remember its
hard-won struggles to maintain its church status
while remaining atheist, Humanist, and socialist.
The Fellowship of Humanity acquired
its present building and grounds from the Central
Lutheran Church by way of funds coming from J.
George Kullmer. Out of
generosity, he
gave
the present building and grounds, which he had
bought from the Lutherans, to The Fellowship of
Humanity in 1941 so that it could become the one and
only Humanist Church and
EPIC flagship. So The Fellowship of Humanity's
building, Humanist Hall, was already a church
building from day one of its existence.
C)
Cooperative Economics:
Cooperative Economics, or socially responsible
economics
that is
anti-corporate capitalism and anti-predatory
banking, shall be the third tradition of The
Fellowship. The brilliant and charismatic Unitarian
minister, Reverend Faupell, is key to The
Fellowship’s origin. Faupell was not only a
Humanist and a Reverend but a Socialist. He was an
ardent follower of Upton Sinclair’s famous movement
and campaign, End Poverty in California (EPIC).
Upton Sinclair was the Democratic Party’s candidate
for Governor of California in 1934. Upton
Sinclair’s socialist pamphlet,
EPIC,
became the platform of his campaign for Governor.
The basic idea of the
EPIC
struggle was that socialism, state operation of
crucial industries, would end poverty and end the
Great Depression manifested in California.
EPIC
would have turned California’s idle farmlands and
factories into workers’ self-help cooperatives.
Even though Upton Sinclair lost the race for
Governor of California and his
EPIC
program dissipated, his ideas were not lost on
Reverend Faupell. A. D. Faupell remained an
EPIC socialist and spearheaded a campaign of his own to
carry on the
EPIC
vision in his own way. He planned to establish a
string of influential churches throughout
California, the entire network being called “The
Church of Humanity” ─
a Humanist, Socialist alternative to a Christian
denomination, as for example “The Methodist Church.”
This is what is referred to in the Title Page of
these present ByLaws:
a group of progressive churches, unique in their
Humanism and Socialism, carrying forward the
EPIC
ideals. However, it happens that The Fellowship of
Humanity remains the one and only Church in Reverend
Faupell’s envisioned string of churches. He died
too soon. The Fellowship of Humanity began life as
the
EPIC
flagship: progressive, revolutionary, and brave
─
beginning a proud tradition of advocating
cooperative
or socially responsible economics
that shall be honored at The
Fellowship in order to remember its
hard-won
socialist nature from day one of its existence.
6)
Change:
The three traditions of The Fellowship of
Humanity,
Humanism, Humanist Church,
and
EPIC Socialism,
while cherished and honored, shall not be adhered to
rigidly and insufferably. Definitions, not to mention human reality and needs, change over
time. The Humanism of yesterday, relevant mostly to
intellectuals and academics, need not dictate what
the Humanism of today shall be like;
the Socialist movement of the Great Depression need
not dictate what a cooperative economy of today
─ with non-competitive production and trade and non-predatory
banks
─ shall be like;
and what counts as a Church in a by-gone century,
dependent on books and orators, need not dictate
what shall count as a Church today, in the
New Millennium.
While honoring its three traditions, The Fellowship
of Humanity shall continue to seek its own way in
the world as a Humanist Church and as infrastructure
and sacred space for all peoples in the progressive
movement advocating cooperative
or socially responsible
economics.
Picture Break
IV
Living
BYLAWS
Section
5
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
1)
Distinction of Directors:
Being a
Director
on The Fellowship’s Board of Directors shall be a
distinction
to be respected. Members of the Board of Directors
shall be called “Directors” and the President of The
Fellowship shall also be a Director on the Board of
Directors and therefore the Chief Director, a
distinction to be respected.
2)
Honesty of Friends:
Being a Friend of The Fellowship shall be a
privilege to be honored. Members of The
Fellowship shall be called “Friends” to underscore
the truth, honesty, commitment, support, trust, and
mutual dependencies transpiring amongst themselves
and between themselves and The Fellowship.
3)
Number of Directors:
The Board of Directors shall consist of
five percent
of the number of Friends of The Fellowship
up to 220 Friends,
plus one
–
plus one in the event that five percent of Fellowship
Friends turns out to be an even number or half a
number. There shall
always be an odd number of Directors and there shall
never be more than 11 Directors. If the
Fellowship should grow to more than 220 Friends, it
shall nevertheless suffice it to have only 11 Board
Directors.
4)
Leadership:
The Leadership of The Fellowship shall reside in its
Board of Directors. Directors shall be empowered to
steer The Fellowship toward its goals as expressed
in the
Mission
and the
Purposes of these present ByLaws. Directors shall
be generally responsible for fulfilling all these
present ByLaws. Therefore Directors shall read
these present ByLaws and be particularly
knowledgeable of the
Mission and the
Purposes
of The Fellowship. The leadership of the Board of
Directors shall reside in the
Presidency.
The President of The Fellowship shall be the Chief
Director of the Board of Directors.
A)
Exemplars:
Directors shall adhere to and agree with the
Mission
and
Purposes
of The Fellowship as expressed in these present
ByLaws and shall exemplify the overall
moral,
spiritual,
and
political
outlook of The Fellowship as expressed in them.
Their behavior shall model sharing, generosity,
simplicity, service, humanitarianism, cooperation,
progressive activism, environmental sensitivity, the
work ethic
─
not to mention reason, intelligence, kindness, and
compassion
─
to be an inspiration to Friends of The Fellowship.
B)
Protectors:
Directors shall be charged with
guarding and
protecting
The Fellowship and ensuring that no untoward or
malicious activities or malevolent persons shall
destroy The Fellowship. To this end, each Director
shall be empowered to enforce the Expulsion Policy
of these ByLaws.
C)
Inspiration:
Directors shall be charged with
inspiring
and
encouraging Friends of The Fellowship to exemplify the
overall moral, spiritual, and political outlook of
The Fellowship as expressed in the
Mission
and
Purposes of these ByLaws. To this end, each
Director shall be empowered to initiate programs,
projects, activities, and counsel that facilitate,
promote, and satisfy appropriate aspirations of
Friends of The Fellowship.
D)
GatekeeperS:
Directors shall be the
gate keepers
of these ByLaws. Preservation, execution, and
amendment of these ByLaws shall rest with
Directors.
E)
Legislators:
Directors shall administer the
business affairs
of The Fellowship; they shall decide the general
policies
appropriate for the operations of The Fellowship; they shall decide the general
rules and
regulations
that guide those who operate The Fellowship.
F)
Fund Raisers:
Directors shall create or find
funding
for the operations of The Fellowship. In addition,
each Director shall encourage Friends (including
every other Director) of The Fellowship to create or
find funding for The Fellowship.
5)
Executives:
Only the Board shall be empowered to make the final
decision as to what shall be the
rule at The Fellowship and only the Board shall be empowered
to
enforce
that rule. The Board shall be responsible to the
history of The Fellowship as a whole for its
management of Fellowship affairs going into the
future.
A)
Board Meetings:
Directors shall encourage one another to
bond as a body
at Board meetings to support the same
Mission
and
Purposes for The Fellowship.
The Board may decide to have Special Board
Meetings
in addition to the monthly meetings and Directors
may network and negotiate between meetings as well.
Directors shall make every effort to attend every
Board meeting.
i)
Location of Meetings:
Regular Board Meetings shall be held in the church building, Humanist Hall, unless dire
circumstances dictate otherwise.
ii)
Chair:
The President of The Fellowship shall
preside
at monthly meetings of the Board. If the President
is absent from any Board meeting then the Vice
President shall preside over that meeting. If both
President and Vice President are absent from any
Board meeting then the Directors attending the
meeting shall vote for a Chair to preside over that
meeting.
iii)
Excused Absence:
A
Director shall
excuse
herself from attending a Board meeting by informing
another Director of her need to be absent.
iv)
Unexcused Absence:
The
unexcused
absence of any Director from three consecutive
regular monthly meetings of the Board shall be
deemed a resignation by this Director and shall
result in the vacancy of her seat on the Board.
B)
Enforcement:
Directors shall refer to the Expulsion Policy set
out in Section 10 of these present ByLaws for
guidance
in their enforcement.
C)
Precedence over ByLaws:
A Board decision at any monthly meeting of the Board
may
eventually be incorporated into these ByLaws if the
Board so decides and the Friends so vote. However, even without becoming a
part of these ByLaws, a Board decision at a regular
monthly meeting of the Board shall be the
rule at The Fellowship until it is
overturned at another Board meeting, whether regular
or special.
Decisions made at Board Meetings shall take
precedence over these ByLaws.
The Board is aware of the current circumstances and
needs of The Fellowship while these ByLaws are
general statements: the Board is alive to emergencies and issues that currently
concern The Fellowship while these ByLaws reflect a
general situation of the past. These ByLaws are a
distillation of practices, experiences, and ideas
originating with key persons at The Fellowship in
the year 2000 and refined through the subsequent
years of the
New Millennium. These ByLaws are
always in the past relative to current circumstances
that need fresh consideration.
6)
Volunteer:
The Fellowship shall not pay
salaries
for any of its Directors. Being a Director on The
Fellowship’s Board of Directors shall be a
privilege
and
voluntary responsibility.
When The Fellowship can afford to pay salaries, the
first Fellowship Friend to receive a salary shall be
the
Caretaker, providing that she is not on the Board.
The second Friend to receive a salary shall be the
Director of Events, providing that she is not on the
Board. And the third Friend to receive a salary
shall be the Director of Programs, providing that
she is not on the Board.
A)
Hiring with Funds:
Any Director, while receiving no Fellowship salary
herself,
may
hire one or another Fellowship Friend(s) using Fellowship
funds to help her perform one or another of her
Fellowship duties, if Fellowship funds are
available. This Director shall take full
responsibility
for the results.
B)
Hiring without Funds:
Any Director, while receiving no Fellowship salary herself,
may
convince, or privately pay from her own pocket, one
or another Fellowship Friend(s) to help her perform
one or another of her Fellowship duties. This
Director shall take full
responsibility for the results.
Section
6
DIRECTORS, OFFICES, AND ELECTIONS
–
1)
Offices:
There
MAY
be
eight Offices of the Board of Directors, until such time
as more Offices are called for. The possible eight
Offices shall be:
President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer,
Caretaker, Director of Events, Director of Programs,
and Minister. There
MAY be eight Offices of the Board, but
there
necessarily
SHALL
be four Offices of the Board:
President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
A)
Occupying an Office:
The Office of President shall be elected by the
Friends of The Fellowship every four years at a
September Biannual Friendship Meeting.
The Board shall attempt to fill all the other
Offices
of the Board by
election
in the first Board Meeting (October’s Board
Meeting) after the September Biannual Friendship Meeting. At
October’s Board Meeting Directors shall declare
their interest in the Office(s) they want to
fill. The Board shall then elect each Director to her
preferred Office
by
majority vote
either by secret ballot or by a show of hands. If a
Director does not have the
majority support
of the Board behind her bid to
fill
an Office of the Board, then she shall not fill that
Office. If two or more Directors compete for the
same Office, she who wins the majority vote
of the Board wins the Office. If no Director chooses to
fill an Office, so be it.
B)
Occupying More than One Office:
A Director
MAY
occupy
more than one Office in a given Fellowship year; and an Office
MAY
go
unfilled in a given Fellowship year. For example,
the President may also be the Caretaker. The Vice
President may also be the Director of Programs. The
Secretary may also be a Minister. The Treasurer may
also be the Secretary. The Director of Events may
also be the Director of Programs. And likewise,
Offices
MAY
go unfilled: it
MAY
happen that there be no Minister on the Board,
and/or no Caretaker on the Board, and/or no Director
of Events, and/or no Director of Programs
─
in any given Fellowship year. Any Director
MAY
hold
any number of Offices that she shall want to take on,
provided that she shall also be
elected
by the majority of the Board to
fill these Offices.
C)
Terms:
Directors on the Board of Directors, except the
President, shall each serve
three-year terms.
The President shall serve a four-year term.
The
three-year terms shall be staggered, so that in any given Fellowship year, a few (one or
more) Directors shall be in their first year of
office, a few (one or more) shall be in their second
year of office, and a few (one or more) shall be in
their third year of office.
i)
Vacancy:
Any new Director who shall be elected to fill a vacancy on the
Board shall have the same term of office remaining
for her as the Director whose
vacancy
she filled.
ii)
Multiple Vacancies:
In the drastic circumstance that so many Directors
resign
in a given Fellowship year that a
majority vote of
Directors
(as recorded in the Secretary’s Board List)
is unattainable, then an
emergency Friendship meeting shall be called to vote
for enough Directors to fill the
vacancies. An emergency Friendship meeting shall be
a Special Friendship Meeting and shall abide by the
same rules as a Regular Friendship Meeting.
2)
Fellowship Year:
The Fellowship year shall extend from October 1 to
September 30. Board member terms and Offices
of the Board shall follow The Fellowship year:
a one-year term for a Board seat or for an Office of
the Board shall extend from October 1 to September
30. A three-year Board term shall refer to three
Fellowship years.
The four-year term of the President shall refer to
four Fellowship years.
A candidate for the Board shall
be elected for a three-year term, or three
Fellowship years, unless she shall be occupying the
vacancy of another Board seat which has fewer years
left to it. In that case, she shall complete the
remainder of the term of the Board seat that she
shall occupy. A Director may occupy the Office of
her choice each Fellowship year, as long as she has
the support of the majority of the Board. She may
occupy the same Office all three years of her Board
term, or a different Office each year, as long as
her choice of Office has the support of the majority
of the Board.
3)
Elections:
There shall be
elections for Directors of the Board
held each year in September to fill the Board seats
of Directors whose terms are up or whose seats are
vacant in a given Fellowship year. Elections for
Directors including the President, if the
President’s seat has become vacant, shall be held at
September's Biannual Friendship Meeting in late September.
A)
Active Friendship:
The only qualification for being a candidate for
Director on the Board of Directors shall be that the
candidate be an
active Friend
of The Fellowship for
one or more Fellowship
years,
and one of the active years shall be the year of her
candidacy, the most recent Fellowship year. The
only qualification for being a candidate for
President shall be that the candidate be an
active Friend
of The Fellowship for
two
or more Fellowship
years
--
and
two of the active years shall be the two years
before her candidacy, the most recent Fellowship
years.
“Active” is a relative designation. One Friend may
be more active in behalf of The Fellowship in a
month than another could be in a year. Either way,
she shall come to be well known to all Directors;
her character shall have time to come to light.
What shall count as an active Friend of The
Fellowship shall rest with the Board of Directors;
it shall be a judgment call.
B)
Majority:
The Friend who receives the greatest number of votes
for President shall become President. The Friends
who receive the greatest number of votes for seats
on the Board of Directors shall become Directors.
The
term “majority”
in these present ByLaws shall always mean “simple
majority”
or
50% plus one.
A simple majority of votes of Friends’ who voted
─
Friends either attending the September Biannual Friendship
Meeting
or
absent from the September Biannual Friendship Meeting but who
submitted their absentee ballots to the meeting
─
shall decide who becomes President and who becomes
Directors of The Fellowship.
C)
Candidacy:
A candidate for Director shall campaign to become a
Director, but shall
NOT
campaign to occupy a
particular Office. Offices of the Board, except the
Presidency, shall be elected separately by the Board
at October’s Board Meeting. The rationale for this
guideline is that Directors of the Board should be
all around exemplary Fellowship Friends before they
run for Board seats. The Fellowship shall
discourage the expert and professional or
specialized Friend from running for a Board seat for
the sole purpose of exercising her particular
expertise or skill and nothing else.
i)
Board Approval:
A Fellowship Friend shall become a candidate for a
Board seat by first announcing her candidacy to the
Board by August 1 at the latest. All candidates
shall come to the August Board Meeting at the latest
for an interview. An earlier Board meeting shall do
as well for a candidate not available in August.
a)
Reading:
All candidates shall read these present ByLaws and
decide if they agree with them and whether they can
follow them.
b)
Board Options:
Each candidate shall explain to the Board at its
August meeting at the latest how she can help
support The Fellowship as a Director. The Board
will judge candidates on the basis of their
potential helpfulness to The Fellowship and nothing
else.
The Board shall decide by majority vote whether to
support a candidate’s campaign or not, and to what
degree.
The Board shall decide on one
of three options:
to block a candidate from running for a Board seat;
to permit a candidate to campaign for a
Board seat without Board encouragement or
recommendation;
to champion a candidate and recommend her highly to Friends as
potentially an excellent Director.
ii)
Publicity:
A candidate who has been approved as such by the
Board shall conduct a campaign for President or for
a seat on the Board by submitting her written
press release
and
platform
to the Secretary by September 1. The Secretary
shall notify all Fellowship Friends of the date and
time of the September Biannual Friendship Meeting, the
candidates running for office, and their platforms
within the first week of September.
a)
Campaign:
The minimum
campaign for a Board seat shall be: the candidate shall submit a written
press release
and platform to the Secretary by September 1. The press
release shall state in writing
the fact
that
the candidate is running for President or for a seat on
the Board. The platform shall state in writing
why the candidate is running for
President or for a seat on the Board. A campaign
may
also expand to include: making phone calls, sending emails or
letters, creating and posting flyers, announcing on
the internet, and so on.
b)
Press Release:
The Secretary shall
publish and distribute the press releases of all candidates
to all other Fellowship Friends within the first
week of September.
g)
Platform:
A
candidate’s platform would do well to state her
position on important issues facing The Fellowship
and espouse why Friends should vote for her. The
Secretary shall
publish and distribute the platforms of all candidates to
all other Fellowship Friends within the first week of September.
d)
Recommended Candidates:
The Board shall prefer certain candidates over
others.
Preferred candidates shall be named as such on the secret
ballots that are handed out to Friends at the
September Biannual Friendship Meeting or mailed to all
absentee voter Friends. Preferred candidates shall
be called “Recommended
by the Board” on the secret ballots including the absentee ballots. Other
candidates
MAY be named on the secret ballots
without being recommended. The same designation
shall be observed on The Fellowship’s website.
e)
Distribution:
Posting press releases and platforms on The Fellowship’s
website shall count as “distribution” to Friends
who use the
internet.
The Secretary shall inform Friends who do not use
the internet of the September Biannual Friendship Meeting by
U.S. post, by phone, or by personal contact within the first week of September.
And the
Secretary shall notify Friends who do not use the
internet of the press releases and platforms of all
candidates for President and for Board seats within the first week of September.
D)
Voting:
Elections at the September
Biannual Friendship Meeting shall
be conducted by secret ballot, whether paper or
electronic ballots. Only Friends of The Fellowship
shall
vote
at the September Biannual Friendship Meetings and
only Friends who have been
active
at The Fellowship for at least the previous year
shall be eligible to be candidates for Board seats
at the September
Biannual Friendship
Meetings, and only Friends who have
been active at The Fellowship for at least the two
previous years shall be eligible to be candidates
for President at the September
Biannual Friendship
Meetings.
i)
President:
If a President’s four-year term is up, a new President, or the same one,
shall be
elected
at the September Biannual Friendship Meeting. If a President’s
seat becomes vacant, the Vice President shall become
President of The Fellowship until the September
Biannual Friendship
Meeting when a President shall be elected again.
ii)
Violations:
Write-in votes for a Director who did not submit a press release
by September 1 shall be rejected by the vote
counter(s) at the September Biannual Friendship Meeting. There
shall be no room on the secret ballots for write-in
candidates. There shall be
no
write in candidates. Likewise, no Friend shall become
an instant candidate by announcing her candidacy
from the floor of the September Biannual Friendship Meeting.
There shall be
no self-nominations from the floor. And no Friend shall be
nominated by other Friends from the floor of
the September Biannual Friendship Meeting. There shall be
no
nominations from the floor.
iii)
Absentee Voting:
At a Biannual Friendship Meeting,
absentee votes
shall be counted after the votes submitted at the meeting have been counted. The
Secretary shall accept absentee votes up until the
day before the Biannual Friendship Meeting and she
shall submit them to the meeting.
a)
Ballots In Writing:
Absentee votes shall be submitted to the Secretary
either by email or snail mail by the day before the
election. The Secretary shall keep the original
email, note, letter, message, or ballot on which the
absentee vote
is cast. She
MAY
accept votes by telephone
from an absentee voter in case a voter is unable to
send her votes or email them to The Fellowship in
time (for example, she may be in hospital or
overseas). Otherwise, absentee votes shall be
submitted in writing,
including email,
with the voter’s name on them,
so that the vote counters can recognize them and
mark them down on record.
b)
Names on Ballots:
An
absentee voter shall ensure that her name is
attached
to her ballot, or attached to her written vote in
any other form, including email. Ballots from
anonymous voters shall
not
be accepted or counted.
g)
Secret Ballots:
Elections at the September Biannual Friendship Meeting
shall be held by
secret ballot.
Absentee ballots, however, are known to the
Secretary. The Secretary shall submit all
absentee ballots to the Vote Counters of the
meeting. After
Friends attending the meeting vote by secret ballot, the
absentee votes,
which are known to the Secretary, shall be opened
and counted by the Vote Counters to complete the
voting process at the meeting.
iv)
Counting the Votes:
The
votes recorded on secret ballots submitted at
Biannual Friendship Meetings, as well as the
absentee votes collected by the Secretary and
submitted to the meetings, shall be counted by three Friends of The Fellowship. These
three shall be called
Vote Counters.
Friends attending the meeting
shall vote for three Vote Counters for that meeting.
The three Vote Counters shall count the same votes
and come to an agreement about the results.
If they are in
agreement
about the votes, they shall call the winners of the
elections. If they are not in agreement, they shall
count the votes over again until they come to an
agreement.
Section
7
MEETINGS
1)
Networking:
The Fellowship shall be a
networking church
more than a meeting church. Friendship meetings
shall be supported at The Fellowship but not
required. All Friends shall be invited, not
obliged, to attend the
four Quarterly Friendship Meetings:
one in late September, one in late December, one in late March,
and one in late June. In this millennium,
electronic communications make many physical
meetings unnecessary. People are so well connected
by phone and email that meetings are not that
essential for people to share information and enjoy
camaraderie. The Fellowship shall favor the
informality and spontaneity of people networking
together,
whether electronically or physically, over
the formality of people holding official
meetings on specified dates that follow agendas. Creative thought and interaction is not
as likely to come into being in an official meeting
situation as in a spontaneous interchange
─ the
network situation. However, that said, monthly
meetings of the Board of Directors shall be
obligatory
and
Friends shall be urged to attend at least two
Biannual
Meetings of Friends, one in
September and one in March.
2) Board Meetings and Friendship Meetings:
The Fellowship shall support two Fellowship groups
to have
meetings: Directors and Friends. The monthly meetings of the Board of
Directors shall be obligatory. Only two meetings of
Friends shall be considered important to attend, the one in September
and the one in March. Since Directors are also
Friends, they may attend Friendship Meetings. And
Friends may observe Board Meetings while seated in a
concentric circle
outside the
inner circle of the Directors. Friends may give input
into a particular Board meeting at the discretion of
the Directors attending that meeting. Visitors
shall not observe Board Meetings. With respect to
Friendship Meetings, Visitors may observe Friendship
Meetings while seated in a
concentric circle outside the
inner circle
of Friends. Visitors may give input into a
particular Friendship meeting at the discretion of
the Friends attending that meeting.
3)
Regular and Special Meetings:
The Fellowship shall support two types of meetings
of both the Board and the Friends:
Regular and
Special.
At all meetings, regular and special, ideas shall be
proposed, proposals shall be voted on, and, if
passed by a majority of Friends attending the
Friendship Meeting or by a majority of Directors
─ as recorded in the Secretary’s Board List
─
attending the Board Meeting, the ideas shall become
decisions or resolutions which shall then be
executed (implemented) by the Friends or Directors who decided on
them.
A)
Regular and Special Board
Meetings:
i)
Minutes:
The Secretary of The Fellowship shall take the
Minutes of all Board Meetings, regular and
special. Board Minutes need not be read at Board
Meetings unless requested by a Director. If any
Director needs to correct any Minutes, the Secretary
shall bring her proposed correction(s) to the next
Board meeting for discussion. After consideration,
the Board shall vote on whether to correct the Board
Minutes as suggested. If
corrections are voted for by a majority of the
Directors, then the Secretary shall make the
corrections.
ii)
Regular Board Meetings:
Regular meetings of the Board shall be held on a
monthly basis on dates to be decided by the majority
of Directors as recorded in the Secretary's Board
List. No business shall be transacted and no
decision shall be made by the Board unless the
majority of Directors on the Board as recorded in
the Secretary's Board List shall vote for it.
a)
Majority:
The term “majority” in these present ByLaws shall always mean
“simple majority”
or
50% plus one.
Additionally, it shall be used in two ways.
A majority of the Board shall always refer to
50% plus one of Directors on the Board as recorded in the
Secretary’s Board List
─
unless otherwise specified for a special
circumstance. Contrariwise, a majority of the
Friendship shall always refer to
50% plus one
of Friends attending a Friendship meeting or absent from the
meeting but submitting absentee ballots to the
meeting
─
unless otherwise specified for a
special circumstance.
In other words, a majority of the Board is regularly
the simple majority of all Directors as recorded in
the Secretary's Board List; whereas a majority of Friends is regularly the simple majority
of Friends at a Friendship meeting.
In a special circumstance the situation is reversed
and a “majority
vote”
on the Board shall be the vote of the simple
majority of Directors attending the particular Board
Meeting. For example, over half of the Directors
might be out on an anti-war protest at the same
time. But The Fellowship must function. So a
majority vote in this special circumstance shall be
the vote of the simple majority of Directors
attending this particular Board Meeting. A proposal or
motion before this particular Board shall be decided
only by simple majority vote of Directors attending
the Board Meeting.
b)
Presentations:
A Friend or Visitor may make a
presentation
before the Board at a Regular Board Meeting. She
shall notify a Director that she intends to make a
presentation a month in advance of her
presentation. Her presentation shall not exceed
forty minutes. After her presentation, the Friend
or Visitor shall leave the Board Meeting. The Board
shall then consider the substance of her
presentation and shall make any appropriate decisions.
iii)
Special Board Meetings:
Special meetings of the Board shall be called by any
Director(s) to address extraordinary circumstances
or emergencies important to the
survival,
integrity, vitality,
or
sustainability
of The Fellowship as a whole. An emergency Board
meeting (Special Board Meeting) shall be called the
moment that The Fellowship is in crisis; a critical Board meeting (Special
Board Meeting) shall be called when a problem
develops that needs to be solved before the next
regular Board meeting.
a)
Majority Rule:
Special Board Meetings shall follow the same
majority rule as Regular Board Meetings. No
business shall be transacted
─ no decision shall be made
─
by the Board at a Special Board Meeting unless the
majority
of its Directors as recorded in the Secretary’s
Board List shall vote for it.
b)
Networking Meetings:
A Special Board Meeting need not take place in
the church building, Humanist Hall. It may be held in another location
or over the phone(s). It may depend upon email(s)
addressing the specific purpose of the Special Board
Meeting. At a Special Board Meeting, a Director may
vote when attending the meeting, or by phone, or by
email.
g)
October Board Meeting and Retreat:
The October meeting of the Board is a Special Board
Meeting. It may take place over a period of
days. At this meeting, officers of the Board
(except the President) shall be elected by the Board
from among its members. With the newly elected
(or re-elected) officers in place, the Board shall
take a retreat and carve out its plans for the
coming Fellowship year. The Board's retreat
shall be as long as it takes for the Board to
compose a sustainable direction, policy, and budget
for The Fellowship in the coming Fellowship year.
=B) Regular and Special Friendship
Meetings:
i)
purpose:
One purpose of Friendship Meetings shall be to
strengthen the
bonds
among Fellowship Friends. Another purpose shall be
to
address issues brought up by, and make decisions answering
the needs of, Fellowship Friends.
a)
Benefit:
Proposals brought before a Friendship meeting shall
have the intention of
benefiting Friends. And Friends (not the Board) shall
execute the decisions resolved upon at a Friendship
meeting. For example, Friends may decide at a
Friendship meeting to clean the house of a Friend
who has been hospitalized. Then the Friends who so
decided (not the Board) shall get together and start
cleaning her house at the appointed time.
b)
Advisory Role:
Proposals brought before a Friendship meeting shall
NOT have the intention of overriding decisions
made by the Board. If the majority of those
attending a Friendship meeting pass a resolution concerning
the
business,
policies, survival, livelihood, integrity,
vitality,
sustainability
of The Fellowship as a whole, this resolution shall
be taken to the next Board meeting for review,
consideration, and final disposition. The
determination as to what shall be considered the
business, the policies, the survival, the
livelihood, the integrity, the vitality, and the
sustainability of The Fellowship as a whole shall
rest with the Board of Directors
who shall be versed in these present ByLaws.
Friends may advise, recommend, suggest, convince,
petition, complain, vote, and run diverse candidates
for Board seats;
but they shall
NOT
decide Fellowship structure,
business, policy, process, or finances and they
shall
NOT
define Fellowship livelihood, integrity,
vitality, sustainability, or transact Fellowship
business.
ii)
Regular Friendship Meetings:
a)
Majority:
The term “majority” in these present ByLaws shall always mean
“simple majority”
or
50% plus one.
Additionally, it shall be used in two ways.
A majority of the Board shall always refer to
50% plus one of Directors on the Board as recorded in the
Secretary’s Board List
─
unless otherwise specified for a special
circumstance. Contrariwise, a majority of the
Friendship shall always refer to
50% plus one
of Friends attending a Friendship meeting or absent from the
meeting but submitting absentee ballots to the
meeting
─
unless otherwise specified for a
special circumstance. In other words, a majority of
the Board is regularly the simple majority of all
Directors as recorded in the Secretary's Board List; whereas a majority of Friends is regularly the simple majority
of Friends attending a Friendship meeting.
In a special circumstance the situation is reversed
and a “majority
vote”
of Friends shall be the vote of the simple majority
of Friends as recorded in the Secretary's Friendship
List. For example, over half of the Friends
attending a Friendship meeting might panic about a police
raid of Humanist Hall and vote to shut it down for
six months. But The Fellowship must function in
these six months. So a majority vote in this
special circumstance shall be the vote of the simple
majority of Friends as recorded in the Secretary's
Friendship List. A proposal or motion before this
particular Friendship meeting shall be decided only
by simple majority vote of Friends as recorded in
the Secretary's Friendship List.
b)
Schedule:
Friends
MAY
hold regular Friendship Meetings on a periodic
schedule decided by a majority of the Friends
attending any
Biannual Friendship Meeting.
g)
process:
The process by which Friends at a regular Friendship
meeting conduct themselves shall be at the pleasure
of the
majority
of Friends attending that meeting.
For example,
the majority of Friends may vote: to follow Roberts Rules of Order;
to run their meeting by the rules of
consensus;
to run their
meeting anarchically with no
chairperson and no rules whatsoever;
to elect a Chairperson at the beginning of the
meeting to conduct the rest of the meeting.
d) Free Choice:
The Board shall not request
or demand that Friends attend any
meetings, though it may urge that Friends attend any
of the four Quarterly Friendship
Meetings in late September, December, March, and
June. The need, motivation, determination, and
energy to hold any other regular or special
Friendship Meetings must come from the Friends
themselves.
iii)
Special Friendship Meetings:
a)
Conflict:
In the event of a serious
conflict
between a Friend and the Board, the
Vice President
shall facilitate a Special Friendship Meeting to
resolve it. In this case, the meeting(s) shall be
called which shall include the Friend in conflict,
as many other Friends as care to attend the meeting,
and a majority of the Board. At this Friendship
Meeting, the conflict between the Friend and the
Board shall be decided by majority vote of those
attending the meeting. Special Friendship Meetings
of this nature, with a majority of the Board in
attendance, shall continue until the best
resolution
of the conflict emerges that satisfies the majority
of Friends and Directors at the meetings.
b)
Special Occasions:
Special Friendship Meetings shall be called
immediately by any Friend(s) to address
emergencies or other
extraordinary circumstances important to Friends. Emergencies shall include planning
Memorial Services for Friends who die.
Extraordinary circumstances shall include planning a
benefit for Friends who incurred legal expenses when
protesting against war. A Special meeting of
Friends need not wait upon the availability of
Humanist Hall for space but may be held anywhere
that Friends deem it advisable.
4)
Major Friendship Meetings:
The Board of Directors shall call four
Quarterly Friendship Meetings each Fellowship year, one in each of the seasons:
one in
September,
one in
December, one in
March,
and one in
June, roughly corresponding to the solstices and equinoxes.
Only two shall be needful for Friends to attend
and/or vote in, the one in September and the one in
March:
the
Biannual Friendship Meetings. Voting on Fellowship affairs shall take place only at the two
Biannual Friendship Meetings.
A)
Process at Major Friendship
Meetings:
i)
Process:
The President of The Fellowship shall
chair
Biannual Friendship Meetings unless she shall find
it necessary to delegate this responsibility to
the Vice President. The President shall also
conduct
the Biannual Friendship Meetings in a way worthy of
her position as Chief Servant of The Fellowship
community.
ii)
Agenda:
The Agenda for a Biannual Friendship Meeting shall
be set by the President and approved by the majority
of Directors before the meeting.
iii)
Friendship List:
The Secretary shall be in charge of The Fellowship’s
Friendship List.
The Secretary's Friendship List includes
active,
inactive,
and
inert
Friends of The Fellowship. The Secretary shall
determine who shall sit in the
inner circle
at the Biannual Friendship Meetings:
namely, Friends on the Friendship List.
iv)
Concentric Circles:
The seating of people attending Biannual Friendship Meetings
shall be divided into concentric circles to
facilitate the conducting of the business of the
Biannual Meetings.
a)
Inner Circle:
Only Friends shall sit in the
inner circle
at Biannual Friendship Meetings and only Friends
shall receive secret ballots and only Friends shall
vote. The Secretary shall invite Friends who come
to the meetings to sit in the inner circle. She
shall give each Friend their ballot(s) and shall
take up the ballot(s) after the voting.
b)
Outer Circle:
Visitors
may observe Friendship Meetings while seated in a
concentric circle
outside the
inner circle
of Friends. Visitors shall have input in a
particular Friendship meeting only at the pleasure
of the
majority of Friends attending that meeting.
B) THE September Biannual Friendship
Meeting:
The
primary business of the September Biannual
Friendship Meeting shall be
elections:
to elect Directors for the Board of
Directors. The primary social purpose of the
September Biannual Friendship Meeting shall be
bonding:
to
encourage Friends of The Fellowship to socialize
with, empathize with, enjoy, and know one another.
i)
Elections:
Elections for President and/or for other Board seats shall be
held by secret ballot only at the September Biannual
Friendship Meeting. Candidates shall be elected by
Active and Inactive Friends to seats on the Board but
NOT to Offices of
the Board. These friends shall vote either in
person at the meeting or ahead of the meeting by
absentee ballots. Absentee ballots, either
electronic or paper ballots, shall be
sent to all Active and Inactive Friends by the
Secretary in the first week of September. In
this way, these Friends shall have a choice whether
to vote in absentia or come to the meeting and vote
in person.
a)
Candidates
Candidates for Board seats shall have
already announced their candidacy and campaigned for
a Board seat. Their
platforms
shall have been posted in The Fellowship Newsletter
(or other notification if no Newsletter exists) at
least two weeks before the September
Biannual Friendship
Meeting. Candidates shall give their final speech
at the September Biannual
Friendship
Meeting to win over Friends and get elected.
Candidates shall win an election by receiving the
greatest number of votes of Friends who voted.
The absentee votes of Friends not attending the
meeting shall be counted at the meeting by the vote
counters after counting the votes of Friends
attending the meeting. Candidates with the most
votes counted at the meeting win the election.
b)
Secret Ballots:
Only Active and Inactive Friends shall vote in Fellowship elections.
These friends shall
normally vote only by
secret ballot. But there may be an emergency or
exceptional circumstance wherein secret ballots are
missing or in error. In such a case, voting shall take place by a
show of hands.
ii)
Meeting of Friends:
After the elections have taken place, a meeting of Friends shall
commence at the September
Biannual Friendship
Meeting. Friends shall
discuss issues and concerns important to them as
Friends of The Fellowship. They shall have the
attention of the new Board of Directors, just
elected, throughout this meeting and may consult
with them if they want. Friends shall be encouraged
to include in their meeting:
a)
Bonding in Fellowship:
Friends may take this opportunity to bond with one
another face to face as Friends in this Fellowship
that is meant for them. They may share experiences
─
both problems and excitements, frustrations and
gratifications
─
that connect one to another or help some out.
b)
Honorary Minister:
Friends
may suggest an
Honorary Minister
for The Fellowship for that Fellowship year. A
suggested Honorary Minister may be decided by majority vote of Friends attending a Friendship
meeting. The suggested Honorary
Minister decided upon shall be submitted to the
Board for final review, consideration, and
disposition.
g)
Support Group Initiation:
Friends may initiate
Support Groups
for The Fellowship. Any Friend may spearhead a
Support Group and ask for volunteers to commit to
it.
d)
Support Group Reports:
Friends may present
Reports from Support Groups. A delegate
from each Support Group shall be encouraged to give
a report of the goings-on of her Support Group in
that Fellowship year.
C) The March Biannual Friendship
Meeting:
The
primary business of the March Biannual Friendship
Meeting shall be
ByLaw Revision:
to revise these present Living ByLaws to keep them
alive. The primary social purpose of the March
Biannual Friendship Meeting shall be
bonding:
to
encourage Friends of The Fellowship to socialize
with, empathize with, enjoy, and know one another.
i)
Revision of ByLaws:
Revision
of The Fellowship ByLaws shall be voted on by
Friends at the March Biannual Friendship Meeting. Revision shall
include altering, modifying, revising, adding, or
deleting the text of the ByLaws. The ByLaws shall
be discussed among both Friends and Directors at the
March Biannual Friendship Meeting
where any final revisions to the ByLaws shall be
decided upon by a vote of Friends, excluding
Directors. So the process of By-Law revision shall
begin with either Friends or Directors;
either group suggests or proposes their revision(s)
to the Board;
the Board shall discuss the revision(s), accept or
reject them, and edit any that they accept;
the finalized suggestions or proposals shall then be
submitted to the
March Biannual Friendship Meeting
to be voted on by the Friends, excluding Directors,
attending the meeting. Similarly,
Friends’ suggestions for
ByLaw revision(s) shall be submitted to the
Secretary, any Director, or the Board in advance of
the March Biannual Friendship Meeting. The Board shall discuss them,
accept or reject them, edit those they accept, and
submit them to the March Biannual Friendship Meeting.
a)
Availability:
A
hard copy of these present ByLaws shall be on file
in The Fellowship Office at all times and given to
any Friend of The Fellowship for the asking.
Friends shall be obliged to read the
Preamble
to these present ByLaws as a condition for their
Friendship in The Fellowship. Directors shall read
the entire ByLaws and shall be versed in its
Preamble.
b)
Suggestions:
Friends may suggest revisions to these present
ByLaws at any time. If not in the March Biannual
Friendship Meeting, Friends shall write down their
suggested revisions
in detail and submit them to The Fellowship Office
at any time in advance of the March Biannual
Friendship Meeting, whether
by snail mail, email, or in person. The Secretary
shall collect all Friends’ revisions of ByLaws and
periodically submit them to the Board for
discussion, editing, and the determination whether
they should be submitted to the March Biannual
Friendship Meeting as
finalized by the Board. The majority vote of
Directors at Board Meetings shall decide which
suggestions shall be submitted to the
March
Biannual Friendship Meeting.
Friends may also make their suggested revisions at
the March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting itself. If time does not allow
for the Friends to decide upon a suggestion, it
shall wait for the next March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting the following
year. At the March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting, suggestions shall be
voted on by Friends attending the meeting, excluding
Directors.
g)
Proposals:
Directors may propose revisions to these present
ByLaws at any time. They may write down their
proposed revisions in detail and submit them to The
Fellowship Office at any time, whether by snail
mail, email, or in person. The Secretary shall
collect all Directors’
proposed revisions
of ByLaws and periodically submit them to the Board
for discussion, editing, and the determination
whether they should be submitted to the
March Biannual Friendship Meeting
as finalized by the Board. The majority vote of
Directors at Board Meetings shall decide which
proposals shall be submitted to the
March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting. If time does not allow for the Friends to
decide upon a proposal, it shall wait for the next
March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting the following year. At the March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting, proposals shall be voted on by Friends
attending the meeting, excluding Directors.
d) Acceptance or Rejection of Proposals:
The Board’s
final proposed revision(s) from Friends and Directors shall be
accepted if a majority of Friends
attending the
March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting,
excluding Directors, vote for the proposed
revision(s). The Secretary shall amend the ByLaws
accordingly. If a majority of Friends vote against
the proposed revision(s), the ByLaws shall remain as
they are until amended in future
March
Biannual Friendship
Meetings. There is a whole year between
March
Biannual Friendship
Meetings for Friends and Directors to research and reflect on how best to
amend the ByLaws.
ii)
Meeting of Friends:
After By-Law revision(s) have been voted for, a meeting of
Friends shall commence at the March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting.
Friends shall discuss issues and concerns of their
choice. They shall have the attention of the Board
of Directors throughout this meeting of Friends and
may consult with them if they want. Friends shall
be encouraged to include in their meeting:
a)
Bonding in Fellowship:
Friends may take this opportunity to bond with one
another face to face as Friends in this Fellowship
that is meant for them. They may share experiences
─
both problems and excitements, frustrations and
gratifications
─
that connect one to another or help some out.
b)
minister Selection:
Friends may elect a
Minister
for The Fellowship. The Minister shall be decided
by the majority vote of Friends
attending the
March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting. Friends may also
relieve a current Minister of her post as Minister
for The Fellowship. The Minister shall be defrocked
(demoted) by the majority vote of Friends
attending the
March
Biannual Friendship
Meeting.
g)
Support Group Initiation:
Friends may initiate
Support Groups
for The Fellowship. Any Friend may spearhead a
Support Group and ask for volunteers to commit to
it.
d)
Support Group Reports:
Friends may present
Reports from Support Groups. A delegate
from each Support Group shall be encouraged to give
a report of the goings-on of her Support Group in
that Fellowship year.
Section
8
DUTIES OF BOARD OFFICERS
There shall necessarily be four permanent Offices of
the Board of Directors: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Their
duties are described below.
1)
PRESIDENT
A)
Final Responsibility:
The
final responsibility
for the
success or failure of The Fellowship of Humanity
rests with the President of The Fellowship.
The only qualification for being President of The
Fellowship shall be that the candidate for the
Office of President be an active Friend of The
Fellowship for at least the two previous years, the
two years directly before the year of her candidacy. This rule shall apply
only to the
Presidency.
i)
Supervisor:
The President shall exercise general
supervision
over the affairs of The Fellowship as its
Chief Overseer.
The President’s supervision shall be guided by the
Mission
and
Purposes of The Fellowship as expressed in these
present ByLaws. The President may be called
the
Supervisor and also the
Head
of The Fellowship of Humanity.
ii) Chief Director:
The President shall be the
Chief
Director of The Fellowship’s Board of Directors.
iii) Spearhead:
The President shall spearhead
moral,
spiritual,
social,
and
political activities intended to serve The Fellowship
well in its
Mission
and
Purposes. The President shall likewise encourage
any
Friend (including any Director) of The Fellowship to
attempt to advance the
Mission
and
Purposes of The Fellowship.
iv)
Shirt Wearer:
The concept “President” usually evokes a long tradition of
patriarchy. When it does, it is not the best choice
of titles for The Fellowship’s Chief Overseer and
Head. The leaders among the
Sioux
tribe of Native Americans shall be a better model
for the Head of The Fellowship. A Sioux leader was
entitled “shirt wearer” because he was granted a special shirt to
wear if he earned the right to wear it by
serving
the needs of the Sioux: healing the sick, helping the weak,
feeding the destitute, teaching the young, and
protecting the tribe. This concept of “shirt
wearer” shall be a good analogy for the role that
the President of The Fellowship plays. With this
model and analogy in mind, The Fellowship President shall be the
Chief Servant to The Fellowship community, a position
that calls for:
wisdom, perspicacity, tact, integrity, conscience,
humility, selflessness, trust,
and generosity.
C)
Fund Raiser:
The President shall have the primary responsibility
for creating or finding
funding for the operations of The Fellowship. She
shall likewise encourage
any
Friend (including any Director) of The Fellowship to
create or find funding for The Fellowship.
D)
Chair:
The President shall
preside
at Board Meetings. If the President is unavailable,
then the Vice President shall preside. If both
President and Vice President are unavailable, then
the Board shall decide by majority vote who shall
preside at the Board meeting.
E)
Signer:
The President shall
sign outgoing Fellowship checks when the need
arises.
2)
VICE PRESIDENT
A)
Final Responsibility:
The
final responsibility for the
success or failure of The Fellowship of Humanity
in the absence of the President rests with the Vice President of The Fellowship.
The
only qualification for being Vice President of The
Fellowship shall be the same as for any other
Officer of the Board, namely, that the candidate
shall be an active Friend of The Fellowship for at
least one year, including the year of her candidacy.
B)
Second in Succession:
The
Vice President shall assume the duties and
responsibilities
of the President in her
absence.
The Vice President shall become President should the
President
resign
or otherwise become permanently unavailable.
C)
Assistant to the President:
The Vice President shall seek ways to
assist
the President in one or another of the President’s
duties.
D)
Facilitator:
In case no Minister is available at The Fellowship,
the
Vice President shall facilitate meetings or other
communications between Friends who are in serious
conflict.
i)
Satisfaction for Friends:
The
Vice President
shall mediate quarrels and conflicts among
Fellowship Friends until a satisfactory outcome
arises that satisfies the most parties involved.
The quarreling Friends
MAY
happen to be all Friends or all Directors or they
MAY
happen to be both
Friends
and
Directors
mixed. The meeting(s) or communication(s) among
them shall continue until the best resolution
arrives that satisfies the most parties involved.
ii)
Satisfaction for Visitors:
The Vice President
MAY
also mediate quarrels and conflicts between
Friends
and
Visitors
on occasion, as her energy permits.
E)
Fund Raiser:
The Vice President shall be responsible for creating
or finding
funding
for the operations of The Fellowship. She shall
likewise encourage
any
Friend (including any Director) of The Fellowship to
create or find funding for The Fellowship.
F)
Greeter:
In case no Minister is available at The Fellowship,
The Vice President shall
welcome new Friends appearing at The Fellowship.
G)
Facilitator:
The Vice President shall facilitate meetings to
resolve conflicts between Directors and Friends in
the event that there are conflicts that the
President overlooks, omits, or avoids.
H)
Further Succession:
In the drastic event that both the President
and
Vice President are permanently
absent,
then the Board shall elect by
majority vote
of those
attending a Board meeting the next
Director to be in the line of
succession to the Presidency. Whomever the Board
shall elect among the remaining Directors shall be
President until the next September Biannual
Friendship Meeting. The Fellowship Friendship
elects the President for the next Fellowship year.
3)
SECRETARY
A)
Final Responsibility:
The final
responsibility for the administration of The
Fellowship of Humanity rests with the Secretary.
The only qualification for being Secretary of The
Fellowship shall be the same as for any other
Officer of the Board, namely, that the candidate
shall be an active Friend of The Fellowship for at
least one year, including the year of her candidacy,
and shall be skilled in using the computer.
The Secretary is the Chief Administrator of The
Fellowship in charge of writing, printing,
publishing and organizing all
the paper work of The Fellowship.
Of course, the Secretary, like all Fellowship
Officers,
may
hire
one or another Fellowship Friend(s) to help her
perform one or another of her Fellowship duties,
using Fellowship funds if Fellowship funds are
available, taking full responsibility for the
results.
B)
Assistant to the Board:
In her capacity as Assistant to the Board of
Directors the Secretary shall:
i)
Agendas:
Solicit agenda items from all Directors and use
them to create an Agenda for the next Board
meeting. This
Agenda
shall then be given or sent to all Directors ahead
of their next Board meeting.
ii)
Minutes:
Take accurate
Minutes
of the proceedings of each Board meeting, regular
and special, and each Friendship
meeting:
regular, special, biannual, and quarterly.
She shall ensure that the Minutes are
typed and legible so that
anyone can read them and she shall preserve them on
computer. The Secretary
MAY
convince or pay another Friend of The Fellowship to
do these tasks if she is unable or indisposed to do
them.
iii)
Signer:
Sign
outgoing Fellowship checks when the need arises.
iv)
Mail:
Handle all official Fellowship correspondence in
behalf of The Fellowship of Humanity or in behalf of
any Director.
Read
incoming, and
send outgoing official Fellowship
correspondence, whether email or snail mail, to whom it
may concern.
a)
Official Correspondence:
Send or give invoices, receipts,
announcements,
publications, documents, and press releases
important to The Fellowship to whom they may
concern.
b)
Official
Calls:
Receive and make phone
calls
important to The Fellowship, or important to any
Director on the Board, in behalf of The Fellowship.
g)
Official
documentation:
Produce, publicize,
and/or
mail,
whether by
email
or by snail mail, official
letters
and documents
of The Fellowship. Documents may be written by
any Director or by the Secretary
and assigned to her for production and distribution.
v)
Board, Friendship, Inactive, and Inert Lists:
a)
Board List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of Directors
on the Board of Directors
─
the Board List.
b)
Friendship List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of Friends
of the Fellowship
─
the Friendship List.
g)
Active List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of
Active Friends
of the Fellowship
─
the Active List. This list need only be a marker by the name of a Friend
on the Friendship List.
The
Friendship List shall be reviewed periodically by
the Board for
active Friends.
A Friend who votes in a Fellowship election, and/or
participates in Programs of The Fellowship, and/or
communicates constructively with other Friends of
the Fellowship on a regular basis shall be deemed an
active Friend. So if she
DOES vote in
the last Fellowship election, or
DOES
appear at Fellowship
Programs, or
DOES
regularly communicate constructively with Fellowship
Friends
for one
or more Fellowship years, she
SHALL
be allowed, even encouraged, to vote in the next Fellowship election and
an
absentee ballot shall be sent to her. Her name
shall be on the
Active List
of Fellowship Friends. The final decision as
to who counts as an
active,
inactive, or inert Fellowship Friend rests with the Board of Directors.
d)
Inactive List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of
Inactive Friends
of the Fellowship
─
the Inactive List.
This list need only be a marker by the name of a Friend on the
Friendship List.
The Friendship List shall be
reviewed periodically by
the Board for
inactive Friends.
A Friend who only votes in Fellowship elections, participates in
no Programs of The Fellowship, and communicates
constructively with no Fellowship Friends on a
regular basis shall be deemed an inactive Friend.
So if she
DOES vote in
the last Fellowship election, but does
not
appear at
Fellowship Programs, and
does
not
regularly communicate with The Fellowship
for one or more Fellowship years, she
SHALL
be allowed to vote in the next Fellowship election and
an
absentee ballot shall be sent to her. Her name
shall be shifted to the
Inactive List
of Fellowship
Friends. The final decision as to who counts as
an active,
inactive,
or inert Fellowship Friend rests with the Board of Directors.
e)
Inert List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of Inert Friends
of the Fellowship
─
the Inert List.
This list need only be a marker by the name of a Friend on the
Friendship List.
The Friendship List shall be culled periodically by
the Board for
inert
Friends. A Friend who does
not
vote in the most recent Fellowship election, and does
not
participate in any Fellowship Programs, and does not
regularly communicate constructively with other
Friends of the Fellowship,
MAY
be deemed an inert Friend.
So if she does
not
vote in the last Fellowship election,
and does
not
appear at any Fellowship Programs,
and
does
not
communicate constructively on a regularly basis with
other Fellowship Friends for one or more Fellowship years, she
shall
not
be allowed to vote at the next Fellowship election and
an
absentee ballot shall
not
be sent to her. Her name
shall be shifted to the
Inert List
of Fellowship
Friends. If an
inert Friend wishes to vote at a Fellowship election
again after a hiatus of one or more Fellowship years, she
need only contact the
Fellowship again and ask for a ballot.
The final decision as to who counts as an active,
inactive, or
inert
Fellowship Friend rests with the Board of Directors.
f)
Visitors List:
Maintain
and keep up to date the official current
List of Visitors
to the Fellowship
─ the Visitors List(s).
