Seventeen amendments to the bylaws of GVEA were passed by the membership after a count of over 5000 mail-in/drop-off ballots last night.
Two bylaw changes did show a marked difference with less support:
One change removed the bylaw section that limited the co-ops debt to $460 million. This now means that the policy the board developed and passed 3/29/10 that more than doubles this debt limit will be in effect and that the board can change at will. This policy (last page) and other policies modified with the bylaw changes can be found here.
The second bylaw change passed with less support was GVEA proposed Roundup Program, where your bill will be rounded up to the next even dollar amount and the funds collected (est. $15,000/mo.) to be given to charities of GVEA's choice. The controversial aspect to this program was that it is Opt-Out, meaning you are included automatically and must call GVEA at 452-1151 or send an email to them (info@gvea.com) to opt out of the program.
With the many delayed and un-received ballots due to sending them via the Ruralite, I don't think that GVEA will be using that method of delivery again. More likely is a push to develop an on-line voting method, now allowed by bylaw change.
I would also hope that this many changes and some so poorly worded in one vote don't happen again. It was generally poorly organized and not worthy of what we should expect from our co-op.
