by Tom Lassiter, Membership Secretary
What does it take to run a non-profit volunteer organization of over 12,000 members with an annual budget over $1.7 million? In the case of HAL-PC it takes 23 elected members of the Board of Directors, about five part-time paid personnel, and a lot of vol unteers.
Our focus this month is on the Board of Directors. These 23 men and women are elected by the membership in June of each year. They serve two-year staggered terms with twelve members elected one year and eleven the next. The Board elects its own officers and fills interim vacancies. Current Board officers and members are listed on page four of the Magazine.
Monthly Board meetings are held the first Thursday of each month at
7 p.m. at HAL-PC. These meetings are open to the membership. Items
of business may be placed on the Board agenda by contacting the President.
Minutes of the Board meetings are kept in t he HAL-PC offices and are
available during normal business hours for review by members.
A committee structure established by the HAL-PC Bylaws is used to carry out many tasks of the organization. Board members chair committees, which also include non-board members. This is a good entry point for members who desire to go beyond volunteering and become involved in management aspects of HAL-PC. Committees report to the Board of Directors.
The President appoints committee chairpersons and the committee members are appointed by the chairperson and approved by the Board.
Your Directors devote an enormous amount of time to HAL-PC, some more than others. The President (overall executive and administrative), First VP — SIGs (coordinating SIG meetings and all equipment), VP — Programs (arranging and producing the monthly Sho w), and VP — Communications (Advertising, Magazine, BBS and HALNet) have grown to practically full-time jobs. A restructure of these positions to more manageable volunteer levels, at the request of the officers involved, may be the subject of a future Bylaws revision proposal.
The Board of Directors works hard to ensure that HAL-PC maintains the services to the members that have made it the largest such organization in the world.
If you have suggestions as to how HAL-PC can improve or increase its services then please contact one or more Board members and pass on your ideas. The organization has continuously evolved since its inception in 1982, based on the ever-changing face of the PC industry and the current needs and desires of its members.
Participate; make it your organization and help shape it to the needs of your fellow members. Only by these means will we continue to improve services to the membership, the key to our viability. Join — Serve — Grow!
Tom can be contacted at jamesl@hal-pc.org.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.