On April 25, an emergency meeting of The American Legion – Department of California Executive Committee was held via video conference at 9 a.m.
This communication states the actions approved by the body at this meeting, notes valuable lessons learned in regards to conducting online meetings, and establishes our next scheduled DEC meeting.
FIRST APPROVED ACTION – ESTABLISH INTENT
We meet at convention site at the stated date and time at which we adjourn and reconvene at the call of the Commander.
SECOND APPROVED ACTION – ESTABLISH DIRECTION
We direct the Department Adjutant to renegotiate the contract with Visalia to reflect 2021, 2022, 2023.
THIRD APPROVED ACTION – ENACT INITIATIVE PROCESS*
To amend Article IX, Section 1 of our Department Bylaws to read:
The legislative body of the organization shall be a Department Convention. The time and place of such convention shall be fixed by vote of a preceding convention, but may not grant any date beyond seven (7) years. Department Executive Committee shall have authority to change such time and place only when a state of emergency has been declared in accordance with California code.
Article IX, Section 1 currently states:
The legislative and appropriate body of the organization shall be a Department Convention which shall be held annually. The time and place of such convention shall be fixed by a vote of a preceding convention, but may not grant any date beyond seven (7) years. In the event that a preceding convention has not fixed a time and place for the holding of the next convention, it shall be fixed by the Department Executive Committee at least one hundred and twenty (120) days prior to the date for which the Convention shall be called.
*A ballot with the proposed department bylaw amendment will be mailed by Friday May 1st, 2020 to each post at the home address of the post adjutant of record. Posts will be asked to return the ballots in provided return envelopes postmarked no later than June 19th, 2020 to Department Headquarters. Each post will be allocated the same voting strength as they had at the 2019 Department Convention. A two-thirds vote, along with a majority vote of the posts in the department is needed to approve this department bylaw amendment (Article XIX, Section 1).
VALUABLE LESSONS LEARNED
- Establish Passcode for telephone call attendees. Most of the attendees calling in were not able to speak on the conference. This inhibited their opinions from being heard and required them to have to use alternate means of communication (text, email) to register their votes. We will provide a solution for this the next time we meet in this manner.
- USE THE MUTE OPTION WHEN NOT SPEAKING TO THE GROUP. Keeping your mic live means that any side conversations, under the breath remarks, your dog, etc. can make it tougher for all to hear and in some cases persons can feel attacked by comments not meant for the group to hear.
- Have an agenda circulated well in advance. This allows all participants to stay focused on the actions and decisions before the group
NEXT SCHEDULED DEPARTMENT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
A pre-convention Department Executive Committee is scheduled to occur prior to our annual convention. Even though the First Approved Action above declares the intent to meet, then adjourn and reconvene at the call of the Department Commander, we can still conduct a pre-convention DEC on Thursday June 25th, 2020 via video conference. Details regarding time and access codes will be sent at a later date. At that meeting, items to be determined could include:
- Removing the requirement for posts to pay 2020 Delegate Convention fees.
- Hearing the Commander’s intended course of action to follow regarding the 2020 Convention (Reschedule to a new date at a physical location; Reschedule to new date in a remote format; Postpone all proceedings to the 2021 Convention)
Thanks for your patience on Saturday. It was a long four hours and on behalf of our Commander Ed Grimsley and the rest of the department officers, your participation was surely appreciated.
