7 petition proposal opens it up to all officers of the Association. • Stan Choiniere – I would like to make a couple of points. For those at the annual meeting last year, you may remember that the position of Secretary was open, and Jim Hill stepped up and filled that position. We did have someone from the membership that was willing to fill the position, but they were a non-resident. They do own a second home in Vermont and spend a lot of time in Vermont and were willing to make the commitment that if they were to get the position, that they would make every effort to attend all the meetings. Because of the way the bylaws are written, there was not sufficient time to warn the membership, so that couldn’t be changed at last years’ meeting. So the ByLaws Committee took it on this year to look at it and propose for a change. We were notified that the Board had decided not to, based on a number of different reasons; one regarding the attendance portion of it, and that is when the discussion was made with some local clubs who have a high percentage of non-resident members. I don’t know that the actual percentage is now, but the overall VAST membership has a high percentage of members that are not Vermont residents. • Jeff Fay – I believe the percentage of non-resident members is about 48 percent. • Stan Choiniere – I think there are a lot of non-residents willing to put in the effort, work and time. There may be situations where people are retiring, going to be in the state more; it may not change their legal residence for whatever reason, but they may be spending more time in Vermont and have the willingness to serve or be on board or whatever position may be available, so that is what drove this petition. We found out what the necessary process was and the number of members that we needed to have represented. The petition was put together in a short period of time and the necessary votes were put in place. The idea here is not to push this through, not to force this upon the Association, but thought this was the place and time for the membership vote on this. We talked about the idea of having a certain percentage of attendance; that should probably be enacted anyway, because even if this were not enacted, the reason for being excluded from that position was that you can’t make the majority of the meetings, some only live 20 minutes from the VAST office. The other concern was the cost of mileage reimbursement. I know some people that serve on the Board now that don’t ask for mileage reimbursement. Mileage would only be reimbursed within the Vermont borders. In fact, there are a lot of places outside the State of Vermont, MA, CT; that you can get to Barre from NH, quicker than you can get to Barre from Bennington. • The need for volunteers is something that I think the membership should think about. • Patty Companik – I am the one that did the petition. I had wanted to run for Secretary last year, but due to the bylaws I was not able to. Due to the volume of out of state members, the people should be given the opportunity to serve. In my case, I do own a second home in Vermont, I can work from wherever I want, which is why I could make arrangements to be here to attend meetings. Being on the board is not something I would just jump into it. It is a volunteer position and whoever is voted into it should be at the memberships’ discretion. I contacted a lot of our local clubs and many of them said that they wouldn’t know what to do if they didn’t have the out of state members; they play a large part in the performance, trail work and other volunteering efforts. Before you put your name on the ballot, make sure of your commitment. • Could you please elaborate on what was discussed regarding this change in bylaws; it wasn’t just mileage, it was the amount of time [unintelligible in recording] • Mike Coleman – Windsor County – Weathersfield Pathfinders – as far as changes for attendance requirements and mileage, that is a policy issue, not a bylaw issue. I would like to call this to a vote to either accept officers as legal residents or as non- residents. • Mike Coleman made the motion to make the following motion to the bylaws; change on page 55 of the VAST 2016 revised bylaws, that the officers of the Association shall be President, Vice President, striken “Recording” Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past President.The officers shall be club members in good standing, members of the Association and snowmobile owners of the State of Vermont. • Patty Companik seconded the motion. • Tim Mills – I would like you to repeat the motion so we clearly understand where you are going with it. • Mike Coleman, restated his motion - Page 55 – Article 6, Section 1 – the officers of the Association shall be President, Vice President, Secretary,Treasurer and Immediate Past President.The officers shall be club members in good standing, members of the Association and snowmobile owners of the State of Vermont. • Jeff Fay – I don’t know that you want to have the State of Vermont in there, because isn’t that what you are trying to define/ eliminate? • Mike Coleman – Snowmobile owners? • Tim Mills – Yes, but it could be an out of state sled. • Jeff Fay – You don’t want to have the word Vermont in there anywhere. You want to stop it at snowmobile owners. • Mike Coleman restated his motion, Article 6, Section 1, the officers of this Association shall be President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past President. The officers shall be club members in good standing, members of the Association and snowmobile owners. 49TH VAST Annual Meeting Minutes Cont.