NORTHERN RECON GROUP
GUIDELINES
PROCEDURES AND ETIQUETTE
ADOPTED BY THE MEMBERSHIP 04 JUNE 2014 [Updated 15 Feb 2020 Facilitator Term to 3 Years]
1. Name, Purpose and Mission
A. The name of this group shall be the Northern Recon Group, herein referred to as the NRG.
B. The NRG is made up of individual persons or
other entities each with equal standing, rights and responsibilities
within the group and in all group activities.
C. The mission and purpose of the NRG is to
promote the history and safe use of military vehicles, equipment,
uniforms and accoutrements of all periods and all nations to all
interested persons, groups, and the general public through activities
established from time to time by the members of the NRG.
D. The NRG Core Values are: Integrity, Respect, and Excellence in All We Do
2. Members and Membership
A. Regular members are those persons and/or entities
that agree with the purpose and mission of the NRG and have an interest
in preserving, or helping to preserve, all military history regardless
of nationalities or time period.
B. Regular members have all the rights,
privileges and responsibilities as defined in these Guidelines.
Regular members have voice and vote in all meetings and elections of
the NRG.
C. Persons wishing to establish Regular Membership
in the NRG must submit their name, residence address, phone number [s]
and private email address to the Editor/Information Coordinator. The
membership list will not be sold, distributed, published or copied at
any time or in any form or in any medium.
D. Membership in the NRG is 'free'. No dues or fees are assessed.
E. Guests - Guests will only be admitted to meetings
by invitation of a regular member and shall have no voice, unless
approved by the members present, and no vote.
F. The NRG is an affiliate group of the Military Vehicle
Preservation Association (MVPA). The MVPA requires that 'officers' of
affiliate groups be MVPA members. To maintain group membership,
the NRG shall annually complete and mail, an affiliate group
application form, naming group 'officers', and providing an NRG
Membership list .
3. Facilitators
A. President
- shall be chairperson of all meetings and, when requested by the
membership at a meeting, shall be spokesperson of the NRG and master of
ceremonies at certain events unless prevented to perform these duties
for personal or other reasons. The President, or acting President,
shall have a voice but no vote in the meetings except to break a tie.
The President shall have the ability to appoint additional Facilitators
and make special duty assignments at a meeting, with approval of the
members present at that meeting, to fill the absence at that meeting or
longer if it is required.
B. Recorder/Secretary
- shall provide the agenda and take minutes of all meetings and submit
same to the Editor/Communications Coordinator for electronic delivery
to the membership. The Recorder/Secretary shall also act as
President in the President's absence. The Recorder/Secretary, in order
to open a meeting or an event in the absence of the President, shall
then have the members elect a President pro-tem for that meeting/event.
C. Financial Trustees (Three - 3)
- shall be in charge of any and all finances, bank accounts and other
property of the NRG. They shall all be signers on all accounts
but must have authorization by a vote of the members at a meeting (as
described in these Guidelines) with two of their signatures on all
financial transactions. Such authorization must be recorded in the
minutes of the meeting. In an emergency dealing with the
activities of the NRG, the Trustees, may authorize the payment of
expenses, not to exceed $200.00 (per instance), for those activities by
a 2/3 vote. This payment and the nature of the emergency must be
explained and approved at the next meeting.
D. Editor/Communications Coordinator
- shall be in charge of maintaining a correct membership list to be
shared with the trustees and shall deliver all information regarding
meetings or other activities of the NRG to the members of the NRG
electronically via the internet. This Facilitator shall advertise
activities electronically via the internet, the NRG website, or in
other similar group's or club's periodicals or website. An annual
events list shall be prepared near the first month of each year,
updated as necessary, and delivered to the membership electronically
via the internet
.
E. Additional Facilitators,
or specific duty assignments, may be appointed by the President at a
meeting, with approval of the members present at the meeting, for a
specific task, event or activity. There is no term limit for
these appointments. The appointees serve at the pleasure of the
President and the NRG membership. Some of the recognized possible
assignments are:
a. Webmaster -
would be in charge of maintaining the NRG web site for the purpose of
recruiting and advertising events. The Webmaster
would be the primary person maintaining the web site. The
Editor/Communications Coordinator or the Recorder/Secretary are
alternates with access and control over the NRG web site.
b. Correspondent - would be responsible for news items submitted to military vehicle publications, web sites or other media.
c. Sargent-at-Arms - would have the responsibility to maintain order at any NRG meeting or event.
d. Parliamentarian - would be responsible for business meeting procedures as outlined in Roberts Rules of Order.
F. Term of Office [Changes Adopted by the Membership 15 February 2020]
1. The term of office for all Facilitators shall be three (3) years.
2. A Facilitator can run as a candidate for the same Facilitator
position for another consecutive three (3) year term [a total of six
(6) years].
3. A Facilitator can run as a candidate for a different Facilitator position than was held in the previous three (3) year term.
4. A Facilitator who served two consecutive three (3) year terms [a
total of six (6) years] in the same Facilitator position must wait
three (3) years before running as a candidate for that same Facilitator
position but can run as a candidate for any other Facilitator position.
G. Qualifications
1. All Facilitators must be Regular members of the NRG. [see Section 2-A and 2- B]
2. All Facilitators must be a Member of the MVPA. [see Section 2-F]
4. Meetings
A. All meetings of the NRG shall follow Roberts Rules of Order unless agreement can be reached by consensus.
B. The agenda for meetings, including any items submitted
by the regular members, shall be prepared by the Recorder/Secretary and
delivered electronically by the Editor/Communications Coordinator at
least 2 weeks prior to the meeting date detailing the day, date, and
time of the meeting.
C. If a meeting of any kind is proposed, the meeting shall
be announced to the membership in the manner outlined in item [B]
.
D. Suggested outline for the order of business for meetings
1. Call to order
2. Introduction of members and guests
3. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting
4. Financial Trustees report
5. Posted agenda items
6. Other business
7. Items of concern from the members
8. Next meeting date time and place
9. Closing
E. Minutes of the meetings, as prepared by the
Recorder/Secretary, shall be transmitted to the Editor/Communications
Coordinator for distribution to the membership either electronically or
with the next meeting agenda.
F. The quorum at all meetings of the NRG shall be at least 8 regular members.
G. Any matter or motion brought before the membership is
approved by the membership if it receives an affirmative vote of a
simple majority.
5. Finances and Trustee Responsibilities'
A. Membership in the NRG is 'free'. No dues or fees are assessed.
B. At the pleasure of the Facilitators, funding for NRG operations may result from any or all of the following:
1. A markup donation added to the cost of items purchased for resale [i.e.; tee shirts, mugs, camp site fees, etc.]
2. Fund raisers when needed for special activities.
3. Donations from the membership, or other entities.
C. Standing Expenses
1. Upon receipt of an invoice, the Trustees shall pay
from the NRG account(s) recurring expenses such as office supplies,
MVPA liability insurance, website maintenance, copying/printing, name
badges, postage or other approved expense required for the continuing
operation the NRG.
2. The signature of at least two Trustees shall be required to approve a request for reimbursement.
D. Financial Accounts
1. The Trustees shall be responsible for all NRG accounts and financial transactions.
2. All Trustees shall have signature authority.
3. The Trustees shall present a Financial Report on Current
Operations at every NRG meeting detailing income and expense since the
previous meeting. The report must indicate a profit or loss on
current operations, detail current liabilities, approved future
expenditures, current checking account [s] balance and total cash
assets available.
4. The Trustees shall present an accounting of Promotional Items in
Inventory and a Fixed Asset Report periodically or at least each year
in January.
5. The Trustees shall assist with, or conduct the Annual Audit.
E. Voting on financial expenditures
1. All extraordinary expenses, other than Standing Expenses
described in Section 5 C-1 and 5 C-2 , may only be paid by the
Trustees after a vote in the affirmative by Regular members at two
consecutive meetings. I.E. - motion to suggest on the 1st meeting, vote
to confirm on the 2nd meeting
.
F. Audit
1. The Regular members shall form a committee of three
Regular members, to be assisted by the Trustees, to perform an audit of
all accounts of the NRG on an annual basis.
2. The audit shall take place in January of each year.
3. The completed audit shall be presented to the Regular members at a meeting for approval.
4. The audit shall be retained by the Recorder/Secretary with minutes of the meetings..
6. Facilitator Elections
A. Facilitator Elections shall take place at the first meeting in January every three years.
B. An Election Committee shall be formed at the October meeting,
consisting of three regular members who are not candidates in the
election. The election committee shall have charge of the
election process and voting, subject to the laws of the land and any
rules as established by the Regular Members of the NRG. The
procedure for the receipt, counting, distribution of the ballots or
other issues shall be determined by the Election Committee. The
election committee will be disbanded when the new facilitators take
office.
C. Candidate Nominations
1. Candidates must be a Regular member of the NRG and a member of the MVPA [see Section 3-G 1and 2]
2.. To be considered a candidate, nominations must be transmitted
electronically to the Editor/Communications Coordinator no later than
30 November.
3. Both self-declared candidates and candidate nominations put forth by
an NRG member, with the consent of the nominee, shall be acceptable.
4. The current Editor/Information Coordinator shall transmit
electronically the candidate nominations to the Election Committee to
be placed on the ballot.
D. Candidate Statements
1. All candidates shall have the right to
offer a statement of candidacy by sending the statement to the current
Editor/Communication Coordinator.
2. The current Editor/ICommunication Coordinator
shall deliver their statement electronically to the membership no later
than 20 December.
E. Ballots
1. Elections shall be by ballot in every
circumstance, never by acclimation. Votes will not be 'acclaimed' by a
show of hands or by voice.
2. Write-in candidates, or nominations from the polling place floor, shall not be permitted.
3. To assure that each member casts only one ballot,
the ballot shall require the name and signature of the NRG member.
4. The ballot shall not be distributed by U S Mail.
5. The ballot shall be delivered electronically by
the Editor/Communications Coordinator to all NRG members who have
provided a private email to the NRG.
F. Voting Methods
1. Physical Polling: The ballot shall be available
to attendees at the January meeting polling location for members to
cast their vote in person.
2. Mail-In Absentee: The same ballot will be
delivered electronically to all NRG members no Later than 20
December. The recipient must print, mark, sign and return the
ballot by U S Postal Service not later than 10 January.
G. Ballot Counting Procedures
1. Mail-in ballots shall be set aside in a secure
container unopened until two or more members of the Election Committee
are present.
2. If ballot envelopes are received at the mail-in
address after the deadline of 10 January, the date received shall be
noted on the face of the unopened envelope and set aside in the
container.
3. When the ballot envelopes are opened, the lower half with the name
shall be folded under and the name written on the record sheet. When
all ballots are verified as from a member, and the names are recorded,
the ballot shall be turned over and the votes shall be recorded on the
Election Tally Report.
4. The Election Committee shall review each ballot:
a. Determine if the ballot was cast by a member on the NRG membership list.
b. Create a name record of all members casting a ballot, which must be kept as part of the record.
c. Disqualify and set aside ballots lacking name/signature, received after deadline or unrecognizable.
d. Assure that members on record as having voted by
mail do not vote again at the polling location.
5. A simple majority of the qualified votes cast shall determine the winner.
6. Prepare an Election Tally Report to be submitted to the Recorder/Secretary and retained with the Minutes.
7. Ballot results shall not be announced until voting concludes and the Election Tally Report is prepared.
8. Announce the results at the polling meeting as a percentage of votes received.
9. Retain ballots until the Election Tally Report is accepted and new Facilitators are installed
10. Copies of all ballots shall be destroyed by the election committee immediately after new Facilitators are installed.
H. Newly elected Facilitators shall take their office
immediately following the announcement of the results by the Election
Committee.
7. Communications
A. The NRG shall not publish or distribute a printed newsletter or a membership directory.
B. Information will be delivered to the membership electronically via the internet.
1. An email address shall be maintained at
nrg-news@comcast.net to provide two way communications between the
membership and the Editor/Communications Coordinator.
2. Members are encouraged to send details of events,
after action reports, photographs, and other information relative to
the hobby to the Editor/Communications Coordinator at
nrg-news@comcast.net .
3. Information submitted by the membership shall be
resent electronically to all members on the email membership list by
the Editor/Communications Coordinator after a review to assure the
content is appropriate and relative to the hobby.
C. A membership list shall be maintained by the
Editor/Communications Coordinator as required by Section 3-D of these
Guidelines. The membership list shall be available for review at
every NRG meeting by any NRG Regular Member, as defined in Section 2-A
and 2-B of these Guidelines. The membership list shall not
be sold, copied or distributed in any manner as detailed in Section 2-C
of these Guidelines
D. The NRG shall maintain a website at www.northernrecongroup.org
to serve as a recruitment format, provide information about the group,
its' activities, after action reports, a membership application and
other information to promote activities and the hobby. The
Editor/Communications Coordinator, or a delegate, shall be responsible
for the content and maintenance of the website.
8. Proprietary Items
A. The name "Northern Recon Group" identifies this membership group and only this membership group and cannot be used by any other entity.
B. The NRG membership list is a proprietary document not be sold, copied or distributed in any manner. [see Section 2-C].
C. The NRG logo, as it appears at the top of page one of these
Guidelines, is the property of the NRG and may not be used, copied or
duplicated without the written, signed approval of the President, the
Recorder/Secretary and one Trustee.
9. Liability Insurance
The Military Vehicle
Preservation Association (MVPA) offers liability insurance to all
affiliate groups to indemnify members and Facilitators against
liabilities. Annually the NRG shall purchase a liability
policy from the MVPA to insure group activities [see Section 2-F].
10. Indemnification
Participants at NRG hosted events, other than
business meetings, shall be required to sign a Release of Liability
document to indemnify, release and hold harmless the NRG, the MVPA,
their facilitators/officers and other entities from any injury,
disability, death, loss or damage associated with participation in, or
presence at, the event.
11. Changes to these Guidelines
A. All changes to these guidelines must be adopted by
this procedure: First meeting - introduction and 1st review.
Second meeting - 2nd review. Third and final meeting - 3rd review, and
vote for adoption (requires 3 consecutive meetings). Changes shall only
be allowed at the 1st and 2nd review meetings.
12. Other
A. Committees may be appointed from time to time by
Regular members at a meeting. Volunteers will have first priority,
however if there are no Volunteers the President shall appoint at least
3 members to serve on the committee. All committees, however formed,
shall be given a starting date, a clear task to perform, a reporting
date to the regular members and a definite ending date at which time
the committee shall be disbanded.
B. In all issues not covered by these
Guidelines, Roberts Rules of Order shall govern the operation of the
NRG.
13. Procedures and Policies
A. The Regular members may, from time to time,
establish operational procedures and or policies for the operation of
the NRG. These procedures and or policies must not conflict with these
Guidelines, Procedures and Etiquette for operation of the Northern
Recon Group.
B. These policies and/or procedures must be
submitted to the Regular members at a meeting and be voted to adopt or
deny at the next meeting.
14. Severance Clause
A. Should any of these Guidelines for the operation
of the NRG be found to be in violation of law, they may be removed or
altered, without affecting the remainder of these guidelines.
15. Addendum
15 - 1 Northern Recon Group Policy
Authority: Section 13 of the Northern Recon Group Guidelines
states that Regular members may, from time to time, establish
operational procedures and or policies for the operation of the
NRG. These policies and/or procedures must be submitted to the
Regular members at a meeting and be voted to adopt or deny at the next
meeting.
Resolution: Regular members voted to accept the following procedure at the Camp Gridley Fall 2016 meeting on Saturday 15 October, 2016
Policy to Assure Neutrality in Communications and Representations
The Northern Recon Group Guidelines states the purpose of the NRG is to
promote the history and safe use of military vehicles, equipment,
uniforms and accoutrements [section 1-C]; that the
Editor/Communications Coordinator shall deliver all information
regarding meetings and other activities [section 3-D]; and that members
are encouraged to send details of events, after action reports,
photographs and other information relative to the hobby to the
Editor/Communications Coordinator [section 7-B-2].
To assure the integrity of the above sections of the Guidelines, it is
the policy of the Northern Recon Group to maintain neutrality in
communications and anything that represents the organization. The
NRG will not promote or endorse any position or point of view regarding
partisan politics, political parties, political views, ethnicity,
religion, creed, gender, etc. in communications on the NRG Website, NRG
Newsletter, Facebook page, photographs, other publications, forums or
on promotional items that represent the NRG such as T-shirts, banners,
flags, signage, cups, pens, give-a-ways, etc.
It is the primary responsibility of the Editor/Communications
Coordinator, with the assistance of the President, the Trustees, the
Webmaster and the Facebook Page Administer to assure that any and all
communications and representations comply with this policy.
Communication submissions or representations that do not comply with
this policy will be rejected by the above Officers and Facilitators.
Action: This policy was
included in the Recorder/Secretary meeting minutes, retained in
permanent records and attached to future issues of the NRG Guidelines
as an Addendum.
15 - 2 Northern Recon Group Procedure
Authority: Section 13 of
the Northern Recon Group Guidelines states that Regular members may,
from time to time, establish operational procedures and or policies for
the operation of the NRG. These policies and/or procedures must
be submitted to the Regular members at a meeting and be voted to adopt
or deny at the next meeting.
Resolution: Regular members voted to accept the following procedure at the Camp Gridley Fall 2016 meeting on Saturday 15 October, 2016
Procedure to Replace a Facilitator in the Event of a Vacancy
In the event of a vacancy in any Facilitator position due to resignation, illness, death or other cause,
the following shall apply:
1] The President [or the Recorder /Secretary in the President's
absence] shall query the Regular NRG membership for a suitable
candidate [s] who is willing to serve the unexpired term.
2] At a meeting of the NRG, in which a quorum of 8 Regular members is
present, the name [s] of the candidate [s] who consented to serve the
unexpired term shall be put forth for a vote.
3] All Regular members in attendance at the meeting shall write the
name of the candidate on a slip of paper and submit it to a person
selected to tally the votes.
4] A simple majority of votes confirms the choice.
5] Should a candidate fail to win a majority of votes, the process
shall be repeated after another suitable candidate agrees to serve the
unexpired term.
6] The person chosen will serve the unexpired portion of the vacant
term and will also be eligible to run as a candidate for the same
Facilitator position, or another Facilitator position, in the next
Facilitator election.
Action: This operational
procedure was included in the Recorder/Secretary meeting minutes,
retained in permanent records and attached to future issues of the NRG
Guidelines as an Addendum.