Election
The NSNA membership voted 77 to 20 on Sept. 18 in favor of an election in Nov. to fill the currently vacant President Elect position. The President Elect who is elected in Nov. will serve as President in 2001. The motion stated that the Oct. 16 General Membership meeting will include nominations and discussion, and that voting will occur at the Nov. 20 GM meeting.

The President Elect position was vacated when Steven D. Lange was removed as an officer of the Board on July 3. The Board action followed a 31 to 9 vote at the June 19 General Membership meeting to request Mr. Lange's removal from office. Both Mr. Lange and some Board members were represented by attorneys at the July 3 meeting.

Members who were in favor of Mr. Lange's removal complained that he failed to represent the membership by supporting the original CVS proposal in spite of overwhelming opposition to that proposal by the membership. Members in favor of removal also cited an alleged history of offensive conduct by Mr. Lange toward members and Board members. Since Mr. Lange's removal, the NSNA website contains numerous postings by Mr. Lange and others that contain insulting decriptions of others and name-calling. Those who support Mr. Lange cite his years of service to the neighborhood.

Mr. Lange proposes a Special Membership meeting for Oct. 10 to vote on whether to reinstate Joyce Frey to the position of President for 2000 and on whether to reinstate Mr. Lange to President Elect. Mrs. Frey resigned from her position in June during the CVS debate. Mr. Lange's petition also proposes amendments to the NSNA bylaws. However, as of today, the petition has not been received by the Board, who must verify that it contains signatures of 10 percent of the NSNA members and must give the membership 5 days notice of the meeting.

The discussion at the Sept. 18 meeting indicated that the membership wishes to be included in the work of formulating amendments to the bylaws. Even if a Special Meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10, nominations and voting will occur at the Oct. and Nov. General Membership meetings as the membership voted. Those who have been NSNA members for a minimum of 1 year may run for office. Those who have been members for at least 2 months may run for a Board Director position in Jan. In order to vote, persons must be Full NSNA members with paid-up dues. Associate members, who pay dues but do not reside within the NS neighborhood boundaries may not vote.

Steve is still Pres Elect

Susan, I know you are trying to clean up the President Elect Position.

The first order of business needs to be to formerly remove Steve Lange as the current President Elect.

Please remember that Steve Lange was elected as President Elect and not as a board member at large.

He was removed from the position he filled as ''Acting President'' (when Joyce relinquished her position as President).

If Steve is still on the board, which he is, he is on it as President Elect.

If I am wrong please let me know.

The board hired an attorney several months ago to take care of this issue. What was the legal opinion of our associations attorney?

I was at the board meeting in which Steve was removed as acting president. I know he was not removed as president elect.

I am merely stating that if you are going to have an election for President Elect, at least formerly remove the existing President Elect from that position.

I know you are trying to get this all behind us, and the only fair way to do so, is to do so in a proper manner.

Respectfully

F. D. Fudge

assumption of presidency

There is nothing in the by-laws about an acting president. When Frey resigned, Lange took the presidents position. He was removed as president at the request of the membership.

President Elect position

I am not trying to clean up anything. I simply reported a summary of the primary issue at the Sept. 18 General Membership meeting, because I had received feedback from members that their two requests are for posted summaries of Board and General Membership meetings. So, I've decided to try to provide that whenever I can.
The motion at the June 19 General Membership meeting to request Mr. Lange's removal and the motion at the July 3 special meeting of the Board specified that Mr. Lange be removed ''as an officer of the Board'' but not from the Board. President and President Elect are officer positions; Board Director is not. Apparently many people understand this point, because 97 of them voted on a motion on Sept. 18 regarding a special election in November to fill the President Elect position. In fact, a fair way to get this difficult episode behind us is to have nominations for the position by the membership and an election with plenty of notice, which is what will occur. The association does not have an attorney--Board members consulted an attorney regarding this action. I hope this is helpful.