View source for LLG 1992 Annual Meeting Announcement

''Posted by lojbab to lojban, August 13, 1992:''

In accordance with the Bylaws, notice is hereby given that the 
Annual Meeting of the members of The Logical Language Group, Inc. will be 
held on Sunday, August 16, 1992 at 9:30AM EDT at the Corporation princi- 
pal office at 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax, Virginia 22031. 
This notice is being sent to all voting members of LLG, and to other 
people who are expected to be at the meeting, or who came last year and 
hence might be interested in attending this year, or who otherwise have a 
reason to be interested. 
According to the Bylaws, there is no requirement for prior 
announcement of the agenda of an annual meeting; all manner of business 
is in order. Actions can be taken by the members without the requirement 
of prior notice. However, Article 9 on Bylaw amendment states: 
A written notice shall have been sent to each member at his last 
known address at least ten (10) days before such Annual or Special 
meeting, which notice shall state the alterations, amendments, or 
changes which are proposed to be made in such By-Laws. Only such 
changes as have been specified in the notice shall be made. If, 
however, all the members shall be present at any regular or Special 
meeting, these By-Laws may be amended by unanimous vote, without any 
previous notice.

Last year's annual meeting directed the inclusion of specific bylaw 
amendments in this year's agenda. In addition, an expected item for 
discussion, overseas members, prompts me to propose some Bylaw amendments 
in that subject area so as to allow such changes (not necessarily with 
the exact wording proposed - I have not interpreted that above Bylaw as 
confining Bylaw changes to the wording proposed in the announcement.) 
This announcement constitutes notice of these proposals per the above 
requirement. 
There is no quorum requirement for an annual meeting, but over 1/2 
of all members must vote in favor of a Bylaw amendment for it to be 
effective. If you are a member, and do not plan to attend the meeting in 
person, we ask that you take one of the following actions:

1. Provide a written proxy, either stating your vote on proposed 
Bylaw amendments, or delegating your vote to another person you expect 
will be in attendance. We, or your delegated representative, must have 
your proxy at the start of the meeting. 
2. Arrange for attendance by telephone, such that we will telephone 
you at a specific time to obtain your vote. This arrangement should 
include a written statement that you should be considered in attendance 
subject to such telephone consultation. We need this statement prior to 
the meeting. 
3. Resign your membership so that your non-presence does not affect 
the vote totals.

We expect that there will be members not in attendance at this 
meeting, hence your following the above procedures could be important to 
whether we can approve the Bylaw amendments.

Proposed Agenda, as prepared by Bob LeChevalier 
(1) roll call 
(2) proof of notice of meeting or waiver of notice 
(3) reading of Minutes of preceding meeting 
a motion to waive this will be heard 
(4) reports of Officers 
a. President's report 
language status 
book status

legal status 2 
b. Secretary/Treasurer's report 
Bob LeChevalier will give a financial report on behalf of the 
Treasurer 
(5) reports of committees 
The only officially constituted committee is one consisting of 
Athelstan and Guy Garnett for evaluating and deciding on allocation 
of certain funds to support needy non-payees who want to receive our 
materials. This committee has been inactive due to Athelstan's 
injury, and is not expected to report. The President would like to 
solicit volunteers to spend a little time at LogFest or shortly 
afterwards to make the limited decisions applicable to this 
committee that need to be made. 
(5a) At this point in the agenda, a motion will be heard to consider 
unfinished business Bylaw Amendment number 5, as listed below, and 
to thereafter vote on possible new members who are present at the 
meeting. This may, at the discretion of members present, include 
the discussion of overseas members and associated Bylaw amendments 
per New Business. 
(6) Election of Directors 
The President is proposing a slate consisting of all current 
Directors except Athelstan, who is not yet recovered sufficiently to 
participate in active governance of the organization on a regular 
basis. 
(7) Unfinished Business 
a. Negotiation stance with the Institute 
Last year, the membership directed policy to be that there 
be no further expenditure of resources on negotiations with the 
Institute unless there is a change in their policy. In the 
last year, there have since been two events of change in their 
policy that have caused the President to determine that 
negotiations were appropriate.

1) Shortly before the oral arguments in TLI's legal appeal 
last November, there was indication that JCB was willing to 
meet with us when he visited Washington DC for the oral argu- 
ments. After consulting with the Board and determining that 
this was a significant change in their policy, Athelstan, John 
Cowan, and I prepared inputs for such a meeting and sent them 
to TLI. Part or all of these inputs are included as an 
attachment to this announcement. 
TLI indicated that they were not prepared to discuss on 
the basis of this agenda, and no meeting took place; the 
implication was that TLI's position was essentially unchanged, 
and that we had misread their intent with regard to the 
possibility of negotiation of a settlement.

2) After an initial feeler immediately after the Appeals 
Court decided in our favor last April, Robert McIvor, as an 
authorized representative of TLI, contacted me in June to in- 
dicate that TLI considers the legal battle to be at an end. He 
indicated that he was authorized to initiate negotiations with 
us, presuming our November agenda as a statement of our current 
position. He indicated that he was representing TLI, and not 
JCB in particular, JCB having delegated negotiation to McIvor 
and some unidentified-to-us Board Member. 
McIvor was one of the people present at the original 
meeting declaring "Lojban - A Realization of Loglan", and has 
often expressed some sympathy with our positions, though 
retaining loyalty to JCB. He is not currently an officer of 
TLI, though he is a Member, a Member of the Loglan Academy, and

'Chief Grammarian' of TLI Loglan as one of the original team of 3 
Loglan YACCers. 
The initial position paper from TLI offered no significant 
change of position on their behalf, and indeed was offensively 
unacceptable, being essentially a call for the status quo ante 
the split with TLI, with TLI's policies intact and 'the Lojban 
experience' absorbed into TLI Loglan on a basis determined by 
their Academy. However there was some indication of another 
acceptable avenue, wherein each side would be allowed to 
present its case to the other organization's 'membership' 
(defined in our case probably as our JL subscribers and other 
active language users), with a vote being held to determine the 
nature of any merger of the two languages. 
I communicated the unacceptability of status quo ante the 
split, but indicated that the vote option may be acceptable to 
our membership, though I cautioned him that I saw no chance 
that our membership, however defined, would accept a return to 
the TLI Loglan version at this stage. I did indicate, and I 
believe, that we have a fair chance, on the other hand, of con- 
vincing a fair vote of the TLI membership to accept a 
conversion to Lojban done with consideration. Part or all of 
my response is included as an attachment. 
McIvor has indicated in response that his people are 
studying our response, and that he considers that there is 
likely benefit in continued negotiations. To this end, he has 
placed a paid order for materials through level 3 and a JL 
subscription, and has indicated interest in being consulted on 
any ongoing technical decisions to try to keep the two language 
versions from drifting further apart. He has also indicated 
that he has proposed and expects approval of some TLI Loglan 
changes inspired by our criticisms, that sound like they bring 
the two languages closer together. 
On the other hand, he did not see that progress was far 
enough along that there was benefit in his attending LogFest 
(though he did consider doing so), and he is instead proposing 
to visit here approximately the 1st of December while enroute 
to wintering in Florida. I have indicated to him that 1) I 
cannot promise to be available then due to my personal situa- 
tion, 2) I would need direction from the membership for further 
negotiations, and 3) that by December we would be likely to 
have at least one book published and would be far less likely 
to seriously consider any changes to Lojban in concession to 
TLI. 
There has been no further discussion at this writing, 
though I expect to see something more prior to LogFest, and 
will make same available to those who attend. 
I would like the membership to consider whether any 
changes to our negotiation policy and stance are in order, and 
will consider motions under Unfinished Business. 
b. Bylaw amendment Proposals forwarded from last year, per below. 
c. Modification of the Electronic Distribution Policy to eliminate 
the discussion of electronic checksums, which has proven 
technically impractical. 
d. A report on the grammar baseline status will be made. There is 
one significant grammar change proposal, and numerous minor 
changes, all intended for official incorporation at the time of 
the publication of the first book, expected this fall. (The 
major change does not noticeably affect much text that has been 
written, but implies a radical change in perspective on the se- 
mantics of relative clauses, and the grammar that dictates the 
choice of semantics, which is currently vague to the point of

possibly being 'broken'). John Cowan and I are seeking con- 4 
currence of the membership with this plan.

(8) new business 
a. Consideration for baselining the rafsi list, after consensus 
regarding any changes deriving from Bob's rafsi analysis report, which we 
will discuss outside of the formal meeting. 
b. John Cowan has indicated intent to propose at least one new 
person from overseas (probably Nick Nicholas) and possibly more, for 
voting membership. These people are unlikely to attend meetings, making 
their participation perhaps problematical, but John argues that at least 
symbolically, LLG as an international effort should have at least some 
foreign members. Bob is proposing some possible Bylaw amendments below 
to resolve some of the problems that would be expected, which can be 
considered in conjunction with this discussion. 
c. Other new business as proposed

Proposed Bylaw amendments

Old business

>From last years' meeting minutes: 
There was also a motion that we change the "10 days" notice for 
meetings to "15 days". However, since this was not on the agenda 
and not all members are present, the motion was withdrawn. However, 
we agreed that for the next meeting we would give 15 days notice. 
And, at the next annual meeting we would propose as changes to the 
bylaws: 
1) at least 15 calendar days notice for the members' meeting. 
2) at least 15 calendar days notice for all other required 
notices. 
3) Change the agenda order such that the voting on new members 
be done just after the committee reports and before the 
election of directors.

1. Amendment to the Bylaws per the above: amend Article 3, Section 4, 
which reads: 
Section 4. Annual Meeting. The annual meeting of the members shall 
nominally be held at such place and time as the Directors shall 
designate. In the absence of any such designation, the annual 
meeting shall be held at the principal address of the organization 
on the first Sunday following the 20th day of June each year, at 10 
o'clock in the morning of that day. The Secretary/Treasurer shall 
serve personally, or send through the post office, at least ten (10) 
days before such meeting a notice thereof, addressed to each member 
at his last known post office address; but at any meeting at which 
all members shall be present, or of which all members not present 
have waived notice in writing, the giving of notice as above 
required may be dispensed with.

to read: 
Section 4. Annual Meeting. The annual meeting of the members shall 
nominally be held at such place and time as the Directors shall 
designate. In the absence of any such designation, the annual 
meeting shall be held at the principal address of the organization 
on the first Sunday following the 20th day of June each year, at 10 
o'clock in the morning of that day. The Secretary/Treasurer shall 
serve personally, or send through the post office, at least fifteen 
(15) calendar days before any meeting a notice thereof, addressed to 
each member at his last known post office address; but at any 
meeting at which all members shall be present, or of which all

members not present have waived notice in writing, the giving of 5 
notice as above required may be dispensed with.

2. Amendment to the Bylaws per the above: amend Article 3, Section 5, 
which reads: 
Section 5. Special Meetings. Special meetings of the members, 
other than those regulated by Statute, may be called at any time by 
a majority of the Directors. The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve 
personally, or send through the post office, at least ten (10) days 
before such meeting a notice thereof, addressed to each member at 
his last known post office address. Such notice shall contain a 
statement of the business to be transacted at such meeting; at any 
meeting at which all members shall be present in person or by proxy, 
or for which members not present have waived notice in writing, the 
giving of notice as above described may be dispensed with. No 
business, other than that specified in the call for the meeting, 
shall be transacted at any Special meeting of the members.

so that the second sentence reads: 
The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve personally, or send through the 
post office, at least ten (15) days before such meeting a notice 
thereof, addressed to each member at his last known post office ad- 
dress.

3. Amendment to the Bylaws per the above: amend Article 4, Section 6, 
which reads: 
Section 6. Notice of Meetings. Notice of meetings, other than the 
regular Annual meeting shall be given by service upon each Director 
in person, or by mailing to him at his last known post office ad- 
dress, at least ten (10) calendar days before the date therein 
designated for such meeting, including the day of mailing, of a 
written or printed notice thereof, specifying the time and place of 
such meeting, and the business to be brought before the meeting, and 
no business other than that specified in such notice shall be 
transacted at any Special meeting. However, at any meeting at which 
every member of the Board of Directors shall be present in person, 
by mail, or by telephone, although held without notice, any business 
may be transacted which might have been transacted if the meeting 
had been duly called.

to read: 
Notice of meetings, other than the regular Annual meeting shall be 
given by service upon each Director in person, or by mailing to him 
at his last known post office address, at least fifteen (15) 
calendar days before the date therein designated for such meeting, 
including the day of mailing, of a written or printed notice 
thereof, specifying the time and place of such meeting, and the 
business to be brought before the meeting, and no business other 
than that specified in such notice shall be transacted at any 
Special meeting.

Bob will oppose this amendment as written. The Board of Directors 
has not held a formal meeting in the last year, since due to Athelstan's 
injury, notice would have been required for any such meeting. The few 
issues that have come up warranting Board discussion, needed resolution 
more quickly than even the 10 days notice required by the Bylaws. Hence 
we were forced to consult by telephone among the remaining 4 Board 
members without formally conducting a meeting. This is an irregular way 
to run an organization; the Board of Directors is supposed to exist in 
order to allow day-to-day policy decisions to be made more rapidly than 
is possible when a Members' meeting must be called, and it isn't working. 
Amendments to the above amendment which allow for telephone and/or

electronic mail notice certified in the minutes by the 6 
Secretary/Treasurer, and/or an amendment which specifies the resignation 
or removal of a Board member who cannot/does not participate in meetings, 
can be considered (this paragraph constitutes notice of consideration of 
such amendments, with wording to be decided by the members present).

4. Amend Article 9, which reads: 
ARTICLE 9 
Approval and Amendment of By-Laws

These By-Laws shall be made, altered, amended, added to, or 
rescinded by a majority of the total current members of The Logical 
Language Group, Inc. at a meeting called for that purpose or at the 
annual meeting, with the following exceptions: 
a. any Bylaw dealing with the removal of Directors shall 
be made, altered, amended, or rescinded by a vote of two-thirds 
(2/3) of the total current members of The Logical Language 
Group, Inc. at a meeting called for that purpose. 
b. any amendments to Article 11 Dissolution shall be 
unanimously approved by the Board of Directors, proposed by 
them to the members, and approved at a meeting by two-thirds 
(2/3) of the members. 
A written notice shall have been sent to each member at his last 
known address at least ten (10) days before such Annual or Special 
meeting, which notice shall state the alterations, amendments, or 
changes which are proposed to be made in such By-Laws. Only such 
changes as have been specified in the notice shall be made. If, 
however, all the members shall be present at any regular or Special 
meeting, these By-Laws may be amended by unanimous vote, without any 
previous notice.

so that the first sentence of the last paragraph reads: 
A written notice shall have been sent to each member at his last 
known address at least fifteen (15) days before such Annual or 
Special meeting, which notice shall state the alterations, 
amendments, or changes which are proposed to be made in such By- 
Laws.

5. Amend Article 3, Section 8, which reads: 
Section 8. Order of Business. The order of business of all 
meetings of the members shall be as follows: (1) roll call; (2) 
proof of notice of meeting or waiver of notice; (3) reading of 
Minutes of preceding meeting; (4) reports of Officers; (5) reports 
of committees; (6) election of Directors, if necessary; (7) 
unfinished business; (8) new business. In case of dispute over 
meeting procedures, Robert's Rules of Order shall serve as the basis 
of resolution, although a majority of members present may vote to 
override those rules on any question.

to insert an item after (5), as follows: 
The order of business of all meetings of the members shall be as 
follows: (1) roll call; (2) proof of notice of meeting or waiver of 
notice; (3) reading of Minutes of preceding meeting; (4) reports of 
Officers; (5) reports of committees; (6) proposal and approval of 
new members (7) election of Directors, if necessary; (8) unfinished 
business; (9) new business. In case of dispute over meeting 
procedures, Robert's Rules of Order shall serve as the basis of 
resolution, although a majority of members present may vote to 
override those rules on any question.

Bob will propose that this shall be amended to specifically 
indicate: "(6) proposal and approval of new members, who shall assume 
membership immediately if present at the meeting, or at the end of the 
meeting if not present." This prevents a paradox whereby new members 
(especially overseas ones who would not likely be present) might cause 
the meeting to no longer be in accordance with the bylaws due to lack of 
notice, etc.

New Business

Bob proposes for consideration the following amendments, related to 
the question of adding members who reside in other countries and are 
unlikely to be able to attend meetings.

6. Further amend Article 3, Section 4 to read (full text in old business 
- 1) 
The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve personally or by personal 
telephone conversation, or send through the post office or by 
electronic mail addressed to each member at his last known address, 
at least fifteen (15) days before such meeting a notice thereof; but 
at any meeting at which all members shall be present, or of which 
all members not present have waived notice in writing, the giving of 
notice as above required may be dispensed with.

7. Further amend Article 3, Section 5 to read (full text in old business 
- 2) 
The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve personally or by personal 
telephone conversation, or send through the post office or by 
electronic mail addressed to each member at his last known address, 
at least fifteen (15) days before such meeting a notice thereof.

8. Amend Article 3, Section 2, which reads: 
Section 2. Voting. Each member shall be entitled to one (1) vote, 
and all his right, title, and interest in and to the Corporation 
shall cease on termination of his membership. No member shall be 
entitled to share in the distribution of the Corporate assets upon 
the dissolution of the Corporation. Members may assign their vote 
to a representative by written proxy.

so that the last sentence reads:

Members may assign their vote to a representative by written or 8 
electronically-mailed proxy, and/or may specify voting on specific 
issues in such a proxy.

and add the following paragraph: 
Any member who does not expect to be physically present at a meeting 
may request that they be permitted to participate via telephone, 
mail, or electronic mail. The President or a majority of Members 
present physically or by proxy may also declare a meeting to extend 
to some or all Members not physically present. In either case, the 
meeting will be conducted in accordance with Section 7 below, with 
the President setting a reasonable time limit for responses before 
declaring voting closed on any issue.

9. Bob feels that all other references in the Bylaws which relate to 
notice and/or communication in connection with the rights and duties of 
members are vague enough to include the possibility of electronic mail as 
an alternate means of notice, or communication. However, notice is 
hereby given that members present may propose other amendments relating 
to the ability of overseas members to participate in governance of the 
organization, with specific wording to be approved at the meeting, and 
such amendments will be considered in order under the Bylaws.