Madison Valley Community Council drafts new bylaws, set to ratify at March 8 meeting

The Greater Madison Valley Community Council has drafted new bylaws, and is inviting neighborhood residents to vote for their ratification March 8.

The nonprofit that establishes itself as a democratic forum and government go-between for Madison Valley residents enacted its current bylaws in 1998. Those bylaws take up one page concerning the bounds of the neighborhood, membership eligibility, meeting frequency, general officerships and voting procedure.

But those rules are no longer comprehensive enough for the council’s needs, Community Council President Penelope Karovsky said.

“All the new officers have worked in nonprofits before and we realized [the bylaws] were definitely not IRS compliant,” Karovsky said. “And of course they should be to protect both the council and officers. I’m all for keeping things simple but, as we’re a 501(c)(3), we know we have a fiduciary duty to the community.”

The draft bylaws cover much of the same ground as the old bylaws, but endeavor to more comprehensively lay out the roles and rules for voting and nonvoting members of the council, officers, and members of the executive board.

Whereas previously the roles of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer were only mentioned briefly as roles that exist, the new bylaws make explicit the duties of each position. They additionally establish rules against officer compensation, a procedure for officer removal, and create an allowance for the hiring of an executive director and other staff.

New among the rules is a procedure making residents registered members of the council as soon as they sign up for the community council’s online mailing list.

Vice President Dana Hanna is currently drafting a summary version of the bylaws to help residents familiarize themselves with the rules quickly, Karovsky said. The full draft bylaws are available to read on the council’s new website, www.madisonvalleycommunitycouncil.org.