It should be an interesting evening for Cascade Bicycle Club. Their annual member meeting will likely be packed, and the Board has promised to respond to the many concerns they have heard since they fired, then re-hired, Executive Director Chuck Ayers earlier this month.

“We’ve received dozens and dozens of emails,” said Board President Chris Weis. “If people have criticisms of the board, fair enough. We’re going to respond to questions directly.” Weis did not wish to respond to specific concerns, such as those of the Bike Club Rescue Squad, saying he would prefer to answer to the members directly instead of through the media. When asked about the Squad’s concern that the club’s Board election bylaws were not followed correctly, Weis said the concerns were “legitimate.”

“The board’s going to respond to that,” he said.

The meeting starts at 6:30 tonight, October 21, at REI at Yale and John. “Technically, it’s for membership,” said Weis, “but I don’t think there’s going to be anyone at the door asking for cards.”

Concerns about bylaws

The Squad is Kelli Currie, Keith Hoeller and Renee Barton, who is a Cascade Ride Leader. Currie said several people were interested in the process of electing a board member as a write-in. When she and others started to read through the club’s bylaws, however, they discovered there was no process for write-ins. In fact, the Board appears to have the sole power to elect whoever they want to be on the Board.

“We need to overhaul the bylaws in a big way,” she said. “The membership needs a voice.” After sending a letter of demands to the Board and receiving responses they saw an inadequate, Currie said the only recourse they have, according to the club’s bylaws, is to call for a Board recall.

“Even in recalling the board members, we’re really only calling a meeting where the board eventually decides” what action to take, she said. The group will not have the petition ready by tonight’s meeting, but she said they are starting the signature gathering process and expect it to take a while. According to the rules, they will need five percent of the club’s members to sign it.

However, the somewhat disempowering bylaws could help them in one way. There does not appear to be any requirement that the signatures be on paper, so the group plans to set up a way for members to sign the petition online, she said.