The Bexar Grotto has a fairly well written constitution. It was last revised in 1994, when I was just getting started as a caver. The constitution calls for four officers: Chairperson, Vice-Chair of Programs, Vice-Chair of Trips, and Secretary-Treasurer. For a long time now the secretary-treasurer role has been divided into two - so that we elect a separate secretary and treasurer - and thus have 5 officers. We have nominations during the first meeting in January and elections the following meeting. As long as I've been a member I've seen barely a whisper of politics. We are just an apolitical group here in Bexar County. We usually have to cajole people into taking positions for the coming year, but people generally try to do a pretty good job. We don't have a separate business meeting - it all happens at the grotto meeting. Most decisions, including monetary ones, are made there, and everyone participates. Marvin Miller
_____ From: Mallory Mayeux [mailto:mmay...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 11:45 AM To: Texascavers@Texascavers.Com Subject: [Texascavers] Grotto setups? Greetings, Texas cavers! The Houston grotto is in the process of updating it's constitution (which hasn't been touched since 1972) and I wanted to get some insight from other parts of the Texas caving community. How many officers does your grotto have? What are their titles/roles? Do you have separate "trip chairs" or does the chairman typically announce what's going on each month? Who decides how to spend your money...does the club as a whole vote on expenditures, or do the officers decide alone? Also, in a perfect world, what would you change about the structure of your club? (Especially changes that will facilitate more involvement and actual caving.) I know every grotto has a different situation, depending on how much actual caving you have going on in an average week/month, and how much money you have in your grotto bank account. Likely some things that work well in say, Austin wouldn't work well at all in Houston, and vice versa. And that's OK. :) My hope is that this email stirs up some interesting discussion and gives us some ideas for our update! Thanks! Mallory Mayeux GHG Secretary
