1. FUCK
2. Meeting

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This article is about club meetings in general. For a list of club meetings, see List of meetings.

A meeting is an official gathering of club members, usually called in advance by the secretary. The rules for holding meetings have developed throughout the club's history.

History of Meetings

On November 22, 2004, Niki Moto, having seen the club's drop in the ability to have meetings, wrote an essay similar to the following:

History

The original version of the Constitution gave few rules to regulate meetings. However, there were rules as to how to hold elections. The following two sentences, from the Bill of Rights, are protected by the holding of meetings.
The Constitution did, however, also allow for the making of new laws.
The earliest known club meeting was held on May 9, 1999, to have the first presidential election. A section of the Constitution records the results of the first election. (Surprisingly, the election was not held by the rules that the Constitution specified, which called for a three-candidate system in which each member had two votes.) After that, no meetings were held for almost a year. (During this time, the Constitution was also missing.) Without a way to hold meetings, dictatorial action was the only way to enforce change. When Nick Phillips wrote the first newsletter in December 1999, President Teddy Phillips changed the club name to the Free United Club of Kids. However, clamors against that change forced the name to be repealed. The club was nameless for a few months. A debate took place until February, when the members' interests for the club veered towards Pokémon. An unofficial poll among members decided the new club name, Biomon Masters Club.

On March 5, 2000, the club's grand opening as the Pokémon Trainers Club constituted the club's second meeting. It was a ceremony that made all members Pokémon trainers and gym leaders, but club members also voted on one additional proposition—to raise the minimum age of president. Since the concept in question was a numerical value, the voters simply submitted their numbers, which were averaged together afterwards to result in eight and two-thirds.

In April, another meeting was held to finally resume seasonal presidential elections. This time, all members were notified beforehand about the meeting with a letter from Nick Phillips. Because he now scheduled the meetings and notified everyone with a typed memo, he unofficially took the title of secretary. The meeting was simply what it was intended to be, an election and nothing more.

Starting with the rediscovery of the Constitution in early 2001, meetings were held more frequently. A few dictatorial changes were made, such as the annexation of two new members, but they were kept to a minimum. Members were still individually notified of each meeting with a typed letter, and the tradition of seasonal elections was nearly fully restored. The revival of a newsletter series in July made it easier to have more meetings. However, there were few rules on how meetings worked. A few meetings were held with only three people.

In order to ensure more attendance to meetings, changes had to be made. On November 3, the members decided that meetings should be held once a month, and absent members do not receive pay. So meetings were held in that orderly fashion. Once a month, some of the members gathered for the meeting, which Nick Phillips hosted. Members were allowed to present their ideas in meetings and propose new laws to vote on.

In early 2002, some dictatorial changes were made to help correct the economic breakdown, including the formation of the IRS and the abolition of the club currency. Members could no longer earn pay, so it was not a reason to attend meetings. A meeting made these changes known without any resistance, since they seemed reasonable. Subsequent meetings offered more rules on how to hold meetings.
Small meetings became less commonplace. However, it was still hard to ensure member attendance. In 2004, the club agreed on a penalty for missing too many meetings—exile. This, though, was flawed, as every rule has an exception. Less and less members attended meetings, and this proved to prevent any further changes to be made to the Constitution. Tournaments also became impossible to hold. Members had less and less free time on their hands, and the number of members present was not enough to hold a meeting. Since no meetings were held, people could not be punished for missing a meeting.

Aftermath

Niki Moto called the drop in meetings the social breakdown, and set out to fix it by asking the members about their schedules.

Niki Moto's eventual decision was to have the weekend meetings broken down into three submeetings each: one on Friday night, the second on Saturday afternoon, and the third on Saturday night, to more accomodate the members with irregular schedules.

Sometimes this didn't even work; to accomodate members further, besides absence leniency, club meetings would sometimes be held in locations wherever many members were present, and these meetings mostly ended up being only for the sake of taking attendance.

The Current Procedure for a Meeting

Meetings are never held anymore, but if they were, an ideal meeting would go something like this:

A meeting is called by the Secretary of Information Niki Moto by announcing it in his newsletter at least a week in advance, giving the location and the times for each submeeting. Niki Moto asks to be e-mailed people's nominations (for an election) or proposals for new laws. Niki Moto also e-mails the members a reminder during the week about the meeting.

The meeting takes place during the weekend. Submeeting A takes place on Friday night at 8:30 p.m., submeeting B takes place on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. right after Ni-Ki-Oh!, and submeeting C takes place on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m.

At the beginning of the submeeting, Niki Moto signs onto AOL or AIM so that members can be present via instant message. Niki Moto takes attendance by calling out the members' club names from a list. Those who have notified Niki Moto beforehand with an excuse are marked absent, those present are marked present, and the unexcused absent are not marked at all.

Niki Moto has gathered material from what has been submitted by members over the week. The proposed laws are described in detail on a sheet describing all the proposals. Meetings vote using voting sheets, with tables listing the options and giving spaces to check one's vote, since sheets are easier to keep track of and harder to forge than ballots.

During submeeting C, after all laws have been voted on, the President can Veto laws that would be passed. The Supreme Court Justice can Override the President's Veto. If so, the bill will be voted on again a final time at the next meeting.

The results of the meeting are announced in an article in the following newsletter.

List of meetings

See List of meetings

Reference

• Moto, Niki. "The Importance of Meetings." Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist Club News 84. 22 Nov 2004.