Petition 2: Timely Minutes and Notice of Changes to Governing Rules

Proposed Act: new Act in Section 05, amending Act 05-061, Act 05-774, and Appendix J

Members can only hold the Board accountable if they can see what the Board has decided. Two things make that hard today.

Minutes arrive late or not at all. The Board’s own procedures already say draft meeting minutes must be posted within 30 days, even before Board approval. In 2026 that has not happened. Minutes from six Board meetings held from March through July were missing from the page where members look for them. Minutes for two of those meetings were not posted anywhere on the Society’s website and had to be requested from the Recording Secretary. Minutes of two other meetings, held April 13 and April 28, 2026, were approved by the Board on May 27 but were not posted until October 15, 2026. Minutes of the September 14 and October 17, 2026 meetings have since been posted.

Rules change without members being told what is changing. Board agendas are posted in advance, but a proposed change to the Bylaws or the Board’s own rules (called Acts) can appear by subject only, without the proposed wording. Nothing requires the Board to tell members afterward what changed. At the July 2026 summer meeting, 56 updates to the BoG Manual were approved together in a single vote, and about two dozen Acts disappeared from the BoG Manual. The updated BoG Manual was not posted until about 11 weeks later.

What Petition 2 does

Confirms the existing 30-day minutes rule by member vote and adds ways to check that it is followed.
Makes clear that minutes must be posted within 30 days even if not yet approved, marked as a draft and replaced once approved.
Puts minutes in one known place, so members do not have to hunt for them.
Requires a short report at every regular Board meeting on whether past minutes were posted on time, and keeps overdue minutes in the report until posted.
Requires 14 days’ notice to members, with the proposed wording, before the Board votes to change an Act.
Requires a plain notice to members within 30 days after any change, and a dated list of changes in the posted BoG Manual.

The petition

We, the undersigned voting members of the National Speleological Society, request under Bylaw V.F.3 that the proposed Act set out below be submitted to the voting membership with the next National Speleological Society election of directors that has a deadline for nominations at least 30 days after this petition is delivered to the Chair of the Board. If it receives a majority favorable vote of ballots returned and marked on the proposal, the Act becomes effective when the elected directors are seated.

Read the full text of the proposed Act

Inserted text is marked <<…>> and removed text >>…<< per Act 08-190. The Board assigns the Act number.

Part 1. New Act in Section 05 (Meeting Minutes)

<<05-____ Timely Minutes and Notice of Changes to Governing Rules

A. Minutes

1) The minutes of every meeting of the Board of Governors, including special meetings, must be posted on the Business Documents page of the Society’s website no later than 30 days after the meeting. If the minutes have not been approved by that date, the draft minutes must be posted, clearly marked as a draft, and replaced by the approved minutes within 30 days of their approval.

2) The Business Documents page, or any page that replaces it, must be linked from the Society’s home page and identified to members as the location of Board records. Posting minutes elsewhere does not satisfy this Act.

3) Posted minutes must include the actions taken in closed session, without confidential personnel details.

4) The agenda of every regular meeting of the Board of Governors must include a report from the Recording Secretary stating, for each meeting held since the last regular meeting and each earlier meeting with minutes still awaiting required posting, the dates its draft and approved minutes were posted, as applicable. For any missed posting deadline, the report must give the reason and the expected posting date. Each outstanding posting obligation must remain in subsequent reports until fulfilled. This report must be included in the minutes.

B. Notice of changes to Bylaws and Acts

1) At least 14 days before any meeting at which the Board of Governors will consider adding, amending, or deleting an Act, including an appendix, the proposed text must be posted on the Business Documents page and announced to members by email. The proposed text must show each change in the format required by Act 08-190, and each provision to be changed must be listed individually.

2) The Board of Governors may adopt a change to an Act without this notice only upon a recorded finding, stated in the minutes, that an emergency requires immediate action. An Act adopted this way expires at the end of the next regular meeting unless it is noticed under paragraph 1 and adopted again.

3) Within 30 days after the Board of Governors adds, amends, or deletes a Bylaw or an Act, a change notice must be posted on the Business Documents page and announced to members by email. The notice must state the provision number, the change, the effective date, a brief reason, and, for any deletion, where the provision’s terms now reside, if anywhere.

4) The posted Board of Governors Manual must be updated within 30 days after any change is adopted, and must include a dated revision log listing every change since the previous version.

5) The Secretary to the Board is responsible for posting proposed changes and change notices, sending the required member email notices, and updating the posted Manual and revision log. The Chair of the Board must ensure that these duties are completed within the required deadlines. The Recording Secretary remains responsible for posting draft and approved minutes. If no Recording Secretary or Secretary to the Board is serving, the Chair of the Board must assign that position’s duties under this Act to a named person and post the assignment on the Business Documents page.

6) The Board may amend a noticed proposal during the meeting if the amendment remains within the scope of the proposed changes disclosed to members. An amendment that changes an additional provision or introduces a materially different substantive change requires a new 14-day notice before adoption, except for an emergency change to an Act under paragraph 2. The post-adoption notice must show the text actually adopted.>>

Part 2. Amendment to Act 05-061 (Meeting Recordings)

~~>>Recordings<<~~ <<Any recording made>> of ~~>>Board meetings should<<~~ <<a Board meeting must>> be retained until the ~~>>minutes are approved by the Board<<~~ <<approved minutes are posted under Act 05-____>>. The recordings may be reviewed only by the Board members or proxies, the persons responsible for developing the written minutes, and those responsible for making the recordings. Following ~~>>approval of the minutes by the NSS Board<<~~ <<posting of the approved minutes>> the recordings are to be destroyed.

Part 3. Coordinating amendments to Appendix J and Act 05-774

A. Add at the end of Appendix J, section II.C.3:

<<For motions adding, amending, or deleting an Act, including an appendix, the full proposed text and identification of each affected provision must be posted and announced to members as required by Act 05-____. The exception for lengthy motions or attachments does not excuse compliance with that Act.>>

B. Add at the end of Appendix J, section II.D:

<<Motions introduced as additional or new business that add, amend, or delete an Act, including an appendix, are subject to the notice and amendment requirements of Act 05-____. An emergency exception is available only as provided in that Act.>>

C. Add at the end of Appendix J, section V.A:

<<The posting location, deadlines for draft and approved minutes, and continuing compliance reports must meet Act 05-____. These requirements apply to every Board meeting, including special meetings. The Recording Secretary remains responsible for posting the minutes.>>

D. Amend Act 05-774, Board of Governors Manual Proofing, to read:

>>After meeting minutes are approved, the Chair of the Board ensures that Secretary to the Board makes any additions, changes, and/or deletions therein approved to the Constitution, Bylaws, and Acts (and appendices) of the Board of Governors manual.<<

<<The Chair of the Board must ensure that the Secretary to the Board incorporates duly adopted additions, amendments, and deletions to the Constitution, Bylaws, and Acts (including appendices) into the posted Board of Governors Manual. Changes to Bylaws and Acts must be incorporated within 30 days after adoption, with the dated revision log required by Act 05-____; posting must not be delayed pending approval of meeting minutes. A constitutional change must be incorporated within 30 days after its adoption through the applicable constitutional amendment process. Each revision must state its effective date.>>

Signers must be voting members of the National Speleological Society in good standing.

Sign the petition

Questions about Petition 2

What doesn’t it do?

It does not create new staff or new costs beyond posting documents and sending email notices the Society already sends for elections.
It does not require confidential personnel details to be made public.
It allows emergency changes to Acts when the Board records why immediate action is needed. Those changes expire unless properly noticed and adopted again.

Isn’t there already a rule about posting minutes?

Appendix J of the Board of Governors Manual (Operational Directives, section V.A) already requires the final draft minutes of each meeting to be posted on the Society’s Business page no later than 30 days after the meeting, with the Recording Secretary responsible for posting. Appendix J has the force of an Act, but it has no reporting or follow-up, so when it is not met, nothing happens. It was last amended in 2013.

As of September 22, 2026, the Business Documents page did not list minutes for the March 14, May 27, June 29, or July 6–10, 2026 Board meetings. Draft minutes for June 29 and July 6–10 were posted only on the Events page, with the materials for the September 2026 meeting. Minutes for March 14 and May 27 were not posted anywhere on the website; members obtained copies only by request from the Recording Secretary. Minutes for two more meetings, held April 13 and April 28, 2026, were approved on May 27 but were not posted until October 15, 2026, nearly five months later; until then, members knew those meetings had taken place only because the May 27 minutes recorded their approval. The April 28 minutes record a closed session of about an hour with no report to members at all, although Act 05-121 requires minutes to include reports from closed sessions. In both of its written responses to the concerned members, the Board has acknowledged that its minutes record-keeping needs improvement and stated that it is taking measures to improve it. This Act gives those measures a deadline and a way for members to confirm they are working. The Board approved the June 29 and July 6–10 minutes at its September 14 meeting, nine to eleven weeks after those meetings. At that meeting a member asked how special meetings are announced. The Board answered that they are posted on the website calendar, and said it would look at other ways to notify members. For changes to the Board’s rules, this Act makes email notice to members a requirement.

This Act preserves the existing 30-day draft-minutes deadline, confirms it by member vote, fixes where minutes must be posted, and adds a deadline for posting approved minutes. A standing report keeps overdue records visible until they are posted. Corresponding amendments to Appendix J and Act 05-774 make the procedures consistent and assign responsibility for carrying them out.

Who is responsible for posting?

Act 05-290, which established the Recording Secretary in the former Department of the President, does not appear in the Board of Governors Manual dated as of the July 6, 2026 meeting, although Appendix J still assigns the Recording Secretary the minutes duties. The Secretary to the Board is named in Act 05-774 and in the Manual’s introduction but is not established by a separate Act. So that these duties cannot fall through the gap, this Act requires the Chair of the Board to assign them to a named person whenever either position is unfilled.

Why do members need notice of rule changes?

At the July 2026 summer meeting, the Board approved 56 updates to the Board of Governors Manual as consent-agenda items, with no recorded discussion. Those updates reassigned nine financial-control Acts from the Executive Director to the Secretary-Treasurer. The Manual dated as of that meeting omits 24 Acts that appeared in the March 2026 Manual, 21 of them governing named and restricted funds. The updated Manual was posted on September 23, 2026, about 11 weeks after the vote. During that time, members consulting the Society’s posted BoG Manual saw rules that were no longer in force.

Appendix J (section II) requires Board agendas to be posted publicly, yet no agenda was posted before the April 13, 2026 special meeting. Even when an agenda is posted, a lengthy motion may appear in the agenda by subject only, with the full text sent only to Board members. Nothing requires the proposed wording to be shown to members, each changed provision to be listed, members to be told afterward what changed, or the posted Manual to be updated by any deadline. Act 05-774 directs the Secretary to the Board to update the Manual after minutes are approved, but sets no deadline and requires no record of what changed.

Why 14 days?

The 14-day notice period matches the notice the Bylaws already require before special meetings of the Board (Bylaw V.E.9).

Why doesn’t advance notice cover Bylaw changes?

Advance notice applies to changes to Acts. An Act cannot add conditions to the procedures for amending the Bylaws, which are set by the Bylaws themselves, so advance notice of Bylaw changes would require a Bylaw amendment. Changes to the Bylaws are still covered by the change notice and Manual update requirements once adopted.

Why does it change the rule on meeting recordings?

Under Act 05-061, meeting recordings “should” be retained, and are destroyed once the Board approves the minutes. This Act requires any recording that is made to be kept until the approved minutes are actually posted. That ensures the record behind the minutes still exists while members are waiting for them. It does not require the Board to record meetings it does not already record.

How does a petition become an Act?

If 3 percent of voting members sign this petition within thirteen months, the Act goes on the ballot with the first election of directors whose nomination deadline is at least 30 days after the signed petition is delivered to the Chair of the Board, unless the Board adopts the Act itself first. It takes effect if a majority of the members who vote on it say yes.