Along the Trail
The Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Club Newsletter
April - May - June 2004
IN MEMORIAM Steve Beczynski (Becker)
October 22, 1944 ~ December 28, 2003
[On December 28th, 2003, while assisting on the HTMC Lanipo hike, club member and hike co-ordinator Steve Becker died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Offered below are some comments in tribute to Steve from those who knew him, worked with him, and hiked with him.]
Steve was born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, but Hawaii eventually became his home. Steve was employed by AMSEC LLC as a Senior Logistician, working on government contracts at the Naval Undersea Warfare Detachment Pacific, Lualualei Hawaii site. Steve was an outstanding employee who was never satisfied with less than a job well done. He was both respected and well-liked by his fellow employees, and his efforts were frequently recognized by representatives of the U. S. Navy, the customer he served. As further testimony to his high level of performance in his job, in January 2002 he was recognized as the AMSEC LLC Hardware Integration Operations "Employee of the Month", from among several hundred employees located in Hawaii, California and Washington. Steve introduced several fellow employees to his major passion - hiking in Hawaii.
Steve joined the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club around 1995. The first hike he led as a Hike Co-ordinator on March 19, 2000, was Wahiawa Hills, which remained a favorite trail of his. He also volunteered to assist the Sierra Club. Steve will be remembered as someone who had a playful and wry sense of humor. He was always willing to lend a helping hand. He was frugal, but also generous. He enjoyed going to movies, but not foreign films with English subtitles! He enjoyed the water, from kayaking to sailing to snorkelling. He enjoyed camping. He was thoughtful and he laughed a lot. He always thought the best of people. He was a good friend. He was efficient, dependable and dedicated. He loved his job. He loved his friends. One of Steve's co-workers made some comments about Steve. They sum up the man we knew and loved:
"Steve made a big presence in a quiet, unassuming kind of way. When you met him, you sensed there was more to the man than met the eye. At work, he kept to himself a lot and did not join many group activities. Sometimes if he were in the mood and you were lucky, you cold catch some of his offbeat observations and his wry sense of humor."
"He let me know when there were novice hikes coming up and I went on a hike once at his encouragement. It turned out to be more than a novice trail, and I was grateful when he came back to check on me at the point when we had to stick our toes into small holes in a wall and hang on to a skinny rope to get around a huge tree trunk bulging out of a high vertical cliff. I guess I must have looked a little worse for wear, and he looked after me for the remainder of that hike."
"I would venture to say that he found peace in nature and in things that really mattered. He encouraged others to enjoy what he appreciated most. He was a worker like one of us, but his intelligence made him capable of so much more. Although he was an understated guy, he truly earned the respect of those around him and he will be extremely missed."
Aloha Steve, Happy Trails until we meet again.
WILD HAWAII SCREENSAVER
John Hoover has produced a terrific screensaver called Wild Hawaii featuring 300 scenic photos from Hawaii's best trails and kayaking routes. Haleakala, Mauna Loa, Koke`e, Napali Coast, North Shore Moloka`i, Volcanoes Nat'l Park, Pu`u Kukui and more are included, plus about 80 photos from our favorite Oahu trails. You might even see yourself! The CD is available at Borders and some other stores, but it's cheaper on John's website (www.hawaiisfishes.com) and if you identify yourself as an HTM member John will donate 50% to HTMC.
HTMC PROPOSED BYLAWS CHANGES - ARTICLES III and IV (plus relevant parts of ARTICLES V, VI, VII, VIII and X) as of March 3, 2004
==>> for a more easily readable copy, click HERE <<==
Sections to be removed are indicated by strikethrough characters.
Changes or additions approved as of March 2 are indicated by bold underlined characters.
Note: Capitalization was inconsistent. "Board of directors" and all committee names have been made upper case. Names of club officers are all lower case. These changes are not marked in bold underlined charactersARTICLE III: MEMBERSHIP
1. Any person at least eighteen years of age and of good moral character and interested in the objects of this club is eligible for membership as provided in these bylaws.
2. Members shall be classified as regular, associate-, and honorary.
Notes: This key section invalidates the categories of "family member" and "life member" which were added injudiciously at some point in the past. See sections 6-7 below.3. Regular Member: Applicant must have participated in at least three regular club hikes during the year 12 months preceding the date of application.
Notes: We substituted "12 months" for "year" because "year" could be ambiguous.4. Associate Member: During the 12 months preceding the date of application, applicant must have participated in at least three club functions, or in one club function and show proof of current membership in another outdoor club.
Notes: The change brings #4 into conformity with #3 regarding the 12 month time period. We decided not to try to further define "outdoor club" because such applications are rare and the membership committee and BOD must pass judgement on them.5. Honorary Member: One year A 12-month membership may be conferred by the Board of Directors on any individual non-member who has given special service to the club.
Notes We substituted "12 months" because "year" could be ambiguous.
We changed "individual" to "non-member" because provision for honoring a member is made in Article IV 1 D.6. Family Member:
A. Family membership shall consist of two adults residing at the same address.
B. Either of the family members may be a regular or associate member, depending upon the eligibility as indicated above.7. Life Member:
A. Life membership is open to individual or family member in good standing upon payment of twenty (20) times the annual individual dues for individual life membership or twenty (20) times the annual family dues for family membership.
B. Life membership may be conferred upon any regular member, provided he or she has been a regular member for at least fifteen years, by a three-fourths vote at any annual meeting.
Notes: We struck old sections 6-7 because the existence of "family member" and "life member" categories are not permitted by #2 above. In reality, these are payment categories, not types of members. We revised the provisions in old 6-7 and dispersed them to a new 7 and to Article IV (finances). The terms "family member" and "life member" have caused confusion and should not be used in these bylaws or other official club documents.6. Privileges:
All members shall have the same privileges, except that honorary and associate members shall not be entitled to vote, hold office, or endorse membership applications.
A. Only regular members may be elected to office.
B. Honorary and associate members shall have the same rights as regular members, except that they shall not be entitled to vote or hold office.
C. Dependent children of members shall, if at least sixteen (16) and not over eighteen (18) years of age, be subject to the same clubhouse and activity fees as members.
Notes: We combined old A & B into one statement. We deleted C because it is more properly covered in the Standing Rules.7. Obligations:
A. Regular and associate members shall either pay annual dues or make a single lifetime payment, as set forth in Article IV.
B. Honorary members shall pay no dues.
C. Regular and associate members whose dues are not paid by March 1 shall automatically forfeit membership.
Notes: The Obligations section is new, but in substance not new. These provisions were originally in Article IV (finances) but because they pertain to membership, we moved them into Article III and reworded them. Note that the concept of "life membership" has become "a single lifetime payment."
8. Election to Membership:
A. Candidates for membership shall file with the Membership Committee an application endorsed by two regular members in good standing, accompanied by the prescribed dues.
B. The Membership Committee shall review the application and may, by majority vote, admit the applicant to membership recommend or not recommend to the Board that the applicant be admitted to membership.
C. The Board of Directors may, by majority vote, admit the applicant to membership.
D. Associate members who wish to become regular members must satisfy the requirements set forth in section 3 and apply for regular membership as set forth in section 8 A.
Notes: A. We have eliminated the concept of good standing (See #13-14).
B. We moved the ultimate authority to accept and reject new members back to the BOD, as it was in the original bylaws. We felt that it is wrong to give a committee (often consisting of just one person!) the ultimate responsibility and power to grant or refuse membership. The committee's recommendation will still be a very powerful factor in the BOD's ultimate decision.
C. We made it clear how an associate member can "convert" to regular member.
9. Suspension and Expulsion:
A. A member may be have any or all privileges suspended or be expelled from the club by a three-fourths vote at a regular an annual or special meeting provided written charges have been endorsed by five (5) active members and filed with the secretary delivered to the Board of Directors. At least fifteen (15) days prior to the meeting the accused shall be served with a copy of the charges and every member the membership shall be notified of the date, and place, and agenda of the meeting. trial at least ten (10) days before the time set.B. A member's privileges, except for the right to seek redress or vote (if a regular member), may be suspended for up to six months by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors.
Notes: We define "suspension" as "suspension of privileges." Only the membership can suspend ALL a member's privileges or expel a member. The BOD can suspend some privileges for up to 6 months (the BOD has already been doing it). We substitute BOD for "secretary". We change 10 days to 15 because state law specifically requires it. We change "every member" to "membership" because it is almost impossible to notify every member within 15 days.
11. Application for reinstatement of a member who has resigned from the club or who has forfeited membership for non-payment of dues shall be made in the regular manner in effect at the time of such application.
10. A person who forfeits membership because of non-payment of dues may be reinstated upon payment of full (non-prorated) dues for the current year, provided that not more than 3 years have elapsed since January 1st of the year of forfeiture. The reinstatement request shall be reviewed by the Membership Committee and forwarded to the Board of Directors for action. After 3 years, application for membership must be made as set forth in sections 3, 4, and 8 above.
Notes: Reinstating lapsed members without requiring full re-application has been our unofficial practice for many years. It saves the membership committee considerable work. However, we felt there should be some limit and arbitrarily chose 3 years.
We felt it not necessary to make a statement about persons who have resigned. If they actually resign because of some dissatisfaction with the club, they do not fall in the category of non-payment of dues and hence by definition must re-apply.
12. 11. Any regular member shall have the right to examine the club records and to attend meetings of the Board of Directors, and to participate in the discussions but not to vote at such meetings.
Notes: Section 6 requires that associate and honorary members also have these rights.
13. A member in good standing is one who has and has not resigned, has not been expelled and has not forfeited membership by non-payment of dues.
14. A member not in good standing shall forfeit all privileges of membership.
Notes: We felt that numbers 13-14 state, in essence, that a member "not in good standing" is not a member. This is a tautology. We struck this section and removed the phrase "in good standing" from other sections of the bylaws.
ARTICLE IV: FINANCES
1. Annual dues for individual membership shall be twenty (20) dollars. Annual dues for family membership shall be one and one half (1.5) times the annual dues for individual membership. Annual dues for the spouse of a life member shall be one half (0.5) times the annual dues for family membership.
1. Dues
A. Annual dues for regular and associate members shall be twenty (20) dollars except as set forth in paragraphs B, C, and D below.
B. A single lifetime payment for a regular or associate member shall be twenty (20) times the full annual dues.
C. Regular and associate members living at the same address in a family or partner relationship may pay as follows: One member pays full annual dues (or makes a single lifetime payment) and each additional member pays one half annual dues.
D. In recognition of outstanding service to the club, permanent exemption from annual dues may be conferred upon any regular member, provided he or she has been a regular member for at least 15 years, by a three fourths vote at any annual meeting.
Notes: A. We reworded and expanded this entire section to accomodate the "life" and "family" payment options.
B. The old "life member" category becomes an option for "a single lifetime payment."
C. We saw two problems with the old "family member" category: 1) It was was restricted to couples and not really designed with families in mind. 2) It allowed any two adults, say college roomates, to qualify for reduced dues. Our new version allows more than two people living at the same address to take advantage of the reduced rate, but restricts this rate to people in a "family or partner relationship." We felt that defining "family or partner relationship" more closely was unnecessary.
D. This comes from the old #7 B. There is no such thing as a "life member," thus the conferring of "life membership" as an honor becomes the conferring of "permanent exemption from annual dues." Not as pretty, but more accurate.
2. Dues for members elected to membership between April 1 and December 31 shall be prorated quarterly.
3. Members whose dues are not paid by March 1, shall automatically forfeit membership.
Notes: This section of Article IV deals more with membership than with finances and has been moved unchanged to Article III, sect. 7.
4. Life members shall be exempt from paying dues.
Notes: There is no such thing as a "life member." The option of a single lifetime payment is covered in Article III 7 and section 1 B, above..
5. 3. The fiscal year shall be January 1 to December 31 inclusive.
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End of Articles III and IV
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RELEVANT CHANGES TO ARTICLES V, VI, VII, VIII and X
ARTICLE V: BOARD OF DIRECTORS
8. Upon the written request of at least fifteen (15) members, any action of the Board shall be submitted to the club membership for ratification or rejection at an annual meeting or at a special meeting called for that purpose. Such special meeting shall be called not later than twenty (20) thirty (30) days after the request has been filed with the recording secretary delivered to the Board of Directors.
Notes: Minimum notification time is now 15 days to conform to state law. The 20-day limit would leave almost no time to make necessary preparations. We increased it to 30 days.
ARTICLE VI: DUTIES OF OFFICERS
3. C. (The recording secretary shall:) Obtain from the membership chair a list of members in good standing and distribute copies to the membership before the end of April each year.
3. E. (The recording secretary shall:) Notify the membership at least ten (10) fifteen (15) days in advance of any special meeting called in accordance with Article VII, Section 3.
ARTICLE VII: MEETINGS
3. Special meetings of the general membership may be called by the president at the request of the Board of Directors or any fifteen (15) regular members. No other business may be considered except that business provided for in the call.
Notes: Associate and honorary members should have the same privileges as regular members in this regard.
ARTICLE VIII: COMMITTEES
7. The Membership Committee shall promote and arrange for new members; receive all applications for membership; evaluate the qualifications as required in Article III, Sections 3 and 4; notify new members of their election to the club and supply them with standard information at that time; maintain an up-to-date list of names and addresses of members in good standing; and notify members when dues are payable and when delinquent.
Notes: "in good standing" deleted
ARTICLE X: AMENDMENTS
These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote at any regular annual meeting, or at a special meeting called for that purpose, provided that written notice shall have been submitted to the members at least ten (10) fifteen (15) days in advance of the meeting at which the vote is to be taken.
Notes: We didn't think "regular meeting" was sufficiently clear.
==== end of Bylaw revisions ===
ANNUAL RESUME' President Peter KempfThis past year has been a busy one for the club. I'll start by reporting on the unfinished business from last year's annual meeting:
1. The board was to address the issue of depositing life membership dues into a special trust account where only earnings from principal could be spent. This matter has been left pending because of the imminent use of and possible recharacterization of the Clubhouse Replacement Fund after the expenses for clubhouse replacement/renovation are voted on during this year's annual meeting.
2. Workman's Compensation: After research on the matter was completed within the three month timeframe, the board took action on this issue. At no expense to the club, an attorney specializing in this area of law was found to draft a volunteer waiver form for all work done for the club. Every person who performs work either at the clubhouse premises or on the trails is required to sign one of these forms prior to performing volunteer services. This includes, as well, all hike coordinators and the trail maintenance crew.
3. By-Laws changes: Some changes were approved and some tabled last year. The board organized a committee, chaired by John Hoover, which has put much thought and energy into the suggested changes that will be voted on this year. See related article.As noted above, this year's annual meeting will have two very important issues to be voted on. The results of the clubhouse poll were published in our previous newsletter, and the by-laws committee is recommending certain changes. If you want your opinion on these matters to count, please attend the annual meeting on April 18, 2004.
There have been some definite high points for the club this past year. The club had the opportunity to hike Kipapa again, and may be able to do so in the future. We installed the Daniel Levy Memorial at Nuuanu lookout and received a generous donation to the club from his family. All hike coordinators now have cell phones to call 911 in case of emergency, and the trail maintenance crew acquired a third weedwhacker to assist us in trail clearing. The value of our replacement and preservation funds has increased dramatically and sets the stage for our upcoming vote on replacement. The club has begun work on restoration of our hau arbor and hopefully will have this completed prior to our annual meeting. The board is also following up on a memorandum of understanding with Na Ala Hele for club maintenance of it's trails, and we soon may have access to Nuuanu's trails again. My thanks to all of our dedicated volunteers who really make our club function as well as it does.
BYLAWS COMMITTEE REPORT John Hoover
If you attended the 2003 Annual Meeting you will recall that many changes to our Bylaws were submitted to the membership for approval. When the time came to vote, discussion was animated. Some members felt that insufficient advance notice had been given, others objected to this or that, and it quickly became obvious that we lacked time to do the matter justice. The membership passed some of the simpler changes and tabled the rest for the 2004 Annual Meeting. The Board of Directors subsequently asked me to chair a Bylaws Committee to evaluate the tabled proposals and make a recommendation to the membership at the 2004 Annual Meeting.
The following individuals volunteered for the committee: Steve Brown, Jay Feldman, Thea Ferentinos, Sabrina Hearst (first few months only), Larry Lee, Marcia Stone, Darrell Teruya, Bev Valentino, and Jim Yuen. This group includes a lawyer, an HTMC board member, 3 past presidents, a past club accountant, a Membership Committee member, and 3 hike coordinators. The Bylaws Committee met 11 times from October to March, with meetings often lasting 2 hours or more. There were 130 or more emails between sessions. Although this may sound deadly, we actually enjoyed ourselves and feel we accomplished an enormous amount. Let me take this opportunity to publicly thank the committee members for the substantial amounts of time and care they gave to this endeavor. Special thanks go to Bev Valentino for recording the minutes.
We began with the intention of examining only the tabled changes proposed at the 2003 Annual Meeting. Soon we found many other problems and inconsistencies. Some were huge. For example, the categories of "life member" and "family member" in Article III (Membership) were inconsistent with another part of Article III. In the end, we had to perform radical surgery. We did not do away with the concepts behind "life member" and "family member" but we reworded and redefined them. We expanded the "family member" concept to include true families but did away with the "family life member" concept because we found it unworkable. This took a lot of time, and of course it was only one of the many problems we examined. Finally, in order to have a proposal ready for the 2004 Annual Meeting, we had to limit ourselves to revising just Articles III and IV (Membership and Finances). If the membership approves, we'll examine the remainder of the Bylaws in time for the 2005 Annual Meeting.
We tried to apply four tests to every change we made: 1) Do we all agree on what the existing bylaw means? 2) Do we all agree on what the proposed change means? 3) Why is the change being proposed? Is there another way to address the problem? 4) What unintended consequences might arise if the proposed change is implemented? Folks, we spent A LOT of time on this. We consulted HTMC's original bylaws and charter, Hawaii state law, bylaws of other institutions, Robert's Rules of Order, dictionaries, and more. Also, we found (surprise!) that many parts of the Bylaws are interrelated. If we changed something in one place, it often contradicted something somewhere else. It sometimes took us the course of several meetings to discover the contradiction. I don't know how many times it happened that we thought we were finished with Articles III and IV, only to find another contradiction or problem that took almost the entire meeting to resolve.
Our proposed changes are included in this newsletter. They will be on the agenda at the Annual Meeting in April. Please read them over carefully before the meeting so that we can vote on them as a package. There are notes after each section explaining what we did and why. (If the type is too small, please check the club website for a downloadable PDF version which you can print out yourself in larger type. The current Bylaws will be posted there too.) We hope that you, the membership, will consider our work as a single integrated proposal at the meeting, and that you will not try to take it apart too much or make too many amendments. Changing even one word can sometimes have repercussions down the line. If there are serious objections, the whole package should probably be rejected so that we can work on it some more and get it the way you want it. We hope it will not be necessary, but if it is, the Board can call a special meeting later in the year to deal with only the Bylaws. If anyone has questions or comments before the Annual Meeting please do not hesitate to get in touch with me or any other member of the Bylaws Committee. My email address is jhoover@hawaiisfishes.com.
NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS
ALONG THE TRAIL is a quarterly publication of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club designed to inform the membership of club activities and matters of interest to the hiking community. HTMC members and any other interested parties are welcome to submit articles to ALONG THE TRAIL. Submissions must be received by the 5th day of March, June, September, and December in order to appear in the newsletter published for the quarter, and may be sent in any of the following ways (email preferred):
E-Mail: Richard27@hawaii.rr.com
FAX: 293-2603
Phone: 293-2554
Mail: Richard McMahon
57-531 Kamehameha Hwy
Kahuku, HI 96731-2128
Bookmark The HTMC Web Page http://geocities.com/htmclub - or - http://aditl.com/htmc/
Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Club
P.O. Box 2238
Honolulu, HI 96804
Clubhouse: 41-023 Puuone St
Waimanalo, HI 96795
Phone: 259-5443
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