NEM Annual Meeting
Sunday, October 30
Concord-Carlisle High School
500 Walden Street
Concord, Massachusetts
The NEM Swim Club Annual Meeting will follow the Short Course Meters meet at the Beede Swim Center directly across the street in Concord. Before the meeting, lunch will be served. The formal start for the meeting will be 1:00 PM. We anticipate finishing by 3:00 PM. All NEM observers are free to arrive or leave as they see fit. My guess is that food will be available from around 11:00 or 11:30 AM when the meet is finished. Food will be in the same location as the meeting. It is critical that anyone planning to attend let Bill Ewan know so that we can plan for food and for the meeting room size.
A wonderful lunch will be served by Chris Clark and his Concord crew as happened last year. So we can all start with food before we settle down for the meeting. Last year we had wraps, chips, and drinks. It was a great after-meet meal.
This is a meeting for all NEM members. This is also a two-month advanced announcement to help you with planning. Although the nine members of the board of directors may vote, your presence and support is very valuable! Besides good food, you will meet board members and officers. Also board members may reach out to you during discussion or you may volunteer information on topics at hand. You may wish to run for office or for board membership.
An agenda will be sent out in September outlining the meeting topics. So you will see things that are not yet on the NEM map, such as the NEM Grand Prix. You will find out how the Open Water Initiative is going and what the future plans are. We need input from members on these issues. We need opinions and insights.
One of the most important opportunities at this meeting is changing the NEM By-Laws. This is the only time during the year that any changes can be made to our governing document. Rightly so, this document is protected 364 days out of the year so that on that 1 day, great judgement and care will be exercised in altering it.
The annual cost of membership is decided at this meeting based on expenses and program initiatives.
Our Secretary, Carol Yunker, will finish her tenure on the day of the meeting. Although we would love to have her in that position forever, we must find another NEM member to fill that job. If you are interested, or just want to know a little more about it, please e-mail me! We only have two months to identify members of NEM who are interested. I also know that if you talk with Carol, you’ll jump right in!
Also two board members will finish their two-year terms and will be up for re-election. Each may be challenged for a board position through a nomination of a board member and vote for any NEM member. Board members may serve two-years and be elected to a second two-year term before they become inelligible for board membership.
We need a response from everyone who plans to attend so that Chris can plan for the food and plan for the room size. Will it be a classroom or a football stadium! We’re fast approaching a membership of about 1800. So if we are all in one place we’ll need to prepare for that beforehand.
Good luck if you are planning to go out to Martha’s Vineyard for that swim, to the Flat River Reservoir in Coventry on the 25th (New England Masters 6+ Mile Open Water Championship), or to an upcoming Fall mini-meet!!!
-Bill Ewan, NEMSC President
