The name of the organization shall be: MINNESOTA REPEATER COUNCIL INC.
Applications for membership, in this council, should be made on a membership application provided by and processed by the Secretary/Treasurer. Completed applications shall be classified by the Secretary/Treasurer as to type of membership, and presented to the Council at the next regular meeting following receipt of the application. All applications for membership shall be approved/disapproved by a simple majority vote of the Council members.
Upon approval of a new member they shall be seated on the Council as a member in good standing if they meet all of the qualifications to be an “active member”.
Applications for membership rejected by the Council shall be returned to the requester with notification of why the application was rejected..
Membership, in this Council, shall be classified as follows:
A. A Regular Member shall be any organization or individual, holding an Amateur Radio License, operating at least one radio repeating system coordinated by the MRC, that is operating according to the Technical Standards as outlined in Article XI of these by-laws. The holder of the frequency coordination for a repeater is by default defined as the Regular Member to which all contacts are made..
Regular members must have their required MRC membership dues and assessments currently paid in full, their repeater system coordination data is must be no greater than two years old, and they must have attended at least one meeting in person or by proxy in the previous 27 calendar months.. If a Regular member does not meet these requirements, the member becomes an Inactive Member. The Inactive Member can change his/her status back to Regular Member by paying all dues and assemssemnts in full, providing up-to-date repeater coordination data to the MRC Frequency Coordinator, and or attending a meeting, as needed to meet the requirements above.
B. An Inactive Member is one who was previously a Regular Member, but has become Inactive through not meeting the requirements in the preceding section. Dues for Inactive Members shall be the same as for Regular Members.
C. An Associate Member shall be any organization or individual, holding an Amateur Radio license, and displaying an interest in constructing or operating a Amateur Radio repeater station. An Associate Member shall be assessed an annual fee to cover the costs of supplying the MRC Newsletter, meeting notification and minutes.
D. One User Liaison Member shall be selected, by simple majority of the regular member organizations, to represent the FCC licensed Amateur Radio operators that use repeater stations.
ARTICLE III. RIGHTS OF MEMBERSHIP
A. Regular Membership in the Council entitles the member to a voice in the structure, policies, actions and recommendations of the Council and to one vote on such actions that may come before the Council.. A Regular member must meet all of the “active” qualifications, described in the membership description of theses By-Laws, to vote.
B. An Associate membership shall have a voice in the structures, policies, actions and recommendations of the council but shall be limited only by the deletion of voting privileges.
C. The User Liaison shall have one vote in the structures, policies and recommendations of the Council, representing the repeater user’s voice in Council matters.
A Regular member, who is the person holding the frequency coordination for a MRC coordinated repeater system, can attend a council meeting and vote on all matters before the council.
If the regular member is not able to attend a meeting, he/she may appoint an alternate delegate who may speak and/or vote the one vote held on behalf of the regular member at the next meeting. A written proxy voting form, which will be attached to each meeting notice, must be completed and signed by the regular member to identify the appointed delegate(s) to this meeting.
A delegate, voting with a proxy, shall represent no more than two (2) regular members.
A. The officers of the Council shall be:
Chairman
Vice Chairman
Secretary/Treasurer
B. Officers of the Council shall be selected from the regular membership and shall be voted on by the Regular Members of the Council at the Annual meeting.
C. The terms of office of all elected Officers shall be one (1) year or until replaced.
D. The first order of business, upon adoption of this Constitution and By-Laws, shall be an election of officers, commencing with that of Chairman.
A. Chairman – Preside at all meetings. Administer the affairs of the Council. Appoint all
Committees. The Chairman shall be the representative for the Council or his designee at all organizations of which the MRC is a member (currently MACC & NFCC)..
B. Vice Chairman – Assist the Chairman in the discharge of his/her duties and assume the duties of the Chairman in his absence.
C. Secretary/Treasurer – Maintain the records of the Council. Maintain a file of all
official Council correspondence. Prepare necessary meeting notices. Distribute written minutes of the Council meetings to all Council members. Maintain the financial records of the Council. Collect all fees, dues and assessments of the Council. Distribute all monies, as required, retaining copies of all bills, vouchers and receipts to substantiate such distributions.
A. Committees, as required, shall be appointed by the Chairman. The Chairman “by default” is a member of all appointed committees.
ARTICLE VIII. MEETINGS
A. The election of Officers shall be held at the Annual meeting (normally the Fall meeting).
B. At least one meeting, of the Council, shall be held per calendar year at a place/time selected by the Chairman.
C. Special meetings shall be called as directed by the Chairman.
D. Meeting notifications shall be printed or sent in writing, to all Council members at least 30 days before the scheduled meeting. The notification can be sent by mail or by electronic means. The lack of all members receiving a meeting notice shall not make a scheduled meeting void.
E. Roberts Rules of Order shall determine conduct of all meetings.
F. Balloting, on any matter that shall come before the Council, shall be taken on the basis of one vote for each Regular Member and for the User Liaison.
A. Fees, dues, assessments and disbursements, which will change from time-to-time, shall be as directed by the Council.
A quorum shall consist of twenty five percent of the Regular Members of record at the start of the meeting. with at least twenty five percent of the members present representing a coordinated repeater outside the Metro Zone. (The Metro Zone is defined as the following seven counties in Minnesota: Ramsey, Anoka, Hennepin, Dakota, Carver, Scott and Washington). Members represented by proxy shall count towards those required for a quorum.
If a quorum is present when a duly called or held meeting is convened, the Members present may continue to transact business until adjournment even though the withdrawal of Members originally present leaves less that the proportion otherwise required for a quorum.
ARTICLE XI. TECHNICAL STANDARDS
(See the published MRC Technical Standards)
The Frequency Coordinator shall be appointed by the elected Officers of the MRC with the approval of the MRC and should be selected according to the following guidelines:
1. Have been a member of the MRC as a Regular or Associate Member for at least three (3) years prior to the day of his or her appointment.
2. Have demonstrated administrative skills in some capacity.
3. Be able to express himself or herself clearly in verbal and written form.
4. Be capable of being impartial in administrating the Frequency Coordination Polices established by the MRC.
5. Be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator with at least a Technician class license for a minimum of five (5) years.
Adopted 11/73 Re-typed in Microsoft Word 12/01
Revisions made through 11/2018