D/FW Connected Systems User Group

At the next meeting, on July 11th, we will be electing officers for the Dallas BizTalk User Group.  When the original leadership group was put together for the user group, we wanted to give the group time to build attendance and build leaders from within before elections were held.  Looking back I think this was definitely the right decision.

The original conversations about this group were held between me, Caleb Jenkins (Microsoft Developer Evangelist at that time) and Dustin Hicks (Microsoft TS for BizTalk Server).  This was quickly increased to include Eddy Wassef and Stephen Thomas.  Caleb was kind enough to arrange a conference call with others from the MidWest who had started a BizTalk User Group before and to lend his considerable experience with the Tulsa .NET Developers group.  Caleb stressed to us that the first 6 months of a user group were very important, and so the leadership group which was forming there decided to plan elections after 6 months of meetings.

We have held successful meetings in January, February, March, April, June and soon July.  While we are still a group in its infancy, I feel we are doing very well.  At this point, I intend to put forward a basic set of By-Laws for the group which in turn creates three officer positions.  You can see a draft of these By-Laws below, and I encourage you to write me at tim@timrayburn.net if you have any concerns.

I greatly appreciate all of those who attend the user group, and look forward to growing this group in the future.

Tim Rayburn

Draft of the By-Laws for the Dallas BizTalk User Group

1. This document shall serve as the guiding rules of the Dallas BizTalk User Group.
2. These by-laws can be amended by the vote of two-thirds of the membership attending any meeting.  Any member may bring such a motion before the meeting.
3. There shall be three officer positions within the group, these being: President, Vice President of Membership and Vice President of Meetings.
4. Elections
1. Voting shall be of all those attending the meeting, with one vote per person.
2. Any person may nominate someone as a candidate for an office, including themselves.
3. After all nominations have been heard, voting will commence and at that time no more nominations will be accepted except as detailed below.
4. A candidate must receive the votes of a majority of those attending, not merely of votes cast, in order to be selected as an officer.
5. Should no candidate receive a majority as detailed above and there are more than two candidates, then the candidate with the least votes will be removed from consideration and voting will occur again.
6. Should no candidate receive a majority as detailed above but two or less candidates remain, then all candidates will be removed from consideration and nominations will begin again after a short break.
5. Officer Terms
1. Officers are elected for a term of 1 calendar year, running from July through June. 
2. Officers who find that they lack the time or ability to complete their offices and bring that to the attention of the group will be thanked for their service and an election will be held at the next meeting to fulfill the remainder of the term of that office.
3. Officers can be removed from office by a vote of two thirds of those attending any meeting.  Any member may bring such a motion before the meeting.
6. Officer Duties
1. The President shall serve as the legal representative of the group, is responsible the success of the group, and shall manage such funds and property as the group possess.  The President is expected to be the driving force behind recruiting speakers for the user group.  The President shall ensure that the he and the other officers are completing their duties, or have sufficient volunteers to do so in their absence.
2. The Vice President of Membership is responsible for the maintenance of the group website, ensuring that announcements of upcoming meetings are published to the membership and for signing in members as they arrive to the meetings.  When door prizes are offered Vice President of Membership will also be responsible for handling the drawings for those prizes.
3. The Vice President of Meetings is responsible for working with our sponsors to ensure that we have a location for each meeting, for ensuring that food and beverages are available for each meeting.