MEA Bylaw Change Petition Deadline Looming

If the misnomer "clean coal" continues to have its advocates in the USA ten years from now, I'll eat this blog. Or this blog's technological successor. Technological improvements have continually made mining of minerals and use of those minerals for other products more efficient. But as rapidly as current technology comes up with new ways to get the burning of coal for energy "cleaner," information technology gathers data even faster, showing that "clean coal" isn't nearly clean enough.

A majority of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley-Eagle River energy co-op MEA's Board of Directors think coal burning for electrical energy can be "clean." The upcoming 2008 board election will be pivotal on whether or not unimaginative, coercive, haughty, Soviet-style board and management regimes are kept or extinguished.

One way the MEA management paradigm stifles change is through a series of electoral hurdles any challenger must undergo to get nominated, funded, elected and seated on the board. Should a challenger pass layers and layers of petty rules and get elected, the new board member has to wait months before being allowed to take her or his seat.

In the past, the management and controlling members of the board have used this provision in the by-laws to create mischief for anyone elected who the Soviet-style managers see as a threat to their control.

There is a bylaw change petition being circulated. It seeks to change Article IV Section 9 from:

Seating of Directors. Each newly elected board member shall take an oath of office and be seated at a scheduled Board meeting in the month of July following the annual meeting provided that such Board meeting shall occur no earlier than July 4.

to:

Seating of Directors. Each newly elected board member shall take an oath of office and be seated within 15 days of the annual meeting at a special meeting or at the next regularly scheduled monthly Board meeting following the annual meeting, whichever date comes first.

This bylaw amendment shall take effect immediately upon passage.

If you haven't already signed a petition, SIGN IT! It must be submitted on January 2, 2008. Copies are available in Palmer at the Valley Hotel. You can sign it there, or get one to take through your neighborhood. The latter is what I've done. You have to be an MEA member to participate in this process.