1/15/23 Daniel Sturgeon 14470 Monroe Road 1059 Madison, Mo. 65263 660-291-8261 dannysturgeon@gmail.com
Re:Notice of complaint filed against a NBRC member The NBRC received complaints from some NBRC members, which in turn, had the NBRC grievance committee reviewing their complaints.
The grievance committee received the following alleged rule violation: Article III — Membership and Dues Section 2 Members will at all times conduct themselves in a gentlemanly and sportsman-like manner and uphold the positive public image of the NBRC and the pigeon hobby, in general. Penalties for misconduct, as determined by the NBRC Executive Committee, may result in a member being suspended or expelled from the club.
These complaints alleged that : ● A NBRC member is creating division among a Region plus making physical threats toward NBRC members.
● He should not be profiling individuals or groups of people based on their race, gender identification, color, clothes, etc.
● The NBRC member influence and accusation has affected a former RD of a Region leaving a negative image of a club on a public forum. The grievance committee received evidence from all involved with the grievance. The committee determined that the NBRC member did use inappropriate and offensive language on a private facebook messenger site. The committee also determined that the offensive language was on a private messenger site. Any of the individuals could have stopped the messenger by logging off or by blocking the other individual, thus never getting correspondence from the other unless they approved it. The committee also stresses that any form of harassment, especially racial, ethnic, religious or otherwise will be met with a stern penalty. This penalty could be suspension from participation in fly competitions, temporary or permanent suspension of Club membership, or recommendation to refer the matter for a criminal complaint to a relevant court of law. The member’s language used during these private chats were close to becoming one of these issues. The committee wishes to emphasize that any conversations need to be conducted in a civil manner and tongue. Nothing was presented to show that any of what the NBRC member had stated influenced the past Region Directors views toward the club. Both sides bear blame, as the NBRC member. should not be using the inappropriate language used. Those filing the complaint could have stopped all of it before it started by blocking the NBRC member and not replying back to any of his posts or messages. It appears that both sides spurred the other side on, thus creating much of what the complaints were directed towards. The committee also points out to all involved that no one individual, club, region, and or state is more important than the other. We are a club of over 800 members. We understand that not all of its members will agree on all issues. All sides of this need to do better at looking at each other’s points and trying to understand those issues being put forth, as negativity was shown by all individuals involved in this grievance. The grievance committee should not be used as policemen and expected to referee disagreements, but we do have a code of conduct as spelled out in the NBRC constitution.
A full report of the investigation and hearing, together with any recommendation of disciplinary action, shall be submitted by the Committee Chairman to the President. Within ten days of receipt of the Grievance Committee report, the President shall provide the full report or, in his discretion, a summary thereof, to the Executive Committee to solicit comments and a vote for imposition of appropriate sanctions or disciplinary action against the Club officer or member subject of the grievance complaint. The Executive Committee may accept, reject, or modify the recommendations of the Grievance Committee. The vote must be a two-thirds majority of a quorum of the Executive Committee. The Secretary-Treasurer shall notify the offending officer or member by certified mail, return receipt requested, within five days of the Executive Committee’s decision.The Grievance Committee is not at this time supplying the names or other identifying information to the Executive Committee because we agree that, in this instance, the discipline to be levied against both the offending member and the complaining members should be a privately-issued warning from the Grievance Committee. In this instance, while the offending members appeared to behave offensively, the complaining members appeared to be a continuing participant in the private communications, which they easily could have avoided or walked away from. In addition, the bulk of the communications complained of were private in nature, not publicly distributed.
This committee is recommending that only a warning to all parties involved be issued, with the understanding that any public display of intolerance or misconduct will be met with strict consequences.
Daniel Sturgeon NBRC Secretary/Treasurer
NBRC ITEM 2023-001
A .Leave as is by flying the 11-bird NCF Finals in the spring and the 20-bird NCF Finals in the Fall.
B. Rotate the fly and fly the 20-bird NCF Finals in the spring and the 11-bird NCF Finals in the Fall,
It was voted to rotate the 11-bird and the 20 bird fly.
Voting Tabulation Conducted by Dwayne White – EC Facilitator, National Birmingham Roller Club
Vote Result: 16 – A to 18 – B There were 34 votes cast. (3) Members did not vote.
Acceptance Date: 01-216-23
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WC Returns Re-Vote
NBRC ITEM 2023-001
A. Leave as is by flying the 11-bird NCF Finals in the spring and the 20-bird NCF Finals in the Fall.
B. Rotate the fly and fly the 20-bird NCF Finals in the spring and the 11-bird NCF Finals in the Fall
C. Return to flying both the NCF 11 and 20 bird Finals in the fall beginning this 2023 fly season.
It was voted to rotate the 11-bird and the 20-bird fly.
Voting Tabulation Conducted by Dwayne White – EC Facilitator, National Birmingham Roller Club
Vote Result: A – 6, B – 6, C – 16. There were 28 votes cast. (9) Members did not vote.
Acceptance Date: 02-3-23
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NBRC-2023-004
The Existing bylaw reads: Club leadership shall consist of national and regional offices and officers as follows:
- Elected National Offices, Two Year Terms.National officers elected to serve two-year terms: President, Vice President, Director-at-Large, and National Fly Director.
- Elected National Offices, Four-Year Terms.National officers elected to serve four-year terms: Secretary-Treasurer, Publishing Editor, and Public Relations Director.
- Appointed National Offices, No Term Limits.National officers appointed to serve without term limits: Band Secretary, Accessories Secretary, Junior Program Coordinator, Forum Moderator, Webmaster, Executive Committee Moderator, Legal Advisor, and other appointed positions as may be determined advisable from time to time by the President. The President shall have sole power: strong to create new or additional appointed offices; strong to leave vacant any appointed office; and strong to appoint and remove individuals serving in any appointed office.
- Elected Regional Offices, Two-Year Terms.Regional officers shall consist of Regional Directors elected by the members of their respective regions to serve two-year terms.
There will be a 3 day voting period beginning on Friday, March 17th, and ending on Sunday, March 19th ,at 5pm. Again, thank you for participating in this vital process. DW
A .Use a waiver for the current term limit on the positions of NBRC Elected National Offices and remain in position if no viable candidate is willing to run. AllowElected Regional Offices to serve until someone decides to challenge them for the position thus removing the 2-year term limit for them.
B .Eliminate the current term limit on the positions of NBRC Elected National Offices and remain in position if no viable candidate is willing to run. AllowElected Regional Officesto serve until someone decides to challenge them for the position thus removing the 2yr term limit for them.
C .Keep term limits in place for the Elected National Offices positions and allowElected Regional Officesto remain in position until they are challenged for the position and voted out.
D. Keep all term limits as stated in Article IV in place with no changes.
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Geographical Difficulties
NBRC ITEM2023-007
1. The flyer trying to fly in a less competitive region.
2. A flyer not wanting to fly with a region because of the competitive level in the region.
3. Personality conflicts.
With that being said, the following will require a vote that makes it possible for all who want to compete in the NBRC fly’s to have an opportunity to do so but have the full responsibility to request any change.
A.A flyer within the distance of 100 miles from another flyer in his/her own region must fly in his/her own region.
B.A flyer that iswithin50miles of the next flying region and outside of the 100-mile (101+) distance of his/her own next regional flyer “May”petition their Regional Director (RD) and the neighboring RD to fly in the closer region and pay fees to the RD of the flying region.
C.A flyer that iswithin100miles of the next flying region and outside of the 200-mile (201+) distance of his/her own next regional flyer “May”petition their Regional Director (RD) and the neighboring RD to fly in the closer region and pay all fees to the flying region.
D.No changes to the current bylaws and leave the change up to the concerned RD’s and if necessary, the final decision is left up to the National Fly Director.
The above was cancelled and replaced with the following:
Based on the wording of our By Laws below, please cast your vote accordingly and reply to this thread.
A.Remove Option C and allow neighboring RD’s to consider the time and distance it takes to reach their flying members. Approval must still go through the concerned RD’s and the NFD. In Option D change the petitioners 60 days to 14 days of being notified of the regional fly and NFD approve/Deny to 7 days of being notified.
B.Remove Option C and make no changes to Option D.
C.Make No Changes to the By Laws.
001.07 Competing in Neighboring Regions
· A. In the regional phase of the NBRC National Championship Fly competition, Regional Directors shall include any and all NBRC members residing in their region who: (a) advise the regional director of their intention to compete and (b) timely pay the required entry fees. Regional Directors may impose a reasonable mileage surcharge to cover the cost of transporting the judge to remote locations.
· B. If any particular region lacks sufficient qualifying participants in either the 20-bird or the 11-bird venues, then members of that region may petition to participate in an adjacent regional competition in that particular venue.
· C. Except as provided in “B”, members may participate in only their home region’s qualifying competitions.
· D. Members may petition to participate in either the 20-bird or the 11-bird regional competitions of an adjacent region, as provided in paragraph B. The petition shall be delivered in writing or by email at least 60 days prior to the home region’s regional competition and the adjacent region’s regional competition, whichever first occurs. The petition shall be submitted to the National Fly Director and the Regional Directors of both affected regions (the home region and the adjacent region in which the member seeks to compete). After consulting with the Regional Directors of both affected regions, the National Fly Director shall approve or deny the member’s petition in writing or by email delivered to the petitioning member and the Regional Directors of both affected regions, within 30 days after receipt of the member’s petition.
· E. The member shall be authorized to compete in the adjacent region’s 11-bird or 20-bird competition for that year’s competition only and must re-apply through the same process set out in paragraph E for permission to compete in adjacent regions in future competitions to be held. No region shall be compelled to accept additional fliers from adjacent regions.
F. For purposes of NBRC elections, members may vote only in their home region (where they reside) without regard to the regions in which they may compete.
(A) passed on 7/8/23 vote 23 yes, 2 no ,& 7 RD’s did not vote
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OFFICIAL RECORD OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE VOTE
NBRC ITEM 2023-013
Amir Vugdalic voted for F for both.