[amsat-bb] Brief summary of the "unauthorized expenses" claim

[Greg]

Just curious.  Is there a policy that requires a limit for certain $ amount of expenditures. Even the radio club that I was treasurer, we had about 90 members, had requirements on authorizing expenditures over a certain limit.

Greg
N3MVF

On Jul 13, 2020, at 5:58 PM, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

Yes. That's the problem.

Some AMSAT board members claim the expenses are authorized. They wrote a 3
page letter about it to AMSAT-BB.

Neither a record of approval, nor a delegation of these expenses, ever
appear in the minutes. *Unlike the hiring of FD Associates, which was
legit, and appears in the minutes*

Even if we were objecting to boring expenses, instead of spicy personalized
vendetta advice having nothing to do with keeping amateur radio in space,
then they'd still be in the wrong.

This could have been resolved in less than a half hour.

The rest of the board denied it for most of a year, hid it almost the whole
time, and now are defending it to the death.

Please, send us people that we can work with, will agree to have meetings,
and will fix this sort of thing.

Those of you impatient to get back to working on space, we feel the exact
same way.

Oversight isn't optional, and financial health is required for doing large
and complex projects.

Secretly hiring law firms is not healthy.

-Michelle W5NYV




On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 2:47 PM Steve Kristoff via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> 
> But even in your own evaluation there are contradictions.
> 
> Quote from your email: "If an expense went to the board for approval, it
> would show up in the
>  minutes of that board meeting."
> 
> Further down your email: "- In this case, the members of the AMSAT board
> at the time said that the
>  expenses were authorized."
> 
> 
> Then, by your own evaluation of the by-laws, if the members of the board
> authorized the expenditures (second quote), shouldn't that authorization
> show up in the minutes of the board meeting? (first quote)
> 
> Steve AI9IN
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rich Gopstein via AMSAT-BB (amsat-bb at amsat.org)
> Date: 07/13/20 15:25
> To: Amsat - BBs (AMSAT-BB at amsat.org)
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Brief summary of the "unauthorized expenses" claim
> 
> First: I'm not a lawyer.  These are my observations only.
> 
> This is what I learned over the past few days while researching the claim
> that the AMSAT money spent on legal services related to the new directors
> was "unauthorized".
> 
>  - I read the AMSAT bylaws.  They are very readable, BTW - and not long.
>  - The bylaws say that expenses can be authorized either by the board
>  itself or by the officers of AMSAT if the board delegates that authority.
>  - If an expense went to the board for approval, it would show up in the
>  minutes of that board meeting.
>  - If an expense were authorized by an officer, then it wouldn't show up
>  in the minutes of a board meeting.
>  - The claim that the expenses were unauthorized was based on the
>  observation that there was no record in the board meeting minutes of the
>  authorization.  However, as mentioned above, not everything has to go to
>  the board for approval.  And that decision is up to the board itself.
>  - In this case, the members of the AMSAT board at the time said that the
>  expenses were authorized.
>  - Since the board has the authority to authorize expenditures (directly
>  or indirectly) and they say the expenses were authorized, that indicates
> to
>  me that the expenses were authorized.
> 
> Note: Michelle and Patrick were not members of the board when this
> happened.  They were analyzing this after the fact.
> 
> Rich
> KD2CQ
> AMSAT Life Member
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
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_______________________________________________
Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb