Art Club Politics

Late last night was the yearly art club meeting for the proposed by-law changes and such. I knew before arriving that things might turn into a brawl. And I wasn't disappointed. The new executive in the club has not been as informative as executives in the past. Which in hind site might have avoided the unnecessary display of emotion which occurred at the meeting. It has recently been brought to the attention of the executive that their charters and by-laws may be illegal and not well thought out or worded. So the the executive has had a lawyer draw up a legal document to correct this problem. Unfortunately some of the wording could be construed many different ways. And there was no lawyer at the meeting last night to allay any fears the members may be having. The biggest being that the club may become exclusive to only artists that show advanced talent. Which has never been the intent of the club since it's creation. This in itself wasn't the cause of people losing their tempers. It was the lack of acknowledgement from the executive. The members would repeatedly complain that they had a problem with the way it was worded. And the executive was unwilling to change anything about the document. Many felt that they were being told they didn't have a choice. But the document has to pass a vote, with the membership before it is legal. Probably the most disappointing thing that occurred last night was when tempers flared and the clubs accountant who was presenting the document had to take all the negative abuse. Her husband found this hard to bear and repeatedly tried to defend her, and had to leave the room many times. In the end though it became to much for him and the meeting was disrupted with him yelling and sounding very angry. Which many took offense to and told him to leave. But many did not realize that he was the accountants husband and that they would leave together. So the meeting abruptly ended. Now the worry is that the accountant may resign because so many were rude and insulting. In my opinion this would be a terrible consequence, because it was in large part the accountants expertise in having a lawyer write up a new document in the first place. Which is very necessary and needs to happen. It just needs to reflect the passion and beliefs of the majority of the members.