Boonville Area Chamber of Commerce working to anchor refreshed bylaws with newly formed bylaws committee

BOONVILLE- Following in the aftermath of their second public meeting this-year in February, the Boonville Area Chamber of Commerce is working to refresh and update their bylaws for 2023.

Their latest bylaws committee, which was formed in the wake of last month’s tense gathering between the board of directors and chamber members/public, met Monday and continued negotiations towards establishing what will eventually be their latest edition.

We have confirmation that the committee has met at-least once prior to Monday.

The committee is made up of six people, containing three from the membership side and three from the board of directors. This includes Chris Flack, Lisa Kornmeyer and Robert Lott, who all head the membership isle. Meanwhile - President David Leffingwell, along with directors Lorraine Murwin and Kathy Isles - all represent the board of directors for their bylaws committee.

According to those representing the membership, no agreements have been reached as of this report that would cement a final draft for the chamber’s soon to be latest set of bylaws.

During Monday’s meeting, which lasted over four-hours, the chamber said their intention was to “mesh” together both the membership’s and director’s versions into what would be a final draft.

However, Flack says he was under the impression from the committee's first meeting last week that he was instructed to construct a draft that would be tweaked and finalized. He says he dropped off copies to the chamber office Friday for review over the weekend.

On Sunday evening, Flack says he received an emailed version from the board of directors, which he claims lacked several details when compared to the version he organized. 

Back and forth discussions during Monday's meeting suggest that there may have been some misunderstandings leading into the gathering. "Why was stuff taken out of my edit?" Flack asked.

"It's not our side and there side, it's everyone working together," he added. "That's what we're trying to do," President Leffingwell can be heard during the argument.

"We're meshing the two together now that it makes sense," Murwin said.

"This is my issue, okay? Changes were made to this without us being committee. I was asked to take notes everything I took notes about and put it into a thing," Flack emphasized. "I assumed we were going to go through this, edit this and add to this."

"You presented this to us and we accepted it (Friday night)," Leffingwell responded to Flack. "Now we have come back with this. Now you do not have to accept this."

"You asked me to put this all together and edit it, which was a lot of work," Flack said in return. "I was under the impression we were going to go through, correct any mistakes and debate anything that there was a question about."

The quarreling continued for several minutes and only shy of being the first hour in, Chris can be heard leaving the meeting. "Too much was taken out," he said. "I've had enough of this."

Flack said he was on his way to another appointment that morning, but clarified on the record that he was not quitting the committee and that he would be attending the annual meeting March 16. 

The gathering went on for over the next three-hours and no final agreements were reached. "The reason we are working so timely is because of the upcoming meeting," Isles said.

"We want to do the right thing and have it ready," Murwin added. 

In terms of organizing a set of bylaws, Lott said during the meeting that he has that experience. "I just drafted up bylaws for another organization and I put stuff in there that I thought that should be in there," he explained.

"But when it came down to people saying 'well no we don't that in there' or 'we don't think this should be in there,' I didn't raise any objections because those were my opinions. I didn't know what the board wanted," he added. 

"The board is the one that makes the decision, regardless of what the committee thinks," he emphasized. 

Since the meeting, Flack says he would rather see the committee be fully in charge of enacting such determinations, not the board.   

The chamber's annual meeting is aimed for Thursday, March 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Boonville VFW. 

Below are the two proposed versions that were negotiated Monday via the bylaws committee (Membership edition is listed first, followed by the Chamber edition):

Membership Version:

Board of Directors Version:

Headline image by Brian Trainor.