"The current home page informs us of proposed changes in the NYCC by-laws that will be voted on at the Nov. meeting. The home page has a link to them. One, in particular, is so poorly thought out as to be shocking for its seeming denial of fairness.

Section 4. Removal of Membership Status states, ""No member shall be removed or denied renewal except for cause. Cause shall include violation and/or misrepresentation of Club by-laws or policies. Revocation of membership status shall be subject to an affirmative vote of 3/4 (75%) of those present at the Executive Board meeting.""

This clause is so ambiguous as to be meaningless.

""Mis-representation""?! A literal reading of this suggests someone who states the term of office of the club president is two years may be removed from the club for misrepresenting the by-law that states it's a one year term. What if someone states the club's fiscal year is from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31? (It is not.) What if someone insists on referring to the office of Vice President of Programs as Vice President FOR Programs, or, even, dare I say?, oh, shudder...Program Director?

But far worse and far more importantly, the by-laws must afford a person whose membership is considered by the board for revocation the opportunity to appear before the board, have the accusation made to him, have evidence presented to him, have the right to confront witnesses, be shown documents, if any, and generally be permitted to defend himself. As the by-law change now stands none of this is required. The board can simply summarily revoke a member's membership by its 3/4 vote.

Here's something that confuses me. VII Sec. 3 (b) ""The Club logo must be used to the exclusion of any graphical devices as a means of establishing NYCC identity."" Huh? How's that? After you penetrate the pretentious prolixity of it, what does it mean to establish NYCC identity? Is it to say the club jersey must consist solely of the club logo?

Of course in just being my ol', provocative self, I'm all but disqualified from being club president because whomever wrote the section on the new home page announcing the vacancy for club president directs us to vote for someone who is diplomatic.

Now then, god knows I'm not stumping for club president--been there; done that--but it seems to me there are higher virtues than being diplomatic.

And it seems to me unseemly to have one person characterize the desirable qualities in a president when other people might like equal space to put forward different qualities they think a president should have, e.g. integrity...and no, my writing this is NOT intended as a slur against our current president."