2009 Annual Meeting Set for Feb. 10

The 2009 Annual Meeting of the membership of Bald Knob Cross of Peace Foundation will take place the second Tuesday of February as required by the organization's bylaws.

The meeting will be open to the general public and start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Welcome Center on top of Bald Knob.

It won't be a typical annual meeting though. As per the Settlement Agreement there will be no election of board members and officers, nor review of new membership applications that night. All that won't happen until the 2011 Annual Meeting when the new Transition Board's term ends.

Pending membership applications that have been turned into the organization over the last few years were turned over to the new Secretary last Friday. At some point I'll be contacting those people just to confirm to them that their applications are in hand. There were two different files containing applications given to me and in my initial review I noticed some duplications.

The whole issue of membership is something that the Transition Board will likely address and bring up in 2011, if not before. While I can't speak for each board member's intention, I believe we will definitely be looking at ways to expand the membership base.

We haven't set the agenda yet for the annual meeting, though when it is finalized it will be posted here at www.baldknobcross.com. However, based on action taken Friday, the following items are expected to be discussed:

• Minor Bylaws Revisions — The Organizational Structure and Bylaws Committee will be making recommendations for amending the bylaws to make them more workable. There are a number of minor areas that need to be adjusted for modern business practices. That committee will make its report prior to Jan. 27, in order for us to mail out notices to the existing membership two weeks in advance of the meeting as required by the bylaws. Again, that report will be posted here and details should be ready to be made available at the Friends of the Cross monthly meeting on the evening of Jan. 27. This is most likely the only action on which the membership will vote.
  
  
• Cross Structural Report — The new Cross and Grounds Committee has been tasked to bring in a structural engineer to look at the cross and report back some initial findings at the Feb. 10 meeting. I'm hoping that we will have enough information that night to to least choose which general option we'll go as we move toward restoration of the cross.
  
  
• Other Committee Reports — The Finance Committee should have bids to submit for an auditor and will likely have something on fund-raising options. The Events Committee may also have additional information or suggestions for a Prayer Event, Easter Sunrise Service and the Blessing of the Bikes.