I am new to this forum, so I apologize if this subject has been discussed before. I am interested to find out how other CT groups are run. We all know that there is a lot of "non-show work" to be done in a CT. In addition to seeing the poll results, I am also hoping for some advice on how to deal with the following situation.

Over the last couple of years the majority of our CT's elected and appointed board have tried to update and make some positve changes to our 25 year old CT by-laws. The desired change to the by-laws being from "any member being able to vote on any issue" to "board members / committee chairs voting on these issues."  Any member would still vote at the annual meeting for the board who represents them. We want the active members / workers (who attend the meetings of the group) to make the day to day decisions for the group. However, everytime we call for a vote, because of our current by-laws, it must wait 30 days and go to the full membership. At which time, a few eloquent founders will show up for the vote, create a scene, and talk the changes down. They gather up all the other founder's proxies, lifetime member's proxies, and vote it down. They won't allow any changes. Many of these voters don't even live in the state, much less do any of the current work of the CT, or know what is really going on. We needed a 2/3rds majority, and lost it by 2 votes last time. 2 voters who aren't around and don't attend shows or meetings!  

Because of this situation many of the current board members have resigned their board positions.  The general feeling is why continue to do the work when you can't get anything accomplished? Meeting attendance has dropped off. Many are frustrated to the point of leaving all together and starting a new CT. The general moral is in the pits! Help! 

scenes presented.. as in performed or just excerpted from the script for reading?

10 min scene from each script performed script in hand.  Each member of the play reading committee is responsible for presenting  two to three scripts and then a 5 min discussion follows each script presented in which the presenter answers questions about the particular script.    Needless to say the more prepared and polished the presentation is the better chance it usually has in making the season.   Performers are usually comprised of the committee members and the members of our ct.   It's a fun and entertaining Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for your posts! But it seems we got a little off the subject! The last 5 replies were about play selection, which is not an issue at the moment. It would seem that 94% of the CT's here are elected board / appointed board run.  So, maybe that is why not so many have replied or made suggestions for my problem. Perhaps you can't relate to the issues we are having with non-active members coming in and causing major problems. 

Maybe the only answer for me is to stop trying to fix anything. Allow the splitting off of the group. Let the non-active members have their way, even if it is means losing 90% of the workers. The next big problem will be the revenue left behind. The people that are frustrated and leaving, are also the ones who have done the work to "build the bank account" the last 10 years. They are leaving the non-active members with a big chunk of change and no one to do the work of the group. I guess that's life. So, why am I banging my head against the wall?