[plug] PLUG Constitution Change: Proposal for membership review

Garry garbuck at westnet.com.au
Sun Nov 20 15:04:25 WST 2011 

May I suggest that committee meetings require a minimum of 51%.

This will prevent a deadlock of split alternate committees if we end up 
with an even number through resignation or death.

Perhaps a majority of committee members (not just those present) for 
votes? That would prevent decisions being made by 3, (3/4 present from a 
committee of 7, meaning 3 can't rule a committe of 7).. Just a thought, 
I don't have the legal background or experience to know if this is wise, 
just an idea..

Garry.



On 20/11/11 12:47, James Bromberger wrote:
> Dear PLUG,
>
> It came to PLUG Committee's attention at the end of last year that the 
> PLUG constitution (available on the PLUG web site, see below) doesn't 
> quite fit us these days. In particular, last January at our AGM when 
> we had 22 members, and we required a quorum of 30; this triggered the 
> clause to hold a follow up meeting the next week (at the same time and 
> place) to carry the motions of the previous week.
>
> We've also grown to like having some extra people on the Committee in 
> the form of Ordinary Committee Members (without specific office such 
> as the four /executive/ office bearers), but our current constitution 
> doesn't mention this; these people have effectively been co-opted in 
> thus far.
>
> Lastly, we've never had a definition for what a regular Committee 
> Meeting Quorum is. All of this adds up to show that our current 
> constitution from the late 1990's no longer really fits us.
>
> Associations in WA must register their constitution with the Ministry 
> of Fair trading, who issue a "model" constitution containing their 
> recommended defaults. Our current constitution deviates from this 
> significantly, so the Committee had two choices:
>
>     * small amendments to our current constitution (and risk having it
>       rejected by Fair Trading for differing from current accepted
>       wordings)
>     * applying our required changes to the current model
>
> We've opted for the second choice, and in doing so, we're trying to 
> produce the *minimal *number of changes from the model constitution 
> that permit us to continue to operate in the way we feel is what PLUG 
> does (or had documented that it does)  in practice.
>
> Any changes to the constitution need to be given formal notice to you, 
> the membership (this is not it; it will come from our Secretary), and 
> needs to be approved by a General Meeting (in this case, we're aiming 
> for this to happen at the Annual General Meeting this January). After 
> this, it is submitted to Fair Trading for their review and acceptance 
> (or rejection).
>
> In order to increase our chances of Fair Trading accepting our 
> changes, we're keeping the differences from the model constitution 
> relatively low in the draft the Committee has devised. While we would 
> like to one day include Virtual Attendance, we're aware that other 
> bodies (such as Linux Australia) have tried this in the past and had 
> to remove it. This does not mean Proxy votes (we have that), but 
> actually counting virtual attendees as part of a quorum count - proxy 
> votes do not count in this sense.
>
> The most important part of changing a Constitution is having the 
> support of the membership in order to do so, and this is why we are 
> giving several weeks advance notice of this proposed change for the 
> PLUG membership to discuss now; the deadline for this is 12 December 
> 2011, as formal notice of the final changes needs to then be given.
>
> We have published the proposed constitution on the PLUG web site at 
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Proposed2012, and put some notes 
> at http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Proposed2012Notes to help you 
> understand what the changes are from the current model constitution 
> (http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/ModelRules2011), and the main 
> changes imported from the current PLUG constitution 
> (http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Current). Let me bullet point the 
> issues in the proposed 2012 here:
>
>     * A General Meeting (including AGM) Quorum was *thirty* (30)
>       members; this is now proposed as *twenty-five percent* (25%) or
>       five, whichever is greater.
>     * Committee consisted of 4 (Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer,
>       Secretary); this *now includes between one and three other
>       members* (/Ordinary Committee Members/)
>     * Committee meetings required *100% attendance for quorum*; it now
>       requires *50%*.
>     * Membership in the model constitution required being *nominated
>       by a current member*; this is is removed. However, Committee
>       must *accept/reject membership applications.
>       *
>     * Our *financial year was previously not defined*; in the model is
>       was July-June AND the accounts needed to be presented at a GM
>       within 4 months. As we have our AGM in January we moved to have
>       our *financial year follow the *(Western/Gregorian)*calendar
>       year* (/1 Jan - 31 Dec/).
>     * The model constitution has everyone's *membership expiring
>       simultaneously* (I know WAIA moved to this last year); we've
>       opted to keep *individual anniversary* as we operate now.
>
>
> As I mentioned above, there are more changes that would be nice to do, 
> but the focus is to change the General Meeting Quorum from 30 to 25% 
> and recognise our OCMs. For our current membership of 74, this means 
> we'd require 19 people to turn up in person; 30 may still be a little 
> difficult. The other changes can wait until some time next year for a 
> new Committee to work through. Note that we will still require 30 
> people at this coming AGM in January for us to be able to adopt this 
> proposed Constitution and hold our elections; otherwise we trigger the 
> same emergency rule again.
>
> I'd like to thank Alastair Irving and Peter Lyons for their work in 
> getting this together, and the rest of Committee who have reviewed 
> these changes. PLUG has had to obtain the current constitution from 
> Fair Trading to validate that what we have on record is what they had, 
> and then work through a three way merge of old, model and proposed 
> changes.
>
> *At this stage we'd like to solicit feedback from the PLUG 
> membership*. Changes that come forward now will go to the Committee to 
> review, and may be incorporate into a possible future draft before our 
> deadline of formal notice for the 2012 AGM. If you have major changes 
> then please understand that these may need to be postponed until next 
> year; we're looking to have minimal changes to give us an updated 
> version to work from in future. If you're in favour of these changes 
> and have no concerns, then an indication of your support is also most 
> welcome!
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
>   James & Committee 2011
>
> Set of Links for your convenience (thanks to Nick for tidying up):
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution
>
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Current
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/ModelRules2011
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Proposed2012
> http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Proposed2012Notes
>
> -- 
> /Mobile:/ +61 422 166 708, /Email:/ james_AT_rcpt.to
> PLUG President 2011: http://www.plug.org.au <http//www.plug.org.au>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
> PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership

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