[plug] PLUG Constitution Change: Proposal for membership review

Sun Nov 20 15:17:33 WST 2011

Normally the chair person does not have a vote. They can only cast a vote
in the case of a tie.

O

On 20 November 2011 15:04, Garry <garbuck at westnet.com.au> wrote:

> **
> 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/Currenthttp://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/ModelRules2011http://www.plug.org.au/Constitution/Proposed2012http://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://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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>

-- 
Onno Benschop

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