2008/10/2 Michael McDonald <mikencolleen(a)gmail.com>:
2008/10/2 James Pluck <papabearnz(a)gmail.com>:
This is to formally announce the intention of the committee to hold a Special General Meeting 15 minutes prior to the AGM (7:15 pm).
The topic on the table for this meeting is the motion: "That the charter be amended to allow former paid members of the Waikato Linux Users Group to vote at an AGM of the WLUG with the proviso that their subscription be renewed at or before the AGM."
I'm uncomfortable with that motion as it stands. A person who paid a sub 20 years ago could turn up 5 minutes before the meeting, pay, the sub, and expect to vote, whereas a new member cannot.
My understanding of procedure (and I'm not even a good bush lawyer) is ...
Subscriptions are paid for the nominated year. Membership lapses when the member fails to pay the fee within a specified period after the commencement of the year. The AGM is usually held within this period of grace - those entitled to vote are those whose membership is current as at the end of the year. One of the purposes of the AGM is determine the sub for the "new" year.
I'm not sure of the status of those joining between the end of the year and the AGM.
Is the WLUG an incorporated society? If not, it should be!
It is. James has looked into the correct procedure and as far as he can tell, this is all above board. If you don't agree with the principle of the motion, vote against it at the SGM. ;) The original restriction was put in place so that someone with an agenda against FLOSS can pull the kind of committee-stacking that other organisations (eg the ISO) have since turned out to be vulnerable to, and we're suggesting something that still restricts this. But at the moment we have distressingly few paid up members and I'm not sure what we do if we can't reach a quorum at the AGM.