Constitutional Changes Remit.

[Anonymous]

#3736

Somebody has to start the shouting match, let it be me.  Referring to the President's remit for the AGM, published in the August Newsletter.Rule 5 changes look fine to this one eyed old man, but postal voting in a club this small?  What's wrong with taking the AGM offshore to the Mainland every other year if geographical situation impinges on South Islanders' democracy?Yes, I know we have postal voting for local bodies, but you don't poll the whole of New Zealand for a local body.  Oh, why go on, Bwucie, just put it aside until the Taupo shouting match.

[Dave Ross]

#15472

It would allow a lot more input, which is not a bad thing, but it would be a lot of work for someone to collate the results. To make it fair you might need someone who is not affiliated with the register.You'd have to verify eligibility and possibly authenticity of all votes. Do we really need this level of complexity?  

[Richard Kuysten]

#15473

Many times in the past remits have been put to the membership and after much discussion at the AGM the remit was revised and eventually passed in a revised form.  Presumably this would no longer be able to happen and for me would be a backward step.  The postal vote is certainly fair but unwieldy and not very practical for an organisation such as ours.

[Anonymous]

#15474

Yes Malcolm for those reasons, that a remit gets slightly reworded I dislike Postal Votes about as much as Proxy Votes. The voter ends up not voting his way or missing a vote at all. Can't beat making a call after hearings submissions from the floor on the day. Best of luck for us on that one.

[Mark]

#15475

I think the postal votes are only for voting in the executive positions ,but I think even this is not needed for such a small club

[Richard Kuysten]

#15476

It has been said that many members are not able to attend the AGM for reasons of distance/cost etc.  I don't have actual figures to indicate member numbers in each island but let's say there are two thirds in the north and one third in the south.  Out of a total membership of say 500 that's a little ove 300 members in the north island.  In my experience there have rarely been more than 100  and on average I would estimate an average of 75.  Based on these figure I put it that a large portion of the membership are not interested in the running of the club and are happy to take part in local runs and maybe the odd annual rally. Take a look at the numbers attending the annual rally.  How many from the north support the southern rallies? then take a look at how many southern members attend the northern rallies?  If members wanted to travel north they would and I suspect it is not necessarily for reasons of cost.A postal vote is very fair to all members but not necessarily a sensible option. After more than 30 years we are a strong and stable club and while the system may not be perfect it has worked well and should not be changed without serious consideration.

[Anonymous]

#15477

I'm all in favour of a postal voting system for the election of honourary officers, but the fact that there are very, very rarely more than one nomination for positions makes the introduction of a postal voting system for honourary officers seem pointless. Added to this would have to be the take up of the postal voting system we currently have for the awarding of the register literary award (the gun trophy). Up untill the AGM I would be guessing that less than twenty postal votes would have been recieved, the majority of votes are cast by members attending the AGM, so if this is an indication of how members view postal voting?I have to agree with a previous comment along the lines of the vast majority of the membership have very basic demands of the register along the lines of, run a good annual rally, a quality newsletter, keep finances in a healthy state etc, and aside from these things are not that interested in the way it all happens.One further comment I would make on the current remit is that there needs to be much more detail in the actual system of postal voting. Who counts the votes? are they scrutenised? what about a tied vote? what if a member for one reason or another not does recieve a ballot paper and the vote came down to a single vote? are pre-paid envelopes provided? candidates listed in alphbetical order? I realise these may be considered minor points, but if your going to put these things up then they have to be properly thought through and stated clearly within the remit.My last point will be that as I stated in the beginning, voting for honourary officers has my support, but as for changes to the consitution, I am most definately not in favour of postal voting. What if a contentious change to the contitution is proposed at some point in the future? with a low entry of postal votes and a two thirds majority being necessary to amend a rule then this could be carried by a very dis-proportionate number of votes.

[Robin]

#15478

“ … …. a large portion of the membership are not interested in the running of the club and are happy to take part in local runs and maybe the odd annual rally.”"...... the vast majority of the membership have very basic demands of the register..." I'll endorse that. I did it myself for a number of my former years. No worries about consitutions or organization.

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