On Mar 18, 8:19 pm, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dal...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
2009/3/18 Tom Holden <thomas.hol...(a)gmail.com>om>:
To clarify (if it needed it), this was discussed
at the board meeting this
week and we decided non-members are perfectly welcome to attend.
Ok, a general invitation is fine (I've found the discussion in the IRC
log, but I can't see it in the minutes - all decisions need to be
minuted),
Good point - I've revised the minutes to add this in.
but you'll need to give some thought to how you
are going to
conduct the meeting. I can see two options - separate seating areas
for members and non-members, or voting cards. (If we have a very small
turnout we can just rely on the chair knowing who is and isn't a
member, but hopefully we'll get more people than that!)
Yes, we do. As will come clear when the notice is sent out (hopefully
Friday) most of the meeting will be informal talks, discussions and
presentations. The distinction between member and non-members will not
be an issue here. This also applies to the hustings. The formal part
where the distinction matetrs will probably only last about 30
minutes.
Voting for the Board will probably be entirely in paper form. I
imagine members who haven't already voted electronically will be given
a paper ballot paper to fill in and they will be counted by hand.
Voting for the resolutions will probably be a mixture of a show of
hands plus the electronic votes. In this case, the chair needs to make
sure he can distinguish between members and non-members. If the result
is at all close, the tellers will have to organise a paper vote.
Obviously we won't know till we get there, but I could see this
happening with your resolution but all the others will probably be
clear majorities.
I know some people think I am being overly formal and
strict about
this kind of stuff, but the AGM of a limited company, particularly a
charitable one, is a serious event and needs to be handled properly.
This isn't just a bunch of people from the internet getting together
for a pint and a chat about what we're going to do, it's an official
meeting of the membership if a charitable company.
Indeed! No harm in doing things correctly.
Andrew