Constitution Review Working Group Report Proposals Part Two 14/02/01
ISOCNZ Constitution WG proposals 2
Following on our previous proposals we propose the following points:
- Ordinary Membership.
- Financial/Unfinancial status. A member becomes a financial member on receipt, by the Society, of the membership subscription. The subscription is valid for exactly one year. At the point of the subscription lapsing, the member will become unfinancial and lose all voting rights in the Society. If the subscription remains unpaid for a further three months the membership lapses and a new application for membership will have to be made. Members will be invoiced no less than 60 days before a subscription is due for renewal. Late payments (within the three month period) will be counted as continuous from the end of the previous subscription.
- New members joining the Society less than 21 days prior to the AGM will not be entitled to vote at the AGM.
- Financial/Unfinancial status. A member becomes a financial member on receipt, by the Society, of the membership subscription. The subscription is valid for exactly one year. At the point of the subscription lapsing, the member will become unfinancial and lose all voting rights in the Society. If the subscription remains unpaid for a further three months the membership lapses and a new application for membership will have to be made. Members will be invoiced no less than 60 days before a subscription is due for renewal. Late payments (within the three month period) will be counted as continuous from the end of the previous subscription.
- Constituencies.
- A clarification of our proposal on the creation of constituencies. The IAG will become a constituency and be formed as the other constituencies. That is: the corporate members of ISOCNZ that are not Registrars or ISPs will form this constituency.
- The rules of constituency organisations will need to be approved by ISOCNZ Council. Such approval cannot be unreasonably withheld.
- The Chairs of the constituencies that sit on Council. We note that we should have made explicit that we expect these constituency Councillors to represent the interests of their respective constituencies on the Council. They are not necessarily expected to put ISOCNZ's interests first.
- A clarification of our proposal on the creation of constituencies. The IAG will become a constituency and be formed as the other constituencies. That is: the corporate members of ISOCNZ that are not Registrars or ISPs will form this constituency.
- Council
- Officers of the Society.
- The current position of Chair be re-named to President, to better indicate the role.
- We are prosing a new officer, the position of Vice-President, to sit in as replacement for the President during absence, and to assist with the workload of the office.
- Election of Officers. The majority of the Working Group propose that the officers should be elected by the members at the AGM. One member wants to ensure that the alternative of keeping the current election procedure, of officers elected by the Council at the first Council meeting following an AGM, is still included in the possible outcomes.
- Terms of office of Officers. Regardless of the method of election used we propose that the term of office of Officers of the Society be fixed at 2 years with a limit of two consecutive terms in any one position. In the first election the president and secretary will be elected for a two year term and the vice-president and treasurer be elected for a one-year term initially and thereafter for two-year terms.
- The current position of Chair be re-named to President, to better indicate the role.
- Councillors
- Terms of office of Councillors. In discussion in the WG it has become clear that there is not consensus on the terms of office. The proposals are:
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1. One year for all elected positions, with all members of Council standing for election annually. (one member)
2. Three year term with one third of Council standing for election annually.(one member)
3. The current position of two year terms with half of Council standing for election annually.(one member) with one member rejecting the one year term and ambivalent on two or three year terms.
It is the considered opinion of the WG that the two year term is most likely to gain consensus.
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- Size of Council. We propose that the size of Council be fixed at a maximum size. The majority of the WG propose that the current size of Council be maintained at 20 sitting members. This will be composed of: Four officers, four constituency members and twelve general Councillors. One dissenting member proposes 13 sitting members composed of: Four officers, four constituency members and five general Councillors. We additional propose that if more constituencies arise, each constituency representative will replace a general Councillor.
- Terms of office of Councillors. In discussion in the WG it has become clear that there is not consensus on the terms of office. The proposals are:
- Officers of the Society.
- Elections at the AGM
- Procedures.
- Nominations. Nominations for elected positions will close 28 days prior to the AGM. The nominations will be collated and sent to the membership not less than 21 days prior to the AGM. Nominations will not be permitted from the floor of the AGM except in the event that there is a shortfall of nominations for a position. (See voting below for reasoning). We expect that the nomination period will be opened around 8 weeks prior to the AGM.
- Constituency representatives will be notified to the Secretary 28 days prior to the AGM. Any constituency not forwarding a representative will mean an extra seat to be filled by election of the members.
- Elections. The candidates standing for Office will be elected first. The remaining candidates for Council seats will be elected subsequently.
- Nominations. Nominations for elected positions will close 28 days prior to the AGM. The nominations will be collated and sent to the membership not less than 21 days prior to the AGM. Nominations will not be permitted from the floor of the AGM except in the event that there is a shortfall of nominations for a position. (See voting below for reasoning). We expect that the nomination period will be opened around 8 weeks prior to the AGM.
- Voting.
- Proxy votes
- Currently Proxy votes can be used at General Meetings for those unable to attend in person. It is expected that there will be proposals on secure electronic voting procedures coming from the MEP Working Group. With this expectation:
We propose that proxies will in future be disallowed provided that, a proper secure early voting procedure can be put in place, to enable members who are unable to attend the General Meetings to vote their intentions for Electing Councillors and Constitutional Changes. Both these topics are to be known well in advance of the General Meeting. In the light of this proposal we expect to exclude amendments from the floor on Constitutional changes. With our proposal to have early notification of candidates for election we expect that nominations from the floor of the GM will also be excluded, (except as noted above)
- Procedures.
- General Issues.
- In line with our proposal to have early notification of candidates for election we are proposing that all required documentation be treated in the same time-frame. This means all proposed constitutional amendments, financial reports and foreshadowed motions must be received by the Secretary no later than 28 days prior to the AGM. All documentation must be sent to the members not less than 21 days prior to the AGM.
- We propose that throughout the Articles "the Secretary" will be the default for receipt of official documents, nominations, notifications etc.
- In line with our proposal to have early notification of candidates for election we are proposing that all required documentation be treated in the same time-frame. This means all proposed constitutional amendments, financial reports and foreshadowed motions must be received by the Secretary no later than 28 days prior to the AGM. All documentation must be sent to the members not less than 21 days prior to the AGM.
© 2001 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 20 February 2001
