Motion 1
Motion: Section 23 is repealed and the following new section
substituted:
"23. Nominations for committee
Every candidate for committee shall be proposed and seconded by two
members in the manner approved by the committee."
Explanatory note:
This rephrases s23(a) to empower the committee to accept nominations in
any form, removing any doubt about current online methods. It also
removes s23(b), the two-month rule.
If you have any motions that you wish to put forward, please email the secretary or myself (Nzlarps@gmail.com) or post here, they need to be in very quickly so we can set a date for the AGM. I will try and do that at the end of this week.
Motion to amend Section 20 as below (two suggested amendments bolded below). If anyone has any better way of wording the two changes I am happy for adjustments to be made.
President
The President of the society shall be responsible for overall running of society, promoting the vision of the society, chair committee meetings, work for consensus in the committee, cast deciding vote in case of ties, attend meetings as society representative, liaising with all regional directors to coordinate the workings of the Society across New Zealand, managing matters related to the core function of the society, the first point of contact for those wishing to contact the society.
Secretary
Maintain the national membership database. Keep all club correspondence in an organised fashion. Send letters as required. Send reminders of meetings to committee members. Take minutes at meetings and distribute to committee members. Communicate decisions made by committee to members.
Treasurer
Responsible for society finances. Keep general ledger to track society expenditure and income. Pay all society accounts. Bank money received. Advise on availability of funds for projects and committee initiatives. Distribute budgets to project owners and receive repayments. Pass accounts to society accountant to be registered with the government. Present financial report of current position at committee meetings.
Marketing Officer
Identify online and offline communities. Devise strategies by which to promote larp games and events to these communities, with a view to recruiting new players into larping and potentially into joining NZLARPS. Coordinate marketing campaigns.
Information Technology Officer
Coordinate the creation and maintenance of information technology resources for the society such as the society’s website, online forum, communications technology for meetings, and the enablement of projects via information technology.
Each position must be held by a separate individual.
Actually, is it better to have these two amendments as two separate motions in case people want to vote for one and not the other? I was thinking that they are the same section of the constitution so they would need to be together, but I suppose we can amend each clause separately?
I would recommend splitting them into Motion 2 and Motion 3, as like you say people may want one and not the other.
Motion 2
To insert the following into section 20 (change in bold)
Motion 3
To insert the following into section 20 (change in bold)
Secretary
Maintain the national membership database. Keep all club correspondence in an organised fashion. Send letters as required. Send reminders of meetings to committee members. Take minutes at meetings and distribute to committee members. Communicate decisions made by committee to members.
[quote=“Anastriel”]Motion 3
To insert the following into section 20 (change in bold)
Secretary
Maintain the national membership database. Keep all club correspondence in an organised fashion. Send letters as required. Send reminders of meetings to committee members. Take minutes at meetings and distribute to committee members. Communicate decisions made by committee to members.[/quote]
I should note that while I drafted a motion for this on the other thread, I’m not sure that I support it. Yes, it should be the secretary’s job, but AIUI, the holdups have been due to the secretary’s lack of access to the accounts to check memberships. Under present conditions this seems to create a very unpleasant authority-responsibility split, in which the secretary is responsible, but does not actually have the power to perform the role.
(I understand there are moves to acquire better software allowing read-only access to records stored in the cloud. That would solve the problem, and allow the secretary to check and update memberships without having to bother the Treasurer).
I believe the current problems the Secretary has is to do with the ongoing problems we have had with our current bank. The Secretary is given access to the accounts so that they can immediately see who has paid. That the current Secretary doesn’t have access is unacceptable, as maintaining memberships is the primary role the National Secretary has. Moving banks has been discussed for some time and needs to happen in the next year.
Quite honestly, the Secretary is the only suitable person for maintaining the National Membership database. The Treasurer role is already quite time consuming, and adding to their additional responsibilities would not benefit the Society. The National Committee does not hold meetings very often and so the other responsibilities of the Secretary are not onerous.
[quote]20. STRUCTURE OF NATIONAL COMMITTEE
The committee shall consist of five (5) members, comprising of a President, Treasurer, Secretary, Marketing Officer, and an Information Technology Officer. In addition to these five members, the Regional Directors for all incorporated regions shall be full members of the National Committee.[/quote]
Sorry but where did this come from?
It probably does pay to explain why you are putting each Motion forward and what the change is intended to achieve, just to help people decide whether they wish to vote for it or not.
Motion 3 is simply tidying up what is current practice, which is that the national secretary maintains the records of national membership. It is an important task and I think the constitution needs to state whose responsibility it is. I don’t believe it should be added to any of the other committee members roles as I stated above.
Motion 2 is something that a few of us have been discussing and so I wanted to propose it as an option for the society to vote on considering we are voting on other constitutional changes.
The reasons I think that the Regional Directors should be included in the National Committee is to facilitate communication between the Regional and National committees and to ensure adequate representation on the National Committee.
Historically there has been overlap between the national and regional committees, but there is no guarantee that will always be the case, especially as the society grows and the work involved in any given position increases. I have noticed that at the Auckland Committee meetings, issues and situations often arise that are the domain of the national committee. By including the RD’s on the national committee they can then be a point of contact for the national committee and raise any issues that have been encountered in their region.
Also, currently we have a good mix of candidates standing from both of our regions, and I hope that continues to be the case for some time. But it is always possible that a national committee could be elected entirely from one region or the other. If additional regions are incorporated in the future and are significantly smaller than the existing regions then it is very probably they may have no one on the national committee from their region. By including all RD’s in the national committee, we are guaranteeing at least one representative from each region (as you can only stand for RD in the region you are affiliated with). I think this is necessary because the regions do face different issues and situations. Something we encounter in Auckland might be a non issue in Wellington or visa versa.
I also think that the representative for the regions needs to be someone on the regional committee, so they are fully informed and up to date on any issues that might have arisen, as opposed to say, electing a separate person to be the regional representative. The RD seems the obvious option.
I obviously welcome any discussions around this motion, but I wanted to ensure it was proposed in time for the new AGM.
[quote=“IdiotSavant”][quote=“Anastriel”]Motion 3
To insert the following into section 20 (change in bold)
Secretary
Maintain the national membership database. Keep all club correspondence in an organised fashion. Send letters as required. Send reminders of meetings to committee members. Take minutes at meetings and distribute to committee members. Communicate decisions made by committee to members.[/quote]
I should note that while I drafted a motion for this on the other thread, I’m not sure that I support it. Yes, it should be the secretary’s job, but AIUI, the holdups have been due to the secretary’s lack of access to the accounts to check memberships. Under present conditions this seems to create a very unpleasant authority-responsibility split, in which the secretary is responsible, but does not actually have the power to perform the role.
(I understand there are moves to acquire better software allowing read-only access to records stored in the cloud. That would solve the problem, and allow the secretary to check and update memberships without having to bother the Treasurer).[/quote]
Just to say- yes, Idiot, you understand correctly. I don’t have access to the accounts to check membership payments.
On that note- I have updated the database, thanks to Anna for sending the accounts through. I’d be grateful if people could check their entry on there- if your status is ‘applied’ or ‘expired’, and you have paid, please could you get in touch with Anna or myself so we can chase it up- it may be that the payment went into the wrong account or got missed, but that means we can check. The database can be viewed by logging in at : nzlarps.org/ (going to put this announcement elsewhere on Diatribe so folks don’t miss it).
If there are any more motions to come in, or changes to these motions, please get them in today. I am just checking the venue and about to set the date for the AGM.
[size=150]Motion 4: Electronic voting counting towards quorum[/size]
Explanation:
The intention of this motion is to make it easier for the society to reach quorum at its meetings, now that it is larger and more geographically spread. I think that electronic votes have already been counted towards quorum at past meetings, but this motion makes it explicit so the practice can’t be challenged.
Motion
Amend section 15 to read (new text is underlined):
[quote]
15. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING QUORUM
At all Annual General Meetings thirty (30) per cent of the total number of members present of the Society shall constitute a quorum. Members who have cast votes electronically shall be counted towards the quorum. No business shall be transacted unless a quorum is present. If within half an hour from the time appointed for the General Meeting a quorum is not present it shall stand adjourned to the same place and time seven (7) days later and if at such adjourned meeting a quorum be not present those members present shall form a quorum and may transact the business for which the meeting was called.[/quote]
Also amend section 19 to read: (new text is underlined):
19. SPECIAL GENERAL MEETINGS QUORUM
At all Special General Meetings twenty (20) per cent of the total number of members of the Society shall constitute a quorum. Members who have cast votes electronically shall be counted towards the quorum. No business shall be transacted unless a quorum is present.
[size=150]Motion 5: Allowing electronic voting without requiring a reason[/size]
Explanation:
To allow any current member to vote at AGMs or SGMs electronically without giving a reason. Combined with motion 4 this will further increase the ease of reaching quorum, and will allow any society member to vote on all motions and positions regardless of their ability or willingness to attend meetings.
Motion
Amend section 14e to read (new text is underlined):
[quote]
(e) For Members of the Society who are eligible to vote at an AGM or SGM but who will not be attending for any reason, a provision shall be made for distance voting whereby the voting forms will be made available at a pre-advertised time electronically and they must within an advertised time frame be returned to a pre-determined email address to be counted by the scrutineers.[/quote]
Hi Everyone
We have everything registered with the Societies office. The date of the AGM has been set for Tuesday 22nd October.
We still NEED a Treasurer nominated and accepted, this is a critical role that we have to have on the committee, so please consider it if you can.
Thanks
Scott
As a current RD, I want to just put in my twopennorth on Rowena’s proposal that Regional Directors be members of the National Committee.
I am stepping down from National this year because having roles on both the national and regional committee at the same time represents a lot of work- either role on its own represents a significant workload. Since I’ll be helping run Crucible, I decided only to stand for one of the two- though I would say that I wouldn’t want to stop anyone holding both a regional and a national post if they want to.
The national committee is made up of members from Auckland and Wellington, and already keeps in touch via e-mail and Diatribe. The regional committees have easy access to the national minutes (and vice versa), and if I want to raise something with the national committee, it’s a matter of sending an e-mail or putting up a post on the relevant forum.
I think it would be counterproductive to force the regional directors to also be on the national committee, since it adds more work to the tasks and responsibilities already involved in running a region, but does so needlessly. I have faith in our ability both at a regional and national level to keep everyone informed of things they need to know about, without this additional time commitment being necessary- and it certainly isn’t desirable.
Therefore I am against this motion.
My thoughts on having the regional directors be on the national committee:
There are already plenty of ways for regional directors to communicate with the national committee. As regional committee members they have visibility of what the national committee is discussing on the private committee forums, and can comment. The only thing they don’t see is emails that are sent around the national committee. Personally I think this is a good reason for committees to mostly use the private forums for communications, as the private forums give wider opportunity for input from members of all committees and also regional representatives. having said that, some issues do get resolved more easily via email.
The main thing that putting regional directors on the national committee would achieve is giving them a vote on national committee motions. I can see how this might be desirable, because regional directors may bring a perspective to certain topics that the national committee may not consider, especially if the national committee members don’t attend regional committee meetings so aren’t up to date with local events. The downside is that national votes would become more complex to organise and take longer. Also, as Ellen says, this would make the role of regional director even more complex. It may force them to vote on national issues that have no special relevance to their local branch, and that they’re not familiar with.
Overall, I’m not sure that the benefits outweigh the costs.
I’m not sure I understand why this would be. Just because of the increase in the number of people?
How is not this the case for all members of the national committee as it stands? If I am a national committee member from Auckland voting on a National Issues that has no special relevance to Auckland then am I not in the same position?
If the auckland committee discusses an idea that has National implications who’s role is it to bring it to the ears of the National committee?
We all have access to each other’s private forums. We all need to use that access. I don’t speak up very often on National or Auckland threads, because its Not My Place, but I am paying attention in case there is something that is of relevance to Wellington.
Yeah I am in the same boat as Idiot. I read all the minutes so I am aware of what is going on, if there are things that aren’t in the minutes that happen at the Auckland meetings I won’t know about them, but that wouldn’t change with this motion either.
Now when I was the National President I stood down as the Wellington Gear Officer as I decided I didn’t have time for both. There is nothing stopping people deciding they want to be members of both committees and standing for both, but that is a choice of the individual.
My concern is this motion may reduce the number of people that stand for the Regional Director roles (busy roles on their own), because they are now being told they have to be members of both committees.
In saying that though, this is a motion that has been put up for people to vote on, so people can make their own choices.
((I will post up a list of all the candidates and all of the Motions tonight, so people are aware for email voting))