nzLARPS Annual General Meeting September 30th

nzLARPS
#1

Hi everyone,

The nzLARPS AGM will be held on Wednesday 30th September at Commerce A building at Auckland Uni, 7:30pm to 9:30pm.

The nzLARPS committee will be presenting on the state of larping in New Zealand as it has progressed over the last year, and talk about what the society has been up to in that time: new games, new stuff, new friends, all that!

We will also voting on some significant amendments to the nzLARPS constitution. This will be discussed in a seperate thread, but primary changes involve amending the constitution to allow for regional branches of nzLARPS with their own regional administrative committees, the formation of the position of regional directors and a change in the role of the society president. It will also include new provisions for bank account access, and laying what needs a regional vote and what requires a national vote. In addition, there will be some misc “clean up” with regards to spelling and wording in the constitution. A full outline of changes will be posted shortly for perusal and debate. This is a move to better gear the society for national operation, and has involved discussion with our fellows in Wellington.

And, as usual, the voting in of the new committee will take place. Nominations will open in another thread.

If you are an nzLARPS member, please do turn up. We need a large percentage of our membership present to qualify quorum, so come along and bring all your nzLARPS friends. If you are not yet a member of nzLARPS but wish to be, please email Nikki at secretary@nzlarps.org and she’ll set you up - it’s currently $10 for one year’s membership for adults and students alike, so there’s never been a better chance to join up.

See you all there!

Anna
El Presidente

#2

What’s the reasoning behind having regional committees, exactly?

#3

Members outside of Auckland wanting to get organised?

#4

Several reasons. One is that some grants and funding is only available to regional groups and regional branches of national groups, therefore the Wellington branch of nzLARPS would thus be eligible for local funding and grants. Secondly, it will allow Wellington to operate their larp scene under the society umbrella with a fair degree of autonomy without a lot of cross-city bureaucracy.

#5

Thanks for that.

It also suggests that there is some grand plan underway that I haven’t heard of, and as it’s quite possible others of us aren’t as omniscient as Idiot, or at least aren’t paying as much attention - is there more to share on the matter?

#6

Nothing too mysterious.

As we started to get organised down here in Wellington to coordinate more LARPing with more regularity it was suggested that rather than forming a stand-alone organisation, we should take advantage of an existing, national organisation already in place.

The conversations at hand simply appear to be the best way to incorporate groups from around NZ under the nzLARPS umbrella. :smiley:

#7

Is the plan that whatever gets drafted for the constitution will be generic, so that the new regional structure can be rolled out to other cities like Auckland, Hamilton, Dunedin, Christchurch as the need arises?

I can totally see the value in having regional independence. Regional decisions on gear and funding for local games shouldn’t have to go back to the central committee - unless perhaps there’s a big outlay required that the regional group doesn’t have funds for. The main functions in each region will be the storage & transport of a local gear library, and the funding of local games - perhaps out of a local purse? The role of managing gear can be a lot of work. Which makes me wonder whether there should be multiple roles in each city. Then again, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a committee role - Jared is currently fulfilling it in Hamilton without holding an elected position. In terms of local purses, If each region has its own bank account under NZLARPS, then the local director could double as a local treasurer and manage local funds. All very interesting.

#8

I have just posted minutes of last nights committee meeting which also outlines a summary of the Region discussion. Yes the minutes are long, and yes the meeting was long - a lot was discussed.

#9

[quote=“TequilaDave”]What’s the reasoning behind having regional committees, exactly?[/quote]Here’s more information on the talk that’s been going on in Wellington: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4067,
community.livejournal.com/wellin … 29824.html

#10

Cool, great minds and all that. Carry on. :wink:

#11

Yep. In a way Wellington is serving as the guinea pig for this. So hopefully in the future if another region is keen to join up it’s quick and easy to let them know how they should structure themselves, what their responsibilities are and what the benefits will be.

And then we can all get on with the business of LARPing! :slight_smile:

#12

As I won’t be in the country at the time, is there a provision for proxy votes?

#13

We will be writing a distance vote provision into the constitution :slight_smile:

#14

It completely slipped my mind at the committee meting last night, but I will not be able to attend the AGM on the 30th as I will be in Christchurch. I hereby tender my apologies to all, and will prepare a financial update to be presented at the AGM.

#15

Proxy votes FTW!

#16

I plan to be down the road… can I vote beforehand or by txt?

#17

Just a query regarding 'writing proxy votes into the constitution".
If the vote on changing the constitution is being held at this AGM then the changes ratified should take effect at the conclusion of the AGM because the under normal society conduct the AGM’s are held under the current prevailing rules/constitution. Or are you going to retroactively apply changes (which would be odd).

#18

It would be a shame to let a technicality stop proxy voting at this AGM, if proxy voting is something the membership want.

I suggest we have an SGM followed by an AGM, on the same night. The SGM is only to decide whether to have proxy voting. No proxy voting is allowed for the SGM, following current rules. The SGM is followed by an AGM to decide on all the other matters, and proxy voting is allowed for the AGM if it’s been passed by the SGM.

#19

[quote=“Scotty”]Just a query regarding 'writing proxy votes into the constitution".
If the vote on changing the constitution is being held at this AGM then the changes ratified should take effect at the conclusion of the AGM because the under normal society conduct the AGM’s are held under the current prevailing rules/constitution. Or are you going to retroactively apply changes (which would be odd).[/quote]

Last year we changed the constitution to change the structure of the committee, then proceeded to, in the same AGM, vote in a committee based on the changes. However, if people feel more comfortable this way, then we shall vote on the new constitution changes at an SGM prior to the AGM. While we are quibbling technicalities, Scott, we have not added a provision for proxy votes, a proxy vote is when you give someone the power to vote on your behalf. What we have enabled here is voting electronically in order to allow our members in different cities (we, are after all, a national society) a way to have their say. We are not the Auckland Live Action Roleplaying Society, we are the New Zealand Live Action Roleplaying Society, so all our members should be able to vote, not just our Auckland members.

#20

Sorry, my fault - I shouldn’t have said proxy. I meant remote/electronic voting. - Although the term proxy vote has been used by a number of other people in this thread without them receiving a hostile lecture. And I don’t believe I said anything about trying to deny non-Aucklanders voting rights.
If you cast your mind back you may remember me advocating for electronic voting since nzlarps’ creation but getting knocked back all the time being told it was too difficult to organise or wasn’t worth it because we didn’t have many out-of-Aucklanders.
What I was trying to do was encourage discussion about what would be best practice and not doing something that looked dodgy.
The process Ryan suggested with an SGM prior to the AGM is the correct format that should be followed.