- Membership fee increases passes on a show of hands
- Constitutional change to introduce an appointed chair passes by 840-something votes to 99
- Drew Vanbeck appointed as chair, Graham Patten and David Rosen elected unopposed as elected directors
- SYO win club of the year, Loughborough Uni win university club of the year
AGM summary
Moderators: [nope] cartel, team nopesport
27 posts
• Page 1 of 2 • 1, 2
AGM summary
What you've all been waiting for:
British Orienteering Director | Opinions expressed on here are entirely my own, and do not represent the views of British Orienteering.
"If only you were younger and better..."
"If only you were younger and better..."
-
Scott - god
- Posts: 2384
- Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:43 am
- Location: in the queue for the ice-cream van
Re: AGM summary
Scott wrote: Membership fee increases passes on a show of hands
So what happened to the e-voting for this one?!
- spitalfields
- orange
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:54 pm
Re: AGM summary
Agree I would expect the online voting to be added to the AGM attendees votes
- Frog1
- string
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:08 pm
Re: AGM summary
Frog1 wrote:Agree I would expect the online voting to be added to the AGM attendees votes
That is the case, where a poll on a resolution is called. However:
BOF Article 43.2 wrote:A resolution put to the vote of a general meeting must be decided on a show of hands unless a poll is duly demanded in accordance with these Articles.
So if the Chair proposes that a resolution is passed by a show of hands, and if no members calls for it to be determined instead by a poll, then only the attendees in the room are counted, not the proxy votes (which is what electronic votes are).
Articles of Association
Martin Ward, SYO (Chair) & SPOOK.
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
-
Spookster - god
- Posts: 2267
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:49 pm
- Location: Sheffield
Re: AGM summary
While perhaps in accordance with the Articles, surely that makes a mockery of the whole proxy voting process?
Do we really need to have a Christopher Chope type character in every AGM now who shouts “Poll” every time a question is asked?!
Do we really need to have a Christopher Chope type character in every AGM now who shouts “Poll” every time a question is asked?!
- Arnold
- diehard
- Posts: 738
- Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:24 am
Re: AGM summary
Spookster wrote:Frog1 wrote:Agree I would expect the online voting to be added to the AGM attendees votes
That is the case, where a poll on a resolution is called. However:BOF Article 43.2 wrote:A resolution put to the vote of a general meeting must be decided on a show of hands unless a poll is duly demanded in accordance with these Articles.
So if the Chair proposes that a resolution is passed by a show of hands, and if no members calls for it to be determined instead by a poll, then only the attendees in the room are counted, not the proxy votes (which is what electronic votes are).
Articles of Association
How peculiar. So the e-voting was a complete waste of time, and the suggestion that this was done to increase levels of participation in decision making a misrepresentation of the facts?
The problem with the approach taken is that it may be viewed as a convenient way of getting out of an inconvenient poll result. Surely it would have been in the interests of the sport for someone to have ensured that all votes were included.
- spitalfields
- orange
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:54 pm
Re: AGM summary
Arnold wrote:While perhaps in accordance with the Articles, surely that makes a mockery of the whole proxy voting process?
Do we really need to have a Christopher Chope type character in every AGM now who shouts “Poll” every time a question is asked?!
No!
Back to the Articles:
45.2 A poll may be demanded by:
45.2.1 the chair of the meeting;
45.2.2 the Board; or
45.2.3 three or more Voting Members present in person or proxy having the right
to vote on the resolution.
The benefit of the "show of hands" method is that it makes the AGM bearable for those of us that attend it in person! On matters that are highly likely to be approved anyway, a quick show of hands can be used to check that there is a large majority, and the meeting can make a quick decision and move on. For example, approval of the accounts, or nomination of Chris Bonnington as our President.
But for for resolutions that are more finely balanced or contentious, then the Chair would sensibly call for a poll (as Judith did, in the case of the change to the Articles that brought an extra Director onto the Board). And if the Chair doesn't, then three members (in person or in proxy) can. Then all votes are counted (proxy votes and people at the AGM).
spitalfields wrote:So the e-voting was a complete waste of time, and the suggestion that this was done to increase levels of participation in decision making a misrepresentation of the facts?
No, the opposite. Proxy votes (by e-voting) were used as a poll was called for the resolution to change the Articles, and there were more proxy votes at this AGM than at any previous BOF AGM I'm aware of.
Martin Ward, SYO (Chair) & SPOOK.
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
-
Spookster - god
- Posts: 2267
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:49 pm
- Location: Sheffield
Re: AGM summary
Spookster wrote:The benefit of the "show of hands" method is that it makes the AGM bearable for those of us that attend it in person! On matters that are highly likely to be approved anyway, a quick show of hands can be used to check that there is a large majority, and the meeting can make a quick decision and move on.
Unless the electronic voting is being organised by emit, the number for and against a proposal will be known well before the meeting starts so it would take no extra time to include them. As the potential number of votes cast electronically far outweighs those attending the AGM it seems rather undemocratic to rely on the latter (especially as I suspect few of those either voting electronically or in person actually know the rules) and not to even record the number of proxy votes.
Spookster wrote:Articles of Association
Really? Because that's not the version available from the Companies House website where the most recent update is from 2013. Are BOF in breach of Section 26 of the Companies Act? £1000 fines all round...
-
greywolf - addict
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:45 pm
- Location: far far away
Re: AGM summary
I voted electronically in what I thought was a democratic process and as I was unable to attend the AGM in person. Now I read that my vote was ignored and overruled by a show of hands. What is democratic or fair about that? Can we please have some transparency and appropriate governance?
- Drdr
- off string
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:25 pm
Re: AGM summary
Seriously unimpressed with this. I vote online at various AGMs and it makes a mockery of democracy to ignore the proxy votes. It should have had an extra box to tick next to the vote if you actually want the vote you have bothered to fill in to count, or more democratically a box to tick if you don’t want your vote to count and just filled it in for fun.
- Frog1
- string
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:08 pm
Re: AGM summary
greywolf wrote:Unless the electronic voting is being organised by emit, the number for and against a proposal will be known well before the meeting starts so it would take no extra time to include them.
Yes, but it's the time taken for the 50-60 people in the room to make their votes, and then for these to be counted and added to the (pre-counted) proxies that takes the additional time. Say 5 minutes per resolution, rather than 10 seconds for a show of hands. Four resolutions were dealt with by a show of hands, savings 20 minutes or so.
greywolf wrote:As the potential number of votes cast electronically far outweighs those attending the AGM it seems rather undemocratic to rely on the latter (especially as I suspect few of those either voting electronically or in person actually know the rules) and not to even record the number of proxy votes.
You're right. Perhaps we should change the Articles?
Martin Ward, SYO (Chair) & SPOOK.
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
I'm a 1%er. Are you?
-
Spookster - god
- Posts: 2267
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:49 pm
- Location: Sheffield
Re: AGM summary
So we don’t need one Christopher Chope, we need three.
- Arnold
- diehard
- Posts: 738
- Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:24 am
Re: AGM summary
Was there somewhere in the proxy voting slip that asks if you want a poll? I don’t recall it. Who do we send emails to next year demanding a poll for all votes? I will do this (unless SOA sorts out total independence from BOF so that event officials don’t need to be BOF members). Democracy is time consuming and expensive.
- Frog1
- string
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:08 pm
Re: AGM summary
Spookster wrote:Yes, but it's the time taken for the 50-60 people in the room to make their votes, and then for these to be counted and added to the (pre-counted) proxies that takes the additional time.
You'd only need to count them if the number in the room was greater than the margin of the proxy votes
-
greywolf - addict
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:45 pm
- Location: far far away
Re: AGM summary
greywolf wrote:Spookster wrote:Yes, but it's the time taken for the 50-60 people in the room to make their votes, and then for these to be counted and added to the (pre-counted) proxies that takes the additional time.
You'd only need to count them if the number in the room was greater than the margin of the proxy votes
Exactly. Of course, if all of the results are determined before the meeting, then there is even less incentive to attend the AGM. But better that than the affront to democracy we've been served this year. I'm absolutely livid that I've been disenfranchised by a technicality that wasn't even hinted at in the AGM papers; one that flies in the face of any common sense understanding of how this should work (and indeed how it does work with every other organisation for which I've ever submitted a proxy vote).
- spitalfields
- orange
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:54 pm
27 posts
• Page 1 of 2 • 1, 2
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 18 guests