[H-GEN] HUMBUG AGM 2009

[Greg Black]

On 2009-09-03, James Iseppi wrote:

> In preparation for the AGM to be held this Saturday the executive has  
> prepared an Agenda which is kept on the HUMBUG wiki at 
> http://www.humbug.org.au/AGM2009 .

I am quite concerned about the proposed agenda on that page,
especially insofar as it diverges both from the long-standing
AGM page at

    http://www.humbug.org.au/AGM

and from standard meeting practice for an AGM.

The principal tasks of the AGM are to confirm the minutes of the
last AGM; to hear reports from the members of the outgoing Exec;
and to conduct the election of the new Exec.

That, in itself, takes up quite a bit of time and anything that
extends that time is an imposition on those members who make a
special attempt to work around the demands of their real life to
attend the AGM so they can renew their membership and vote for
the new Exec.

But, even more importantly, the last-minute proposal to schedule
a major discussion of policies and procedures *before* the
election is entirely inappropriate.  The outgoing Exec have had
at least a year to discuss and present their ideas on new
policies and procedures.  To suggest that this be done at an AGM
(itself an inappropriate venue for such discussion) in the last
hour of their role as the Exec strikes me as absurd.

While I agree fully that some improvements to policies and
procedures are called for, I think it's completely up to the new
Exec to do some thinking about that and to make their proposals
when they have had time to reflect on things.

(Of course, it's entirely possible that the new Exec will be the
same as or substantially the same as the outgoing Exec, but
that's something we will know after the election, not before
it.)

I do hope common sense will prevail and that the agenda will be
reverted to the well-established agenda that has served us until
now.

Cheers,

Greg