DonRamsay

This amendment to Rule 37 allows the service of notices under the Constitution to be done by email. It is an enabling provision that will speed up the service of notices, reduce the costs of notices and generally bring RA-Aus into the 21st Century - for those who have and are prepared to supply RA-Aus with a current email address.

This amendment, however, does not require any member to have or supply an email address.

I think it is inevitable that RA-Aus does (eventually) require 21st Century communications for everything from membership and registration renewals to the magazine delivery, voting, meetings, etc. But, those things are not required by this simple amendment.

The Proxy voting system for an association with 10,000 members is unwieldy to say the least. This amendment to the Proxy form restores the option of nominating an alternate proxy in case your first choice is prevented for any reason from attending the meeting.

A postal voting process would be much less cumbersome and make the flow of meetings more time-efficient. This amendment to Rule 30 introduces the facility for postal voting similar to the process we have for electing Board Members.

SR9 - Holding of Board Meetings

The Constitution currently requires at least two face-to-face meetings of the Board. This amendment aligns the two Board Meetings with the two General Meetings. This does not limit the Board from holding other face-to-face meetings or from meeting on-line.

This Special Resolution proposes to replace sub-paragraph (i) of Rule 18.

SR10 - Ratification of Board Resolutions at Online Meetings

The Constitution currently requires that a Board Resolution passed at other than a face-to-face meeting is valid only until and if it is ratified at a face-to-face Board Meeting. This creates a period of uncertainty for a period of up to 6 months when a Board Resolution has been passed at an electronic meeting of the Board. There is no need for this requirement as a motion can be fully discussed online before a vote is taken. If a Board member subsequently changes his/her mind then they can always move a rescission motion.

This Special Resolution proposes to replace sub-paragraph (i) of Rule 20.

SR12 - Conflict of Interest

This proposed amendment is intended to emphasise the need for the Chair of a Meeting to be acutely conscious of a Conflict of Interest. If in doubt as to the seriousness of the conflict of interest, the meeting may decide the issue as it would be a conflict of interest for the Chair to attempt to decide such an issue.

Our new Board in September could have 8 or 10 out of 13 members who are CFIs. Each will need to be conscious of their potential for perceived conflicts of interest. On the one hand, being CFIs gives them a vested interest in the success of RA-Aus on the other . . .

This Special Resolution proposes to replace all of Rule 26.

The aim of these amendments is to better spell out the responsibilities and duties of these key roles.

At the moment, Rule 14A, e.g., currently defines the role of the President in just one sentence:

“The President shall act as Chairman for all meetings and shall determine subject to this Constitution any matters in dispute regarding proceedings at those meetings and shall act as spokesperson for the Association.”

The amendment of Rule 14 A President emphasises the leadership role for the President in maintaining good governance and defending the Constitution from people who might prefer to ignore it when not convenient to be bound by it.

The roles of Secretary and Treasurer, currently read literally, requires them to do all such work where, in reality, we have staff employed to do that work. The true nature of these roles is one of oversight.

The new wording also emphasises the ascendency of the Board as a whole over the individuals in the Executive.

Like you Scotty, I also attended the first three at Temora and would have gone to this year's but for an engine problem on the morning we were going to fly out to Temora. I don't know first hand how the 2013 Natfly went but I didn't get too many positive comments about it from those who were there - particularly exhibitors. Let's hope some confidence comes back to Recreational Aviation soon.

This year RA-Aus will, for the first time, have their Annual General Meeting at a national fly-in. It might seem odd to some RA-Aus members, and perhaps all SAAA members, that RA-Aus is holding its AGM at AUSFLY and not NATFLY. The SAAA of course hold their AGM at AUSFLY and the EAA hold theirs at Oshkosh, in conjunction with AirVenture.

You could be forgiven for holding thinking that RA-Aus has held its AGM in Canberra so that the minimum number of members would attend and make life difficult for the Board. If that was the aim it was very successful. Typically, a Canberra AGM would attract fewer than 20 members, mostly from the ACT. When we held last year’s AGM at Heck Field we got around 10 times the typical Canberra attendance. If held at NATFLY, we could at least double or triple the attendance at Heck Field?

A less cynical explanation of AGM at Canberra is that it is the HQ of RA-Aus and is the least cost alternative for Staff. But, if you look at the cost for ordinary members to attend, it is not the low cost alternative.

So, if this Special Resolution 11 gets the support of the members (75% of those who vote) then in future, the RA-Aus AGM will be at NATFLY and many hundreds, perhaps a thousand, RA-Aus members can walk into the AGM and find out what is going on with their Association.

To achieve a NATFLY AGM, we have to change three things:

• Year end Currently, RA-Aus ends it year on 30 June. By law, the AGM has to be held within 5 months of the end of RA-Aus’s. So, to have the AGM in March or April (depending on when Easter is) then you have to move the year end so it is within 5 months before Easter. This gives 31 December as the logical date for RA-Aus year end.
   
   
  
  This is an easy fix as all you have to do is change the date in Rule 32 from 30 June to 31 December.
   
   
  
• Date for the AGMCurrently the Board can set any date as long as it is no later than 5 months after year end. Special Resolution 11 proposes that the AGM be held in conjunction with NATFLY.
   
   
  
  This requires a change to Rule 21 to hold the AGM on "where practical, the Saturday of the annual, national fly-in." We can't say NATFLY because it could one day have its name changed.
   
   
  
• Date for the other General Meeting.Currently the Constitution requires two General Meetings per year: the AGM and a General Meeting at NATFLY. If we are holding the AGM at NATFLY, the other General Meeting needs to move to be about 6 months after the AGM.
   
   
  
  This requires a change to Rule 23 to move the ordinary General Meeting from NATFLY to about the time the AGM is currently held.
   
   
  

So, let's hear your questions and your views on the merits or otherwise of this proposal to have our AGM in conjunction with NATFLY.

In the August edition of Sport Pilot fifteen amendments to the Constitution of RA-Aus have been proposed. It is important that all RA-Aus members have a good look at the changes proposed and make up their mind about whether they are for the betterment of our Association or not and cast their vote accordingly.

Votes may only be cast by voting in person at the AGM at Narromine on 13th September 2013 or by nominating a proxy to vote for them at the AGM.

For the proposed changes to adopted, they require the support of 75% of all votes cast either in person or by proxy. This is, as it should be, a tough test to pass. It ensures that a change is adopted only when an overwhelming majority support the change.

To assist members who are unfamiliar with the Constitution and/or the reasons for, and intent of, the proposed changes, we will have a few separate threads on here where the "before" and "after" picture are listed, the reasons for the change and the effect of the change.

The proposed Special Resolutions range from a self-explanatory correction of a minor "typo" through to a complex change involving changes to three Rules to achieve the stated aim.

You are invited to ask questions and present comments in this thread on the Process of Changing the Constitution.

This can include anything you like from how the Proxy system works to, the Constitution Review Committee to, well, you name it.

I will progressively start other threads so that we can consider particular proposed Special Resolutions separately.

Prior to finalising the draft of the Special Resolutions, they were provided to, amongst others, the Board, the Constitution Review Committee, members of the Restructure Committee and the management of RA-Aus for their review and comment. Some very useful improvements came back and were incorporated in the final version printed in SportPilot. I'd especially like to thank the Constitution Review Committee for their suggestions.