Our AGM
Posted by admin on 16 Nov 2010 at 09:38 am | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Toronto Centre's new elected executive (l to r): Mike Singer, Jason Merling, Ellen Michelson, Mark Daye, Bill Michelson
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The 519 Community Centre, 519 Church Street
6:30-8 p.m.
Please plan to attend.
We will be presenting a new constitution for membership approval,
and
electing our executive for the coming year.
Click Continue Reading to see our constitution draft. Please post comments.
Toronto Centre EDA Constitution
1. The Toronto Centre Federal Green Party Association (the “EDA”) is a subsection of the Green Party of Canada (the “Party”), and is bound by the constitution and bylaws of the party. The purpose of the EDA is to:
1.1 Support and promote the principles, objectives and policies of the Party,
and maintain an effective EDA for that purpose.
1.2 Provide organizational and financial support to the Party’s candidate in the
EDA.
1.3 Raise money to support the fundamental purposes of the Party and the
purposes and activities of the EDA.
2. The EDA is formed pursuant to the provisions of the Canada Elections Act. The boundaries of the EDA are the boundaries of the Electoral District of Toronto Centre, as those boundaries are set from time to time by the Government of Canada. The EDA may not change its name or merge or join with any other political party.
3. All members in good standing of the Party residing within the boundaries of the District of Toronto Centre are members of the EDA. Only those who have been members of the EDA for a minimum of thirty (30) days before the start of a meeting are entitled to vote at a meeting of the EDA. Proxy voting is not permitted.
4. Motions at general meetings shall be passed with a simple majority approval of the members present.
5. The EDA shall hold an annual general meeting (“AGM”) once per calendar year and not more than fifteen months following the previous AGM.
6. Notice of the AGM must be given to all Party members who live in the EDA, a minimum of thirty (30) days before the AGM, by at least one of the following means: email, telephone, Canada Post, hand delivery.
7. A quorum at the AGM shall be the lesser of five (5) percent of the membership or twenty-five members.
8. Notice of amendments to the constitution shall be included in the notice of an AGM, at which the amendments shall be considered. Such amendments may be proposed by any member of at least thirty (30) days’ standing, in writing to the Executive Committee at least sixty (60) days before the AGM.
9. Amendments shall be adopted by a majority of the votes cast at the AGM.
10. The business of the AGM shall include the election of the Executive of the EDA. The Executive shall be the governing body of the EDA until the next AGM.
11. The composition of the Executive shall be constructed as follows:
11.1. The Executive of the EDA, as per Elections Canada regulations, shall be
comprised of:
1.Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and
2. Financial Agent (FA).
11.2. The EDA shall also endeavor to include, as part of the Executive, at least
one of the following:
1. Secretary,
2. Membership Chair,
3. Fundraising Chair,
4. Organizing Chair,
5. Communications Chair.
11.3 As well, up to 4 Members-At-Large may be included.
11.4. The Executive shall not consist of more than eleven members.
12. The quorum for all Executive Committee meetings shall be at least fifty (50) percent of members of the Executive at the time the meeting is called to order. While regular EDA members may attend and participate in Executive meetings, only elected members of the Executive may vote on motions. Motions at Executive Committee meetings will be passed by a vote of Executive Committee members exceeding fifty (50) percent of those present.
13. The Executive, on the approval of two-thirds (2/3) of those present and voting, may remove an Executive member who has missed four (4) consecutive regularly-scheduled meetings of the Executive without reasonable explanation, or whose conduct is judged detrimental to the objectives of the EDA. The removal may only occur at a meeting called for that purpose.
14. In the event of a vacancy on the Executive, the Executive may appoint a
replacement who shall hold office until the position can be filled by election at
the AGM of the EDA.
15. The executive shall appoint an auditor in accordance with Elections Canada
Requirements and the accounts of the EDA shall be audited as required by the
Elections Act.
16. The EDA Executive may appoint a Candidate Nomination Committee for the purpose of recruiting potential nomination contestants. Prior to appointment, committee members must agree to maintain neutrality with respect to the nomination process and all potential nomination contestants and agree not to seek nomination themselves.
17. The EDA shall hold a nomination meeting to select a candidate for the Party in the Electoral District in accordance with nomination contest rules provided by the party, if available, and Elections Canada regulations.
18. All approved nomination contestants shall be invited to attend meetings of the Executive.
19. Any member of the Executive, after filing nomination papers to seek the nomination as a candidate in an upcoming federal election or by-election, shall take a leave of absence as an Executive member, and may only resume duties as a voting member once the nomination process has concluded.
20. In the event the membership of an EDA and/or its Executive wish to replace a nominated candidate, a meeting of the membership may be called in accordance with rules provided by the Party, if available.
I’m not actually in your district
, nor am I familiar with how the EDA AGMs work.
I notice that the constitution provides minimum requirements on the amount of notice for amendments to the constitution, relative to the AGM. I don’t see any minimum requirements on the notice for the AGM itself though, so it is unclear how the constitution amendment process is intended to work.
Does a member propose amendments to the constitution whenever she feels like it, provided an AGM is not scheduled in the next 60 days, or does a member wait for an AGM to be scheduled and then propose constitution amendments? In the first case, it would seem that AGM notice should be at least 60 days, so that the Exec can’t “cut-off” amendments by calling a meeting on short notice to invalidate the request for an amendment. In the second case, notice needs to be more than 60 days, so that members have a chance to propose amendments before the 60 limit.
Thanks very much for pointing that out.
Just this afternoon, at our monthly EDA exec meeting, we agreed on an addition, which is now 6. in the draft. I think the 60 days/30 days difference is to give time to include in the AGM notice of meeting info about any amendments that have been proposed. If a change is needed and an amendment can’t be scheduled because of the situation you’ve described, the EDA exec can pass a motion to be in effect till the next AGM, when the amendment can be presented for voting. Any member can attend EDA exec meetings, and unless the executive has its full complement of members, any member who wishes to serve can be added. If an issue somehow develops on which consensus can’t be reached, the EDA can seek assistance from Green Party personnel. If our membership votes in this new constitution at our AGM, seeing how well it works for us will be a worthwhile learning experience.
Ok, the process is clearer now.