411ninja
Member
Open letter to the EMRA Executive and Members
RE: Postponing the AGM due to Covid restrictions
Proposal: Legally the Executive can postpone the AGM up to six months after the fiscal year. I propose the Executive postpone the AGM and revisit the situation in mid-January and at regular intervals thereafter, until the membership can gather safely.
(The rest of this long-windedness is just the justification for my proposal).
Historically, the AGM has been a great place for rule changes and discussing the coming season. The key is the discussion. In a Zoom environment, because of time and software restraints, we would not be able to discuss and add to these rule changes - they would have to be presented as “live or die”. A room monitor would have to moderate who would speak and how often, making rebuttals difficult. It is rare for a rule change without amendment, therefore it would be impractical to discuss them over Zoom. We would all love it to work, but I just don’t think there is a good probability of fair debate.
While the members would be able to vote on rule changes over Zoom using a poll, this would not work for voting in the executive. These votes have to be anonymous and cross-checked with the members-in-good-standing list. There is software that can do this but it costs both time and money. The logistics of setting up preliminaries and ballots would be a nightmare. In addition, the potential candidates would have to pre-submit their intentions and speeches online.( And you were thinking this is a lot of reading!) That doesn’t include the potential technological glitches.
Finally, we are all in the same boat. Since this pandemic isn’t affecting the EMRA singularly, postponing the AGM is not going to “put us behind the 8 ball”. Therefore, I suggest waiting until we can gather together to discuss the future of this club is the prudent thing to do.
Tricia
RE: Postponing the AGM due to Covid restrictions
Proposal: Legally the Executive can postpone the AGM up to six months after the fiscal year. I propose the Executive postpone the AGM and revisit the situation in mid-January and at regular intervals thereafter, until the membership can gather safely.
(The rest of this long-windedness is just the justification for my proposal).
Historically, the AGM has been a great place for rule changes and discussing the coming season. The key is the discussion. In a Zoom environment, because of time and software restraints, we would not be able to discuss and add to these rule changes - they would have to be presented as “live or die”. A room monitor would have to moderate who would speak and how often, making rebuttals difficult. It is rare for a rule change without amendment, therefore it would be impractical to discuss them over Zoom. We would all love it to work, but I just don’t think there is a good probability of fair debate.
While the members would be able to vote on rule changes over Zoom using a poll, this would not work for voting in the executive. These votes have to be anonymous and cross-checked with the members-in-good-standing list. There is software that can do this but it costs both time and money. The logistics of setting up preliminaries and ballots would be a nightmare. In addition, the potential candidates would have to pre-submit their intentions and speeches online.( And you were thinking this is a lot of reading!) That doesn’t include the potential technological glitches.
Finally, we are all in the same boat. Since this pandemic isn’t affecting the EMRA singularly, postponing the AGM is not going to “put us behind the 8 ball”. Therefore, I suggest waiting until we can gather together to discuss the future of this club is the prudent thing to do.
Tricia