Myths - The Very Colourful E-Bulletin

(I may be boring everyone with facts, but so be it.)

The January 2010 E-Bulletin States:

• A membership meeting was held on November 14, 2009 to consider a proposed bylaw change that would increase the size of the Board of Directors from the current 7 members to a maximum of 15 and to clarify election procedures when more than one candidate was put forward by the voting members from any region. No one spoke against the increase in the size of the board, only that there should be an election first rather than have all the current nominees become directors. The opinions on the regional issue remain diversified and needs further review.

FACT: It was a “Special General Meeting”

FACT:  Nominations were submitted mid-summer.  More nominations than Director Vacancies were, in fact, received . Article V - d and e were REQUIRED to be followed.  They were not.

FACT:
Sep. 11:  request was made for date of AGM
Sep. 15:  second request was made to Drive Canada stating:
“A member must belong to Drive Canada 30 days in advance of the AGM. In order to get the notice of the meeting, they must join 45 days in advance. Nominations for Director must be received by the Secretary 75 days in advance. If the meeting is on November 7, new members have little time to join and Nominations have long since closed. I assume there are not more nominations than there are Director vacancies, otherwise the Secretary will have to send out ballots 60 days prior to the meeting (now past). The website shows the 2008 Directors but I was told that, since they are two year terms, the list is good through 2009. "

Sep. 16: Reply:

“The Board met last evening and has set Saturday, November 14, 2009 for a Special General meeting at 10am and the Annual General Meeting at 1pm. Notice for the meetings will be circulated to all voting members as of September 30, 2009. The number of nomination have not exceeded the anticipated vacancies, so an election is not required. “


“nominations have not exceeded the anticipated vacancies".  Right - anticipated  by  only  eight people.  (The audacity was that after this deception they thought that the rest of the members would roll over and accept an illegal process.)  I do have to admit, given previous subterfuges, we were very stupid and naive to fall for the “anticipated”

Sep. 16:  Request as to purpose of Special General Meeting
Sep. 21:  Second Request made
Sep. 22: Reply:
“The Board is preparing a notice with all the details and will be sent to all voting members on record within the alloted time. We have been waiting for EC to finalize agreement with the provinces and see how that will affect relationships with members in each region and more specifically our driving community. It is in everyone's interest to have all the facts in hand prior to any speculation or e-mail debtates (sic)"

"waiting for EC to finalize agreement with the provinces and see how that will affect relationships with members in each region and more specifically our driving community. It is in everyone's interest to have all the facts in hand prior to any speculation or e-mail debtates" 

- WHAT a red-herring -
the topic of EC's agreements had nothing 

to do with the Special General Meeting & Bylaw Changes

Despite requests, NO  information whatsoever was made available until the 30-day  notices were mailed out on October 15 and the mail being as slow as it is, many did not receive this until October 20 -  21. As an aside - the October E-Bulletin was mailed.


It is interesting to note from the E-Bulletin statement that election procedures needed to be clarified when more than one candidate was put forward by any one region.   The proposed amendment was “when more nominations than Director vacancies in a region have been received “ballots would be mailed to members in that region."

FACT: I worked on the original bylaw amendments, Article V b states that there shall be 6 regions and that members in each region may nominate any other member within their region.
It DOES NOT state that a particular region must have Directors from that region or that members in that region may vote only for a Director in that region.

This was deliberate and I fully supported it.  It was deliberate because at one time in the old CDS,  members in each region elected four Directors - one representative for each of: Combined, Draft, Pleasure, & Recreational Driving plus one additional Director at Large for each 250 members of the Society resident in that region.  Some regions had none or only one or two, In many cases, to say the least - warm bodies were appointed (some people like titles) and those individuals never went to meetings.  Therefore,  a quorum was never achieved and the Executive committee was hamstrung. 

The philosophy was that the regions could put forward nominees, but if there was little or no interest from a region, or if there were some very enthusiastic,  dynamic individuals who were interested, they could be nominated regardless of the region.  There would actually be a universal election - the entire Drive Canada membership would be able to vote including those from regions which had no nominees.

I know many, including the other authors of this blog who hold different views.   I applaud them for their opinions and certainly would never suppress them.

 I can come up with several MythDemeanours in the preceding, but stay tuned for the really interesting ones.