Extraordinary General Meeting

Sunday 7th July ‘24 at 11.00 am

Remits for consideration

Remits to amend the Constitution of the New Plymouth Club Inc. to propose changes to rules:-

• Rule 12.2 re Executive Committee Eligibility
• Rule 12.3 re President/Vice President Eligibility
• Rule 12.3 re voting
• Rule 18 amended
• Rule 20.10 amended

Mover:- Murray Cotter

Seconder:- Mike Topless

Proposed amendments to Rules of the Club constitution dated 1 August 2023 as follows:

1. Rule 12.2 to read as follows:

“Eligibility: Each Executive Committee member must:

a) be a financial member of the Club;

b) Not be a Junior or Youth Member;

c) Not be an employee of the Club;”

This removes the requirement to be a member for 2 consecutive years.

The rationale here is that we want to encourage some of the newer and younger members of the Club out of the 6000 new members since the 2023 AGM to make themselves available for the Committee.

2. Rule 12.3 to be amended as follows:

A). Delete “Any member standing for Executive Committee must have been a Club member for two (2) consecutive years immediately prior to the Annual General Meeting.”

Links with change to Rule 12.2 above

B) Reword paragraph re President & Vice President eligibility to:

“Any member standing for the position of President or Vice President must have served at least one (1) year on the Executive Committee of the Club to the date of the AGM, or held a similar position at another Club of like objects etc. This term must have been served within the previous four (4) years."

The four-year period replaces the ten-year period under the current rule which brings the experience nearer to any election for these two roles and therefore makes the experience more relevant as well as reducing the period of qualifying experience as a committee member from two to one year. Allowing someone with similar experience from another organisation opens the opportunity for the Club to have the best available experience and expertise.

3. Rule 12.3 re voting to be amended as follows:

“Manual Voting shall be conducted on the six (6) days immediately preceding the Annual General Meeting, the hours may be set from time to time by the Executive Committee, but basically will be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 9am to 4pm, Thursday, Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 12pm to 6pm. Electronic voting as per Rule 20.10 C will open at 9am on the Monday before the AGM and close at 11am on the Friday before the AGM “

4. Rule 18 to be amended as follows:

d) Voting will be in accordance with Rule 20.10 below.

5. Rule 20.10 to be as amended as follows:

Voting: At any General Meeting:

a) each Ordinary, Senior and Life Member shall be entitled to be present and to give one vote on all questions.

b) voting by those present shall be on show of hands in the first instance;

c) any financial member not attending the General Meeting may vote by electronic means provided that any such votes are received by the Club Manager or any other staff member authorised for the purpose no later than forty eight (48) hours prior to the commencement of the relevant General Meeting. This is subject to the Club having available a suitable electronic voting system.

No person voting by electronic means shall be otherwise entitled nor permitted to vote by any other means at the relevant General Meeting.

d) Votes under b) and c) will be combined to determine the result of the vote.

e) a declaration by the Chairman as to the result shall be conclusive unless a motion that the vote by those present shall be taken by secret ballot is passed by a majority of Members present; and

f) in the event of equal votes being cast, the Chairman shall have a casting vote:

g) each Junior, Youth, Country and Introductory member shall be entitled to attend and General Meeting. Speaking rights may be granted by the Chairman on any particular item to such members but they will not have a right to vote.

Amendments 3-5 above allows for the introduction of electronic voting. With over 10,000 members the introduction of electronic voting gives the opportunity to have more members involved in the Club’s democratic process.