Following the feedback from members on the draft constitution published in May, the Committee has finalised the proposed new constitution for NACCAi.
This proposed constitution will now be the subject of a Special Resolution which will be submitted to members to vote on. The Special Resolution vote will be held by an electronic ballot, and voting forms will be emailed today to members who are eligible to vote.
Only members who live or own property in the village area and whose membership fees were paid until June 2020 are eligible to vote. Members who live or own property in the village area and have outstanding membership fees prior to June 2020 will become eligible to vote if they pay their outstanding membership fees before the ballot finishes.
The electronic ballot will remain open for 21 days from today (Friday 17 July) to 9am Friday 7 August.
A copy of the proposed new constitution and a table that compares the key differences with the existing constitution and the proposed constitution are attached.
For the special resolution to be passed, at least 75% of the votes cast must vote to pass the special resolution. If this is not achieved, the special resolution is not passed and we must continue to operate under the existing constitution.
The existing constitution was developed in 1992 and no longer meets the needs of the Association.
The proposed new constitution modernises the existing constitution and incorporates member's preferences from the February and March 2020 constitution forum and survey, and feedback from the draft constitution publicised in May 2020. It maintains the existing area for membership as being the North Arm Cove village area as per members preferences.
The main problems with the existing constitution are:
1. the definition for membership eligibility is confusing, and can be read in two different ways. As an example, it has been argued by some members that under the existing constitution I am not eligible to be a member, even though I have owned my property in the village for 33 years and been a member for over 20 years.
2. the only way a person can cease being a member is if they die, or resign membership, or are expelled from the Association. We currently have nearly 60 unfinancial members, and the Association cannot cancel their membership because they are unfinancial.
3. the committee can terminate a subcommittee without any discussion with the subcommittee's members, or putting it to an ordinary meeting for the members to decide if the termination is warranted.
4. there is no provision for holding ordinary general meetings, or guidance on what they should cover. Ordinary meetings are the backbone of the Association.
The Committee (Bob Reid, Andy MacNaughton and Tim Nolan) strongly recommends that you vote Yes for this Special Resolution.
