A Last Chance to Decide
This was first published in IWA West Riding's Milepost in June 2106 as a summary of the important constitutonal changes proposed for the 2016 Annual General Meeting, and an update on the result.
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Peter's Waterways Blog
A Last Chance to Decide This was first published in IWA West Riding's Milepost in June 2106 as a summary of the important constitutonal changes proposed for the 2016 Annual General Meeting, and an update on the result. |
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| Hands up those who contributed to the 2015 National AGM. Those who can’t remember could consult the website : here which says “Minutes of the 56th Annual General Meeting ... held at 11.30am on Saturday 26th September 2015 at Salwarpe Village Hall, .... Present: Approximately 70 members...” which is just less than a half of one percent of the members. Or to put it another way, those without their hands up represent ninety-nine and a half percent of our members. |
Challenge to fill the chairs |
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Presentation on Branch Work |
We the trustees are grateful for all the support from our members, and those who pay their membership fees make a valuable contribution to our campaigns for our waterways. To employ our people at Island House we need the commitment of our members to pay their salaries. Thank you all for that commitment.
The Charities Commission expects our trustees to take full responsibility for running IWA as a charity, including analysing all the risks we face. That might include a char-a-banc arriving at the AGM full of members with common intent to change our direction or express ‘no confidence’ in us by rejecting the Annual Report. That’s what can happen in a democratic organisation. But it has to be said, it would be better if the normal attendance of members needed a whole fleet of char-a-bancs to outvote them. |
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The trustees are proposing at the 2016 AGM that significant changes are made to our governing rules (our “Articles of Association” to use the technical term). If agreed, under the current rules needing a 75% majority, then (for example) all subsequent members’ AGM resolutions would be advisory (not mandatory) on the trustees.
Currently each (of the eight) region’s members directly elect their Region Chairman, who automatically becomes a trustee; and nationally all the members together elect nine more National Trustees. From these seventeen, the Trustees themselves appoint our National Chairman |
Audience |
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Presentation on Moorings |
Under the proposed new rules, the trustee board may decide how and by whom Region Chairmen are appointed, and then whether or not any or all of them should become trustees. Trustees may also (or instead) appoint National-Committee Chairmen to be trustees.
There is still a maximum number of seventeen trustees and a minimum of five. Any National Trustees still required will be elected under rules that the Trustees may set (without reference to the AGM). The twelve-year limit to trustees’ service remains, and all trustees will need to be re-elected or re-appointed after serving a maximum of three-and-a-half years. |
| Setting the annual subscriptions will follow these new rules. Currently any increase needs that 75% majority at the national AGM, and under the proposed new rules the trustees will decide subscription rates. There’s a consultation with members ending on 31 May 2016, and with any amendments that the Trustees agree, it’s then up to our members to decide to grant or not to grant the Trustees these new rules. It would be brilliant if we could have lots of members at the AGM and even if you are not able to attend, it’s possible to record your vote by submitting a proxy form as described in Waterways. |
Presentation on WRG vans |
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Presentation of Awards |
For comparison I think Canal and River Trust have become a successful charity running their waterways: they (now) encourage and support volunteers, and they have a growing group of ‘Friends’ who contribute money to the charity while having no role, no voice, no formal vote in how C&RT is run. IWA continues to be a campaigning organisation made up of volunteers working collectively for the waterways. As above, it’s hard to persuade our members to contribute more than their subscriptions, and to help us (the trustees) to run the organisation, if only by contributing their views to our Annual Meeting. This AGM will make a significant step to move IWA towards CRT’s model of governance, and having done that, it would be hard to unravel. It is a Last Chance To Decide |
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This was an update in the November 2016 Milepost, following completion of the Annual General Meeting. At the national AGM I outlined to the eighty members in attendance, a possible way forward for the problem that our IWA branches across the country are weakening. The AGM, with the support of another hundred-odd members voting by proxy (see June 2016 Milepost "Time to Decide"), overwhelmingly endorsed the Trustees' proposal to give us the Trustees the responsibility to decide on our subscription rates without necessarily proposing resolutions to future AGMs. The other 98% of our members didn't express an opinion. In explaining the new rules, I said we could recognise that we are all becoming older, and that if our subscription was about the same as the six pounds per month that Canal and River Trust ask of their 'Friends', IWA could employ more staff to lead the campaigning that makes us the campaigning organisation that we always have been. It's hard to know whether our 98% of members would support a new approach. Peter Scott @peterjohnscott |
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