More Bungling by ASPA(Vic) Committee

A “Special General Meeting” was announced in an obscure quarterly publication, which I did not see. When I happened to know about it a few days ago, I attracted the attention of the Secretary to the proper way of calling for general meetings, and the necessity to postpone the proposed meeting, in order to arrange for a proper call of all financial members. I bcc’d most ASPA(Vic) members.

On the morning of the day, I asked a few members about the time they became aware of the meeting. Their replies varied between "What meeting?", "today" and "a few days ago, when I checked tournaments' schedule on the Web." The unconstitutional meeting took place, regardless, while I sat alone sipping coffee in an adjacent room. Here are the details:

From: Mohammed Hegazi

To:      Marj Miller

21 November 2013

Subject: Proposed special general meeting on Sunday 24 November

Dear Secretary,

Please note that the proposed meeting this coming Sunday, under the name “AGM # 2”, is a “Special General Meeting”. Such meeting is unconstitutional under both the new Model Rules and ASPA(Vic) old constitution. In both cases, adequate notice, together with a proper agenda, must be forwarded by the Secretary to all financial members, at least 14 days (21 days if a resolution is sought) before the meeting.

This meeting should be postponed and adequate notice sent to all financial members. Members should be given adequate time to consider the agenda. The meeting itself should have time allocation sufficient for proper debate, rather than a few minutes between games.

Should this meeting proceed without such prior arrangements, I would not be attending it. The rule infringement would be reported to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Regards,

Mohammed Hegazi
Member, ASPA(Vic)

_______________________________________

From: Marj Miller  

To:      Mohammed Hegazi

22 November 2013

Dear Mr Hegazi,

Thank you for your email - I have CC'd the Committee on this reply so that all are aware of your letter, and my reply to you.

The details of this second AGM, including the Agenda, were advertised in the Victorian newsletter mailed to you with your September "Across the Board" magazine, so all members have had sufficient time to propose motions, with the cutoff date for these being October 20th as stated in the notice.

As we have not received any additional items for the Agenda the meeting should not be protracted, but as much time as is needed will be allocated to the meeting.

Regarding the reason for the title of the meeting, and the legality of same, please feel free to discuss this with me on Sunday.

I'm aware that you have BCC'd other members on your email below, so would you now please encourage them to attend this important meeting, and to speak to me on Sunday about any matters which are concerning them,

Kind regards,

Marj Miller

Secretary

ASPA (Vic) Inc.

_______________________________________

From: Mohammed Hegazi

To:      Marj Miller

22 November 2013

Dear Mrs Miller,

“Across the Board” (ATB) is a social medium for exchanging scrabble anecdotes. It has become so poorly edited that many members do not pay much attention to it.

Whatever the case may be with ATB, a notice within its pages is not the legally prescribed method for calling Special General Meetings. According to the Constitution of ASPA(Vic), the legal method is prescribed by the extract below:

5. SPECIAL GENERAL MEETINGS
5.1
The Secretary of the Association, at least 14 days, or if a special resolution has been proposed at least 21 days, before the date fixed for holding a Special General Meeting of the Association, must cause to be sent to each member of the Association, a notice stating the place, date and time of the meeting and the nature of the business to be conducted at the meeting.

5.2
Notice may be sent -
(a) by prepaid post to the address appearing in the Register of Members; or
(b) if the member requests, by facsimile transmission or electronic
transmission.

Therefore, I am boycotting this illegal short meeting, and encourage other ASPA(Vic) members to do the same. Members should have much more say in the affairs of the Association. An ad hoc short meeting is not conducive to this end.

Yours sincerely,
Mohammed Hegazi
_______________________________________

From: Marj Miller  

To:      Mohammed Hegazi

22 November 2013

Dear Mr Hegazi,

Thank you for your prompt reply,

Kind regards,

Marj Miller
Secretary
ASPA (Vic) Inc

In the Interim

I apologise for not providing more entertainment for sometime. I hoped to be able to write the finale in the form of a court order to the jokers of ASPA(Vic) committee, but it looks like this will require some more time.

One reason is that my former barrister was a lazy old withered brilliant lawman. To him time was irrelevant. It took him more than a year to produce a letter of demand. He could have taken a couple more years to file the court case. So, I decided to give him the flick, in favour of a Catholic young barrister, with no suspicion of any conflict of interest, since Catholics are definitely not the chosen ones.

Another interesting development is that a reputable national current affairs “Monthly” has shown interest in the incompetence of Carol et al. I will see what I can do for them, without bringing Victorian scrabble into much disrepute. Here is their email:

From: Michael Lucy michaell@themonthly.com.au

Subject: Scrabble case enquiry

1 Nov 2013

Dear Mr Hegazi,

My name is Michael Lucy, of the Monthly magazine. We are a national current affairs magazine.

I am interested in writing an article on your ongoing dispute with the Australian Scrabble Players Association (Victoria). The story as I have read about it on your blog is fascinating, and I believe it deserves a wider audience.

Would you have time to discuss the story at any point in the next week or so?

Kind regards,

--

Michael Lucy
Deputy Editor

The Monthly
37-39 Langridge Street
Collingwood
Victoria 3066
Australia