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
_______________________________________
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
3 comments:
Mohammed,
Although ‘legally’ you may have every right to do what you are doing, that doesnt make it ‘right’. No wonder trying to get volunteers to fill positions is so difficult and I wouldnt put my hand up for such a position for quids. Remember, these people are volunteers and I really dont think they deserve the pressure/scrutiny that you put them under. Why dont you put your hand up for a position on the committee?
Dear A,
Thank you for your well intentioned feedback. I am sure that you want the best for the Association. As to serving on the committee, I would nominate for the position of “Rules Officer” iff nominations are ever called for in the near future. I believe I can do a much better job helping to simplify rules and make them clearer and less verbose. Personally, I would also nominate any passerby for president, to replace the present incumbent.
The reason vacancies on the committee are not filled is because we have a conniving quartet (M, C, T and N), who have a monopoly on decision making. This is why other dissatisfied committee members have resigned of late.
As far back as I can recall, the committee has always been made up of 10 members. The reason it has been down to only seven is because those four “permanent members” would like to cover up their tracks by hand picking six complementary members who are amenable to automatically put their hands up for passing costly wrong resolutions. Apparently, there is a short supply of such docile members. When did the committee last publicly call for nominations to fill vacancies? We had an AGM mark 1, and another so called AGM#2; did they ever ask for nominations?
I challenge the people you are so ardently defending to declare all positions vacant for a wiser new committee of ten. They can re-nominate if they wished. All positions would fill up in a jiffy. We might then be blessed with a few vibrant new young faces, rather than wait for natural attrition to take care of the problem.
From Harry Malcolm:
Just tell A that:
1) their first sentence is the weakness of their argument, their premise is wrong.
2) that are they by implication accepting bullying (until they or a dear person are victims).
3) It's the committee that are wrecking ASPA Vic, not Mohammed or his supporters.
4) People like A are called 'bystanders" in bullying terms, often regarded as the most at blame for allowing bullying to continue.
5) and tell them Harry said so.
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