Advanced Publication of Motions Aims to Encourage AGM Participation
Under the Engineers and Geoscientists Act (Act), the Association holds an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of its members. The requirements under the Act and bylaws for the conduct of the AGM and the business transacted there are fairly limited: reports are to be provided by the President and the Executive Director on the activities of the past year, and the financial report is to be presented. Members are also provided with an opportunity to ask questions regarding the reports and make motions for Council’s consideration.
Average attendance for the Association’s AGM is usually around 200 members. Considering that APEGBC has over 26,000 members, this is a small percentage of the membership. The AGM is one of the few opportunities for Council to hear directly from the members on issues relevant to the Association’s mandate and for members to debate those issues. Council recently considered how it might encourage both the quality and quantity of member participation at the AGM and made some procedural changes that will take effect this year.
The most significant change is that all proposed motions from members should be submitted to the Governance Committee 30 days in advance of the AGM. The purpose of this is to enable the Association to publish to the membership proposed motions well in advance of the AGM. Currently, motions from members must be made on the floor and are not published in advance of the AGM, leaving little time for members to consider the motions or prepare to debate them. As a result, more time has often been spent altering and amending the wording of hastily drafted motions than debating their merit.
Proposed motions will be referred to the Governance Committee. The Governance Committee will contact the members submitting proposed motions to address any issues with the proposed motion prior to its publication. Information will be provided on the APEGBC website at www.apeg.bc.ca/agm/ on the proper format for motions and how to submit them for review and publication. As before, a mover and a seconder for the motion would still need to be present at the AGM.
By reviewing and publishing the proposed motions in advance of the AGM, members will know what is going to be debated and can decide if they wish to attend the AGM based on that information. Publication of the proposed motions will be on the Association’s website at www.apeg.bc.ca/agm/.
Members may also request a print copy of the motions by contacting the APEGBC office at (604) 430-8035. The deadline for the submission of proposed motions is September 23, 2010. The AGM will be held on Saturday, October 23 at the Whistler Conference Centre, in Whistler, BC. We hope to see you there!