Advice needed on proxy voting procedure for club AGM

[Katdog]

Due to an unfortunate clash, my club AGM is on at the same time as club racing and a lot of people have chosen to ride their bikes over attending a boring meeting.

The secretary is a bit unclear on proxy voting procedure and suggested that a written vote with license number would be okay. Potentially I could end up with a lot of proxy votes that could change the outcome of some things, so I want to make sure it is done as correctly as possible given that the meeting is tonight. Can anyone help out here?

I would have thought something along the lines of this would be okay:

I (name) of (address), being a fully paid member of (club name), and over the age of 18 years, appoint (proxy name) of (proxy address), being a fully paid member of (club name), as my proxy to vote on my behalf at the (club name) Annual General Meeting to be held on (date).

With regard to the following motions listed in the notice of motions (document name) circulated on (date), my proxy is authorised to vote as follows:

Motion x: For/Against
Motion y: For/Against
Etc

Signature
Name
Date
MTBA License No.
MTBA License expiry

Have I missed anything? Is this overkill?

I guess that normally this would have to go to the secretary some time in advance before the AGM is held, but since the meeting is tonight and no written notice was given to club members of the AGM I figure there is some leverage to bend the rules here and bring along a pile of proxy votes on the day.

Any help appreciated!

 

[leftieant]

Depending on which State your club is incorporated in, you will be probably be operating under some model 'Rules of Association' or similar that are set by the relevant State regulatory body (eg in Vic, it is Consumer Affairs Victoria). There will probably be some info in these rules about proxy voting.

What you are proposing sounds reasonable - however if there are any potentially contentious issues on the agenda for the meeting, do the homework beforehand and make sure you're doing it right, to avoid a disruptive challenge and potentially having to re-vote down the track.

 

[Katdog]

Thanks leftiant!

With a bit of help from Mr Google I found the Model Rules for Incorporated Associations (Victoria) here. There is a form of appointment of a proxy in the appendix which is exactly what I was looking for.

Any idea whether this would apply to Cycling Australia affiliated clubs? Or clubs that cover Road, Track, MTB AND BMX?

 

[akashra]

I think from memory the model rules for a club also say that a member must possess a copy of the constitution.

My first bit of advice would be to ask the club secretary to provide you with a copy of the constitution. If they can't do that, how are they going to properly enforce and adhere to the rules?

Typically, most clubs are going to follow the model rules, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all will.