Notice of extraordinary general meeting
05 April 2023
The Board of the Australasian Sleep Association invites all members to attend a virtual extraordinary general meeting at 5.30pm AEST on
Thursday 27 April.
While all members are invited to attend the meeting, only
Full Members and Emeritus Members are eligible to vote. You can access the
meeting through
this link.
The purpose of the meeting is to consider a special
resolution to amend the association’s Constitution to allow members to vote
electronically for Board directors.
This initiative is part of the Board’s current efforts to
improve the transparency and accountability of how members elect Board
directors. It will allow members to vote for these important roles whether or
not they are able to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held each year
during Sleep DownUnder. It will also help to improve succession planning by
holding the election before the AGM when new directors start their terms of
office.
This proposed constitutional change will work alongside
other initiatives being considered to encourage more members to nominate
themselves for Board vacancies, and create a clearer pathway for committee volunteers
to develop their skills and nominate for Board directorships.
Changing a constitution requires a special resolution at a
general meeting, where 75% or more of members present and eligible to vote
agree to pass the resolution.
What changes are proposed?
You can read the details of the special resolutions in the meeting agenda.
You can also see the changes to the Constitution marked up or read the proposed new Constitution with changes incorporated.
Resolution 1 adds a definition of electronic voting to the
list of definitions as it is used in the new clauses about the election of
directors.
Resolution 2 details the new clauses that permit the use of
electronic voting prior to the annual general meeting for the appointment of
member-elected directors of the association.
During the course of the legal review to make the change to allow
electronic voting, some formatting and numbering inconsistencies were
corrected. These changes have no effect on the content or substance of the
Constitution, they simply correct previous errors or inconsistencies in the
document’s formatting. Resolution 3 simply approves those corrections, which
are marked up in this version of the Constitution.
Proxies
If members eligible to vote are unable to attend the general
meeting, they can complete and return this proxy form by 12 noon on
Tuesday 25 April.
Please contact the CEO, Marcia Balzer, if you have any questions about this meeting or the agenda.