Carers Victoria reform meeting, 29th Oct 7.30pm

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Carers Victoria reform meeting
Thursday 29th October 7.30pm

Hello everyone

There will be a Carers Victoria meeting for those interested in reforming the organisation and nominating for the incoming board on:

Thursday 29th October, 7.30pm. 57 Curzon St, North Melbourne (between Victoria and Queensberry Sts, Tram 57 up Elizabeth St)

Please invite others you know who might be interested. The meeting is to:

Involve everyone who wants to support reform in this important organisation so that we have a real voice of carers in Victoria
Get people together who want to nominate for the incoming board to be elected at the AGM on 24th November

On Monday 5th October, 9 members lodged a request for a Special General Meeting to have all 11 board members stand down at the coming AGM and 11 new faces elected.

The request was rejected by the Board of Carers Victoria. Back in March the Board rejected a similar request and was found in the Magistrates Court on 24th October to have not complied with its Rules.

The Board's rejection of this second request will also be challenged in the Magistrates Court on Thursday 29th October, and we will consider the outcome later that evening. The resolution they rejected is:

“Noting that

(1) On 24th August 2009, Magistrate A.J. Chambers in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court found that the Board of Carers Victoria had failed to comply with its Rules by refusing to call a Special General Meeting in response to a valid request by members; and

(2) On 11th September 2009 in a letter to members, Mr Ben Chodziesner, President of the Board, and Ms Maria Bohan, Chief Executive Officer, misled members about this Court outcome by failing to inform members that the Court had found that the Board had failed to comply with its Rules; and

(3) Rule 7.1 of the Carers Victoria Rules deems a failure to comply with the Rules to be a serious matter and permits the expulsion or suspension of a member or members if they have failed to comply with the Rules; and

4) The 'Model Rules' for Incorporated Associations permits an association in general meeting to remove members of a committee by passing a resolution to "remove any member of the committee before the expiration of the member's term of office and appoint another member in his or her place to hold office until the expiration of the term of the first-mentioned member."

it is therefore resolved that

(a) all eleven members of the Carers Victoria Board are hereby removed from office for failure to comply with and uphold the rules of the association, and their positions declared vacant;

(b) eleven directors shall be elected to fill the eleven vacancies at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting; and

(c) a member shall be appointed by the Special General Meeting to hold the office of President until the forthcoming Annual General Meeting and shall preside at that AGM and stand down at the conclusion of that meeting.”

The Board gave as its reason for not calling a Special General Meeting its view that members do not have the power to remove committee members.

In the Court on Thursday 29th October, we will seek a Court Order which directs that:

"i) members of Carers Victoria in general meeting have the power to remove committee members by resolution in accordance with rule 30(1) of the Model Rules for Incorporated Associations,

(ii) the request for a Special General Meeting lodged on 5th October is valid; and

(iii) the Board of Carers Victoria shall call a Special General Meeting to consider the requested resolution on 24th November 2009 in conjunction with the AGM scheduled for that date."

The deadline for nominations for the incoming Board is 5pm on Monday 2nd November. We want a strong team of carers to nominate to bring a fresh leadership to Carers Victoria - and a leadership which respects its members and doesn't breach its own Rules.

If you are thinking of nominating let us know. If you've never done this before, now is the time to start. We will have nomination forms available on the night, and can fill them in then.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 29th October.

Regards

Vern Hughes
0425 722 890
vern@civilsociety.org.au