[activities] Re: [SLUG] Motion to be put at the AGM: Wind up SLUG

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011, James Polley wrote:
> I’ve drafted the motion I’d like to put at the AGM onto the wiki
> (http://wiki.slug.org.au/windup). The final wording needs to be
> announced 21 days before the AGM, so please submit any feedback you
> have in the next few days.

A couple of things:

Proxies
-------

It seems that this is a motion where many people (myself included) may wish to
have a proxy vote on on their behalf, and it would be good if the returning
officer could take real care with the count, including any proxy votes held.

Membership fees
---------------

"""
In accordance with the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 section 65, I move
that all surplus property be donated to Linux Australia, to be used by them to
support the open source community in the Sydney area.
"""

If I understand correctly, what this means is this:
 (1) the people wishing to vote will need to pay $25 in order to be financial
     for the entirety of 2011
 (2) assuming the motion passes, the organisation they paid $25 to join
     (support) for an entire year will shortly be wound up

I don't know if it is legally appropriate, and it might not be financially
viable if SLUG has to renew its insurance one more time (I don't recall when
your renewal date is), but perhaps this clause of the motion could be amended
to state that the balance of people's 2011 membership fees will be refunded pro
rata at the wind up of the organisation, or similar? At least on request? It
may be that for various reasons people do not want to pay $25 to join SLUG and
then have most of it eventually donated to Linux Australia. (Especially, but
not only, if they are paying $25 primarily to vote against the motion.)

An alternative might be radically lowering the membership fee for 2011, to,
say, $1 or so, or even making it free. I *think* the constitution allows for
this although your AGM notice has already stated a higher amount so also
perhaps not. This has merits for making this vote about SLUG's future more
accessible to the entire community, but probably isn't viable: if the motion
fails, I assume SLUG can't pay its 2011 insurance premium without those
membership fees.

-Mary
-- 
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