True Story

What happens when a club or association has an Annual General Meeting (AGM) at which there are no nominees for President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer?

This is exact situation happened at the AGM of a soccer club (which cannot be named) in December 2006. Will there be a happy ending? We'll have to wait and see! The story is in progress at the moment

At the AGM, someone did put themselves forward 'from the floor' for the position of Secretary. This someone had done the Secretary job before. Normally the process of nominating for a position on the committee requires a nomination form to be completed and lodged with the secretary 14 days before the AGM.

A person putting themselves forward for a committee position must, according to the constitution of the club, be nominated and seconded by other members of the club. However, if there are no nominees for a position at an AGM, the chairperson can, according to the club's constitution, call for nominees 'from the floor'. This terminology 'from the floor' means someone who is present at the AGM.

At the particular AGM in question, the few members gathered asked questions about what had been done by the committee to publicise the date and time of the AGM. It was suggested, probably quite correctly, that the small number of members gathered at the meeting was due in large part to the very limited attempts made by the committee to publicise the AGM to the membership.

All that had been done to publicise the AGM was one notice in the local paper, and a mention in the club's newsletter about two months prior. The chair of the AGM stated he believed that a mailout to all members should have been carried out. However, the outgoing secretary complained that this had been done previously at a cost of $800 and had not brought any additional attendance at the previous AGM.

Whether a mailout was a waste of time or not, is a moot question. A failure to ensure that club members receive a notice of the AGM is indefensible.

However, one cannot say with any certainty that more people attending the AGM would have made any difference to the lack of nominees for Executive positions on the committee.

In order to raise more interest in being a committee member, the following proposal was put out by a committee member just after the AGM:

Proposal

Anyone who takes on a position of Office Bearer (President, Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer) to receive the following package of benefits:

A: Membership and participation in club soccer programs is free to themselves and their immediate family.

B: Honorarium of $1,000 per year

C: Two free tickets to annual presentation evening.

Anyone who takes on a position of Ordinary Committee Member to receive the following package of benefits:

A: Membership and participation in club soccer programs is free to themselves and their immediate family.

B: Honorarium of $250 per year

C: Two free tickets to annual presentation evening.

This proposal was put to committee members on 22 December, 2006.

First answer back:

"I for one oppose 'paying' committee members. It is true that I derive some benefit in that my membership fee is waived, however receiving money for volunteering doesn't sound much like volunteering. Raise fees if we must, and employee professional help to take the load off the committee. I agree we need to move to towards professionalism, I just can't see how we can afford it on our income. I don't believe we are guilty of generating a crisis, more like having a crisis thrust upon us. All voluntary work incurs a cost for the volunteer, it is how much cost one can bear that determines the level of commitment."