IOMICA Forum

The Notice of Meeting and Agenda for the 2010 edition of our AGM has been distributed to all World Council members. The meeting, as previously announced, will be conducted on November 15th, 2010.

The Agenda is complete, and attached here. It will also be available via the IOM ICA Web site shortly.

Each resolution will be opened as a topic in teh Forum section 2010 AGM Resolutions. This should aid discussion by keeping the postings that are related together. Please refrain from starting new threads in this section so that we keep the actual resolutions on the front line. As comments are made, the order will become jumbled but the resolution number will be teh topic so it still be fairly easy to find your favorite issues.

Your NCA will be polling you some time between now and teh meeting date to give you teh opportunity to vote on these resolutions.

I'm a little hazy on the regulations, but I see from the agenda that only two officers have been nominated for the Exec (both unopposed). The World Council will only be 'voting' for these two candidates, hence no others will or can be elected, and so the incoming Exec will consist of exactly two persons...?

After last year's election was finally resolved, Alfonso stated that he would run again this year. We have not had any luck with finding a VC Measurement.

So these two will stand for one year and get the election part back on track for all positions next year.

Regulations:
5.3. All Officers shall be elected by the World Council for a term of two years.

So this is an off year filling of positions.

Good question.

Not sure how this works. If the rules say that officers are elected every two years, how can you can have an election now? Regardless, it might have been nice if someone had posted that there would be an election this year and called for nominations. Maybe if that fact had been known others might have stepped forward.

All, and I will repeat ALL, NCA Representatives have known about this for some time. In addition, if you kept track, it is easy to find where Alfonso stated he would run for re-election this year on the tails of the election kerfuffle last year. So for him he has only followed up on what he promised.

For VC Measurement we could simply wait until just after the AGM and then exercise:

Regulations - 6.1. The IOM ICA Executive Committee may co-opt any Registered Owner to fill any vacancy that arises in the Executive Committee. Such person shall remain in office until the next annual meeting of the World Council, and shall act as an Officer for the duration of their office.

I'm guessing you would either be very damn pleased that someone stepped forward to take that position on (one the last Exec were unable to fill I should note) or else you would be incensed that we had underhandedly used the very clear rules of operation somehow.

Although the Regulations do say - 5.3. All Officers shall be elected by the World Council for a term of two years.

It is simple and very obvious that the cycle that has been established since the inception of the class is that the elections are for the entire Executive group and that function takes place in odd numbered years. I didn't make that up, it is what has happened previously.

If you believe that this is somehow all improper, I suggest you contact your NCA representative and have them do whatever it is you wish to have happen.

That is the end of my Secretary's response.

On a personal note, I would say there are a lot bigger fish to fry in among some of the other resolutions.

Barry Fox CAN262 wrote:So this is an off year filling of positions

Hi Barry

OK, I now understand what's happening, thanks!

A few simple points---the current IOMICA Executive has made a major point that it believes in strictly following the class rules as written. Yet, clearly what is being done regarding off year elections does not follow the class rules. Second, IOMICA has a website and forum that used to be a major source of discussion and opinion. Personally, I would hope that a major announcement (the the President is running for re-election in an off year) be made to the entire class via the website/forum. Communicating major information solely to NCA Representatives and not to the class at large feels like a step backwards. Finally, since we are not strictly following the rules, perhaps the Executive should open the agenda for the AGM for the next month or so and allow for nominations for others to run for President and VC Measurement?

Sat Jul 18, 2009 6:15 pm

Seems like that would be advance notice.

"July 18, 2009 6:15 pm. Seems like that would be advance notice."

Nope. A non-official post from over a year ago and nothing on the forum since? The procedure in the past was to officially call for nominations for officers in the initial AGM notice. But none of this matters since there is no provision in the rules for an off year election anyway.

My point is pretty simple--First, if you want to have a real election, you let everyone know that you are running. And second, if you want to govern by the strict letter of the rules (something I don't believe in) you can't selectively ignore the rules at your convenience.

Personal opinion--either open up the AGM for nominations for Chairman and VC Measurement or drop the whole thing and let Alfonso serve out his term per the rules.

It does seem a bit odd - not a word in over 12 months about whether the Chairman would actually stand for re-election (as promised last year), then this ballot announcement that he is running un-opposed. Of course he is running un-opposed - there was never public notification requesting nominations or even that an election was part of this mid-term AGM!

We have no rules/regulations pertaining to mid-term elections - it has not been done in the history of IOMICA.

That being said, I guess if you make up the rules as you go along, might as well make them up to your benefit!

Does doing the right thing the wrong way count?

Hi RoyL and Bruce,

Running for the position of chairman of IOMICA is a decision that you don’t take in 15 minutes while you brush your teeth. Just like an example, and as you know, you need to get the nominations of two members of the World Council and that usually take its time.

So anybody interested and at least with a background of more than one year in the class knew that, at the beginning of my tenure, I promised to run for reelection in the next AGM.

As I always keep my word that is why I didn’t think it was necessary to remember everybody what I already said. If that person had any doubt about it she/he could have asked me in private or in public, but if she/he has a problem with her/his memory I suggest her/him write this kind of things in an agenda and don’t blame me because I didn’t remember her/him the appointment.

Also if that person was so interested it would have been a good idea to talk with her/his NCA representative to know what was going on in the WC.

Then why not let the general membership know about it far enough in advance of the AGM to go through the process of getting a nomination? At this point, the election is a bit of a sham - a one candidate race that was formally announced late enough so as to prevent any other candidates from running.

At this point, why not simply remove it from the ballot? You made your point that over a year ago you promised to run for re-election and you have. The general membership of the class is primarily made up of people that may not know that you "always keep your word" so what would have been the harm of a little public discussion?

Perhaps is was a timing issue.

From one that purports honesty and adherence to rules, this is disappointing behavior from the executive of an organization of this size.

Perhaps we need to revisit the process of how a meeting is called and the various mileposts that are required to make it all official.

There is really no outlined first call for proposals or nominations, which is probably not quite right. The first real requirement is that any resolutions (and from what I see we call elections resolutions) have to be in the Secretary's hand 10 weeks prior to the meeting.

So maybe we need to look at having a formal meeting declaration date set that is some time (maybe another 4 weeks ahead of the meeting when there is an official notice of meeting and invitation for resolutions (including nominations).

Now, I will tell everyone, that every NCA received an email from me on August 16, 2010 as a reminder of the deadlines that were included in the notice published on the ICA Website in May, 2010. And in that email they were informed:

"We will have an election for the office of Chairman. As promised in the aftermath of last year’s elections, Alfonso is standing for re-election this year for a one year term. All other positions remain occupied by the elected representatives we currently have and will come up for election in the normal cycle.

We still have a vacancy for Vice Chairman Measurement and so nominations will be accepted for that position as well.

Nominations for these positions must come from a World Council member and must be in the Secretary’s hands at least 10 weeks before the AGM which puts that at September 6, 2010."

I would hope that the NCA Reps are in touch with their members and do some communicating of any news they have as well.

I will refrain from any further comments or replies on this topic as I am apparently untrustworthy and my attempts to do the right thing only result in "shams". That, by the way, is a complete and personal attack on me. It is completely unwarranted and absolutely unappreciated. Please tell me, to my face, someday, how corrupt and underhanded my actions are. Be prepared to receive a fairly vocal response that will likely be laced with adjectives that will very clearly define how much I appreciate these insinuations.

Barry - let me be the first to apologize to you personally. As the Secretary of the organization you report the actions of the entire EXEC and you feel the that complaints concerning those actions are directed at you. Let me assure you that they are not.

While I feel that the EXEC has generally failed to engage and inform the general membership during its tenure and have posted as such, your posts are pretty much the only window the rest of us have to view the inner workings of our organization.

Silence can be interpreted as either everything is on track and going well, or something's afoot that "they" don't want "us" to be a part of - to which you ascribe depends on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist I guess. If the former is the case, what's the harm in a post informing us of that?

Greg W. and Andy S. tried to make a routine of monthly (or semi-monthly) reports to the general membership. They were well received, disseminated information, kept the membership abreast of what was going on, and generated productive discussions. The present EXEC cannot be too busy to do the same. Might be a nice idea!

Sorry again for making you feel like my posts were directed towards you.

I was going to send you a PM to answer but this is a better forum to say thank you for your words and they are accepted as offered.

It just seems a little heavy sometimes.

PLease note a typographical error in the title only of Resolution 7.5.

The numerals 3 and one, and 4 and 1 were reversed in the original version. But the rest of the resolution is exactly as worded in teh original version.

See attached revision.