Emergency Motion to Change AGM Quorum
- Introductory Statement
- Whereas, without this change to quorum there is a chance that we might not be able to hold General Meetings, a key facet of Participatory Democracy; And Whereas, if we can pass this Emergency Motion early in the 19th GM process, while we have 200, then if we dip below 200 during the 19th AGM, we might have to end the decision-making aspect of the meeting, but at least we will have passed this Emergency Motion, giving subsequent AGMs the chance to attain quorum; And Whereas, if this constitutional amendment is approved by members attending the 19th AGM, then it will only come into effect after it’s been ratified by the members via a mail-out post-AGM ballot, as per Article 10.1.3 of our GPC Constitution.
- Emergency Motion Statement
- Therefore be it resolved that the 19th Annual General Meeting attendees agree to change wording of the constitution Article 8.2 from “A quorum shall be two hundred (200) Members present at a General Meeting who are in good standing, representing at least two regions, as defined in the Bylaws.”. To “A quorum shall be seventy-five (75) Members present at a General Meeting who are in good standing, representing at least two regions, as defined in the Bylaws.”
- Type of Emergency Motion
- A constitutional amendment to change the constitution or bylaws
- Benefit
- This allows the Green Party of Canada to continue to have General Meetings since 75 is a more attainable quorum than 200.
- Who does this motion impact?
- Green Party of Canada Members and our ability to control the Party as per Participatory Democracy at General Meetings.
- Impact on exisiting GPC policy.
- Not applicable (e.g., directive to council, constitutional amendment)
- Green Values
- Participatory Democracy
- Supporting Evidence
- If the 19th General Meeting opens with close to 200 members, we are in danger of dipping below quorum as the meeting progresses.
- Jurisdiction: Is this proposal under federal jurisdiction?
- Unsure or Not applicable (e.g. directives and constitutional changes)
- Please indicate the language the proposal is being submitted in.
- English
This proposal has been rejected because:
This motion failed to meet the 66.6% threshold of support needed to be considered as an emergency motion. Therefore, this motion was not presented for consideration by membership.
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Conversation with Mark D'Gabriel
The intent is understandable, but a reasonable limit is needed to ensure a minority of the party can't highjack policy and direction of the party (no offense or accusation intended against ANYONE). My understanding of quorum is that, if we drop below the quorum limit, we don't lose quorum unless someone in the meeting Calls Quorum, and the threshold is not present. So we could continue our business until then.
Wasn't the previous limit 150 members? Since that was a precedent used, I could see that as a reasonable number.
The previous limit, since at least 2006, was 50. The 18th GM (covid) constitutional change, to make GMs annual, to ensure that members could attend and vote virtually (so in-person GMs couldn't hijack), and to make quorum 200, was presented in the fall of 2020, when were all high on an Annamie Paul win. Things were pretty rough on the GPC after that, and now membership engagement is low, unfortunately. This entire meeting was postponed about 2 hours in our attempts to get 200 quorum. I'm proposing 75, but I'd be open to a friendly amendment. 0.05% of membership? That would put it at 70 at quorum, I think..... Maybe a bit more than 0.05%?
Thank you for the clarification. I completely agree about achieving quorum yesterday, but I feel that this is a basic issue to ensure a democratic process. Would you be open to making the threshold 10% of membership as of the start of the 1st day of the AGM? I think that would be a reasonable number (would be about 140 based on your estimate), but if we can increase membership again, this would rise accordingly.
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