Eligibility Votes - March 2022

[David Deary]

I am more confused than ever.  I have voted on motion 1 on the basis that it was to embed eligibility criteria into the constitution.  Under this new situation, I may (and thinking about it probably would) have voted differently.

Also by the logic expressed previously on this thread, a vote for, or against, motion 1 would amount to exactly the same result.

That is the situation now but in actual fact it was always the case, the EWP motion 1 to amend the constitution was unconstitutional. Advice has been sought from those who wrote the constitution (on my part), I sought advice as did Dougie and the settled position is that the motion as constructed was unconstitutional. The gist of it is that an online poll does not have the standing of a General Meeting. There is a school of thought that had the notification of the vote gone out as an SGM then it would be acceptable, however, without actually having a meeting (virtual, hybrid, in person) I'm not convinced that would be constitutional either. Dougie may wish to add to this but I think it is a fair summary.

For my part, had I noticed this vote was proposed back on 18th March 2022, I would have intervened sooner and spared everyone what has become a bit of a non-event on Motion 1. An SGM could have been constituted and held already to vote on EWP Motion 1. However, I was not aware of this motion until the 7th April 2022 when I first posted here and even then I had to give it some thought. It wasn't until the 8th that I was convinced it was unconstitutional. I still haven't read the 17 pages of discussion before I first posted on this thread, as this was never an issue of the substance for me but one of process. 

I plan on calling a Special General Meeting (SGM) and have informed the CS Executive Committee that I will be bringing forward a meeting on governance. The intention is for this meeting to be hybrid so it gives members the best of both worlds. If anyone has any motions that relate to governance they will have the opportunity to add them as I will post the draft call and motions on the forum before I make the formal submission for an SGM to the Executive.