12-08-2013, 09:36 PM
Proxy Votes - a bit of nonsense really. Yes you need to enable people to participate in the agm who simply can not attended but would if it was held local to them or held at a more convenient time, but I suspect those are a minority and that the vast majority of members would not attend under any circumstances but many of those are willing to have their votes used by proxies. The fact that proxy votes are harvested and used as block votes is certainly one of the reasons why the AGM might appear a pointless exercise.
I would suggest that the alternative is that the AGM debate is bradcast live and some voting mechanism is enabled to allow non-attendees to cast their vote in real-time. No need to enable them to comment in real time, after all if you use a proxy you have no ability to comment either. If you can not be bothered to sit at a terminal cast your vote in this manner than tough.
When scanning my emails I came across an email asking me for my proxy vote but seemed to indicate that the proxy would only use it in one way. That is if I were to request that the proxy cast my vote against his/her own vote they would not accept it. I think that this is not right, it suggests a certain lack of moral strength. One must be able to accept that others may disagree with you, and not simply ignore them!
As a non-member this year I have no votes so it is a bit academic!
I would suggest that the alternative is that the AGM debate is bradcast live and some voting mechanism is enabled to allow non-attendees to cast their vote in real-time. No need to enable them to comment in real time, after all if you use a proxy you have no ability to comment either. If you can not be bothered to sit at a terminal cast your vote in this manner than tough.
When scanning my emails I came across an email asking me for my proxy vote but seemed to indicate that the proxy would only use it in one way. That is if I were to request that the proxy cast my vote against his/her own vote they would not accept it. I think that this is not right, it suggests a certain lack of moral strength. One must be able to accept that others may disagree with you, and not simply ignore them!
As a non-member this year I have no votes so it is a bit academic!