CURRENT – Branch By-Laws – [Charleswood 100] -Approved 2018
Proposed Amendments
~ The following amendments were unanimously approved at the General Meeting held at the branch 26 Sep 2019, and are currently under review by Provincial Command for approval.
Amendment to [Part 4 – Para 1., e.]
From:
A member shall hold membership in the Branch for a period of one year to be eligible for election to the Branch Executive, and a Member is required to have served two years on the Branch Executive to be eligible to be elected President.
To:
A member shall be a member in good standing within the Branch to be eligible for election to any Branch Executive Position.
Reasoning:
It is becoming more difficult to find quality volunteers for Executive positions. It should be up to the membership to decide through the voting process who it wants on its Executive. Stipulating archaic timelines to determine who is eligible to sit on the Executive was useful when several people were seeking the same position. This is no longer the case, and these timelines artificially tie our hands and potentially could be used against the better interest of the membership and the Branch.
Amendment to [Part 4 – Para 2., c.]
From:
The Executive Committee shall be installed in office immediately following the Elections held at the General Elections Meeting and shall assume office immediately.
To:
The Executive Committee shall be installed in office immediately following the Elections held at the General Elections Meeting and shall assume office on the 1st day of January of the following year.
Reasoning:
Elections are held in November to afford the newly elected Executive member the opportunity to shadow the outgoing Executive member prior to effectively taking over the position on January 1st of the following year.
Amendment to [Part 3 – Para 4.]
Add Paragraph at Para c. (renumbering following paragraphs)
Add Para 4., c. to read:
At minimum, a notice of a Special General Meeting shall be posted on the Branch notice board. Beyond this, social media, and/or electronic distribution (website, e-mail, etc) may also be used to notify members. Due to the possible sensitive natures of some meetings, details of the meeting may be omitted from social media and website posts.
Reasoning:
Part 3 of our by-laws doesn’t clearly lay out how members are to be notified of a Special General Meeting. The Dominion Command Rules of Procedure for Legion Meetings [Special General Meetings – Para d.] dictate in the absence of direction in Branch By-Laws that, “members need to be notified by post or delivered by hand [notice of a Special General Meeting]”, which would incur a significant cost to the Branch if the entire membership is notified utilizing this method. One could anticipate that ‘by post’ means ‘Canada Post’ or similar alternative.
Adding the above para to the By-Laws clearly amplifies the Dominion intent as to how Special General Meetings will be advertised to the membership at zero cost to our Branch.
Mike Purll
2nd Vice President
Branch #04-100 Royal Canadian Legion
Charleswood, Winnipeg, MB