draft minutes of the meeting - YHA New Zealand

WELLINGTON BRANCH – YHA NEW ZEALANDDRAFT MINUTES OF 59 th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGHeld at:Reading Room, YHA Hostel Wakefield Street, Wellington on Tuesday 17 July 2012 commencing at19:30 hours.Present:Lorna Adamczyk, Sono Barnes, Ken Geoghegan, Graham Gilder, Barbara Hamilton,Colin Hamilton (Secretary), Barbara Hinkley (Chair), Julie Hooper, Judy Scrivener, Mike Scrivener,Liang Shih (Treasurer), Charles Smith, and Glenda West.Welcome:Barbara welcomed all those present to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance.Apologies:Apologies were received by the Secretary prior to the meeting from Hamish Allardice, Mr GH Boyd,Maria Fray, Margaret Gordon, Elizabeth Hinkley, Heuchan Hobbs, Ian Mackenzie,Herbert (Bill) Morris, Geoff Negus, Gordon Solloway, Sheena Taylor, and Ralph Tonks. The list ofapologies was accepted (Colin Hamilton/Barbara Hinkley).Minutes of previous AGM:The minutes of the 2011 AGM held on 18 July 2011 were read and adopted as a true and accuraterecord (Barbara Hinkley/Mike Scrivener).Matters arising:Colin Hamilton raised the issue of the future structure of the branch noting this was included as anagenda item to be dealt with later in the meeting.Chair’s Report:Barbara read her annual report, this being accepted by the meeting (Barbara Hinkley/Glenda West).The Secretary undertook to pass the Chair’s thanks to the Wellington Hostel manager (ChrisSperring) and National Office for their assistance during the year.Treasurer’s Report:Printed copies of the Treasurer’s Report were made available to all present at the meeting. TheTreasurer verbally presented his report which was accepted (Liang Shih/Colin Hamilton). Incometotalled $606.44 while expenses totalled $151.28 leaving a surplus for the year of $455.16 and abalance of $6,114.99 in the current account and term deposit.Ken Geoghegan asked about a National Office curtailment of branch funding but no one else hadheard anything to this end. A question was asked as to the situation with Stewart Island

- 2 -fundraising, the Chair indicating this had been recommenced after an extended period of inactivitypost the Christchurch earthquake.Notices of motion:There were no such notices received.National Voting Methodology:The National Office letter dated 9 July 2012 on informal or invalid voting problems with the nationalvoting process was circulated and discussed. A variety of points of view were presented with noclear majority view condensing from the discussion.Views put forward included: the need for fixed thresholds somewhat superfluous; changes in thesystem will cause further or new problems having much the same outcome so it would be better toadequately explain the present methodology; the status quo is unacceptable and should be alteredto have a single method used for all voting; ways should be developed to interpret members’ votingresponse where the intent can be reasonably interpreted rather than making the response invalid(e.g. a single tick in just one box should be deemed to be the preferred outcome in the same wayas a 1 and that it should not be necessary to complete a sequence of numbers for all options; andthat the status quo should be maintained.It was agreed that the Secretary would pass the views of the meeting on to National Office by theirdeadline and he would accept further email input through to the end of the weekend.Election of Officers:Chair - the present Chair (Barbara Hinkley) was nominated and elected as therewere no additional nominations (Colin Hamilton/ Liang Shih). Barbara gave notice that shewould be standing down from the committee at the end of the 2012/13 year;Treasurer - the present Treasurer (Liang Shih) was nominated and elected as therewere no additional nominations (Colin Hamilton/Barbara Hinkley); andSecretary - the present Secretary (Colin Hamilton) was nominated and elected as therewere no additional nominations (Barbara Hinkley/Charlie Smith);Committee - the 2011/12 committee of Sono Barnes, Kenneth Geoghegan,Julie Hooper, and Charles Smith were nominated en masse, and with no other nominationsbeing received, were re-elected to the committee (Colin Hamilton/Barbara Hinkley).Ken noted that this would likely be his last year on the committee, a sentiment echoed bythe Secretary, Treasurer, and all the other committee members. The early advice of thissituation was felt to be appropriate to enable the Branch collectively to consider the futurestructure and function along with how to gain a workable committee.Future Branch Structure:Barbara Hinkley outlined her view of the options the Branch had as regards future structure beingthe status quo (if member involvement and support improved in regard to activities and thecommittee), a member group (if support for activities continued but no involvement in thecommittee) or dissolution (if support further declines). Barbara was of the view that National Office

- 3 -support member groups as they do branches and mentioned two new member groups she recalledas being in Invercargill and the Waikato area that were undergoing a renaissance with a new focus(e.g. environmental projects).To aid understanding of what a member group is and how it operates, the Secretary read out therelevant sections of the constitution.A motion was tabled that a formal motion be put to the 2013 AGM for the Branch to change to amember group structure (Mike Scrivener/Ken Geoghegan). This motion was carried unanimously.Liang Shih reminded those present that the agreed motion needed to be notified as a formal noticeof motion when the call is made for such items prior to the 2013 AGM.General Business:Ken Geoghegan reported he had received no formal notification of the AGM or forthcomingmembers’ weekends. The Secretary outlined the steps taken to notify members of the AGM, thisbeing a printed notice to all members who had not notified National Office of an email address, and3 email messages to those who had (being an initial formal message and 2 reminders) . Theproblem appeared to be isolated to Ken. Colin undertook to take the matter up with NationalOffice.Ken was also disappointed with the turnout for the meeting, being 13 out of a total of some 400branch members and commented he felt this reflected badly on the membership and the Branch.Liang Shih questioned how much information about the branches of YHA new members weregiven when they joined and felt National Office should actively promote involvement in branchactivities to these new members. The Secretary would also take this issue up with National Office.The meeting concluded at 20:55 hours.Barbara HinkleyBranch ChairColin HamiltonBranch Secretary