Abstract
The current method of electing the College President Elect is set out in the College Memorandum and Articles of Association. Article 15 specifies the constitution of the General Council of the College and Article 20(a) specifies that the Council elect a President from the Fellows of the College. Article 20(a) also specifies that it be for a two-year term, and the general details of the election process.
Following from the resolution passed at the 2002 College AGM, the General Council of the College gave its commitment to consider the option of direct election of the College President. Earlier this year, Fellows completed a ballot offering three alternatives for electing the President, including the current system. However, due to some concerns about procedural ambiguities, the General Council (2003/1) resolved to repeat the process and passed the following recommendation:
‘That General Council recommends that a plebiscite be conducted to determine a single option for change to the method of election of the President-elect. The option will be put as a special resolution at the AGM 2004 irrespective of the response rate from the Fellowship and will be accompanied by any necessary changes to the Articles of Association. If at the AGM this motion does not get 75% of the vote the status quo will remain.’ (GC 2003/1)
General Council delegated the authority to conduct the poll to a sub-committee comprising General Councillors: Margaret Honeyman (NZ), Elsa Bernardi (NSW) and Fiona Hawker (SA) with support from Paul Loughran and Angela Hill (College Secretariat).
To ensure a fair, transparent and independent process, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) were contracted to conduct the poll. The implementation timetable of conducting the poll is shown below.
The VEC posted a total of 2401 ballot packs to College members eligible to vote at the Annual General Meeting. Voters had three weeks to lodge their vote. Details of votes returned each day are also shown below:
The poll closed at 4:00 pm AEST on Thursday 11 September 2003. The VEC nominated a staff member as Returning Officer for the ballot. The VEC invited the College to nominate a maximum of three scrutineers to observe the distribution and count of the vote. Professor Sydney Bloch accepted the invitation on behalf of the case for ‘Direct Election’. Paul Loughran was appointed by the Executive Officers as the College Secretariat representative.
The distribution and counting of votes commenced at 9:00 am on Friday 12 September 2003 and was completed by 10:30 am. The VEC formally declared the results shown below.
Summary
The poll has determined that Option 1, Direct Election of the President Elect by Fellows, is the preferred alternative. In accordance with the process determined by General Council in May 2003, this option will now be put to the Fellowship as a special resolution at the 2004 AGM in Christchurch and will be accompanied by the necessary changes to the College Articles of Association.
General Council will discuss the process to achieve this outcome at the October 2003 meeting. Updates on the progress on this important issue will be available on the College website www.ranzcp.org.