Ever since the emotions aroused at the Extraordinary General Meeting in October 2003 the voting structure, and in particular the block vote, has come under scrutiny.

The issue was raised openly at the BMC Club Workshop last September – an event set up as part of the Future Policy Review Process. Delegates agreed that change might be needed and agreed to set up a working group to review the voting structure. The Voting Structure Working Group, made up of a range of club representatives agreed at the Club Workshop, duly met in November to consider the issues. After constructive discussion the working group decided to make a number of recommendations to the Future Policy Review Steering Group (FPRSG).

These included changing the Articles of Associations to reflect a “one member one vote” system for all members of BMC affiliated clubs with the proxy voting facility already used by Individual Members of the BMC. Clearly, if adopted this will abolish the clubs’ block vote. It will also give Individual Members of the BMC and members of BMC affiliated clubs equal voting rights. The working group’s recommendations went to FPRSG, which in turn made similar recommendations to the Management Committee with the request that these go out to Area Committees and clubs to discuss and feedback to the Management Committee. If the recommendations are endorsed they will be submitted to the 2005 AGM and if agreed will be fed into a comprehensive review and rewrite of the Articles of Association to be submitted to the 2006 AGM for approval. If you would like to contribute to this process you can do so by attending an Area Meeting. Details of dates can be found here See Summit 32 (page 6) for a report of the 2003 EGM

« Back