srcf

SRCF Annual General Meeting 2000
3pm, Sunday 20th February
Winstanley Lecture Hall

1. Matters arising

There were no previous minutes to confirm as this was the inaugural AGM.

2. Chairman's report:

Two machines have been donated; Julian Midgley's (kern) is already
being used, Mark Waller's will be up Real Soon Now.

Jock complained that we hadn't yet done many of the things we set out
to do.

3. Elections

It was moved to hold the elections in the order of importance of the
posts. This was approved by a 5-2 vote.

Much time was devoted to cleaning up Ian Jackson's and Matthew
Vernon's complaints.  Richard Watts was appointed honorary chair of
the meeting at this point by majority of show of hands.

The complaints and subsequent explanations were:

- that Martin Keegan had been acting on behalf of the SRCF when he was
  not authorised to do so (Ian Jackson)

- that Martin Keegan had been acting with the knowledge of Peter Clay
  (Martin Keegan)

- that all the members of the SRCF Committee except Matthew Vernon had
  been aware of Martin's actions.  Peter had not told Matthew because
  he believed that Matthew had resigned as Chairman (Peter Clay)

- that Matthew Vernon had merely offered his resignation, but that it
  had not been accepted or confirmed by the SRCF Committee (Matthew
  Vernon)

After much heated discussion, it was established that the complaints
had been precipitated in part by the deep confusion that had resulted
from ill communication between members of the SRCF Committee.  Ian
retracted his complaint against Martin Keegan, saying that it was now
unclear who was at fault.

Peter Clay and Jock Busuttil apologised for not informing Matthew
about Martin's actions.

Discussion on this subject was formally declared closed. It was noted
that the deletion of email aliases does not assist good communication
(!).

The next point of discussion arose from confusion as to whether the
post 'Chair of Admin Committee' actually existed.  A vote was held on
whether people thought the position of chair of admin committee
existed; 7 votes in favour, 2 votes against, no abstentions.

Martin Keegan wanted it noted that there was confusion between the
elected committee and the admin committee, and that this is a bad
thing.

The process of conducting the elections proper was resumed at this
point. Speeches were given in alphabetical order of candidates'
surnames.

Ian Jackson moved that the elections be run by Single Transferable
Vote (STV) on a show of hands with the candidates absent. 9 votes in
favour, 1 against, 1 abstention.

During the course of the elections, Peter Clay withdrew his candidacy
for all posts which he had contended.

Martin Keegan was elected Chairman by a majority of 6 votes to 5.

Jock Busuttil was elected Secretary after all opposing candidates
withdrew.  

Jonathan Amery also withdrew from candidacy for Junior Treasurer,
leaving no remaining candidates.  Hanna Wallach therefore volunteered
for the post, was seconded by Jonathan Amery and was elected without
opposition.

Jock Busuttil proposed Peter Clay for Publicity Officer.  The proposal
was seconded by Richard Watts after all candidates had withdrawn from
the post.  Peter therefore was elected to the post of Publicity with
no opposition.

The resultant SRCF Committee for 2000-01 was:

Chairman - Martin Keegan
Secretary - Jock Busuttil
Junior Treasurer - Hanna Wallach
Publicity Officer - Peter Clay

4. Resolutions

Ian proposed a working group on identifying and proposing amendments
to the constitution; unanimously accepted.

Matthew proposed a vote of no confidence in Peter Clay as an system
admininstrator. He also asked for an apology (for the deletion of the
email aliases discussed at length earlier), which was given by
Peter. 

With Peter absent from the room for the remainder of the discussions,
the motion was amended at the suggestion of Ian Jackson to a motion of
censure, which was passed with 8 votes for, 1 against, and 2
abstentions.

Given the time constraints on the booking for the room in which the
AGM was being held, it was agreed to continue further discussion to
the newsgroups on the issue of charging for membership and proposed
amendments to the constitution.