Why no proxy voting for the house group?

As you may know, in the past we have struggled to hold AGM meetings which are quorate, i.e. have >15% of members present.  Even the relatively well attended 2016 AGM was only a few percent over the line.

It has been suggested that we could make things easier for ourselves by accepting proxy votes.

We took some advice about that from the City and were told that to be able to use proxies “there needs to be a provision within your own RTA’s Constitution. If not, you can take a decision at your next meeting as to whether to include it”.

My understanding is that to change the constitution, for example to allow proxy votes, we would need to hold a general meeting and have over 50% of all members voting in favor of the change at the meeting.

... but of course we have a problem getting even 15% of members to attend general meetings.

I'm reminded of a song.

The other option we have is to dissolve the current house group and to form a new one with a new constitution.  If anyone is up for managing that process, please do get in touch.

In the mean time we will continue to offer bribes for attendance (wine & mince pies) at the Christmas AGM meetings, which seems to work.