Proposed Alfalfa House Rule Changes, AGM December 2020

Owned by Bruce Diekman
Last updated: Nov 19, 2020
2 min read

C. EXPLANATION of PROPOSED RULE CHANGES

The MC proposes two special resolutions to amend the Rules of the co-operative.

(a) AMENDING THE ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP RULE

Special Resolution: To amend the co-operative’s rules by adopting the draft Active Membership rule.

The MC is proposing that the Active Membership rule be amended to better reflect the Co-op’s practice since 2017, of charging all members an Annual Subscription Fee. At Alfalfa House, ‘active’ membership is necessary to qualify for shop discounts, grants voting rights at official meetings, enables members to serve on the Members’ Council, and more.

 The proposed new ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP RULE is:

1.3B Active membership requirements

In order to establish and maintain active membership of the co-operative, a member must:

(a) Pay any annual subscription set out in rule 3.1; and

(b) Make at least one purchase of products or services from the co-operative in a given calendar year.

The new part (a) above is the only change to our current Active Member rule, which has been in force since 2003.

For reference, Rule 3.1 (Feb. 2020) reads:

3.1    ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

  1. Members must pay an annual subscription of up to $50 plus GST each calendar year or such other amount as determined by the Members’ Council from time to time and announced at the co-operative’s Annual General Meeting.

  2. The annual subscription fee shall be payable in advance within a period determined by the Members’ Council.

  3. The Members’ Council may in its discretion waive all or part of the annual subscription fee and/or extend the payment period for a member or a class of members.

 

(b) OTHER AMENDMENTS TO THE RULES

Special Resolution: To amend the co-operative’s rules by adopting the grammatical, formatting and phrasing changes contained in the draft Rules.

The MC is also proposing a few changes to the Rules to address grammatical errors, formatting errors, and awkward or ambiguous phrasing, some of which were identified at our last AGM.

If passed, these changes will not substantially alter the Rules, but will improve clarity for all members and users of the Rules.

The main proposed changes are:

3.1       ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

  1. Members must pay an annual subscription of up to $50 plus GST each calendar year as determined by the Members’ Council from time to time, and announced at the co-operative’s Annual General Meeting.

[Delete ‘or such other amount’, which made the intention of the rule, to cap subscriptions at $50, ambiguous.]

 

1.3 Purpose

b) provide information on, and promote the use of:

i) low-cost, ethically-produced and minimally-packaged wholefoods,

[clarify the intention under our Purpose rule to provide minimally-packaged products to members]

 

5.2.7 Any active member of the co-operative who has a resolution that requires a decision by the members at a general meeting, must serve written notice of it on the co-operative. [insert the word ‘member’]

A fully track-changed copy of the Draft Rules amendments including the proposed new Active Membership rule, together with our current Rules, are available here.