Petition and Corp Can. complaint solicitation
A wee birdy delivered this to me today. Must be meant for all if I'm in the loop.
Toss it out for discussion:
-------------------- this is the Petition heading:
Petition to the Directors of MAAC
We, the undersigned MAAC members believe that the resolution to terminate the membership of Chuck Smith should be ruled out of order by the President of MAAC for the following reason.
By-laws are not retro active, when by-law # 9 came into effect March 19, 2006 every member of MAAC effectively had a clean slate. Because of this, the action taken by the MAAC Board of Directors can not be justified.
To verify that bylaws are not retro active, a simple phone call can be made to the not for profit section of Corporations Canada
at 1-866-333-5556
Name (print) Signature MAAC # Date
---------------------the following form letter came with the following instructions:
"I've also attached a letter that IF you wish you could fax or email to the address below.
Chuck has worked hard for the Southwest Zone, it is now time for the ZONE to help him
From what I understand this new by-law give the board the power to kick anyone out of MAAC for whatever reason they wish. Today it is Chuck, TOMORROW it could be YOU!!!"
------------- the actual form letter:
Michel Duchesneau
Manager, Compliance and Preliminary Enquiries
Corporations Canada
Dear Sir:
I would like to lodge a complaint in regards to the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada of which I am a member. My complaint is about two new by-laws brought into effect at the Annual General Meeting held on March 19, 2006.
1) Voting practices of the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada, File number 052091-8,
The by-laws that Corporations Canada pre-approved, state, section 37(1) Each director of a National Organization Zone shall represent all members within the zone by exercising voting powers on their behalf. The zone director shall have the number of votes represented by the total number of members within the zone except for zone members who represent themselves at the Annual General Meeting and where open or closed proxies have been so presented.
2) Section 9 Termination of membership.
Any membership may be terminated by special resolution by the Board of Directors.
These two by-laws approved by the membership March 19, 2006 give the Board of Directors powers, which far exceed the authority any Board of Directors should have. Consequentially they have been used in a vindictive manner against one Charles Smith, also a member of the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada.
Complaint number 1. The Model Aeronautics Association of Canada is a nation wide organization. At the time of the Annual General Meeting it had about 6500 paid members. With the voting system as above, if 3249 members would have made the trip to Ottawa from all across Canada, the 3251 votes left in the 13 Board of Directors hands would have had enough votes to out vote the membership that attended the meeting. The motion to remove Mr. C Smith’s membership was not brought up, or was noticed given to any voting member before the March 19 meeting. This shows the above voting system has flaws, when votes are held by Board Members and used to vote on items not given notice of.
Complaint number 2:
Mr. Smith was not given notice of this action prior to the vote. So he was not in attendance to defend himself. It seems out of place to me that a new by-law of such magnitude just happened to be approved at this Annual General Meeting just in time to vote on Mr. Smiths removal from the Association. It seems to me that Mr. Smith should first have a chance to defend himself, and second that a non-involved person be the arbitrator to the outcome. The fact that removing Mr. Smith’s membership in the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada will remove his ability to take part in the hobby of his choice. In this by-law the board of directors now has the power to remove anyone’s membership for any reason. NO reason or just cause given.
Under these conditions, approval by Corporations Canada of these by-laws must not happen.