Structure Group Report 2013-01-31
STRUCTURE GROUP REPORT
January 2013
wiki link -http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Structure_Group_Report_2012-01-31
This is a summary of discussions since our last report of 31st December 2012, covering messages 11148 to 11616. Membership stands at 81 (One more than last month).
Getting involved
We are always looking for new people to get involved. All we need is a little of your time. To lead a task you just need to be able to focus discussion a bit and give it a poke if it grinds to a halt. It is important to have new input and fresh opinions so if you don’t feel you could lead a task it is still great to have new people join our discussions. Why don’t you join the group and see what you think?
The topics we have discussed this month are below.
Reps Terms Of Office
The constitution says:
7.3 Elections for Reps will be held annually.
7.4 Reps will serve a term of office of three years.
7.5 At the end of each year at least one third of Reps will stand down from office and/or come to the end of their term of office.
We've got a bit out of step now, because of people stepping down earlier than 3 years. This means we might either have a situation where we do not have a third of Reps reaching the end of their term of office, or (later) might have considerably more than a third (which might be bad for continuity).
What method should we use to get back in step? It seems we will have to make a change to the constitution and we have been discussing what change is needed. We ran two polls:
Poll 1
Question We should propose a change to the constitution that supports:
a. An annual election of Reps, with the aim that at least 1/3 of Reps stand down each year or
b. A fixed term of 3 years office for each Rep, with elections held as necessary to accommodate that. We will have further votes on whether either option should be applied retrospectively and the exact wording for the constitutional amendment.
Choices:
We should have annual elections for Reps: 14 votes. 73%
We should have 3 yr terms of office for Reps: 5 votes. 26%
We should neither of the above options (please explain on this group) 0 votes, 0%
Abstain (please explain on this group) 0 votes, 0%
And then, Poll 2.
Question "This group voted to "propose a change to the constitution that supports an annual election of Reps, with the aim that at least 1/3 of Reps stand down each year". Some members of Structure feel it would be unfair to start this retrospectively as of Dec 2013 because it would mean some Reps would not get to fulfil the complete three year term they were elected to serve. We would therefore like to word this in the constitution so as to bring this new rule in from Dec 2014 so that all present Reps are able to serve their full term."
Choices:
Agree.
Disagree.
Abstain.
This poll is still open and if you wish to vote please join us.
Task 96 - Setting Up a Trading Subsidiary
Central has voted that this group set up a Working Team to look into setting up a Trading Subsidiary. To do that we will first agree a remit for the Team and thereafter appoint team members. Discussion continues...
Child Protection Guidance
We need to come up with a document outlining basic guidelines for moderators and members when working around children in our capacity as Freeglers. This task was transferred to us from People a while ago and after organising a working group it has fallen by the wayside as other tasks have become more urgent. We could really use someone to head this task so if there is anyone out there with a modicum of spare time please come and join us...
If any of the above topics interest you, or if you have proposals about the structure of Freegle to suggest, please do join our group. http://freegle.it/Structure
Task List Our Task List can be viewed at http://freegle.it/StructureTasks
The Coordinator for this group is Jacky (Great Yarmouth) Deputy Coordinator is Peter Johnson (Hunts) and Secretary is Wendy (Woodley) Owners are Jacky, Peter and Wendy.
