1997 Annual General Meeting Final Report ======================================== Submitted by Andre Ouellette 13 March 1997 A big Thank You to all those people who worked so hard on this year's AGM. Because of you, the Annual General Meeting (1997 Edition) went fairly smoothly. Rosaleen Dickson - Yvonne Dionne - Lisa Donnelly - Jim Elder - Jean-Yves Fortin - Don McCallum - Garth Graham - Roy Hooper - Richard Taylor - Paul Tomblin Recommendations: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a) Translation of AGM documents was a problem. We require more qualified volunteers on the AGM TF. Volunteers should be in place before the AGM begins. b) The Francophone Committee needs to become more deeply involved in the AGM process. We have heard that there is not enough French/bilingual content on NCF, but it seems that our Francophone members are not interested in making this happen. It is up to the Francophone Committee to light the fire under these non-participants and make the changes happen, for the good of the LCN/NCF. c) The AGM voting software should be made accessible in French also. Perhaps now that we have a Francophone Sysadmin, this can become reality by 1998. d) AGM planning should begin in November, at the VERY latest! We are not allowing enough time to work out the kinks and be *really* prepared. e) Since the Secretary has first-hand knowledge of board mandated changes to documents etc., it would seem reasonable for this person to be the Chair of the AGM TF in future. This would alleviate overlapping of work and speed up the changes as well. Having a non-Board person act as the AGM Co-ordinator does not work. f) There are too many AGM newsgroups. This only leads to fractured discussions. Examples: 1) ncf.sub.agm97 - 4 postings - ALL by TF members - Why do we need this group? 2) ncf.agm97.answers - No postings - This group is not necessary 3) ncf.agm97.nominations - 13 postings - This group could be combined with the candidates group 4) ncf.agm.candidates - 7 postings - 5 by J. Turmel - 2 by M. Mason - Combine this group with nominations 5) ncf.agm97.elections - 239 postings - This should be the main focus group for all AGM related questions and commentary 6) ncf.agm97.motions-drafts - 111 postings - Combine with ncf.agm97.motions 7) ncf.agm97.motions - 100 postings - Combine with ncf.agm97.motions.drafts g) Do we really need to continue with Proxy votes? At present, proxy letters must be submitted before the AGM process even begins. Does this really make sense? How many proxy votes did we have this year? Last year? h) The board must take affirmative action in limiting cross-posting to non-relevant discussions groups during future AGMs. i) When do we close AGM discussion groups? I believe that we must keep these groups open for a time, after the actual AGM is concluded, but what is the cut-off point? 2 weeks? 3 weeks? j) Some mechanism must be put into place to scrutinize potential candidates. We say that you cannot run for the board if you are a) under 18 years of age b) bankrupt c) mentally incompetent. That's all well and good, but who investigates to ensure that all candidates abide by these criteria? What is the procedure if one or more candidates violate these terms? ----- My congratulations to the winners in this year's AGM! Michael Mason - Jean Wilmot - Andre Vellino Good luck to all of you. Andre L. Ouellette Coordinator 1997 AGM