Constitution
Existing constitution
NZERN has a written legal constitution, that was last amended in 2004. Since early 2007, a broad and ongoing discussion within NZERN, ERIS and Bush Telly has come up with a series of proposed amendments to the constitution to deal with new challenges by streamlining NZERN and strengthening membership democracy. The 2007 NZERN National Network Conference voted to support all of the proposed changes.
Summary of proposed changes
- Affiliate membership removed (no longer used)
- School membership added (have 23 schools as members)
- Small Business membership defined as 5 or less employees
- “Honorary” removed from Honorary National President, Honorary National Secretary and Honorary National Treasurer
- Regional Representative and Branch Representative replaced by National Councillor
- Each branch now has 1 national councillor. The second and third highest polling candidates become first and second alternate. Any National Councillor who misses more that 2 meetings automatically losses their position. (this is to make sure there is a quorum)
- Editor and Scientific Advisor positions removed
- Advisory Panel, Bush Telly and ERIS to each elect non voting representative with voice to National Council
- Management Committee added as a main section along with who is on it
- Annual National Conference added
- Addendum of branches and representatives removed from bottom of constitution. Now a separate document
- Minor typos, duplication and grammatical errors were fixed. Some clauses were reordered to make it easier to follow.
- A quorum is now a simple majority of elected National Councillors
- Acting national councillors without vote can be appointed to organise a local election.
- The intent is that the National Conference is the top decision making body, then the National Council which can both set policy, and then the National Management Committee which carries out that policy.
- National Council meets 4 times per year, National Management Committee meets monthly.
The proposed new constitution includes all of these amendments and is being proposed for adoption at the NZERN AGM in November 2008.
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