Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00193)

Dear friends,

I will speculate a little on what could be the legal basis for the 
postponement of the discussion about the proposed amendments to the 
TS Rules and Regulations. Here are by-laws Rules 4 and 5: 

??????????????

4. Meetings of the General Council

(a) The General Council shall ordinarily meet once a year, at the 
time of the Annual Meeting or Convention of the Society; but a 
special meeting may be called at any time by the President, and a 
meeting shall be called at any time by him, or if not by him, by the 
Secretary, on the written requisition of not less than one-fourth of 
the total number of members; but of such special meetings not less 
than three months' notice shall be given, and the notice shall 
contain a statement of the special business to be laid before the 
meeting.

(b) Whenever, at any time or place, a Convention or other function of 
the Society shall bring together a number of members of the General 
Council, the President at his discretion may call such members to a 
meeting for the purpose of study and discussion of any matters 
concerning the Society that he considers appropriate to lay before 
them. The meeting may then forward to the President its report on 
such matters and may make recommendations thereon. Such meetings 
shall be of a consultative nature without administrative or 
legislative authority, or may be of a legislative nature upon the 
decision of the General Council taken at least one year in advance.

In the event the President does not himself attend such a meeting he 
may appoint the Vice-President or some other member of the General 
Council to preside in his stead.

The President or his Deputy shall give not less than thirty days' 
notice of such meeting to all members of the General Council who may 
be expected to be present at the function that provides occasion for 
the meeting, but all members of the Council shall have the right to 
attend.

5. Resolutions

(a) On the request of any member of the General Council any 
resolution or other item of business proposed by such member shall be 
placed on the Agenda, and circulated with brief supporting 
statements, for consideration at the next meeting of the General 
Council, provided that not less than three months' notice of such 
resolution or item of business shall be given to the Secretary.

(b) At all meetings of the General Council, members thereof may vote 
in person, or in writing, or by proxy duly given to another member of 
the General Council for the particular meeting concerned. Except as 
aforesaid no member shall exercise more than one vote. No member 
shall be allowed to exercise more than 5 proxy votes.
Note: Meetings include adjourned meetings.

?????????????????

We know that the proposal was made according to the Rule 5 but in the 
Rule 4 you probably noticed the following passage: 

?. Such meetings shall be of a consultative nature without 
administrative or legislative authority, or may be of a legislative 
nature upon the decision of the General Council taken at least one 
year in advance.

Although this passage deals with special meetings of the GC it anyway 
opens a possibility for different legal interpretations.

I hope this will help,
Anton


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR <mkr777@...> wrote:
>
> The whole issue of changing the bylaws is barking at the wrong tree.
> Membership has been going downhill all over the world except for 
India and
> none of the GC members are talking about fixing it.
> 
> As I recall there was a message on the internet posted about a 
decade ago
> which mentioned that during Dora's time in the USA there were 8000 
members
> and it dropped to around 4000 during John's time and today still 
hovers
> around that number.
> 
> No one has challenged these numbers, then  or now,  with accurate 
figures
> along with a statistical analysis of the current rentention rate 
just like
> aging analysis on accounts receivable.
> 
> Instead of paying attention to this critical issue, the rule change 
is
> simply a ruse and an attempt by a group to take control of TS 
secretly
> before members found out.
> 
> This is simply are the facts.
> 
> I welcome everyone's comments.
> 
> mkr
> 
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 8:14 AM, Erica Letzerich 
<eletzerich@...>wrote:
> 
> >   The better person to clarify it is Pedro. He is better 
acquainted with
> > the by-laws than me.
> >
> > Erica
> >
> > --- On Wed, 10/8/08, Katinka Hesselink <mail@...<mail%
40katinkahesselink.net>>
> > wrote:
> >
> > From: Katinka Hesselink <mail@...<mail%40katinkahesselink.net>
> > >
> > Subject: Theos-World Getting very tired of this - proposal not 
off the
> > table, voting postponed
> > To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2008, 8:33 AM
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Erica Letzerlich clarified things for me (I guess I can give your 
name
> > as you post here publicly on a regular basis).
> >
> > The issue is NOT that the proposal is off the table. It's that it 
has
> > been postponed till next years general council meeting. This in 
the
> > hope that by then the disappointment over the election results 
will no
> > longer trouble the waters.
> >
> > While I do feel that the organizational structure of the TS could 
do
> > with improvement, I want this specific proposal off the table as 
soon
> > as possible. This insecurity about whether or not we will have our
> > voting rights when the next president is to be elected is not 
good for
> > morale.
> >
> > I have changed the page dedicated to this issue accordingly. So, 
still
> > online (and likely to stay online for a while):
> >
> > http://www.squidoo. com/theosophical -organisation- 08
> >
> > Katinka Hesselink
> > http://www.allconsi dering.com/
> > http://www.katinkah esselink. net/
> > http://www.squidoo. com/katinkahesse link/
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>