COMMITTEE MEETING 18 JANUARY 2010 THE FOLLOWING CONSTITUTION EXPLANATION WAS ADOPTED. The Constitution of the QGBOTA is based on management by a Committee elected at the Annual General Meeting.  The rights and functions of the Committee are listed under Section 14 of the Constitution. This Section gives the Committee control of the Association's Assets and Funds The right to interpret the rules and Constitution Borrow Money The Committee may exercise all the powers of the Association, being the power to borrow money, mortgage assets, and lodge funds in approved investments. There is no mention or suggestion that any other body may be involved in these decisions. i Under Section 16 only the Committee may appoint and deal with sub-committees. These aspects of the Constitution are in place so that any democratically elected committee can arrange the affairs of the association. To protect members and to give the Committee the option of placing matters before the full membership, there is a provision to call a General Meeting. These Special General Meetings can only be called under  Section 21(a) and (b) when approved by the Committee. In this financial year the Committee has not approved the holding of any properly convened meeting.  The other protection Members have is that the Committee will call a General Meeting if requested by 10 members.  The request must state: The reason why the meeting is to be held The nature of the business to be transacted, i.e. the motion to be moved Section 23 provides that all Members must be advised of the meeting and the motion of business to be moved.  The committee may decide how the notice is to be given but all Members must be advised.  As only approx. one third of members are on line a notice on the web would not qualify as a notice to all members.  Mail would appear to be the only way of meeting this requirement. There is no provision for General Meetings to conduct general business or to discuss motions that have not been advised under Section 23.  The Constitution may be changed at a properly constituted General Meeting.  The conditions of a General Meeting still have to be met.  The meeting would have to be called by the Committee who agreed to place the motion on the agenda, or at the request of 10 members. It would also be necessary to advise all members of the meeting and advise them the proposed motion. All members then have the opportunity to attend or vote by proxy on the proposed motion. These are rules to protect members interests from splinter groups sneaking through important changes to the Constitution or have motions passed with the full knowledge of all members or the support of the democratically elected committee.  We currently have such a group trying to take control of the Association by means outside the Constitution, The Association has conducted some meetings that have not met these requirements and that are clearly unconstitutional.  These meetings do not have any authority at all and the Committee will review the minutes of these meetings and consider regularising decisions made. There is nothing wrong with a group seeking to control the Association; however they must do so with the knowledge of members and the only way to do so is gain a majority of positions on the Management Committee. I Ralph Chandler move this explanation of the Constitution be confirmed by the Committee and forwarded to all members together with a copy of Standing Orders also adopted by the Committee.