Rules:Timeline of Changes

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The rules of Wikimedia Australia were originally based on the model rules as supplied by Consumer Affairs Victoria(CAV) and have been subsequently modified.


19th September 2010

At the 2010-2011 AGM the following rule changes were proposed with the Nominating for more than one office passing and the Corporate affiliates failing to get 75% support... (see AGM Minutes)

Nominating for more than one Office

  • Motion: The committee proposes the Association's Rules are changed as follows:
  1. Replace 23 (2) by: A candidate may nominate for one only of the offices and/or as an ordinary member of the committee, but may only be elected to one position.
  2. Add at the end of 23(6): save that the ballot will be conducted in the order of offices as specified in 21(1) followed by the ordinary members of the committee, with any successful candidate for an office withdrawing, if nominated, from the ballot for ordinary membership of the committee.
  • Rationale: The committee recognizes, that where a member stands for an Office and fails, perhaps narrowly, to be elected, the committee may be losing valuable talent as the member can not be elected to any other Office or as an ordinary member of the committee. The committee discussed various broader proposals that would have allowed a member to stand for more than one Office, but there was no consensus to proceed with them. This motion merely allows a member to stand for one Office and as an ordinary member of the committee, withdrawing from the latter before the counting of votes if successful in the former.

Corporate affiliates

The committee proposes the rules be changed to allow corporate affiliates who would be entitled to attend AGMs but would have no vote.

  • Motion: The committee proposes the Association's Rules are changed as follows:
  1. The proposal is: Add a new clause 4(13): Corporations and other bodies may become affiliates of the association by resolution of the management committee. Affiliates will pay such fees as determined by the management committee. Affiliates may send representatives as observers to General Meetings but they can not vote.
  • Rationale: The committee discussed the whole issue of corporate affiliates and corporate membership, the latter differing from the former by having voting rights. There was no consensus to support the latter at this time, but a clause allowing the former was carried without dissent. It allows the committee to appoint affiliates, but does not force them to do so.

16 April 2011

A Special General Meeting was called for the 16th April 2010 to address the inactivity of the then secretary by declaring the office vacant as per the rules. The meeting also had three rule changes proposed;

  1. change to membership application form to bring it inline with the actually practices of the committee, this passed unopposed
  2. change to electronic voting to bring it inline with the current practices of the Association, this passed unopposed
  3. change to a number of rules to enable a clear definition of what is an inactive committee member and then enable the committee to take action to replace that member, this passed unopposed

The agenda for the SGM can read here with the minutes from that meeting available here.

9 October 2011

At the 2011 Annual General Meeting held on 9 October 2011 two rule changes were proposed in relation to communication during General meetings These two rule amendments relate to Rules 9(5) and 10(9), which state that

"[Special/Annual] General Meetings may, unless a Special Resolution has been proposed, be held by teleconferencing between several centres. Each centre must have a Returning Officer, appointed by the Secretary, to report attendance and numbers voting on each resolution."

conferencing with special resolutions at general meetings

The general meetings of Wikimedia Australia have been conducted with participation using teleconferencing and IRC.

The current rule is interpreted to mean that special resolutions can only be proposed at in-person general meetings, which is not in line with how we have conducted our previous general meetings, which have all had special resolutions proposed.

Proposed changes to 9(5) and 10(9)
Remove ", unless a Special Resolution has been proposed".

conferencing methods at general meetings

The general meetings of Wikimedia Australia have been conducted with participation by IRC, whereas the Rules only indicate that teleconferencing is permitted. There is ongoing discussion about whether participation by IRC is desirable, however it would be beneficial if our Rules permitted it. Rather than specify "IRC", a more generic wording is being proposed.

Proposed changes to 9(5) and 10(9)
Change "teleconferencing" to "voice and text conferencing".

These changes were Carried without dissent see minutes

25 November 2012

During 2012 CAV under went a number of legislative changes both to its enabling act and to the model rules. This then placed a requirement on all incorporated to bodies to either adopt the new model rules or to make changes to their rules to be compliant with the principles of the new rules. Wikimedia Australia chose to later option, at the 2012 AGM a number of changes were proposed for compliance. The first option put to the members was to adopt the new model rules and then hold an SGM to make additional changes as necessary, this was defeated. The next option put forward was to address compliance to CAV's removal of a public officer from its rules and replacement within the Secretary's roll, this was carried with one person opposing.

There was then a proposal to increase the size of the committee from 6 members including the 4 officers to eight 8 members including 4 officers. This came about in recognition issues during the term of the current committee with establishing a quorum due to 2 members being unavailable. These changes were to take effect from the 2013 AGM the motion was passed with 2 people opposing. The final set of proposed rule changes abuot the termination of unfinancial members was a complex series of motions with 4 options and further two alternative for 2 of those. Option 1 passed, Option 2 part 1 failed part 2 was passed, Option 3 part 2 was withdrawn after discussion part 1 was carried with 3 people opposing and Option 4 was not voted on as the discussion failed to reach a proposal.

The minutes relating to these proposals are available at Meeting:2012_AGM/Minutes#Proposals

20th October 2013

A Special General Meeting was held after a proposal from a member to make changes to the rules that could then take effect from the 2013 AGM rather then delaying the affect until 2014. The key principles behind the proposed changes was to enable the newly elected members of the committee to then choose the office bearers and for the elected committee to serve 2 years terms. In addition to this the committee took the opportunity to propose housekeeping changes that had been identified as being required for compliance to the changes in CAV requirements. Proposed Rule Changes;

    1. Changes for Act Compliance
    2. Removal of power to fine
    3. Email address in membership register
    4. Provision of copies of the membership register
    5. Definition of the word "Secretary"
    6. Indirect election of officers and two year terms
      1. Indirect election of officers, and two year terms (Option One)
      2. Indirect election of officers, and two year terms (Option Two) (only if 6.1 failed)
    7. Email notice of general meetings

The link to the details of the Special Resolutions. These changes were voted on with 1,2,3,4 and 7 passing while 5, 6.1 then 6.2 all being defeated, link to the minutes of the SGM

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