2009 NEMBC Annual General Meeting
Sunday 29 November 2009 • Rydges Hotel on Swanston • Melbourne
The 2009 NEMBC AGM will be held on Sunday the 29th of November, 2009 at the Rydges Hotel on Swanston in Melbourne. Registrations will open at 8:00am for a 9:00am start. This is an election year and there may also be amendments to the constitution proposed, so please book your return flights for as late as possible in the day on Sunday.
Voting Rights
This is an election year for the following positions: Executive, Youth and Women’s Committees, and the Ethnic Grants Advisory Committee (EGAC). The NEMBC Constitution and procedures require that for the purpose of attendance, voting and nominating for office rights, members must be:
- (a) Financial for 2009, not later than the 20th of November 2009, one week before the AGM.
- (b) Represent a program broadcasting regularly, in a language other than English, or a multicultural program that is under the control of an ethnic broadcaster.
- (c) Stations are entitled to one vote for every five financial members, or part thereof: to be eligible for voting rights a station must have at least three financial members of the NEMBC.
- (d) Only those members who have been nominated by their stations or umbrella organisations as voting members are eligible to nominate for Executive and Committee positions and to vote.
- (e) The station or umbrella organisation can give all of its votes to one or more delegates, provided the number of votes does not exceed your station’s or umbrella organisation’s entitlement.
Delegates from full-time ethnic and multicultural stations must be appointed by the ‘governing body’ of the station or umbrella organisation. A letter of appointment, signed by the President, Secretary or Manager, stating the names and number of votes for each delegate, must be delivered by 5pm on Saturday the 28th of November 2009 to the NEMBC Secretary either via mail to PO Box 1144, Collingwood VIC 3066, fax to (03) 9486 9547, email to admin@nembc.org.au or in person.
A pro forma Letter of Appointment for station delegates can be downloaded here in Microsoft Word format or here in Adobe PDF format.
Please note that for general access stations the member programs can come together and appoint their voting delegate(s). For further advice and assistance on this please contact the NEMBC secretariat.
Elections will be conducted for the following positions, in this order (with the numbers to be elected in brackets):
- President (1)
- Vice-President (1)
- Executive (7)
- Women’s Committee (8)
- Youth Committee (8)
- EGAC Chairperson (1)
- EGAC Committee (2 + 1 alternate member)
For the executive, no more than two (2) members can be elected from the same state or territory (there is no requirement to have a minimum of one representative). However, for the youth and women's committees, one member is required from each state or territory.
A voting member is a representative of a program group who is a financial member of the NEMBC (6.3) who has been appointed by letter by the governing body of a full-time or multicultural station (6.5). For all voting purposes, only delegates of financial members who have been nominated by their station or umbrella body as voting members can vote or be nominated.
Nominations for all positions close at 5:00pm Saturday 28 November 2009.
For some time now there has been a Constitutional Sub-Committee looking at improving the constitution and it will be presenting some proposed changes at this AGM. The proposed constitutional amendments are not dealing with major issues, such as voting rights, but are an attempt to improve the language and some of the meaning and structure of the constitution while maintaining the same definitions. In September 2009 the Committee distributed to the members the first draft for feedback. Please respond by Monday 5 October 2009. The feedback from members will be crucial in putting forward the final document for approval.
The proposed changes will be sent out to all members 30 days before the AGM and there will be a workshop at the conference on the 28th of November with the NEMBC and Constitutional Subcommittee to explain the changes. Voting will then take part on the proposed amendments on Sunday morning the 29th of November. Voting will be done in sections. If you would like more information please call the Secretariat on 03 9486 9549.
Please click here to download a copy of the NEMBC's current constitution.
Please click here to download details and an explanation of the proposed amendments. Please note this is a draft document which has been sent to members for their feedback.
Please provide your feedback to the NEMBC Secretariat by Monday the 5th of October 2009. This feedback will be very important in developing the final draft of the proposed amendments, which will be sent out to members in late October and voted upon at the AGM on 29 November 2009.
