Saturday 23 July 2011

Members' comments on proposed change


Otago Natural History Trust members Paul Earl and Janet Goddard have this to say about the proposed constitutional change:

Re Orokonui. The article on the proposed changes to the Trust deed merely confirms the board's agenda to us.

As we read it, the proposal is this:

The board may invite three appointees. What is to stop them all being representatives of a single pressure group such as the runaka? The rules set no limit. Only a quorum of three elected board members will be needed for endorsement of the appointee/s, so they could all be supporters of the ambitions of the runaka or any other pressure group. There is no control other than by the Memorandum of Understanding, which could easily be designed by, and to benefit, the pressure group (perhaps under threat of withdrawal of their support – the precedent has been set) and be accepted by a quorum of three pressure group sympathisers. There is no process by which the membership can have any input to the MoU.

So, in effect, three elected board members and three unelected appointees, who together can outvote the other board members, could run the ecosanctuary. The three year tenures could simply be rolled over indefinitely, resulting in permanent control of the ecosanctuary by, and for the benefit of, a pressure group. And all this without reference to the membership.