Annual General Body Meeting 2011
Annual General Body meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Reston Regional Library
Reston Meeting Room 1 and 2
11925 Bowman Towne Rd. Reston, VA 20190
Ph: 703-689-2700
Time: 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM
Meeting Start Time: 9:00 AM
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SNOW DATE for Annual General Body meeting will be Saturday, February 19th, 2011.
Oakton Library
Oakton Meeting Room 1 and 2
10304 Lynnhaven Place, Oakton, VA 22124-1785
Ph: 703-242-4020
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Meeting Start Time: 10:00 AM
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Meeting Agenda (Updated as of 01/22/2011):
1. Approval of the Agenda.
2. Approval of minutes of last Annual General Body Meeting held in February 2010.
3. Discuss/review Annual Report and un-audited statement of account for year 2010.
4. Discuss/review Annual Report and audited statement of account for year 2006, 2007 and 2008
5. Election committee report. Formal statement as to the change of administration and the Inauguration of the new President and Executive Committee for year 2011
6. Election of a Trustee and Election Committee.
7. Appointment of an Auditor for Year 2011
8. Appointment of Comptroller.
9. Constitution changes: Following Constitution changes were proposed by Samaj Members last year. Constitution commitee will present their recommendation in AGB.
a. Maximum term limit (3 years or as determined by AGBM) on the number of years a member can be part of the election committee.
b. Members planning to contend for any position must include membership fee for next two or three years along with nomination form or must be life member.
c. Member contending for Treasurer position must be life member of Gujarati Samaj.
d. Membership age to qualify for youth committee will be from 12 – 20 years.
e. Voting eligibility for youth committee positions and for youth convener will be same as regular election.
f. Increase the youth committee members from 5 to 7.
g. Purchase a property (office/town home) for Samaj using existing funds.
h. Review various investment options for Samaj funds.
i. Use Proxy attendance for AGB meeting quorum requirements.
j. Current president should transition Seed money of $10,000 and Operating account of the Gujarati Samaj must be transitioned to incoming president or account must be closed prior to AGB.
k. A member can only nominate 2 other members eligible to contest.
l. Controller should be domiciled in the state of Maryland, Virginia or District of Columbia.
10. Any other matter brought forward with prior notice.
Following Amendment is proposed by Urmi Shah – Vice President:
2009 and 2010 tax return fees should be paid from Gujrati Samaj’s separate accounts. 2011 seed money should only be used for events and other activities of current year.
Following amendments are proposed by Election Committee:
Election committee would like to request a change in by-laws that should be discussed and approved during the upcoming Annual General Body meeting. Election committee recommended this change in by-laws to avoid the actions of the nominated candidates for this year and last year and may be years before that.
Change Request 1: Security Deposit with Nomination form
Any members chooses to be nominated, must send security deposit of $100. This deposit will be a refundable under certain criteria as listed below.
As this is a refundable deposit, the deposit will be refunded regardless of whether the candidate’s nomination is accepted or rejected.
If the election would be necessary, period of 5 days would be given to the candidates to determine if they want to contest or withdraw the nomination. If the candidate chooses to withdraw within the grace period, the deposit would be refunded. If the candidate withdraw after the grace period, the deposit of $100 will be forfeited. If the candidate goes through the election, the deposit would still be refunded.
Only scenario when the deposit would be forfeited would be if the candidate withdraws the nomination after the grace period. For last two years, the nominated candidates have been withdrawing their nominations a just a few days before the election. As this withdrawals are done after election notice was sent out to members, it incurs a lot of cost to Samaj to send out election notice, election hall rental, ballot paper printing. Also, election committee wasted a lot of time to prepare for the elections.
Change Request 2: Election of Youth Committee
From by-laws:
ARTICLE VIII YOUTH COMMITTEE
1. STRUCTURE: Member younger than 24 and the children, brothers, and sisters of the member between
ages 12 and 24 shall elect a youth committee compromising of a convener and four members at the
election to be held on or around the second Saturday of December.
Change the upper limit of the age of youth committee member to age 22.
This is requested for the several reasons:
(1) The other by-law of the Samaj states that the kids below the age of 22 are part of the family membership. Any family member above the age of 22, will have to be a separate member of the Samaj.
(2) One of the reason these young adults would like to be part of youth committee is to benefit from the community service credits. But, there are hardly any kids who are in college at that age and may not be interested in getting the community service credit. Also, if any of the young adults who are still studying and interested in getting the credits may help the Samaj without holding the position and still get the credits for the time they help.