EGM / Board Spill

It’s become obvious over the last few days that the club is fractured and in complete disarray.

What mechanisms do we members have at our disposal to call for an extraordinary general meeting? Surely there is a behind-the-scenes push to have a rival ticket challenge the current list of incompetents?

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Elon Musk takeover

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I don’t know, is the club’s constitution available to read on the website? Pretty sure if there is a high enough % of votes from members an EGM can be triggered.

Just reading it now, have seen nothing about an EGM or Speical Resolution…

There has to be some mechanism, surely. That Collingwood supporter last year had Eddie McGuire begging him to not go ahead with a Collingwood EGM after he had gained the requisite number of signatures to call one.

It says that Directors can call a General meeting within 21 days notice and pacify a Special Resultion, however I don’t know if members can. That’s disturbing if so…

If only there was some way of finding information on the internet.

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Anyone here directed some “home” movies? Does that count?

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EFC constitution

10.2 Requisitioned General Meetings

(a) The Directors must call and arrange to hold a General Meeting at the request of Eligible Members as required under the Corporations Act.

(b) The request must:

(1) be in writing;

(2) state any resolution to be proposed at the General Meeting;

(3) be signed by the Eligible Members making the request; and

(4) be given to the Club in accordance with clause 36.3.

(c) The Directors must call a requisitioned General Meeting within 21 days after the request is given to the Club and the General Meeting must be held not later than 2 months after the request is given to the Club.

(d) If the Directors do not call a requisitioned General Meeting within 21 days after the request is given to the Club, Eligible Members with more than 50% of the votes of all Eligible Members who make the request may call and arrange to hold the General Meeting but any such General Meeting must be held not later than 3 months after the request is given to the Club.

36.3 Notice to the Club

Subject to this Constitution, a notice may be given by a Member or Director to the Club by serving it on the Club at, or by sending it by post in a prepaid envelope to, the Office or principal mailing address of the Club or by sending it to the principal fax number or principal electronic address of the Club at the Office.

CORPORATIONS ACT 2001 - SECT 249D

Calling of general meeting by directors when requested by members

(1) The directors of a company must call and arrange to hold a general meeting on the request of members with at least 5% of the votes that may be cast at the general meeting.

(2) The request must:

(a) be in writing; and

(b) state any resolution to be proposed at the meeting; and

(c) be signed by the members making the request; and

(d) be given to the company.

(3) Separate copies of a document setting out the request may be used for signing by members if the wording of the request is identical in each copy.

(4) The percentage of votes that members have is to be worked out as at the midnight before the request is given to the company.

(5) The directors must call the meeting within 21 days after the request is given to the company. The meeting is to be held not later than 2 months after the request is given to the company.

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So essentially can ask for a general meeting, board can decline. If 50% of all members then push for a GM it must be then held within 3 months?

Yeah nah give up aint happening.

Does that mean that if you have 10 people call for a GM, and the board declines, you then need just 6 of those members to demand a GM for it to occur? That’s how it reads to me.

Did that change recently? I looked the rules up a few years ago when the AFL were trying to foist Simon Lethlean on us and the club weren’t pushing back, and I remember the bar being a lot easier to clear than 50% of the entire eligible member base.

But regardless, even if you got an valid petition in front of the board tomorrow, they’ve got three months before they’re obliged to hold the meeting, and by that time, we’re basically at AGM time anyway. Start by getting a couple of good candidates and running them for the end of year board elections.

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Isn’t that 50% just if they refuse to do anything about it? (Which I don’t think would actually happen).

The 5% quoted seems far more realistic

The 50% is of the (minimum 5%) members who have called for the EGM, and only if the club does nothing in response within two months of that request.

Clear as merde

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But is says “50% of the votes of all eligible members that make the request”. That doesn’t sound like you need 50% of the entire membership base.

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Ah yes, i was misreading, apologies for throwing more mud on a muddy situation…

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Wouldn’t happen.

Too many undisclosed and fake members.

Didn’t the club also do some dodgy shennanigans with proxies as well a few years back? Something like defaulting proxy rights to the board?

5% of 85000 is a pretty non-trivial number. Unless you’re in a big coterie you’d need to have a signature drive at a game to even hope to get that many signatures, and there’s only one game left until March.

Regardless, this is all very, very much cart before the horse stuff. If anyone out there is even considering planning or considering hinting at a board spill, your first port of call isn’t to call the meeting, it’s to assemble a credible alternative board. Otherwise you just turn up to an EGM and yell at clouds a lot while the board all sit up on stage and prop their eyelids open with toothpicks to avoid falling asleep, and nothing fkg changes.

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oh alright I’ll give it a go…can’t be that hard

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Fair point.