I do see some practical difficulties treating proposals to a council meeting and AGM the same. Normally proposals to a council meeting will be put forward by an officer, a committee, a working group, constituent body or regional council. Sometimes one of the individual or club reps but only occasionally by individuals from the membership who are outside council. Time frames are important here as proposals might come from an officer as a part of his/her report and these just a few days before the meeting. Council addresses ongoing business and matters arising between meetings. Your proposals could seriously handicap council and stretch out issues of importance into the long grass.At an AGM things are different as proposals tend to be instructions from the membership to council to do something or to change the constitution. I think the substance and time frames of each process is different and needs to be treated accordingly.
if you feel Council meetings are another beast
I would suggest that rather than adding a bureaucratic hurdle that the secretary's power be expanded on this issue. This doesn't need any change in constitution or procedures just an acknowledgement that how things were always done isn't a good reason to go on like that. So I'd like to see agendas with prioritisation........This way the secretary has the liberty of taking several similar proposals, taking them back to their initial proposers, refining them and making sure amendments represent clear choices.
I agree that the agenda needs to prioritise real work for the benefit of cavers and not just remain bogged in back room tech disagreements. The Secretary and Chairman should be ensuring that in a meeting, the important business of Access, Conservation, Y&D, Training and Equipment (etc..) be prioritized over the back room management of IT, newsletters, hosting, insurance etc... That's not to say that work is not important, but a caving organisation needs to focus on caving, not IT services.
My idea does not appear to be the way to do it in its current form, but I'm glad I posted it and that it has led to this discussion.
So why not have a "General Administrative Assistant", who needn't be full time, to take some of the workload off the Secretary. This might have the effect of encouraging more people to consider taking on the post of BCA Secretary if they are sure they won't be expected to be superhuman.
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