Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:35 pm
It's easy for me to say what my views are, of course. The hard part will be finding people to actually do the changes, and of course to do so legally - I'm sure that my ideas would not strictly speaking be within the current constitution as it stands. I do not have any experience of pushing wholesale changes like this through and have made enemies when I tried in the past, so I no longer try unless it's to support someone else doing so.RichardCGH wrote:Dilwyn's suggestions sound very reasonable.
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IIRC Rich Mellor was working on a revised constitution (but tat was some time ago.)
Presumably he'd know the legal state of QUANTA - there may need to be a minimum number present at a meeting to wind it up for example.
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Given C-19 and other issues, wouldn't it better to have virtual meetings rather than try to get people to a geographical location for meetings ?
They can be recorded so any members who couldn't attend could see what has been discussed.
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Generally I'd like to ensure the library is maintained as best as possible so progs etc aren't lost.
The QUANTA mags need to be freely accessible as well.
The constitution exists, I have a printed copy. Section 7 explains the AGM quorum etc and section 11 deals with winding up the organisation. I had a look if it's on the website, but it's not there as far as I can see. The list of committee members seems to be up to date on the website. I genuinely hope that we never get to the "winding up" stage, but...
The invitation I had to the meeting this year was to an in-person meeting. Still can't remember if it was a committee meeting or AGM - I'm theoretically still on the committee but have not actively participated since before Covid19. I could have attended by video call, as I have done in the past - certainly the constitution and established practice both cater for participation by electronic means. I *think* the meetings were recorded, but for minutes purposes rather than publication. The trouble is, in the past not many members attended (in person or electronically), it was rare for the attendance to be much more than the minimum required for a valid meeting. Sadly, Quanta is not alone in that respect. There is potentially an issue with how long officers of the organisation can continue in a role, but without volunteers to do the work, it's hard to see how the rules can be adhered to as we go on. I know some organisations I'm also a member of have had these problems over the Covid19 period and the way they coped was to continue using reasonable exceptional circumstances or "special measures" temporarily. If the membership accepted that, it was fine. If anyone objected then you had to go through the "by the book" procedures which would in many cases cause the club or organisation concerned to close down, essentially. We did this with a local group for widowed people and a local crafts group and fortunately we got away with it in both cases, so it allowed the organisations to continue in very difficult circumstances and return to normality when circumstances allowed.
If I'm understanding things properly, there is no longer a membership charge for Quanta. At least there was a proposal before Covid19 times to make it a free membership organisation, as long as you were happy with a PDF magazine, or you could opt to pay to get paper copies - that might have ended up being expensive as the relatively small number of mags printed would probably have shot up in price.
I would just add to close that the views expressed are purely my own, speaking as me the member rather than the committee member that I am in theory.
