Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015

Transcription

1 Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 An Extraordinary General Meeting of Convocation was held on March 2, 2015 at 7:00 pm at Hui Pun Hing Lecture Hall (LE1), The University of Hong Kong. Present: 35 members in person, 167 members by proxy 1. The Meeting CONFIRMED the Minutes of the Ordinary General Meeting held on June 19, The Meeting HEARD an introduction from the Chairman on the proposed amendments of the Convocation Constitutions and Rules as stated in the explanatory notes published in the EGM Notice. In October 2013, the Constitution and Rules Review sub-committee, was formed for the purpose of overseeing this project of revising and updating the Constitution and Rules of the Convocation. The sub-committee met repeatedly and had made good progress. The sub-committee comprised the Officers, Convenors and Deputy Convenors of the Standing Committee members. The drafted proposed amendments were sent to all Standing Committee members for review and comments by the Chairman at the Standing Committee meetings and by on 19 November, 26 November and 13 December 2014 respectively. Since there were no further comments on the final draft of the proposed amendments to the Constitution and Rules sent to all Standing Committee members on 13 December, 2014, the Chairman directed the Clerk in December 2013 to prepare for the formality to validate the proposed amendments. The Clerk circulated the drafted newspaper advertisement, EGM notice, explanatory notes and all necessary documents to all Standing Committee members to review on 19 January No comments were received on 25 January 2015 and the formal procedure proceeded thereafter. 3. The Chairman EXPLAINED that the ideas of proposing the constitution amendments were to open up the membership of the Standing Committee to new members by increasing rotation and limiting the tenure of SC members; to build in more flexibility for academic staff becoming SC members; to provide a cap on the length of service for each SC member to nine years, with officers serving somewhat longer to facilitate leadership development; to limit the maximum terms of service of SC-elected Court Members, and to take care of some typographical discrepancies. Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 1

2 4. The Chairman MENTIONED that a comment from Ms Winnie LAI (BFin 1998), a Convocation member, on the proposed amendment to Constitution Clause 28 was received on 25 February The Chairman explained that Ms. Lai might have misinterpreted the proposed wordings in a way which did not reflect the original intention, but having considered the further comments expressed, it was intended that the Standing Committee would withdraw the proposed amendment to Clause 28 for further deliberation of the Standing Committee members. 5. The Chairman further MENTIONED that the Convocation member also commented on the proposed amendment to Rule 55 to limit the tenure of elected Court members to a maximum of three terms. In view of the connection of this proposed amendment to the proposed amendment to Clause 28, the Standing Committee would also withdraw the proposed amendment to Rule 55 pending further deliberation. 6. Mr TAI Keen Man (BSc 1977, MPhil 1983) volunteered and was then appointed as the Returning Officer for this Extraordinary General Meeting. 7. The Clerk then announced that there would be three motions to pass: a) Motion to withdraw the proposed amendment to Clause 28; b) Motion to withdraw the proposed amendments to Rule 55; and c) Motion to adopt the remaining proposed amendments to the Convocation Constitution and Rules. 8. Ms Winnie LAI requested that there be a discussion before voting which the Chairman agreed. Ms LAI expressed that not only should Clause 28 and Rule 55 be withdrawn, there were proposed amendments to other clauses which should also be reconsidered. She mentioned the proposed amendments to Clauses 6, 12 and 19 to relax the restrictions that would allow people who have close links to the University or its subsidiaries to stay on the Standing Committee and become officer-bearers, and that this may cause a conflict of interest. She suggested that withdrawal of these clauses should be considered as well. The Chairman explained that such a relaxation would encourage Convocation members with a closer relationship with the University, such as honorary professors and part-time lecturers, to run for election and that would help Convocation s work. 9. Ms LAI remarked that there were two parts under the proposed amendments to Clause 28, one would limit the term of office for membership of the Standing Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 2

3 Committee to three consecutive terms while the other would distract from this by providing flexibility for office-bearers. Thus, if Clause 28 was to be withdrawn, then no Standing Committee member would be subjected to any maximum number of terms and the objective of the proposed amendments to encourage new members to join Standing Committee would be unattainable. Ms Lai expressed her comment that the whole set of proposed amendments was confusing and illogical. 10. Dr Kelvin YEUNG (MPhil 2001, PhD 2005) pointed out that the original Clauses 6, 12 and 19 limited the number of officers, teachers and staff or service providers in receipt of any salary, stipend, fee from the University to be a member or office-bearers of the Standing Committee in order to minimise or reduce any conflict of interests. As such, it would be better for the coverage of the Clause not to be limited just to paid full-time staff only. It was therefore suggested that the proposed amendments to Clauses 6, 12, 19, 25b and 58 be withdrawn. 11. Mr Peter KWAN (MBA 1997) expressed that since the proposed amendments were of a fundamental nature, the Standing Committee should have been consulted at a meeting with a view to submitting any agreed amendments to the OGM rather than an EGM. Mr. Kwan shared Ms. Winnie Lai s view that the amendments to Clause 28 were illogical and unfair to Standing Committee members who were not Officers. The sent by the Clerk on 28 February 2015 before the EGM to be held on 2 March 2015 was to state the Chairman s view to withdraw the amendments to Clause 28, after consideration of the points raised by Ms Winnie LAI on 25 February Mr. Kwan expressed his own view that such last minute action did not have the consensus of the Standing Committee. 12. Mr Alex LAI (BSc(Eng) 1985) noted that the sent by the Chairman the night before the EGM stated that if there was no feedback by noon on the following day, members consent to the withdrawal of the proposed amendments to Clause 28 and 55 would be presumed. Although no SC members objected to the Chairman s proposal, Mr LAI mentioned that the notice to ask members to give their views less than 24 hours before the meeting was unusual. 13. Mr TAI Keen Man suggested that the amendments be gone through item by item. 14. Motion 1: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 2, proposed by Mr Alex LAI and seconded by Mr Alex HUNG. Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 3

4 The motion received 177 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 2 abstentions. The motion 15. Motion 2: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 4c, 4d and 4e, proposed by Dr LEE Ka Yan and seconded by Ms Winnie CHIU. The motion received 194 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 0 abstentions. The motion 16. Motion 3: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 6, 12, 19, and 25, proposed by Dr LEE Kin Hung and seconded by Dr LEE Ka Yan. The motion received 32 FOR, 152 AGAINST, and 9 abstentions. The motion 17. Motion 4: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 27, proposed by Dr LEE Kin Hung and seconded by Mr Alex LAI. The motion received 108 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 86 abstentions. The motion 18. Motion 5: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 28, proposed by Mr SY CHOI and seconded by Mrs Mona TAM. The motion received 0 FOR, 153 AGAINST, and 39 abstentions. The motion 19. Motion 6: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 29b and 29j, proposed by Mr Alex HUNG and seconded by Mr Alex LAI. The motion received 192 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 2 abstentions. The motion 20. Motion 7: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Constitution Clause 29b and 29j, proposed by Mr Alex LAI and seconded by Mr Thomas SO. The motion received 189 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 3 abstentions. The motion Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 4

5 21. Motion 8: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 15, proposed by Dr LEE Ka Yan and seconded by Mr Andrew KUET. The motion received 191 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 2 abstentions. The motion 22. Motion 9: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rules 16a to 16h. Mr Alex LAI asked for the explanation of the amendment made to 16c, the Chairman replied that nothing had actually changed except to bring in more clarity by linking with Clause 35. The motion was proposed by Dr LEE Ka Yan and seconded by Ms Winnie CHIU. The motion received 54 FOR, 62 AGAINST, and 77 abstentions. The motion 23. Motion 10: To adopt the proposed amendments made to the renumbering of Rules 28 to 34, proposed by Dr LEE Kin Hung and seconded by Mr Alex HUNG. The motion received 172 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 21 abstentions. The motion 24. Ms Winnie LAI referred to Clause 30 that the quorum for the transaction of business of the Standing Committee, currently at five, might be too low for a 24 member committee. She suggested that this Clause be reviewed when the whole Constitution is reviewed in future. The Chairman explained that the quorum had always the same but noted her comment. 25. Motion 11: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 54, proposed by Mr SY CHOI and seconded by Dr LEE Ka Yan. The motion received 22 FOR, 158 AGAINST, and 13 abstentions. The motion 26. Motion 12: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 55, proposed by Mr Thomas SO and seconded by Mr Andrew FUNG. The motion received 21 FOR, 81 AGAINST, and 90 abstentions. The motion Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 5

6 27. Motion 13: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 56, proposed by Mr SY CHOI and seconded by Dr LEE Ka Yan. Mr Alex LAI suggested that this might not just involve a typographical error. The Chairman explained that the original wording did not make sense with the word registration, thus the suggestion to amend to resignation. The motion received 32 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 158 abstentions. Since the number voting FOR was more than those voting AGAINST, the motion was then declared PASSED. [Post-meeting notes: In response to a question raised by a Standing Committee member subsequent to the meeting, the Chairman sought advice from the Registrar. The Registrar consulted the University s Legal Counsel who advised that since the Constitution Rules 19 specified that All motions shall be decided by a majority of votes.., it was necessary to secure a majority of affirmative votes to have the motion passed. Therefore, this motion failed to be passed by a majority of votes.] 28. Motion 14: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 58, proposed by Mr SY CHOI and seconded by Mr Andrew FUNG. The motion received 27 FOR, 152 AGAINST, and 11 abstentions. The motion 29. Motion 15: To adopt the proposed amendments made to Rule 60, proposed by Mr SY CHOI and seconded by Dr LEE Kin Hung. The motion received 30 FOR, 64 AGAINST, and 95 abstentions. The motion 30. The Meeting was ADJOURNED at 8:45 pm. Mona Tam Clerk of Convocation March 6, 2015 Minutes of Extraordinary General Meeting held on March 2, 2015 P. 6