On 7 Feb 2011, at 19:52, Geoff Wicks wrote: >> >> Perhaps the entire constitution of Quanta needs altering. >> > > Now where did I hear that recently ;-) > > I once was involved in rewriting an entire constitution. When Works Council > Law was changed in the Netherlands all Works Councils had to rewrite their > constitutions. We had a choice of either doing it ourselves or employing an > outside consultant costing hundreds of pounds. > > As I was the only member of the council with the relevant skills and > experience I was given the job, but at the same time the council appointed > another member to be my mentor to check everything I did. > > In practice I found I could still keep much of the old constitution in the > new one and I suspect that would be much the same in Quanta. There were model > constitutions published and I also had to keep checking the new Works Council > Law. In short in was a bit like "pick 'n' mix". > > Basically Quanta would have to do is: > > 1: Look through the old constitution and get a rough idea of what you would > like to leave in and what you would like to leave out. Then have an extensive > consultation period to determine the main details. Do not rush this - it is > better to take your time than do a quick botched job. (The lesson of the 2005 > amendments.) > > 2: More than one person should be involved in the drafting. It is a bit like > a superbasic program. Few of us could write a superbasic program that is > totally bug free and that also applies to constitutions. Even better if the > draft constitution is proofread by a person or persons not involved in the > drafting. > > 3: Bear in mind that during the drafting matters could arise that need > further consultation or decision by the committee or members. When writing > the works council constitution I had to consult the council on whether we > should have a personal or list voting system and had to prepare a paper on > the merits and demerits of each. > For example in Quanta to maintain continuity the officers currently have a > three year period of office. You could have chosen instead for all committee > members to serve 2 years with one half of the committee to face re-election > in any one year. This is not a decision for the drafters, but the committee > and/or members. > > 4: Publish the draft constitution well in advance to allow time for possible > amendments, comments or objections. > > A very time consuming process, but Quanta may find it worthwhile, >
When I was involved in producing a new constitution we got an expert to produce one "off the shelf". This was, in the main, OK but it had what I thought was a fatal flaw. It required the Committee members to retire after a period of, I think, 3 years and had to wait 1 year before they could be re-elected. I got that altered so that Committee members could stay on indefinitely, subject, of course, to being re-elected every 3 years. My reason for getting that alteration was that I thought it difficult enough to get anyone to do the voluntary work of being a Committee member. I reckon Quanta badly needs that change in the constitution. George _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
