Having read with interest Geoff Wicks' musings about the errors in
QUANTA's ways, I would like to give you all, the facts that both me and
the QUANTA Committee considered to be in accordance with the current (at
that time) QUANTA Constitution.
I joined the QUANTA Committee in April 2001 - see copy of the minutes of
the A. G. M. for that year - as an ordinary Committee member and was
asked to take on the duties of (head) librarian - there being no other
librarians anyway.
At the A. G. M. in the following year - 2002 - following the resignation
of both Bill Newell and John Taylor I was nominated as Treasurer to the
QUANTA Committee - a post that was amalgamated with that of Membership
Secretary - two posts that were seen to be connected by the payment of
subscription and the handling of QUANTA funds.
Similarly, the posts of Software Controller and Librarian were also
combined - a post undertaken by the then Software Controller John
Gregory which meant that I relinquished my previous role of Librarian.
Early in 2005, QUANTA Committee discussed and then decided that moves
ought to be put in place to limit the length of time served by committee
members (Officers and Ordinary members) with the result that members
were asked to approve Special Resolution No. 1 (Changes to clause 5 of
the QUANTA Constitution) at the A. G. M. in April 2005. The original
discussions on this topic came from comments heard that the QUANTA
Committee were getting stale and had nothing further to offer.The
Resolution was approved and the Constitution was duly updated and
re-issued to all members in February 2006 as Issue 2 Revision 0. This
revision was deemed to be effective from that date.
At the date of the A. G. M. 2009, both John Mason (Chairman) and John
Gilpin (Treasurer), under the new clause 5 of the constitution were due
to stand down and in accordance with Clause 5.5 they, JM & JG, by
agreement decided that John Mason would stand down since he had served
slightly longer than John Gilpin on the Committee without a break.
The following year (April 2010), having served continuously on the
committee since 2001, (over 6 years) and as an officer since 2002 (over
three years), John Gilpin tendered his resignation from the committee
(under clauses 5.2 and 5.4 of the constitution). At this point, April
2010, John Gilpin's QUANTA membership status reverted to that of
Ordinary Member.There were no nominations for the post of
Treasurer/Membership Secretary and immediately following the A. G. M.
the new committee held a meeting where they co-opted John Gilpin
(Ordinary Member) onto the committee under clause 5.8. By agreement of
all concerned, John Gilpin was asked to carry out the duties of
Treasurer/Membership Secretary until "The Next A. G. M." - see clause
5.8. - to see if anyone had decided to take on this role.
One has to pay quite a lot of money to have clauses drafted which are
word perfect with no errors and/or ambiguities by a professional and the
committee having submitted the Special resolution approved at the AGM in
2005 to it's members and having not received any requests to amend the
same the then committee deemed that the suggested modifications were
adequate for the purpose intended - to limit the time served on the
committee to six continuous years for ordinary committee members of
which not more than three continuous years may be served as an officer
With all Geoff Wicks' working experience as an officer of the British
law Courts, surely he could have spotted what he seems to feel are these
anomalies while they were still at committee stage and suggest further
discussion (even if that would have meant putting any ill feeling
between himself and other Committee member(s) in abeyance for a while!)
rather than find objections some six years later.
My suggestion to him and any other QUANTA Members now is this: If there
is anything about QUANTA that you don't understand or that you
disapprove of then drop a line to the Secretary expressing your concerns
and give the Committee the opportunity to discuss the matter(s) instead
of joining the vast majority of QUANTA Members in their apathy. Perhaps
he could also suggest the basis of a Special resolution to be put before
the Members at the coming A. G. M. in April in order to remove what he
feels are errors in the constitution.. What we DON'T want is a document
which is far more wordy and difficult to understand than the one we
already have.
QUANTA's Constitution is NOT written in stone. All it needs is for a
member, be they ordinary member, committee member or Officer, to propose
a Special resolution to be put before the members at a General Meeting
(A. G. M.or Special General Meeting) for approval as has happened on
numerous occasions in the past, but DON'T leave it to someone else to do
and then criticise their efforts because no one else had the guts to get
up and be counted.
To me it seems that those with any views at all on this topic and that
of winding up QUANTA are already voting without being asked or are they
merely offering their fingers to Geoff to be counted?
See you all at the A. G. M. in April for the next thrilling instalment.
Regards to all,
John Gilpin
QUANTA Treasurer.
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