Election Rules

At the Board meeting on the 25 November, it was agreed that we would start to draft some Election Rules to cover the election of the Directors at the AGM. Items under discussion are surrounded by [ ]. Please suggest and changes here and on the talk page as appropriate

These Election Rules will be opted under Article 28 and nothing in these rules can contradict anything that is written in the Articles of Association themselves.

The relevant clauses in the Articles of Association include:

14.1 A Director must be a natural person aged 16 years or older except that a person aged under 18 may not be appointed a Director if after their appointment a majority of Directors would be aged under 18.

14.3 The number of Directors shall be not less than three but (unless otherwise determined by ordinary resolution) shall not be subject to any maximum.

16.1 Providing that one or more valid nominations for Directors are received, all Directors shall retire from office at each Annual General Meeting

17.2 No person may be appointed a Director at any general meeting unless (a) he or she is retiring as a Director; or (b) not less than fourteen nor more than thirty-five clear days before the date of the meeting, the charity is given notice

17.4 Where a vacancy has arisen due to the resignation, death or ineligibility of a Director, the remaining Directors may by a unanimous decision at a meeting of the Directors appoint a person who is willing to act to fill the vacancy.

Tellers

The Board shall appoint one or more tellers who will count the votes in accordance with these rules. Candidates for election shall not be eligible to serve as tellers. Where there is any uncertainly arising from the application of these rules, the tellers will decide the most appropriate course of action and their decision shall be final and binding on all parties.

Number of Directors

When the Articles were being drafted, the Board agreed they would put an Ordinary Resolution to the first AGM establishing a maximum number. The interim Board has five directors on the grounds that "A smaller Board is beneficial in the early stages as it helps with certain approvals especially Bank Account opening."

A review of other chapters shows they have:

• Germany: Seven
• Austria: Eight
• France: Nine, and
• Australia: Seven

We have decided that the maximum number of directors will be [insert number]

Voting system

The interim Board was elected using the "" system. When the Board was discussing these Articles the general feeling was that approval voting should be used again, but this would be left to the Election Rules to specify.

We have decided to [adopt the approval voting system again].

Under the approval voting system, the candidates who receive the greatest number of positive votes are elected. For the interim Board, a proviso was added that candidates would only be elected if they received a majority of votes. This means that if fewer than the maximum number of directors got 50% approval, only those that did get more would be elected.

We have decided to [adopt this criteria again].

However, when discussing the articles, it was agreed that there should be an exception to this so that the candidate who receives the most votes will always be elected - even if they don't get more than 50%. The purpose of this proviso is to prevent a situation occurring where all the directors resign at the AGM and no-one is elected in their place, leaving the organisation in legal limbo.

Under Article 20.8, the only thing that director could do is call another General Meeting to elect a new Board.

Therefore, we have decided to [adopt this proviso].

Balloting

The election committee shall send a notice to each member who is entitled to a vote, containing a ballot paper containing a list of candidate names and information regarding their candidacy or a link to such information. This information shall include the information about the candidate specified in Article 17.2 (b)(iii). The notice will instruct the member to vote by putting "Yes" or "No" next to each candidate and will contain details of how to return the ballot and the deadline for returning them. If the candidate is under 18 or qualifies for a reserved seat that fact will be noted.

The notice shall be sent out with between seven and 28 clear days before the AGM in compliance with Article 17.3.

Ballot papers will also be made available to people attending the AGM in person.

Counting

The election committee shall collect all the ballot papers and count them at the AGM.

Stage 1:

The committee will rank the candidates in order of the number of "Yes" votes obtained. No distinction will be made between votes putting "No" next to a candidate and voters leaving a name blank.

Stage 2:

If reserve seat(s) have been created, it shall be filled with the qualifying candidate that receives the highest number of votes.

This shall be repeated until all the reserve seats have been filled. If there are insufficient qualifying candidates, the unfilled reserve seats shall remain unfilled.

Stage 3:

The first regular seat shall be filled with the remaining candidate that receives the highest number of votes. As an exception to this, if that candidate is under 18 and a majority of the seats have, at this stage, been filled by candidates under 18, they will not fill that seat but it will pass to the next placed candidate.

The second regular seat shall be filled with the remaining candidate that receives the highest number of votes and who has also obtained a majority of "Yes" votes. As an exception to this, if that candidate is under 18 and a majority of the seats have, at this stage, been filled by candidates under 18, they will not fill that seat but it will pass to the next placed candidate who has also obtained a majority of "Yes" votes.

This shall be repeated until all the regular seats have been filled. If there are insufficient candidates who receive a majority of "Yes" votes, the unfilled regular seats shall remain unfilled.

Announcement

The teller(s) shall announce the results of the election at the AGM prior to the Ordinary Resolution formally appointing the directors. The announcement will include the names of the candidates, the number of "Yes" votes received, the total number of ballots received and the candidates elected under these rules.

Election system

[Add any other changes to the way the election should be run]