No Elections in 2001

The SN May 2000 C&BL (most recent), clearly states that the term of office shall be 1 year. 

There was no membership list mailed out in November 2000, and no Nomination forms mailed out. There is to be no election of officers in February 2001. This is in clear violation of the C&BL. 

The Articles/By-Laws cited below are from the SAC Constitution and By-Laws, revised November 21, 1999 (received with the May 2000 issue of SN). This is the version approved by CKC in August 2000, and our current C&BL.

Please see Constitution Article V - Board of Directors and Term of Office
The term of office shall be one year from May 1st.

Please see Constitution Article VI - Election of Officers and Directors which reads:
1. Election of officers for the forthcoming year shall be held annually during the month of April. Due to the large geographical area covered by the Club, elections shall be held by mail in the manner as laid down in the Club by-laws.

The By-laws can only enhance or expand upon what is laid out in the Constitution. By-Laws cannot effect a change to the Constitution.

Also see By-Laws, Section 3 - Term of Office
The term of office shall be (1) year from May 1st. The President may serve any number of terms to which elected but may not serve more than two terms consecutively. Other officers and Directors may serve any number of terms consecutively or otherwise, to which elected.

Section 4 - Election of Officers and Directors
Subsection 1 - Elections shall be held annually during the month of April. Due to the large geographical area covered by the Club, elections shall be held by mail in the manner as laid down in the Club by-laws. The election of Officers and Directors will occur in alternate years, in the stated order, so as to provide some continuity between Boards. 
Officers are elected one year and Directors the next???  That doesn't agree with the one year term of office which is stated in several places in the Constitution and By-laws. Either way, an election should be held yearly and this wording should be cleaned up. 

Subsection 5 - Nomination forms will be forwarded to all members with the November Sammy News. Nominations shall be filed with the recording Secretary by February 1st and shall include the name and Canadian Kennel Club membership number of the nominee, the names of the nominator and seconder, together with the assurance that the candidate is willing to serve in the office/position for which nominated. The candidate is entitled to submit a bio for publication with the balloting materials sent to the membership.

Subsection 6 and Subsection 7 go on to describe publication of nominees in the February issue of SN along with ballots/envelopes etc. for voting.

There was no membership list and no nomination form sent out with the November issue of SN, therefore ballots cannot be sent out with the February issue. Our Constitution states clearly in several places that there will be an annual election, and also states that the term of office is 1 year, so it seems not holding an election is in direct violation of our Constitution and By-Laws.

CKC Approval of new C&BL???
(Fall, 2000) 

The proposed Constitution and By-laws were approved by ckc on August 23, 2000, in spite of the fact that there was not a 2/3 or 3/4 majority for any of the new sections, in spite of ckc and sac regulations to the contrary.

Letters have been written by members to CKC regarding this matter, and have been ignored.

Non-Publication of letters/opinions of members
in the Club Bulletin
(continuing)

Letters that have been sent to the editor, specifically for publication in Sammy News, have been refused publication. According to our C&BL, it is not up to the Editor or the Executive to decide which letters will be published. Section 8 of the Bylaws states:

"When so desired by a member, the club bulletin shall publish any article or opinion expressed by that member together with that member's name, provided that the intent of such article or opinion falls within the aims of the club."

If an article or letter or opinion concerns club business and the rest of the membership, and that member wants it published for information or discussion, the editor must publish it, unless it contains inappropriate language or outright slander of another member. And those rules should be followed by members of the Executive as well regarding comments they may write and publish concerning club members.

SAC Second Ballot for Election of
Club Officers/Directors
(1999 Elections)

A second set of ballots/envelopes were sent out for our elections this year, NOT only because there was only one envelope sent to each member, as was reported both in Sammy News and in the explanation sent by the President for the reason for the second set of ballots for the election.

The main reason this was required was that many family memberships, who were entitled to TWO votes (two ballots), received only ONE ballot, which is in violation of our Constitution and Bylaws. EACH voting member is entitled to a ballot, not one ballot per family membership. If allowed to go ahead, the election would have been invalid.

This was not a frivolous complaint, and the member who brought this problem to the attention of the Executive was treated unfairly, and the reasons for the new election were reported incorrectly.A letter to the editor (not to the executive) by this member, which explained the reason for the complaint, was refused publication in Sammy News to correctly inform members of the true problem.

There was also no problem with the election of Directors. It was suggested to the Executive, prior to the ballots, that the Province or region be printed on the front of each ballot envelope, so that votes could be checked for proper region for election of Directors. This is the method that was used in past SAC elections for Directors. Instead the Executive used this as another reason for the second election, and decided to use different coloured ballots for each region. This solution worked, but is more expensive for the club and unnecessary.