Coast Silviculture Committee
Structure & By-law review
(the By-laws under the Society Act are at the bottom of the page)
Please read the following and return your comments and suggestions to Michel.Vallee@viu.ca
by the end of May 2011
Preamble
On December 7th, 1960 the Coastal Reforestation Board (CRB) was formed in Victoria, as a sub-committee of the Tree Farm Forestry Committee. In the mid to late 1970’s the CRB was expanding its scope well beyond reforestation and so was converted to the Coastal Silviculture Committee (CSC) who’s mandate extended into all facets of coastal silviculture. Eventually, on June 16th 2000, the CSC was incorporated under the BC Society Act.
Incorporation of the CSC
The CSC was incorporated on June 16th 2000.
The original “Applicants for Incorporation” included Eli Scott, R.P.F., Diane Gertzen, P.Ag, LeRoy Wagner, R.P.F., Allan Powelson, R.P.F., and Lisa Meyer. The first directors of the CSC were Stephen Smith, Colin Buss, Graham Hues, Colene Wood, and Bruce Colquhoun.
The purpose of the CSC, as defined in its charter is to promote through communication and the advancement of education, the exploration and application of appropriate silvicultural practices on the coast of British Columbia.
Bylaws
Section 6 of the Society Act specifies the requirement for bylaws that deal with the following...
· the admission of members, their rights and obligations and when they cease to be in good standing;
· the conditions under which membership ceases and the manner, if any, in which a member may be expelled;
· the procedure for calling general meetings;
· the rights of voting at general meetings, whether proxy voting is allowed, and if proxy voting is allowed, provisions for it;
· the appointment and removal of directors and officers and their duties, powers and remuneration, if any;
· the exercise of borrowing powers;
· the preparation and custody of minutes of meetings of the society and directors.
The Society Act allows for adopting the bylaws provided in Schedule B of the Act. The CSC bylaws are those specified in Schedule B of the Act – Schedule B of the Society Act is appended to this document.
Since incorporation the CSC has maintained the required minimum number of directors (5) and has fulfilled its obligation to hold annual meetings (quorum is 3), maintain proper accounting records, and file annual reports with the registrar of Societies.
Directors and Officers
Section 24 of Part 5, Schedule B of the Society Act, provides for the following Officers of the Society... president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. The CSC has never adopted these positions within its structure. The “bylaws” require that an annual general meeting be chaired by a member of the Society identified at the beginning of each meeting or the president or another officer of the Society; the CSC traditionally adopted the position that the chair of the winter workshop also act as chair of the business meeting. Up to now, Lisa Meyer acted as the secretary/treasurer and chaired business meetings.
Recommendation
The current Winter Workshop Committee recommends that CSC bylaws be amended to include the positions of president, vice president, and secretary/treasurer. The committee feels that the creation of these positions would offer continuity of administration and procedure, greater accountability, and responsibility for initiating workshop organizing committees. Also, in accordance with Part 7 of Schedule B of the Society Act, duties would be a follows:
President – is the chief executive officer of the society and must supervise the other officers in the execution of their duties; presides at all meetings of the society. Specifically, the president would be responsible for identifying, in a timely way, a chair for each of the winter and summer workshops organizing committees. In the event that a chair is not identified, the president would act as chair of the workshop committee.
Vice president – carry out the duties of the president during the president's absence and other responsibilities determined to be appropriate.
Secretary/Treasurer - conduct the correspondence of the society; issue notices of meetings of the society and directors; keep minutes of all meetings of the society and directors; have custody of all records and documents of the society except those required to be kept by the treasurer; maintain the register of members; have custody of the common seal of the society; keep the financial records, including books of account, necessary to comply with the Society Act, and render financial statements to the directors, members and others when required.
These offices must be filled from the list of directors as specified in the Society Act.
Each position would have a 2 year term and rotate as follows... a director would be elected from the board of directors to serve as vice president; the VP would then move into the president’s position for 2 years followed by the secretary/treasurer’s position. Initially, all positions would be elected from the board of directors.
The board of directors would be responsible for determining the rules of order for general meetings.