A second special general meeting (SGM) of LacPatrick suppliers is to be held on Tuesday evening (13 June) where suppliers will vote on new governance structures for the co-op.This is the second time that shareholders will vote on the structures this year after they rejected them in February.
A second special general meeting (SGM) of LacPatrick suppliers is to be held on Tuesday evening (13 June) where suppliers will vote on new governance structures for the co-op.
This is the second time that shareholders will vote on the structures this year after they rejected them in February.
The second vote (I’m getting flashbacks to the Lisbon Treaty here) comes as 372 new members have officially joined the society followingthe merger of the Town of Monaghan Co-op and Ballyrashane Creamery in 2015.
New structures
The geographical spread of the membership demands a new governance structure whereby proposed changes will see the establishment of a new Council of LacPatrick, which is to become a representative body encompassing suppliers from all areas, a letter from LacPatrick seen by The Dealer says.
The proposed governance structures were to reduce the size of the LacPatrick board from 25 to 15, as well as creating a 60-person council from which board members would be chosen.
The 60-person council would have been comprised of 20 members from Cavan/Monaghan, 18 from Derry/Antrim and 11 each from Down/Armagh and Fermanagh/Tyrone.
Over 100 LacPatrick shareholders voted at the last SGM with the Dealer understanding that the result of the vote was roughly 50/50 – short of the two thirds majority required to pass.
Currently, there is a 25 member board comprising of representatives from both Town of Monaghan and Ballyrashane, with no 60-person council.
Significant changes
There are number of changes to this week’s vote when compared to the one back in February:
Shareholders in each electorate area will elect members from their own area to sit on the council.As one man put it to me: “at least this time we vote for our man. Before we could’ve had someone from a county miles and miles away representing us.”The other big change is that anyone can put themselves forward for election to the council. They must then be voted on to the council but, as my man put it: “it’s a fair chance for anyone to try their hand at getting on it [the council].”Next steps
Should the LacPatrick shareholders give approval to the changes, nominations will be sought for each electoral area. After that a new council will meet in August to elect a new board.
The last vote was expected to pass comfortably but failed to do so. We’ll see how round two goes with the new members.
Voting kicks off at 7.45pm in the City Hotel, Armagh, Co Armagh.
LacPatrick governance votes fail to pass
The LacPatrick letter of intrigue
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