Corvus Elrod’s Petition to Call a Member Vote
Active IGDA volunteer Corvus Elrod is spearheading an effort to get 10% of the IGDA voting membership (about 1400 people) to call a special meeting of the membership to vote on whether to remove Tim Langdell from the IGDA Board of Directors. Per the IGDA Bylaws, 10% of the membership can call a vote on, well, basically anything, including the removal of a Board member. Regardless of how you feel about the Tim Langdell issue, please remember that signing the petition means that you support the membership voting on the issue — you are not saying anything about the issue itself.
Corvus has a nice writeup of his motivation for calling the vote at his blog. The form to enter your signature is available here, and you’ll need your IGDA member number which you can get by logging in here.
I encourage you to sign, provided that you’re an IGDA member with voting rights (not a free forum member, and not a discounted student member).
Brandon J. Van Every Said,
July 22, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
You guys have got a lot of campaigning to do. Let’s say you get 10% of the voting members of the IGDA to sign your petition to call a meeting.
At that meeting, you need a Quorum of “a majority” of the membership to conduct any legitimate business. If you don’t have a Quorum, then legally speaking the Corporation can take no actions of governance at its meeting. That’s at least 50% of the voting members. The IGDA has 13,742 members according to its home page; I don’t know how many of those are voting members. You might need a turnout of as many as 6000 people just to conduct legitimate business.
You will need “a majority” of that Quorum to pass the motion to remove Tim Langdell from the Board. That’s at least 25% of the voting members. You might need need as many as 3000 votes to actually remove Tim Langdell.
I hope you guys are planning to campaign your bippies off, because 6000 is a *lot* of people to rouse from apathy.
Brian Beuken Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 2:59 am
Brandon
you keep spouting this rubbish. The rules for removing a director are very clear and consice. 10% of the membership are needed to call a special meeting. That 1400 sigs. a fair number but not impossible.
AT that special meeting a simple majority of those present with voting rights is enough to carry the motion.
Talk of 3000 votes is nonsense.
Brandon J. Van Every Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Brian, YANAL.
Darius Kazemi Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 10:46 am
To be fair, *nobody* involved in the discussion on this blog is a lawyer.
Brandon J. Van Every Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 10:50 am
I’ve at least bothered to look. The IGDA Bylaws do not exist in a vacuum, the notion of Quorum is well defined and required by law. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Drafting+proper+governance+documents-a054545599
Brian Beuken Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
as have I…
“Section 8. Removal. Any director may be removed from such office, with or without cause, by a majority vote of the voting members of the Corporation at any regular or special meeting of the members called expressly for that purpose.”
Quite clear and open and easy to understand…Majority is a valid legal term, “members of the corporation AT any regular or special meeting”, give the relevant people and place.
You keep banging on about quorums where none are mentioned and its a bit like arguing with a child who misunderstands the difference between black and white…in this case it is black and while…you don’t need to be a Lawyer to read that.
Brandon J. Van Every Said,
July 24, 2009 @ 4:54 pm
I’ve spoken my peace. I don’t have the energy to constantly deal with your difference of opinion. I notice that you never cite any legal references to support your opinion. Somehow I don’t think you’re going to lift a finger to look up any laws either. You will probably believe what you want to believe until the IGDA Board itself clarifies the matter. Which could be awhile, judging by the non-responsiveness when asked directly recently.
On EDGE, Briefly Said,
August 4, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
[...] asked me to say something on the EDGE Games issue, I do think that I have made my position clear by supporting the petition to call a member vote on the removal of Tim Langdell from the IGDA Board of Directors. I believe that the actions of EDGE [...]