Council Review General Meeting
The proposed reforms to the England Athletics Council structure were not passed at the General Meeting held on 30.1.19 so the current system remains in place.
Whilst the number of members present and voting in person in support of these proposals was higher than those voting against them (91.7% vs 8.3%), the 75% of the total votes received in person or by proxy required to pass the proposed changes to the Articles of Association was not achieved. 290 weighted votes were received (78 in person and 121 by Proxy) with 68.6% (199) voting for the reforms, 31.4% (91) voting against and there was 1 abstention.
The unweighted votes are confirmed as 119 votes received (36 in person and 83 by proxy) with 64.7% (77) voting for the reforms, 35.3% (42) voting against and there was 1 abstention.
Chris Jones, CEO at England Athletics, comments; “We would like to thank all those who voted on this important matter and to the many volunteers who contributed constructively to the yearlong review process.
“Although the proposals were not ratified, we will continue to encourage a larger number of members to become involved in our existing Council structure to ensure participation from a wide range of people involved in the whole sport across all events and disciplines and from different backgrounds. This will enable members to have a clearer and more engaged and coherent voice for the EA membership and, in turn, a sport that is better positioned to meet its member’s needs.
“In summary, from Friday 1st February we will launch a process of elections to the Regional Councils by inviting interested parties to put themselves forward. We will look to reinstate the West Midlands Regional Council again in order to give the region a separate voice in our democratic structure but only if the required number of people stand for election to meet the minimum requirement (quorum), which currently stands at three. Should insufficient nominations be received for the West Midlands area, the number of Regional Councils will remain at eight.”
Further information on the election process will be released on Friday 1st February including details on how people can be nominated and the timelines related to this next phase.