4.01 Annual Meetings
An annual meeting of Members shall be held at such time in each year, as the Board may from time to time determine, provided that the annual meeting must be held not later than fifteen (15) months after holding the preceding annual meeting and no later than six (6) months after the end of the Association’s preceding fiscal year. The annual meeting shall be held for the purpose of considering the financial statements and reports of the Association required by the Act to be presented at the meeting, electing Directors, appointing the public accountant and transacting such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting or is required under the Act.
4.02 Special Meetings
The Board may at any time call a special meeting of Members for the transaction of any business which may properly be brought before the Members. On written requisition by Members carrying not less than five percent (5%) of the votes that may be cast at a meeting of Members sought to be held, the Board shall call a special meeting of Members, unless the exceptions in the Act are met. If the Directors do not call a meeting within twenty-one (21) days of receiving the requisition, any Member who signed the requisition may call the meeting.
4.03 Place of Meetings
Meetings of Members may be held at any place within Canada as the Board may determine or outside Canada if all of the Members entitled to vote at such meeting so agree.
4.04 Special Business
All business transacted at a special meeting of Members and all business transacted at an annual meeting of Members, except consideration of the financial statements, public accountant’s report, election of Directors and re-appointment of the incumbent public accountant, is special business.
4.05 Notice of Meetings
In accordance with and subject to the Act, notice of the time and place of a meeting of Members shall be given to each Member entitled to vote at the meeting by the following means:
- by mail, courier or personal delivery to each Member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 21 to 60 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held; or
- by telephonic, electronic or other communication facility to each Member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 21 to 35 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held.
Where the Association provides notice electronically, as referred to in section 4.05(b), and if a Member requests that notice be given by non-electronic means, the Association shall give notice of the meeting to the Member so requesting in the manner set out in section 4.05(a).
Notice of a meeting of Members shall also be given to each Director and to the public accountant of the Association during a period of 21 to 60 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held. Notice of any meeting of Members at which special business is to be transacted shall state the nature of that business in sufficient detail to permit the Member to form a reasoned judgment on the business and provide the text of any Special Resolution or By-law to be submitted to the meeting. The Directors may fix a record date for determination of Members entitled to receive notice of any meeting of Members in accordance with the requirements of section 161 of the Act. Subject to the Act, a notice of meeting of Members provided by the Corporation shall include any Proposal submitted to the Corporation under section 4.13.
4.06 Waiving Notice
A Member and any other person entitled to attend a meeting of Members may in any manner and at any time waive notice of a meeting of Members, and attendance of any such person at a meeting of Members is a waiver of notice of the meeting, except where such person attends a meeting for the express purpose of objecting to the transaction of any business on the grounds that the meeting is not lawfully called.
4.07 Persons Entitled to be Present
The only persons entitled to be present at a meeting of Members shall be those entitled to vote at the meeting, the Directors, the Officers and the public accountant of the Association and such other persons who are entitled or required under any provision of the Act, Articles or By-laws of the Association to be present at the meeting. Any other person may be admitted only on the invitation of the chair of the meeting or by Ordinary Resolution of the Members.
4.08 Chairperson of the Meeting
The chairperson of Members’ meetings shall be the President or the President-Elect if the President is absent or unable to act. In the event that the President and the President-Elect are absent, the Members who are present and entitled to vote at the meeting shall choose one of their Members to chair the meeting.
4.09 Quorum
Subject to the Act, a quorum at any meeting of the Members shall be twenty-five (25) of the Members present. If a quorum is present at the opening of a meeting of Members, the Members present may proceed with the business of the meeting even if a quorum is not present throughout the meeting. For the purpose of determining quorum, a Member may be present in person, by proxy or, by telephonic and/or by other electronic means.
4.10 Meetings Held by Electronic Means
A Members meeting may be held by telephonic or electronic means in accordance with the Act as follows:
- Any person entitled to attend a meeting of Members may participate in the meeting by means of such telephonic, electronic or other communication facility that permits all participants to communicate adequately with each other during the meeting, if the Association makes available such a communication facility and the meeting complies with the requirements in the Act and the Regulations. A person participating in a meeting by such means is deemed to be present at the meeting.
- Notwithstanding clause (a), if the Directors or Members of the Association call a meeting of Members, those Directors or Members, as the case may be, may determine that the meeting be held, in accordance with the Act and the Regulations, entirely by means of a telephonic, electronic or other communication facility that permits all participants to communicate adequately with each other during the meeting.
- Any person participating in a meeting of Members by means of a telephonic, electronic or other communication facility and entitled to vote at such meeting, may vote using the communication facility that the Association has made available for that purpose. When a vote is to be taken at a meeting of Members, the voting may be carried out by means of a telephonic, electronic or other communication facility only if that facility enables the votes to be gathered in a manner that permits their subsequent verification; and permits the tallied votes to be presented to the Association without it being possible for the Association to identify how each Member voted.
4.11 Absentee Voting by Proxy
Every Member entitled to vote at a meeting of Members may appoint a proxyholder, or one or more alternate proxyholders, who need not be Members, to attend and act at the meeting in the manner and to the extent authorized by the proxy and with the authority conferred by it subject to the following:
- a proxy is valid only at the meeting in respect of which it is given or at a continuation of the meeting after an adjournment;
- a Member may revoke a proxy by depositing an instrument in writing executed by the Member in accordance with the Regulations;
- a proxyholder or an alternate proxyholder has the same rights as the Member by whom they were appointed, including the right to speak at a meeting of Members in respect of any matter, to vote by way of ballot at the meeting, to demand a ballot at the meeting and, except where a proxyholder or alternate proxyholder has conflicting instructions from more than one Member, to vote at the meeting by way of a show of hands;
- a proxy shall be in writing, executed by the Member or such Member’s attorney and shall conform with the requirements of the Regulations; and
- votes by proxy shall be collected, counted and reported in such manner as the chair of the meeting directs.
4.12 Votes to Govern
At any meetings of the Members, every question shall, unless otherwise provided by the Articles or By-laws or by the Act, be determined by a majority of the votes cast on the question. In case of an equality of votes, the chairperson of the meeting, in addition to an original vote, shall have a second or casting vote.
4.13 Proposals at Annual Meetings
Subject to compliance with section 163 of the Act, a Member entitled to vote at an annual meeting may submit to the Corporation notice of any matter that the Member proposes to raise at the annual meeting (a “Proposal”). Any such Proposal may include nominations for the election of Directors if the Proposal is signed by not less than five per cent (5%) of the Members entitled to vote at the meeting. Subject to the Act, the Corporation shall include the Proposal in the notice of meeting and if so requested by the Member, shall also include a statement by the Member in support of the Proposal and the name and address of the Member. The Member who submitted the Proposal shall pay the cost of including the Proposal and any statement in the notice of meeting at which the Proposal is to be presented unless otherwise provided by Ordinary Resolution of the Members present at the meeting.
