Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah (YBR) Constitution - Part 2

MEMBERSHIP

It's been made clear from the initial letter distributed by Mr Yudi New in his role as Yeshivah Community Liaison, inviting applications for membership, that the Interim Board don't anticipate the granting of voting membership to the full body of YBR parents.   The message has been very clearly conveyed in his letter which specified exclusions, while announcing the opportunities for membership application..

'If you are up to date with your fees or payment plan, you may be eligible to vote in the upcoming elections and to nominate for a position on the board of YBRSL'.

From the get-go let me say that I'm highly opposed to the system of voting rights going hand-in-hand with a subscription equating to school fees/payment plans being up to date.  This is highly unlikely to work as 'a carrot', encouraging parents within the school community to be up-to-date on their payments.  Those that can and will pay, can and will.  Those that can't or won't are unlikely to be swayed, or be able to be swayed by the offer of a school membership.

What it will do is set up an elite within the schools, a caste system if you will.  Those financially able will become those with a voice in the government of the schools.   It would be a fair bet that a large percentage of those having a more difficult time financially, would be those with larger families along with more student fees to cover - in all likelihood the most religious in the school communities.  So we may speedily see, from this very first election, a demographic of the most religious, the community whose ethos and culture set the schools up and reached out to the wider Jewish community of Melbourne over decades to provide an education, excluded from voting membership within their own community school leadership. 

And while one need not be a Parent to serve as a Director - a school parent I know has already commented that they considered that even serving on the Board as a Parent without capacity to be a voting member at a Company AGM would leave one feeling lesser.  Would leave one less than equal to others at the Board table, so disinclined to nominate for a role to begin with.

The whole arrangement leaves an incredibly sour taste in the mouth.

And so... to the Constitution.

6.2  ADMISSION TO MEMBERSHIP...

(l)  If an applicant has been rejected by the Directors, the Secretary must...

(ii)  return to the applicant the first year's Subscription (if any) which accompanied the application.

6.3  SUBSCRIPTION

The Subscription payable by Members in each Membership Year will be the School fees payable by the Member or otherwise as determined by the Board.

The Board may refuse an application for membership of the parent and conceivably the child could remain as a student in one of the colleges/creches.  Does this mean that the school fees would be returned?  While it's one matter for a subscription to be an independent sum, this is clearly problematic.

The best of constitutions for Not for Profit organisations, such as YBR and CVL are laid out  to provide clarity and ease of use for their members.  While the YBR Constitution includes various member rights, it would be useful to see them gathered together providing much easier use for the lay person.e.g.

RIGHTS OF MEMBERS

(1) A member is entitled to vote if -

(i)  more than 10 business days have passed since he became a member of the company;

(ii) a person’s membership rights are not suspended for any reason.

(2)  A member who is entitled to vote has the right - 

(i)  to receive notice of general meetings and of proposed special resolutions in the manner and time prescribed by this Constitution; and

(ii)  to submit items of business for consideration at a general meeting; and

(iii)  to attend and be heard at general meetings; and

(iv)  to vote at a general meeting; and

(v)  to have access to the minutes of general meetings and other documents of the company as outlined in the Constitution; and

(vi)  to inspect the register of members as outlined in the Constitution.

These constitutions have a long way to go before they could be considered user-friendly documents for their membership; we'll see this play out in some of the entries I'll write yet to come.  

That being said; at least the Yeshivah parents who will be able to become members of the school will finally have a constituent document they can access.  A step forward.

...marcia pinskier