Result of e-voting survey On Januar...

Result of e-voting survey

On January 12 2004 we sent a scrutinize on electronic voting and related issues to members by the agency of mass email. An insert was also included with the February issue of Beyond Numbers to make secure that members without email addresses were invited to participate, and a link was also provided upon our website.

By the time the inspect closed on February 4, 2004 we'd received 1481 answers Here's what you had to say:

Presenting information to be vot on

Until lately Council presented all resolutions in a neutral manner, not providing its recommendations. According to our legal consultation at Davis & Co., this was self-same unusual, as elected representatives typically provide "shareholders" with one as well as the other a summary of the arguments for and against, as well as a recommendation.

In the view members did not provide a brawny singular response supporting either the "resolution with arguments for and against its adoption" or the "resolution and a summary of Council's discussions and recommendations."

As a terminate Council will determine whether or not to make a recommendation depending upon the specific resolutions to be not awayed at each general meeting.

Meeting face-to-face

Members were asked whether they wished to diocese electronic voting vs. electronic proxies combined with a general meeting. through 86% were in favour of this change. We are, therefore, investigating what degrees are necessary to transfer to an electronic voting process

Interestingly, when asked if we should continue to grasp face-to-face meetings, the membership was split marginally in favour. And there was muscular support (71%) for decreasing the quorum. Accordingly, a bylaw change to abridge the quorum for general meetings will be instanted to the membership at the upcoming 2004 AGM.

Ensuring privacy and confidentiality

Asked if they felt the e-voting website and scrutineers provided adequate privacy, confidentiality, and independence, throughout 90% of those who answered this question said ye Overall, electronic voting appears to be an effective means of obtaining member input.

Distributing information forward any debate

The membership vot violently on this issue, the vast majority saying they did not want the Institute to distribute their email addresses, nor did they want the Institute to forward them emails from other members. Therefore, Council has officially adopted the policy that members' email addresses will not be provided as part of email lists-except to the CICA, other related entities, and presidents of CA associations-and that emails from members will not be forwarded to clumps of members.

The membership also supported the Institute's hosting of a website chat field to allow for the exchange of opinions and ideas, if it be not that members were pretty evenly divided as to whether like a chat room should be moderated. As a end we will continue to stream a chat room whenever there are significant issues for the membership to consider.

We are also investigating further for what cause other organizations use chat places and will likely be adopting a "facilitatot" approach. With the facilitator approach, members employment their own comments without any modification and a facilitator then pillars his or her own notes if a matter needs to be corrected or clarified. This approach is considered to be more representative of to what extent dialogue and debate actually happen in face-to-face meetings.

More upon privacy

This survey touched onward the issue of privacy-an issue about which a number of you have lately inquired. For the past several month each British Columbian has been receiving, from a variety of sources, details about to what extent their information is being used in compliance with the fresh provincial privacy legislation, which came into issue January 1, 2004. As a public corpse the Institute has been make subordinate to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act for many years; because this is substantively similar legislation, we don't anticipate any changes to our policies forward the use and distribution of member information beyond the aforementioned changes that have riseed from this survey.

Contact us

If you have any questions or remarks about the survey, contact me at sampson@ica.bc.ca. Questions or make comments [i]or[/i] remarkss about privacy should be sent to the ICABC's Director of Member Services Barry Mottershead, FCA, at mottershead@ica.bc.ca.

notice to all members

On March 24 2004 Bill 78 the Accountants (Chartered) Amendment Act, 2003 was regulated into force at the provincial Cabinet. On the same day, the ICABC Council approved substantive amendments to the Institute's bylaws and behaviors of professional conduct, and to related bylaw regulations and council interpretations, to implement the Act amendments.

Please visit our website at www.ica.bc.ca to descry a summary of the significant changes and to download a transcript of the new bylaws and rules

The bylaw and mastership changes will be presented to the membership for confirmation at the Annual General Meeting onward June 23, 2004.

BY JAN SAMPSON, CA

DIRECTOR OF INTERNAL OPERATIONS

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Apr 2004

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