Notice of COPE General Meeting Nov 3rd, 2024

This is public notice for all COPE members that we will be having our fall General Meeting on November 3rd, 2024

Registration opens at 1PM, and the meeting starts at 2PM. The meeting will take place on Zoom. 

A meeting link and agenda will be sent by email closer to the meeting.

At that meeting we’ll be having executive by-elections for a handful of vacated roles:

• Recording Secretary

• Member at Large

Additionally, equity caucuses will be filling two Equity chair positions: LGBQ+ Chair and Racialized Chair.

All voting members are eligible to vote at this meeting. Please contact cope@copevancouver.ca with any membership questions, or if you’d like to put your name forward for a role on the executive. New members who register before October 4th will be eligible to vote at the meeting.

[Become a member of COPE to participate in our elections and meetings.. Please become a member today.]

We’d also like to give advance notice of the following motions to amend the constitution. Both were approved by the COPE Executive committee at the July 2024 meeting and recommended to the membership for approval:

1. The first constitutional motion is a housekeeping motion to clarify ambiguities and fix minor errors in the COPE constitution. Read the suggested changes in detail and the motion here.  The package of amendments was written by volunteers in our Policy & Constitution committee (PCC), and recommended for adoption by the Executive:

Whereas the COPE Constitution has a number of minor issues in consistency and definition which make interpretation challenging, and unduly relies on informal norms;

MOVED that the COPE Constitution be amended as follows to preserve and clarify the existing structure of the constitution:

• All instances of "Society Act" shall be replaced with "Societies Act"

• All instances of “his or her” shall be replaced with “their”

• Part 2-1(a)i is replaced with the following:

• i) at the time of determination, an individual member shall be a Voting Member, provided that

• a) they reside, study or work in the City of Vancouver or the University Endowment Lands (the “UEL”) at the time of their party registration

• b) they are not a member of another civic party in Vancouver and

• c) they have not been a member of another civic party in Vancouver for no less than 45 days,

• d) they have donated to COPE within the last twelve (12) months,

• e) they have been a member of COPE for at least 30 days.

• Part 2-1(f) will be removed, having been added to Part 2-1(a)i(e), and the letters in rest of Part 2-1 will be adjusted to remain sequential

• Part 2-1(b) will be amended to include: “by any reasonable means including e-mail or other appropriate technology” after “shall be made available upon request to each member of the Society”;

• Part 2-1(i) will be replaced with “by delivering his or her resignation in writing to the society of the society or by electronic communication or delivering it by mail in writing to the mailing address of the society,” to clarify where resignation may go and how;

• Part 2-1(c)iii will be amended to say “on being expelled by the process in (d) below, or”

• Part 2-1(g) and Part 2-1(i) will be amended to include “Any appeals which are received on time but not rejected before this deadline will be deemed to have been accepted.” after their respective descriptions of Applications and Appeals respectively

• Under Part 4-10 “The Internal Chair may call a Special Executive Meeting” will be replaced with “either Co-Chair may call a Special Executive Meeting”

• Part 4-10 (a) will be added to clarify “a.) An Internal Chair is a Co-Chair designated by the executive to fulfill the role of Internal Chair”

• Part 4-11 will be amended to replace “50 percent plus one” with “more than 50%”

• Part 7-2 will be amended to add “selected according to the Terms of Reference set out by the Executive.”

The COPE Executive recommends the adoption of this housekeeping motion to ensure that the constitution is clear on COPE’s processes for the benefit of members and future executives.

2. The second constitutional motion being recommended by the executive is to expand eligibility for COPE membership by allowing anyone who lives in BC to become a voting member. Currently COPE only allows for people who usually live, work, or study in Vancouver to become voting members.

In the event that the first motion passes, the second motion will read:

MOVED that in Part 2-1(a)i(a) of the COPE Constitution “They reside, study or work in the City of Vancouver or the University Endowment Lands (the “UEL”) at the time of their party registration” be struck and replaced with “They reside in British Columbia”

In the event that the first motion does not pass, the second motion will read:

MOVED that in Part 2-1(a)i(a) of the COPE Constitution “at the time of determination, an individual member who ordinarily resides, studies or works in the City of Vancouver or the University Endowment Lands (the “UEL”) shall be a Voting Member,” be replaced with “at the time of determination, an individual member who resides in British Columbia shall be a Voting Member,”

The executive recommends the adoption of this second motion.

Thank you for being a supporter of COPE.

In solidarity,

Tanya Webking & Shawn Vulliez
Co-Chairs