Voting Form-LAA-BMAA merger

[AlanR]

Where is the voting form?
Whilst I haven't yet fully read the months October magazine I have no voting form to return in my copy. I have a separate sheet about the AGM but nothing else!

Wouldn't it have been better to have had the voting form as a sticky on the LAA website home page?

[BobD]

Alan, mine was on the back of the address label. Now duly completed and returned.

[AlanR]

Thanks Bob.
Well I guess I must have just thrown it out not realising the voting form was on the back of the address sheet!!

[Brian Hope]

Hi Alan, you can download a Proxy form via the home page LAA website (www.laa.uk.com). Click the AGM button just to the left of the cover of this month's magazine and it will take you to a page where all the relevant documents can be downloaded.
Rgds, Brian

[AlanR]

Hi Brian,
Thank you for the information.Now all sorted!
Rgds,
Alan.

[Alan George]

I think I missed something by not being at the Q&A at the Rally. The AGM motion repeats the position paper sent out by email in early September that includes "it is now an appropriate time to seek member's views". Yet the motion is that the LAA and BMAA "do merge" that I read as a yes or no decision now.

Where are the consultation results? Did members of either organisation express reservations and these would be mitigated by some action or other? I was expecting the motion to be something like a test of how many people are for and against the merger, or how many think it is a good or bad idea to continue with the idea i.e. launching a consultation process.

I actually think a larger, broader representative organisation is a good thing. But I am minded to vote against this motion as I do not believe there has been enough consultation yet and it has the possibility of being very divisive.

[Brian Hope]

Hi Alan, this vote is not the definitive vote to decide whether a merger will go ahead, it is an interim vote to show whether members agree in principle to a merger which, if positive, gives a mandate to the board to allocate the resources to carry out due diligence. Only when the full ramifications of a merger are known can members of both organisations make an educated decision.
Whilst the motion read in isolation may be interpreted as the definitive vote, the AGM leaflet carries greater detail, including the reason for the vote.

Motion 2. That the Light Aircraft Association and the British Microlight Aircraft Association do merge.

REASON
A working group of LAA Directors and their counterparts within the BMAA has been meeting in recent months to discuss the merger and we now wish to seek members’ views before proceeding with more detailed analysis, leading up to a formal merger process during 2020.

[Alan George]

Hi Brian,
Thank you for your clarification that this is not the definitive vote. I am reassured.

I was quoting "do merge" from the AGM leaflet but after your reply I looked at the proxy voting form where the wording is "to merge" so I see your point.
Alan.