The annual general assembly of the Ontario Zoroastrians Association was held both virtually and in person.
One month ahead of the assembly, the following 36-page documents were posted to all members of the Association that had paid their membership fees: 1) agenda of the meeting; 2) report of the previous year’s activities; 3) a financial report prepared by the certified accountant; 4) report of the previous year’s general assembly; 5) forms for volunteers to fill for candidature of the vacant positions; 6) a power of attorney for a member to vote on behalf of another member.
On the day of the assembly, the members of the election supervision board first checked the names of the people and made sure that they paid the membership fee and allowed them to enter the conference hall and gave them the ballot papers. One member had power of attorney to vote on behalf of another members. After necessary investigation he was provided with an extra ballot paper. In the same manner, members who requested to attend the assembly on zoom and online were also checked.
After reciting a short part of Avesta by Mehrbod Dastur, the meeting started. First, the supervisory board members announced the number of people present, which was 47 people in person, 17 online, and 40 through proxy. A quorum of 104 people legalized the assembly. According to the association’s constitution, the assembly’s quorum is a fixed number of 50 members.
Members of the board of directors were seated in the front of the assembly and the chairman of the board of directors was responsible for managing the session. Based on the meeting agenda, a vote was taken to accept the meeting agenda. After that, the previous year’s general meeting and then the report of the board of directors about the last year and the activities were discussed and voted. The next item was the financial report audited by a certified accountant, which was also discussed and voted on. Another part of the meeting agenda was to vote on the certified accountant for the next year, which must be determined in the annual assembly.
The last part of the assembly tended to voting for vacant positions of the Association, which required volunteers for 6 vacant positions. According to the Association’s constitution, if a position (with the conditions mentioned in Part 1) has only one candidate, voting will not be done. Therefore, only for positions where there were more than one candidate, they introduced themselves and spoke about their background and goals, and then voting was done
Since members had received the information well in advance, for each part of the agenda they raised some points. The secretary of the assembly took note of all the points. If an explanation was needed it was given by a member of the board of directors, or if necessary, it was determined in what field more explanation or correction was needed. Especially the financial report and performance report of the association were discussed, and all discussions should be written in the next year’s report of the association.
The association’s general meeting started at eleven o’clock and ended at around two in the afternoon. At the end of the assembly, appreciation and gratitude was extended to members whose working period on the board of directors had ended, and new people who had joined the board of directors were welcomed.
Below are examples of sheets sent to members, with the names of the individuals and the audit firm blacked out. The points that can be mentioned in these writings are 1- being methodical, not only the day but also the time specified for the deadlines, 2- writing down all the conversations 3- this information is officially available to all members.
