Guidelines towards AGMs, Regional Congresses, Provincial Congresses and National Congress (2017)

These are guidelines towards SASCO AGMs/BGMs, Regional Congresses, Provincial Congresses and the National Congress

Preliminary Note

In order to qualify for an AGM/BGM and delegation status in a Regional Congress, and subsequently the National Congress the branch must affiliate to the Head Office and it must send membership database to the head office. (All of this should have been done before or on the 13thof October 2017). The assumption of this cut of date is that branches have been depositing membership throughout the year.

1. The Annual General Meetings (AGMs)

These should sit on the basis of all the provisions outlined in Section 26 of the constitution but should further specifically sit under the following conditions:

AGMs which are to receive all three BEC reports (Political, Organisation and Financial), shall convene from the 10th of October to the 15 November 2017. Branches that are going to sit their BGMs before the 10th of October should be branches with a confirmed and verified membership, which is not going to see any increase. These meetings will also be responsible for nominating delegation to the Regional Congresses and the National Congress. The first 50 of members will mean that a branch gets to nominate two delegates and it will accumulate one delegate for an additional 50 members.

• In addition to these delegates, branches must nominate three reserve delegates. It should be noted that this applies even if the branch has a large number of delegates. Names of delegates should be sent to head office within 24 hours after the meeting has concluded; PEC must ensure that this happens.
• All BECs are to determine the actual dates suitable for hosting of these AGMs and should thus inform the PEC in advance. All these AGMs are to be presided over by the PEC, unless there has been a process of delegation to the REC. If 3 hours pass without the PEC and or the REC arriving at the AGM, the BEC through the branch chair should preside over the AGM. The PEC should be informed 2 days in advance about the sitting of an AGM/BGM
• Complaints about the BGMs should be sent within 24 hours from the conclusion of the meeting and these will be entertained by the PECs and NEC will only entertain these after they have been dealt with in this process.

2. The Regional Congresses

It is firstly important to note that this relates to the Regional Congresses that are due. These will be sitting as outlined in the Constitution and should further sit under the following conditions:

• Regional Congresses which are to receive all the three REC Reports (Political, Organisational and Financial), and all the NC discussion documents shall sit by end of 30th of Oct 2017.
• These will be presided over by the PEC and the REC should communicate the date and venue of such Regional Congresses 2 days in advance to the office of the Provincial Secretary.
• The REC is to communicate further guidelines for these prior or during the nomination AGMs and these will include issues such as specific policy and non-policy discussions, congress venue and other details.

3. The Provincial Council

Special Provincial General Council may be called as when the need arises, informed by relevant provision in the constitution.

4. National Congress

The NC, which is the highest decision making organ of the organisation in between congresses is sitting under all the provisions outlined in Section 10 of the Constitution. The venue of the NC is Nelson Mandela University in George in the Western Cape/Eastern Cape.

• The NC will take place from the 7th to the 11th of December 2017.
• Problems in relation to exam and technicalities surrounding the meetings should be raised with the SGO at the earliest possible time.
• The first membership statistics will be released on the09th October 2017, after which an appeal process would follow on the same week to 13th of Oct. The Final Membership statistics will then be released on the 15th of Oct. (It should be noted that appealing of membership should be accompanied with receipts or any kind of proof of payment).
• The NEC will release the first draft discussion documents by the 15th of October
• 2017 in the first issue of the Red spark since the re-launch.

5. Compulsory Notice:

All branch secretaries are required to upload their branch membership database (both paid and unpaid) onto the SASCO online platform (website or app) on the day of the BGM/AGM in order to qualify for attendance.

Adopted and issued by the NEC October 2017.

See the official document below…