Numbers fall well short for AFA EGM
The risk advisers and others pursuing an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) aimed at changing the constitution of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) appear to have fallen well short of garnering the numbers necessary to force the issue.
The AFA has issued a statement in which has confirmed receiving 230 forms calling for the EGM, but of which 100 have been deemed to be invalid.
The AFA statement said that in meeting the requirements of the Corporations Act, the AFA had found a high proportion of the forms could not be accepted for the following reasons:
- A number of the forms submitted were duplicates (50);
- A number of forms were provided by non-members of the AFA (25); and
- A number of forms cannot be verified as the member is incorrectly identified (28).
In what appeared to be a clear attempt to avoid accusations that it had not tried hard enough, the AFA statement said the organisation was telephoning 24 members where forms had been received in their name but the details were insufficient to identify whether the member had completed the form.
It said the AFA would help those members complete their forms, if that was their intention.
The statement said the AFA had notified the instigator of the EGM move, Mark Dunsford, informing him that less than five per cent of the voting members of the AFA were represented "and accordingly the AFA cannot take his special resolution to change the AFA Constitution to the membership as yet".
AFA National President, Deborah Kent, said the board appreciated the right of members to call an EGM, and within the confines of good governance under the Corporations Act, would facilitate the putting of the resolution if and when the requisite five per cent of voting members was reached.
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