2021 Information
On 31 January 2021, more than 120 RIC activists took part in an online meeting to discuss the future of RIC. It was agreed at this meeting to disband the organisation at the national level, after failure at a previous meeting (17 January) to reach consensus on changes to the RIC constitution (relevant documents below).
For the sake of clarity, it’s important to note that two practical decisions were made at the start of the 31 January meeting. According to the existing constitution, there should have been no more than four voting delegates from each local group, and no more than two from each affiliate group. Additionally, if consensus could not be reached, decisions should be made by a two-thirds majority vote.
Given the large size of the meeting and varying levels of activity from local groups in recent years, along with the complications of online voting and difficulties at the 17 January meeting, the facilitator proposed that the rules above should be temporarily suspended. Therefore:
- Everyone present would be able to vote (this was agreed unanimously)
- Decisions would be made by simple majority (this was agreed by more than two-thirds of delegates present)
It was not possible to use the ‘vote’ function due to switching Zoom accounts at the start, because more than 100 people turned up, and it was clear that consensus would not be reached. While there were suggestions of using external websites like Google Forms to handle voting, the 17 January meeting had shown there was no way to ensure ‘one person, one vote.’
Therefore, voting took place by a show of hands (on screen or using the ‘raise hand’ function), or by people voting in the chat box. There was a clear majority for winding up RIC nationally. It was suggested to re-run the vote, just to be sure, but several people (who voted against winding up RIC) had already left the meeting, so it was felt this would be unfair. Therefore the decision stood.
Relevant documents:
- 2021 discussion document, comparing existing and proposed constitution, with suggested compromises. Document was never discussed, due to unwillingness for compromise.
- 2015 Constitution
- 2015 AGM minutes, recording consensus adoption of constitution (with changes discussed and made on the day).
- 2021 proposed new constitution. Presented without any notes on reasoning behind proposed changes. Constitution working group did not reach consensus on this document, and concerns of group members were not addressed.
- Additional proposed amendments