Last Sunday, an open meeting of members at the Greek Centre to discuss proposals for changes to the Constitution of the Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GCM) was constructive.

The meeting was called by 25 current and former members of the Community, who want the Community’s Constitution to be revised to make it more effective and representative.

These members said they wanted the Community “to maintain its role as a leading secular and democratic Greek-Australian organisation, representing the interests of and meeting our wider Community’s educational, cultural, and other needs today and in the future.

They stressed a need to “adopt policies and rules involving more people in activities.”

Following Theo Markos’s introduction, Costas Markos referenced the establishment and role of the Community, focusing on adopting its statutes and the relevant revisions adopted by most of its members since then.

The Community Board was represented by Kostas Stefanides, who welcomed the meeting on behalf of the president of the organisation, Bill Papastergiadis.

Stephanides was authorised to convey the recommendations of the meeting to the Board. He said that the Greek Community Board will discuss the comments of lawyers appointed to review the members’ recommendations for constitutional revisions.

Stephanides said the Board would then convene an open meeting with all Community members to discuss any proposed changes.

“There will be an extraordinary general meeting during which members will have the ultimate say” said Stephanides.

The GCM President Bill Papastergiadis told Neos Kosmos that “the members will propose and vote on any changes”.

“Any changes to constitutional rules require a 75 per cent majority of those members present at an extraordinary general meeting to approve them.”

Dr Michael Michaels one of the members at the meeting, said that the attention should “focus on the points that most members agree on to limit the potential for disagreement”.

Some of the proposals presented last Sunday include:

– The First Nations people of Australia to be recognised as a preamble to the Constitution.

– Redrafting the Constitution to reflect the “current realities” and needs of the Greek Australian Community in Melbourne and Victoria.

– Ensure that the Board seeks participation/consultation of the membership and in-depth discussions on the proposals for constitutional changes that the Board could adopt to be distributed to the membership before calling an Extraordinary General Meeting to change the Constitution.

– Set up a working group from the member consultation initiative to discuss the suggestions of the members and participants further at the consultation meeting.

– Remove references to all religious issues from the Constitution.

– Limit the Board term to two years, and a limit to serving on the Board to three terms.

– Make gender-neutral terms to be used throughout the Constitution.

Set the representation of women on the Board of Directors to 50 per cent and ensure adequate representation and participation of women on the Executive Committee and all other committees.

– That women’s participation should be proportional to the current proportion of members.

– Explore diversity quotas (including “youth”, for example)

– Establish an audit committee appointed by the membership.

– Encourage active participation by members of the wider Greek-Australian Community by making provisions for open board meetings (i.e. open to members, live broadcast, moving to another location – e.g. school facilities and churches, as in the past.

– Members are to be informed about the renewal of their membership.

– Rules change to ensure good governance practices and a declaration of any potential conflict of interest by Board members.

– Institute an electoral system of more proportional representation, with provisions to include in the composition of the Board in a workable manner (for example, not requiring members to vote for all 19 candidates on a ballot).

– Establish a “long-term plan, for example, a 10-20 year plan.

– The consideration of “life membership” as a statutory addition.