Wholesalers and retailers approved four of the five special resolutions tabled by MOSL at its AGM on 22 July, regarding updating its membership arrangements in keeping with market development.
The resolutions that were passed concerned:
Membership – merge the ‘Associated Retailers’ and ‘Unassociated Retailers’ into one ‘Retailer’ category, in line with the arrangements for the Strategic Panel and its committees. MOSL reasoned that associated retailer numbers are now small, have disproportionate representation, and share interests with unassociated retailers.
Director balance – increase the number of wholesaler directors on the board from one to two, to balance the two retailer directors.
Director selection – Whereas directors are currently elected by those in their block, this should change so the blocks continue to nominate candidates, but the final selection is made by MOSL’s Nominations Committee.
Review of membership – a formal requirement in the Articles of Association for MOSL to review its membership structure every three years, “to remain aligned to the evolving market”.
A fifth resolution, which concerned quorum at general meetings, fell short of the 75% support required per member category. MOSL consulted on reducing the number of votes required to meet quorum to 50% of all members (across both new categories), with an additional protection in place to ensure that a vote is only passed where 50% or more of the votes by both the wholesaler and retailer categories are in favour. With the current two-thirds per block quorum requirement, it can be a struggle to secure participation.
100% of associated retailers and 90% of wholesalers voted in favour of the change, but only 47% of unassociated retailers endorsed it. MOSL said it would engage with those who voted against to explore their concerns and alternative solutions.
In all, 47 of the 61 eligible members voted, a 77% response rate, meeting quorum requirements.
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