Update from the Canadian Library Association (CLA) on Proxy Voting and Restriction on Media Access

January 20, 2016

CLA has received a few inquiries regarding the lack of electronic voting for the Special Meeting and the reliance on proxies for voting by people who cannot attend in person. Staff reviewed a number of electronic voting systems and none of them could handle the CLA member structure in a way that ensured the vote was valid. CLA’s member structure provides institutions multiple votes because of their size and no system dealt with this well. Further, there was no system that provided the security of ensuring only members would vote.

Because of the importance of this vote to CLA, Executive Council decided to rely on the traditional method of proxy voting, which has been used for decades by associations across the world. In order to ensure that members who cannot be present in person can still speak, there will be web-based observing and also the ability to comment through the web-interface, but members must arrange their proxies and institutional representatives in advance to exercise their vote. We agree that this is not ideal, but it is how the association has operated for over 60 years and how other organizations – such as IFLA – still operate.

In order to ensure that all members of CLA feel comfortable speaking and don’t experience a chill because they’re worried their words may end up in a magazine, we have restricted access to the meeting for the media.

Remote Access to Special Meeting

The following link will connect you to the Special General Meeting: www.meetview.com/cla20160127