Make Games South Africa - AGM - 25 May 2016 [CT] and 14 June 2016 [JHB]

edited in Association News
Hi All,

This serves as notice that I intend to call an Annual General Meeting for the association of people Make Games South Africa to be hosted on the following dates and times for the following purposes:

> At the Bandwidth Barn, Cape Town on 25 May 2016 at 7pm to decide if the association should be liquidated and
> At the Microsoft Offices in Bryanston on 14 June 2016 at 7pm to vote for a new Management Committee (if required) and
> Online on the 18th June from 7am to 7pm for the voting of Chairperson and Treasurer (if required).

At the AGM I propose that the following be put to a vote of the members of the association.

1. The dissolution of the association of peoples "Make Games South Africa"
a) I call for a vote in terms of s17 of the constitution that the association of peoples called "Make Games South Africa" be dissolved.

b) If this vote passes, I call that, as per s17 of the constitution that the assets of the association of peoples called "Make Games South Africa" be transferred to the non-profit company Interactive Entertainment South Africa.

I am conducting an inventory of the assets of the association and will post them here once completed.

2. Vote for a new management Committee
a) Should the vote proposed in 1(a) fail, I then call for a new Management Committee to be elected in terms of s9 of the constitution.

b) In line with the above, should the vote for a new Management Committee be required I will be accepting nominations from the community for seats on the board.

c) The nomination process: You can nominate any member of the association for one of the six seats available. You can post your nominations as a response to this thread or you can email them to me at: nickhallsa@gmail.com. I will post all nominees below. In order for a nomination to be valid, it needs to be seconded and the person nominated needs to accept the nomination. You do not need to nominate a person for a specific role. at the AGM all present will vote for six candidates from the nominee list, the six candidates with the most votes will make up the management committee. Once the committee is finalized, a separate vote online will be held to elect a Chair and Treasurer.

d) The call for Nominees will be finalized by Wednesday 18 May 2016 at 7pm. After this time, no more nominations, seconds or acceptances of nominations will be accepted. The list of nominees will be finalized and published on this thread no later than Friday 20th of May 2016.

Voting by Proxie and Online Hosting
Members unable to physically attend either of the meet ups will be allowed to vote by proxie by submitting their vote to me via email at nickhallsa@gmail.com.

In order for the proxy vote to be accepted you must provide, along with your vote:
> Your forum handle (if registered)
> Your full name

We will try to stream the AGM's at each location, and if a group of members wish to participate remotely we will allow them to join electronically provided there are a sufficient number of members present at their location from where they are joining.

Due to my role at IESA and that I am organising this event I will not be casting any votes, nor will I be accepting nominations

***edit Updated dates for JHB meeting to coincide with JHB meetup
Thanked by 2mattbenic Squidcor

Comments

  • edited
    Nominations for the Management Committee

    Nominated, Seconded and Accepted
    Leon van Niekerk
    Julian Pritchard
    Evan Greenwood
    Jonathan Hau-Yoon
    Ahmed Elgoni
    Megan Hughes
    Dave Russel

    Nominated and Seconded

    Nominated
    Etienne de Villiers

    Declined
    Nick Hall
    Luke Lamothe
    Rodain Joubert
    Ben Myres
    Hanli Geyser
    Cukia 'Sugar' Kimani
  • edited
    Final List of Nominees
    Leon van Niekerk
    Julian Pritchard
    Evan Greenwood
    Jonathan Hau-Yoon
    Ahmed Elgoni
    Megan Hughes
    Dave Russel
  • Are the 3 separate dates (vs 1 single date) in order to give people time to respond to the earlier vote(s)?
  • Yes and to try and ensure that no location is biased against (as far as possible)
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • So what are the implications of such a dissolution? As far as I can tell, it would be the transference of assets (bank accounts, and?) to IESA. Besides that, the MGSA website (this one) and facebook groups and such remain the same like any other community, right?

    I think it doesn't actually affect the running of this forum/site or the monthly events or any of the other stuff like that. We'd still run Ludum Dare or any other game jam like we used to, by the good graces of good people who're part of MGSA and not.

    If there are other impacts, what would they be?
  • My understanding is that basically the only functional difference is that if IESA is in charge, then it will dictate who runs the forums, whereas otherwise there is a separate MGSA committee that needs to organise and run things. IESA would be responsible to its board and members to make sure its mandate with the community is carried out if that's the decision.

    Personally I am in favour of dissolving MGSA as an association and having IESA take over. I think the industry and "serious" focus of IESA will ensure a more long-term sustainable solution for MGSA compared to a volunteer-based scenario.
  • edited
    If MGSA falls under IESA, I think that's a good thing in terms of IESA being able to step in if the interactions on MGSA damage our public image (and thus our professional careers). But I'd be less happy about it if it becomes likely (or possible) that video games, board games and serious games could be in the voting minority there. This is especially because these studios are, I think, less likely to be in a financial position to be voting members compared to the other real-time industries in AR/VR advertising, simulation and gambling. I wouldn't want MGSA to potentially be owned by people who don't have the entertainment and serious game industries' best interests in mind.

    Can you explain how the the voting/direction in IESA works?
    Thanked by 2Karuji Sash
  • edited
    Since others are making their arguments for preferred structure here, I'll do the same.

    I personally believe MGSA should remain and be kept as a separate body. This is to achieve four things:
    1) To ensure there is an organization that has actual ownership of the forums and community activity, so that there is continuity. The risk is too high that one strong personality who runs the show has a change in life priorities and can no longer continue the work, and the community dies off.
    2) To have IESA's reputation be unaffected by any community politics
    3) To allow IESA to focus its resources on industry aspects, and not be distracted by the job of also running the community. Otherwise, aren't we effectively just renaming MGSA?
    4) To ensure that there is no favoritism or impression of favoritism from IESA towards MGSA over any other local gamedev community that may exist now or in future.
  • edited
    I'm of two minds about MGSA dissolving or not.

    I utterly trust @LexAquillia to make decisions that benefit the games industry. And my experience of volunteer committees is that a lot can go wrong (more moving pieces basically).

    But @LexAquillia won't always be running IESA, and the ability for MGSA to self organize and change its committee is a benefit.

    And I agree with all the points @mattbenic mentioned. I'd especially like to reiterate @mattbenic's point that I'd like IESA to be able to focus its resources on improving the industry in its way and not be distracted by MGSA.

    It seems to me that enough people are serious about MGSA continuing to exist, to continue to serve the industry, and to become better at serving the industry. So I'm feeling pretty optimistic about where MGSA is heading (either way).
  • I would really like to see at least one lady on the AGM, so I'm personally hoping Hanli accepts her nomination. *

    *Studies have shown that having a woman on a team makes a group make better decisions overall. This is not about whether that woman adds more intelligence to the group, but more that the males in the group seem to act less like boys clubs and one up each other in teams when there is at least one woman present. This effect is true up to a point (the point being an all women team, which I believe has much the same problems as an all men team/group).
  • Inclusiveness is a great goal even without studies :)
    Thanked by 1mattbenic
  • I would also assume we're going to avoid public voting - having everyone at least vote by paper so it is anonymous.
  • The whole "put your hand up on a webcam" voting isn't really cool, I agree. Maybe we do a google sheets anonymous solution of some sort for off-site, or maybe paper voting for those on site.
  • edited
    @dammit @Tuism Ballots will be done in secret.

    Just a reminder to everyone that nominations close this Wednesday, so if you want to nominate/second someone please let me know.
  • Just a reminder the close of nominations happens at 7pm tonight
  • Omg just realised I'm going to be in CT for the CT date. LOL!
  • edited
    Just for everyone's reference, we'll be hosting an alt location for the AGM part of the CT meetup at Luma in Joburg. We have decent internet and will Skype/Hangouts/Whatever it in Details on the CT meetup post: http://makegamessa.com/discussion/comment/42388

    PLEASE NOTE: Space will be limited, so if anyone else can host another Gauteng location (Wits? Tuks?) that would be great.

    Luma's address: Luma Animation, Wedgewood Office Park Block E, 3 Muswell Road South, Bryanston
  • I've organized that we can use the seminar room at Wits.
    Thanked by 2mattbenic raheel
  • Just to confirm, next week's JHB is a normal meet? Will it get its own post or do we use this one?
  • Isn't it on 14 June, which is the week after the next?
  • @Fengol JHB as per normal, as there is no AGM business to conduct - as I understand it. No need to use this thread then.
  • edited
    Is IESA going to be sorting out this website then?
  • Since myself and many could not make it to the AGM and/or voting day meetup,
    would be nice if we can get a statement of what occurred at the event or any big official events.

    I did get feedback from some friends whom were there at least.
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