The Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) held a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Sunday 21 July to consider amendments to its constitution. The General Meeting was the culmination of an 18-month process that was called for by the GCM’s membership at its 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Over the course of the past 18 months, the GCM called for member proposals and then extended the submission date for proposals, offered and met with members to discuss constitutional change, engaged the service of reputable experts in constitutional review in Not-for-Profit companies, Piper Alderman Solicitors and arranged for an open meeting of interested members with these solicitors to explain the proposed changes.

The process led the GCM Board to call for last Sunday’s SGM to consider 3 motions which looked to present a modernised version of the current constitution prior to considering the proposed changes as made by the GCM membership. The meeting was attended by over 120 members and observers who considered 3 cascading motions.

The meeting required an initial vote on a technical change to the current constitution that would allow the modernised and proposed changes to be considered.

The meeting, which was chaired by the GCM Treasurer, A/Prof Marinis Pirpiris heard a summary of the process and proposed changes and also heard from members who spoke in favour and against the proposals.

The meeting then voted on the first Motion and whilst a majority of the voting members – 60% – voted in favour of the Motion, it did not meet the 75% threshold required for the changes to be passed and as such the meeting concluded.

The threshold for change at an SGM is by design set high and this SGM result aligns with the long history of SGM’s that have not managed to realise change in many years.

The GCM would like to thank all of the members who participated in the process and the SGM.

The GCM would also like to thank Ian Nathanial, Michael Corker and the staff at Piper Alderman for their work and expert insight through the process.