Motions for AGM

March 31 2011
Re: Educate Together’s Annual General Meeting 2011

Dear Chairperson,
Please find attached motions for the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.
Please note that any amendments for these motions must be returned to the National Office not later than 12:00 Noon Friday April 9th 2011.
There are a number of vacancies on the Board of Directors and as usual, we are seeking nominations for the positions of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Company Secretary.
If you know of anyone within your school network or in the wider community who would be interested in serving on the Educate Together Board of Directors for a three-year term of office, please bring this to their attention and consider nominating them before April 9th. If you would like to discuss this with me please contact the National Office.
The schedule for policy motions and nominations for this year’s AGM is as follows:
April 9th Closing date for amendments/closing date for nominations to board
May 6th Circulation of Final Agenda, Company papers (Accounts, etc)
May 28th AGM, Gorey ETNS, Kilnahue Lane, Carney Road, Gorey, Co. Wexford.
*All motions, amendments and nominations submitted must be signed by the Chairperson of the Board of Management (or local Patron body where applicable) and sent by post to the National Office. Motions, amendments and nominations may be emailed to the National Office: agm@educatetogether.ie, but these will be accepted subject to properly authorised hard copy arriving within 5 working days. Closing dates refer to close of business on the day in question (6pm).
With kind regards,

Andrea Burke-Khan

Company Secretary


Nomination Form
Annual General Meeting
May 28th 2011



School: _________________________________________


Committee: ______________________________________


We nominate the following person/s as Director/s of Educate Together:






We nominate the following person as Chairperson




We nominate the following person as Secretary




We nominate the following person as Vice-Chairperson





Signed on behalf of
The Board of Management
OR
Patron (Executive Committee)
(Delete as appropriate) _____________________________




Motions Submitted for AGM 2011

Permanent School Buildings
1. That Educate Together at a national level, as patron, must use its status and organisation to assist all E.T.N.S.s to obtain a permanent structure.
Midleton ETNS BOM


Supporting Schools
2. AGM calls on Educate Together to provide enhance support to schools in all aspects of school planning, including recommendations regarding content of policies and formal aspects such as templates
The AGM further calls on Educate Together to establish a working committee with participation of Educate Together office support, experienced principals / chairpersons / other BoM officers and access to legal advice which would allow to combine best practices and professional experience accumulated so far in Educate Together network and would tremendously help schools especially new and developing ones.
Maynooth ETNS BOM

3. That this AGM calls on Educate Together to prioritise support for schools under its patronage, in advance of the process to appoint new Boards of Management in all schools later this year.

Swords ETNS BOM

Special Needs Assistants
4. We call on E.T. to lobby the Government to review / revoke the cap on the provision of the Special Needs Assistants in Primary schools.

Kilkenny School Project NS Patron Committee

5. That this AGM deplores the decision of the Department of Education to cap the number of Special Needs Assistant posts (circular 0006/2011) and requests Educate Together to seek a fairer approach to the allocation of SNAs based on need not numbers.
Swords ETNS BOM


Admissions Policy
6. This AGM instructs Educate Together to change the admissions policy from "first come, first served" to one which includes a Siblings Policy.
Carlow ETNS BOM

Ethical Education Curriculum
7. That this AGM applauds initiatives designed to support the delivery of quality teaching and learning of the Learn Together Programme and calls on Educate Together to examine the feasibility of providing hard copy resources to supplement on-line learning and Summer Courses.

Swords ETNS BOM

Review of four principles and charter
8. Wicklow ETNS proposes that the Directors of Educate Together should conduct and lead a consultative review of the four principles of Educate Together, together with the Educate Together Charter.
This review would examine the language and meaning of the four principles, and present proposals for adaptations to the principles, to reflect the current context, both in terms of the changing educational landscape and the need to protect and maintain the environment, and to create a renewed vision for the Educate Together Community.
The review would also consider the feasibility of adopting the Earth Charter to support and extend the guiding principles of Educate Together. These adapted principles would be presented to the Educate Together AGM in 2012 for a democratic decision on their adoption by the members of the organisation.

Wicklow ETNS BOM

Quorum for the AGM
9. That the existing rule for a quorum at an AGM be changed to 40% of the schools in the organisation.
ET Directors


Funding of Educate Together
10. Educate Together continues with the agreed commitment from last year's AGM to funding from the membership for the coming year. Furthermore, the directors of E.T. will give an annual itemised account of the spending of the funding which has been raised from this source.
ET Directors
Membership of Educate Together
11. That this AGM direct the directors to convene a membership committee to examine the conditions set by E.T. for granting membership to schools.
ET Directors