ABOLITION OF PROXIES.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 285, 18 March 1919, Page 11

ABOLITION OF PROXIES.

(To the Editor.)

Madam, —As a resolution will be brought forward at the Convention next month to do away with proxies altogether, we should be glad if you would suite in the “White Ribbon” what will be gained by such amendment to the Constitution.

If the proposal is carried, it will mean that a Union that is not in a position to pay either the whole or part of a Delegate’s expenses will be unrepresented unless some member of the W.C.T.U. in its own district can go at her own expense. It seems to us that this would bear hardly upon the smaller A nions, which are as much entitled to representation as are the larger ones, and we feel that in all our regulations special consideration should be given to those who are working under greater disadvantages. It will also mean that members who have not been selected to represent their district, but who are so keenly interested in the work of the W.C.T.U. that they attend Convention as visitors, will have no opportunity of a seat or a vote, but must remain simply onlookers. Some of the leading members of our Unions arc decidedly diffident about allowing themselves to be elected too frequently, thus shutting out younger and less experienced members, and if this resolution were carried, Convention would suffer a serious loss in thus being deprived of their wider experience and judgment.—Yours in Union work, MARIAN IUDSON, Rec. Sec., Nelson Union.

(There arc several advantages in doing away with proxies : (1) As the Constitution now stands we have in Convention besides the exofficio members, three classes (a) Delegates who are members of the Union they represent; (bj Delegates who are members of a Union in the same district as the Union they repres< r.t. These are elected by the Union, and must be instructed bv them

how to vote tor officers and on notices ot motion.

U) Proxies who arc chosen by the Ret. Sec., and have written instructions handed to them now to vote.

Abolishing proxies would simplify oui representation by confining it to two kinds ot representatives. Also it secures a more real representation because a t nion would be likely to select a member in their own district, known to them, and knowing the local conditions under which they work, abo a delegate from their own diMru t could prooubly give the Con vention report in person, and a visit from their Convention I delegate would he the next best thing to a member of tneir own Cnion as their representative.

The ex|K*ricneecl members who visit Convention at their own expense, could always be chosen b> some l turn in their own district, such arrangement being lar more satisfactory both to themselves and the Cnion than being sole« te‘d l>\ Kef. Sec retary te» a< t as proxy ten a I nie*n they kneiw nothing about, l-.elitoi “While Ribbon. )