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18th Feburary 2010
ECCO election causes concern
By Gilroy Ezi Hall – ECCO Member (Writer)

Last Saturday members of the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organization for Music Rights Incorporated (ECCO) converged on the CSA Centre in Sans Souci to elect six board members. This was in keeping with the decision at the January AGM which recognized several discrepancies with nomination forms and so in the best interest of the organization decided to postpone the election so that all errors could be corrected. It was agreed that the office staff would inform those affected and assist them in making the necessary corrections. Despite this unanimously supported arrangement last Saturday’s election revealed that as many as twenty five members had their proxies rejected and therefore were not entitled to a vote. These “writer” members had transferred their voting rights to a publisher who only learnt that he was not able to vote on their behalf while the ballots were being distributed.
According to Mr Steve Etienne, General Manager of ECCO, the voting rights of a writer can only be transferred to another writer likewise all other categories of members. He insisted that the By Laws clearly outlined these regulations and then informed the publisher that his 25 proxies were useless. At that point members asked to be guided to the exact section of the By Laws which articulated Mr Etienne’s revelation. Reference was made to Article 11 sub section 11.4. Upon reading the said section a member indicated that the article made no reference to the claim made by Mr Etienne.
The text is as follows:
Proxy Instrument
“The instrument appointing a proxy shall be in writing under the hand of appointer or of his attorney duly authorized in writing or, if the appointer is a corporation, eIther under the common seal or the hand of an officer thereof duly authorized or, if the appointer is a firm, under the hand of a partner in the firm, or their attorney duly authorized.

 
 

No person shall act as a proxy unless he is entitled on his own behalf to be present and vote at the meeting at which he acts as a proxy.”
This clearly indicates that the requirement for acting as a proxy has two distinct requirements:
1. The proxy instrument must be legitimately authorized by the appointer or approved authority acting on behalf of the appointer.
2. In order to act as a proxy, the person must first qualify to vote in his individual capacity. (Registered member of the organization and makes no reference to any specific category)
I am yet to discover what prevents a registered publisher, who is entitled to vote, from serving as a proxy for a writer. What makes the decision to invalidate the twenty-five proxies more disconcerting is the fact that the same publisher voted on behalf of writers in the last election. If the election of January 2010 was postponed to allow for corrections, why wasn’t the publisher informed that the voting rights of the twenty-five members could not be transferred to him? As the General Manager of ECCO one would think that at a time when a concerted effort is being made to get members more involved in the running of the organization Mr Etienne would have ensured that the office act speedily to correct such a perceived error. Is it that the views of these twenty-five members are not of significance to the organization?
I am sure that the new board will certainly address these concerns so that justice will prevail. Perhaps the General Manager can find the time to provide answers to these daunting questions in an effort to better educate current and potential members who certainly need to be more familiar with how ECCO operates.

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