Special General Meeting of the CATIE Membership

CATIE’s board of directors is calling a special general meeting to approve a bylaw amendment to be implemented before this year’s general board elections. This amendment seeks to expand CATIE’s definition of lived experience in order to diversify the elected leadership of the organization.

About the Special General Meeting

This amendment will be discussed and voted upon at a special general meeting of CATIE members on Friday, May 24, 2024, at 12 p.m. EDT.

Register here

For the amendment to be approved by CATIE members, it requires the approval of a two-thirds majority of CATIE members present and voting, including individual and organizational members. At least 25 members who are not CATIE employees must be present to achieve quorum.

Meeting Documents

To review the meeting documents, please click on the links below:

About the amendment

Currently, a majority of CATIE’s board of directors must be composed of individuals living with HIV, and there must be one individual with lived experience of hepatitis C. This bylaw was originally implemented to ensure that the organization follows the direction of people with lived experience of the organization’s areas of work. Over the years, CATIE’s mandate has expanded in hepatitis C and harm reduction. We want to ensure our board’s decision-making is informed by an even broader range of experiences, including more people with lived or living experience of hepatitis C or substance use.

In addition to expanding our definition of lived and living experience, this proposed bylaw amendment would allow the lived experience requirement to be filled by board members in any region of the country. This facilitates flexibility in board recruitment and allows board members with lived experience to complete their terms without worrying about creating regional vacancies that are more difficult to fill.

CATIE’s board of directors is seeking the approval of the membership to modify Section 5.2 of the CATIE bylaws as follows:

Current wording

Proposed wording

5.2 The affairs of the Corporation shall be managed by a Board composed of 15 directors as follows:

 

  1. two directors from each of the Pacific, Western, Ontario and Nunavut, Quebec and Atlantic Regional classes, for a total of ten regional directors; one director from each regional class must be a person living with HIV/AIDS;
  2. one Indigenous director; and
  3. four at-large directors;

such that persons living with HIV/AIDS must comprise a majority of the board, and at least one director must be a person having experience living with the hepatitis-C virus.

5.2 The affairs of the Corporation shall be managed by a Board composed of 15 directors as follows:

 

  1. two directors from each of the Pacific, Western, Ontario and Nunavut, Quebec and Atlantic Regional classes, for a total of ten regional directors;
  2. one Indigenous director; and
  3. four at-large directors;

such that persons with living or lived experience of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and/or substance use must comprise a majority of the board.

Can’t attend? Vote by proxy.

Pursuant to CATIE’s bylaws, a member entitled to vote at this meeting may vote by proxy by appointing a proxyholder, who is not required to be a CATIE member, to attend and act at the meeting in accordance with your wishes. This must be arranged in advance by submitting this form no later than Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at 12 p.m. EDT.

Accessibility

Like all CATIE membership meetings, this special general meeting will be accessible in both official languages through simultaneous English-French interpretation. Members may participate in the meeting through chat, video or audio, in English or French. Sign-language interpretation is available upon request before May 16, 2024, and closed captioning via Zoom can be enabled by any participant.

Questions?

Unsure if your membership is up to date? Have questions about the bylaws or this amendment? Please write to membership@catie.ca.