Cumberland North Progressive Conservative Association

What is the Constituency Council?

What happens at one of its meetings?

The best way to answer these questions is to quote from our By-Laws:

CONSTITUENCY COUNCIL

35. The members shall annually elect a Constituency Council, consisting of no fewer persons than there are polling districts in the Constituency. All members of the Executive Committee are automatically members of the Constituency Council. Membership on the Constituency Council shall, as much as possible, reflect the geographic and demographic characteristics of the Constituency. There is no limit to the number of successive terms a person may serve on the Constituency Council.

36. The Constituency Council is to constitute a broadly based forum of views, opinions and representations and is expected to serve in an advisory capacity to the Executive Committee and to the elected Member of the Legislative Assembly, assist in the development of policy and resolutions to the annual general meeting of the Association and of the Progressive Conservative
Association of Nova Scotia.

37. The Constituency Council shall meet as often as may be required and at least twice in a fiscal year, once in the period from January 1st to June 30th in any one year, and once in the period from July 1st to December 31st in any one year. Meetings of the Constituency Council shall, whenever possible, take place outside of the Town of Amherst and at least one of the meetings per fiscal year shall take place in the Pugwash/Wallace/Malagash area.

38. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Constituency Council, but the President may delegate the chairing of meetings of the Constituency Council to another member of the Executive Committee, or to a person elected by the Constituency Council at any meeting to chair the meeting. Meetings of the Constituency Council have no quorum or attendance
requirements.

As far as we know, Cumberland North is the only P.C. organization in the Province that has a Constituency Council. Our constitution was written and adopted independently from the Provincial format.

We don’t have a Board of Directors. Instead our By- Laws provide for an Executive Committee, which is in charge of managing the activities of our Association. To get broader in-put, however, Constituency Council can be used. This has not been done regularly over the years. The Council can and should be a useful part of our organization. Hopefully, it will be used again from now on.