Lower proxy vote limit to one per person

[alegs-a]

The purpose of a proxy vote is to allow a member who is legitimately unable to attend the meeting to still have a voice in the Society's democratic processes. The purpose of this amendment is to discourage a practice sometimes referred to as 'proxy stacking', where a candidate for an elected position arranges for as many proxy votes as possible to be held by members likely to support the candidate. While campaigning is inevitable in any democratic process, this practice (in its extreme form) turns elections into a contest of which candidate can harvest the largest number of proxies.
This PR explicitly aims to avoid disenfranchising members who are forced to use a proxy vote due a legitimate inability to attend the meeting. Given the fact that a person is not required to be a member in order to hold a proxy vote it is unlikely that a member would be left unable to find someone to hold their proxy (even with the lowered limit).

Although it isn't directly related to the content of this PR, members are also reminded of their ability to instruct the person holding their proxy vote on how to use it, i.e. a proxy vote doesn't have to simply double the voting power of the member who holds it.

[bradleysigma]

Nice.

[bradleysigma]

For a more formal review: seems fine; the original limit was based off of the UQU standing orders, but we're not beholden to that limit.

[bradleysigma]

Also, the current Model Constitution now limits a person to two votes, usually their own as a member and at most one proxy.

[mashamegul]

Hi, for some stats on proxies for yesterday's SGM (May 8th, 2025)

• 50 total proxy emails sent (2 duplicate emails and 1 double proxy)
• 47 total proxies
• 46 total unique proxies for the SGM (member doubled proxied)
• 35 proxy emails sent after 2pm on the day of SGM (1 duplicate email and 1 double proxy)
• 38 proxy emails sent on day of SGM (Similarly, 1 duplicate email and 1 double proxy)

[q-horton]

Given that the current arrangement with current numbers could result in someone holding more than 10% of the quorum in votes, this sounds like quite a reasonable adjustment.

Just to make it more accessible given Bradley's referred to the model constitution, here's the section on proxies from the current version for those unfamiliar (see 25.4 for the limit on votes).

[ENGGP]

Motion tabled at 2025 AGM