Date : 20 March 2021, 1400 – 1630 Hrs

Venue : Zoom

Attendance:

The Humanist Society (Singapore) (‘HSS’) Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’) was attended by 25 people, 21 of whom were members with voting rights. The voting membership for the year is 82, so the quorum was reached, with one constitutional amendment tabled.

Annual Report

The meeting began officially at 2:10pm with the President’s address. A summary of the past year’s events, programmes, and involvements was presented.

1. 2020 events including

2. Groundbreakers

• A Good Space
• Interfaith
• Engaging Students
• HSS Internship 
• Formation of Palliative Care Working Group

3. Press and social outreach

A summary of mentions, letters and engagement with the press and media.

• Response to posts linking holy texts to toilet paper 
• Response to Archbishop 1
• Response to Archbishop 2
• Interviews with a scientist and a non-scientist (DJ)
• Interview with Mathia (JY) 
• DJ’s interview with a A Magazine
• HSS video cited in Australian religious studies textbook 
• HSS interviews: Christian Humanist, two scientist on pseudoscience and anti-vaccine sentiments regarding Covid-19

4. Celebrant services in 2020 under Covid-19  by Tan Tatt Si.

5. Reorganisation and Expansion of HSS programmes:

Society is planning to restructure services into: Secretariat, Alliances, Peer Support and End-of-life Care. A calendar of events for 2021 was shown, and volunteers called for.

6. HSS membership report and public reach

Secretary outlined the growth of membership in 2020 despite Covid-19 restrictions, and our current social media outreach channels that promote our organisation and activities.

7. Financials 2020

Financials were reported by the Treasurer. On 31st Dec 2020, the HSS net current assets was S$ 23,663.26, with a surplus of S$ 208.58 for FY2020. The bulk of income came from Membership Subscription, Members’ Contribution, and Merchandise Sales. The bulk of expenditure comes from Merchandise Costs, Event Costs and Miscellaneous costs inclusive of AGS annual membership fee and HSS internship. More details can be found in our annual financial statements, available to HSS members upon request. 

8. Minutes of 2020 AGM minutes

Reviewed and approved.

9. Proposed Constitutional Changes

● Raising the spending limit in clause 9.7

9.7     The Committee has power to authorise the expenditure of a sum not exceeding $1,000 per month from the Society’s funds for the Society’s purposes.

Proposed new spending limit on constitution 

9.7    The Committee has power to authorise the expenditure of a sum not exceeding $2,000 per month from the Society’s funds for the Society’s purposes. Prior approval from a general meeting of members must be sought for any budget plans deviating from this.

10. Raising money for a permanent venue 

Exco seeks Members’ opinion and official vote to raise funds for the special purpose of funding a permanent home for HSS.

Questions and objections were raised regarding this proposed raising of the monthly spending limit. Several members expressed concern about a possible recurring financial commitment (eg employee or office lease) depleting the Society coffers. Suggestions of annual spending caps, yearly budget reviews and sunset clauses as a check on spending.

The exco explained that raising the monthly cap in the constitution was not a carte blanche for the Exco to spend, but to give it discretionary power to use funds more flexibly. An example was a recent one-time expenditure of $1000 membership fee, which effectively froze all expenses for the month. It was also explained that there were adequate rules and safeguards in place to keep a rogue exco from irresponsible spending.

It was also raised that the early voting ballot appeared to rush members into voting for issues that had not been explained. Exco explained that this was not its intention. The 3pm deadline was for AGM registration and not voting, which could be done up until the end of balloting during the AGM. Exco will improve on refining the procedures for future online AGMs.

The amendments were eventually passed.

11. Election of 2021 – 2023 executive committee members

Vice President: Tan Ding Jie

Secretary: Norhaiyah Madasamy

Treasurer: Nic Jude Das (The position was brought forward one year to realign with the Society’s schedule of elections with ROS, which were disrupted in earlier years.)

Ordinary Committee Member: Cheng Chee Hoew

All candidates were voted in unopposed.

12. President’s words of appreciation for outgoing Secretary and Treasurer.

13. Appointment of honorary auditors Ms Dian Marissa and Mr. Muhamad Alif Bin Ibrahim for FY2021.

Any other business

No other business was raised. HSS AGM 2021 ended at 1630h SGT.