To all ordinary members of The Advocates Association of Sarawak, Kuching Branch, Sibu Branch, Bintulu Branch & Miri Branch.

Please find appended below the Notice of General Meeting of all members dated 18.01.2024 issued by the 8 branch delegates of the Kuching Branch of The Advocates Association of Sarawak together with the accompanying Proxy Form.

Notice, Agenda and Proxy Form of General Meeting

We have included a simplified chronology of events for your ease of understanding:

1.  Notice of Kuching Branch’s Annual General Meeting issued on 14.11.2023;

2.  On the same day, an Ordinary Member of the Kuching Branch put forward 2 motions to be tabled at the Kuching Branch’s Annual General Meeting with the aim of achieving greater parity in the representation of ordinary members of all branches at the delegate level:

2.1  the first motion being to amend the manner in which any branch’s delegates are calculated from the geometric progression model to a fixed system of 1 delegate per 50 branch members; and

2.2  in the event that the first motion is carried by the Kuching Branch Annual General Meeting, the second motion mandates the  Kuching branch delegates to request that the Annual Delegates Conference call for a general meeting of all members in the event that the Annual Delegates Conference votes against the first motion (a copy of the 2 motions are appended below):

3. At the Kuching Branch’s Annual General Meeting on 24.11.2023, both motions were adopted by the floor;

4. On 29.11.2023, the Branch Secretary of the Kuching Branch of The Advocates Association of Sarawak wrote to the Honorary Secretary of The Advocates Association of Sarawak to notify the Honorary Secretary of the 2 motions and the 2 motions were subsequently incorporated into the agenda of the Annual Delegates Conference 2023;

5. On 09.12.2023, the Annual Delegates Conference voted against the first motion. Thus, the 8 branch delegates from the Kuching Branch of The Advocates Association of Sarawak and representing more than 25% of the total number of delegates at that time, requested for the Annual Delegates Conference to call a general meeting of all members in line with the strict mandate given by the Kuching Branch members;

6.  The Annual Delegates Conference refused to call for a general meeting of all members and decided to put the matter to a vote. All Kuching Branch delegates voted in favour of the second motion and all Sibu, Bintulu and Miri Branch delegates voted against the second motion;

7.  As the Annual Delegates Conference had failed, refused and/or neglected to call for a general meeting of all members in the time specified in the Constitution of The Advocates Association of Sarawak, the Kuching Branch Delegates are empowered to do so by the same Constitution.

Thank you.