Mr. T.J. Flanagan:

It works. Again, we have presided over those mergers for that 100-year period and have never had a complaint. Every ICOS co-op rule book has a provision for arbitration. If a member is unhappy with something they come to us for arbitration. To my knowledge - and I can pretty much stand over this - we have never had an arbitration request over somebody who felt the process was wrong. Members understand it is either 75% the first day or if you get a simple majority you come back a second day to get a simple majority again. These take place and are highly publicised. It is not as if there is a sneaky meeting in a hall some night and the business is done. What is being proposed is that even if you get 75% the first day you must come back for a second vote a fortnight later to get a simple majority. The fear of our members is you may not get the people out the second day. They are saying the status quoworks, that is, get 75% the first day and you are through. There is absolutely no reason to change it, certainly for our members. In 100 years of running these consolidation meetings we have never had a single complaint from a member.