WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA — The CBH Group board announced on March 21 that it has called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to seek member approval to transition to the new Western Australia (WA) Cooperatives Act and to modernize its constitution.

The EGM is scheduled for May 4. All WA cooperatives must apply for registration under the new co-ops act by May 31, 2012 to continue as cooperatives. A formal notice of the EGM, including a proxy voting form, will be mailed to all members in early April, giving full details of the resolutions to be put to the meeting.


CBH Group Chairman Neil Wandel said to modernize its constitution and transition to the new act, two special resolutions of CBH members need to be passed at the EGM.

“Your board unanimously recommends members vote in favor of the resolutions and urges all members to vote,” Wandel said. “The board has decided to hold the meeting now so that we can transition to the new act before we head into a new season. All members will be able to vote by proxy if they can not attend the meeting in person because of seeding or other commitments.”

Wandel said that the transition to the new cooperatives act was the next step following the board’s recent decision on the preferred structure for CBH.

“While this is not a vote on the board’s preferred structure passing these resolutions will enable us to use all the mechanisms available under our preferred structure to create and return value to growers,” he said.