REMINDER: Attend AGM, vote on special resolutions

Alberta Municipalities’ 2022 Convention & Trade Show in Calgary is just one week away, so now is an ideal time to remind everyone that three special resolutions will be proposed by the Board of Directors at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, September 23.

To view these resolutions, click here. To view the 'redline' changes, you will need to download the document and open it in MS Word.

We encourage members to discuss these special resolutions with their council colleagues, attend the AGM, and vote. It is an opportunity to help propel Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) forward.

The special resolutions are as follows:

Special Resolution 1: Repealing and replacing our bylaws with amended ones

We worked with Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer (RMRF) to complete an overall review of the current bylaws and we found some items that could be made clearer.

Special Resolution 2: Amending our legal name to the 'Association of Alberta Municipalities'

Many of you will recall that our new brand name, Alberta Municipalities, was unveiled at our last Convention. We changed our brand name in response to our members’ feedback:

• A single brand (instead of AUMA and AMSC) would more clearly show the support we provide to members through our advocacy and business services.
• Many of our members either do not relate to the term "urban" (particularly some of our towns, villages, and summer villages), or they do not wish to define themselves as being "urban" or "rural" at all, but as municipalities and communities.
• The acronym AUMA did not hold a lot of meaning and many people did not know that AUMA was the acronym for Alberta Urban Municipalities Association.

Now that our brand name is in use and well recognized, it is time to pursue the change of our legal name. Our legal name is mostly used behind the scenes and in legal documents like bylaws and contracts. Although it is not crucial that we align our brand name and our legal name, we want to change our bylaws so our contracts and other legal documents can be updated using the Alberta Municipalities identity. Our legal name must include the word “Association” in it.

When we discussed this with those of you who attended our Summer Municipal Leaders’ Caucuses, we found a lot of support for this change. We hope most of our members will support our pursuit of a legal name change.

Special Resolution 3: Updating bylaws with our new legal name

The rationale for this special resolution may seem a bit confusing, but we need:

• a resolution to update the bylaws with our amendments (Resolution 1)
• a separate resolution just to approve the legal name change (Resolution 2).

Once the legal name change has been approved by our members, we must seek approval from the Deputy Registrar of Corporations to use the legal name before we can update our bylaws with it. So, rather than having to come back to you with another special resolution after the approval takes place, we are including it now.

If you have any questions or concerns about these resolutions, please reach out to the President or another Alberta Municipalities Board member.