1989
Shoalhaven Bushwalkers became an incorporated association in 1989, subject to the rules of its new constitution. One of those rules limited the term of the President to two consecutive years. The incumbent President responsible for the club's transition to incorporation was Stuart Leslie, and he served for another two years after the two year rule came into force - hence his term of office is shown in our club history as three years.

Stuart has stated that the two year Presidential term was put into the constitution deliberately to prevent people getting "stuck" in the position, and as a result the term of every President for the next 20 years was limited to two consecutive years. Stuart has not explained why he thought only the President would get stuck - what about all the other officer-bearers? During this time many members of the club became increasingly opposed to the two year limitation to the term of the President, but at the time the constitution was very difficult to change. Amendments to the constitution required the approval of 75% of the entire club membership at a special general meeting, and this was incredibly difficult to organize!

In 2009 and 2010 the then President - Peter Dalton - took it upon himself to update the constitution. Although there were a host of changes that he believed needed to be made in the constitution - including to the term of the President - Peter realized that if he could initially make the constitution easier to change, then all the other necessary changes could follow. He organized a special general meeting, as well as the required number of votes (proxy voting was allowed at this time), and the meeting decided that changes to the constitution would still be decided at a special general meeting, but they would only require the approval of 50% of those members present at the meeting, with proxy votes not being allowed.

2011
The special general meeting also changed the term of the President, with the wording of the constitution changed to "A president shall not hold office for a period of more than three full consecutive years, unless no other nominations for president are received." When arriving at the wording for this rule, the committee added the rider so that a President could remain in office indefinitely as long as they were happy to stay, and everyone else was happy for them to stay. If anyone else nominated for the role of President after the current President had been in office for three years or more, the President would have to step down.

Unfortunately, the special general meeting that decided these changes to the constitution did not occur until October 2011, and Peter had been forced to step down from the Presidency two months earlier when his two year term expired! Sandra Kelley, who had already been President from 2001 to 2002, took over the President's role when Peter stepped down, but only as an interim measure. She was allowed to have this third year in office because it was non-consecutive with her original term.

In 2012 Karen Davis was elected President. Over the ensuing years the club seemed happy with the job that Karen was doing as nobody challenged Karen for the role of President. She held office for 8 years - and so became our longest serving President - voluntarily stepping down at the 2020 AGM.

2023
When the Department of Fair Trading released a new version of its Model Constitution during her Presidency, Mary called for a sub-committee to be set up to review the SBW constitution which had not been updated since 2011. The sub-committee consisted of Mary, Clare Lord and Brett Davis. Significantly, both Mary and Clare had not been on the committee when the constitution and the term of the President had been changed back in 2011, and Clare hadn't even been a member of the club at the time. Brett had been a club member since 1999 and had been on the committee for over 20 years - since the year 2000.

Mary and Clare both wanted the term of the Presidency limited to three consecutive years with no exceptions. This meant that when a President had completed three consecutive years in the role, they would be forced to step down - even if they wanted to stay on and every member of the club wanted them to stay on as well. Brett explained the history to Mary and Clare, but they remained unmoved, so Brett was out-voted and the constitution that was eventually presented to a special general meeting in 2023 contained the recommendation to limit the term of the President to a maximum of three consecutive years. Other changes to the constitution added contradictory rules, and rules that were difficult - if not impossible - to interpret.

At that special general meeting - held in August 2023 - Julienne McKay, the Vice President of the club, spoke in favour of limiting the term of the President to a maximum of three consecutive years. Her comments can be seen in the minutes of that meeting which can be found on our Members Only page. Like Mary and Clare, Julienne had not been on the committee in 2011, and had not been a member at the time either. In addition, she had been a committee member for only twelve months.

At the time of writing of this page, the minutes of the August 2023 AGM are draft minutes as they have not been accepted as a true and accurate record of the AGM by a subsequent meeting. As a result, the words attributed to Julienne on this page might change in the future.

When referring to the wording of the term of the President in the constitution, Julienne said "this form of words – 'unless no other nominations are received' – can, and in recent years appears to have reduced the incentive for other Club members to come forward ... Karen was President for 8 years and was only relieved when she appealed to Mary to take on the role."

While Julienne might believe that it was the wording of the constitution that kept Karen in the job of President for 8 years, others in the club might believe that it was because she was doing such a good job - and was happy in the role - that kept Karen in the job of President for 8 years! Karen has also said that she would like it put on the record that she was not "relieved" of the Presidency - she would have stepped down from the role of President whether or not there was another candidate waiting in the wings. She also did not "appeal" to Mary to take on the role, and twice tried to talk Mary out of becoming President!

Julienne went on to argue for short term Presidencies by saying "Whilst all Club members, and all committee members, are expected, and encouraged, to bring forward new ideas, progressing new ideas is most likely to occur when different people, with different experiences, and different views, take on the role". Julienne seems to think that new ideas are always good ideas. The same wording could also be used to support the alternative case - "Whilst all Club members, and all committee members, are expected, and encouraged, to bring forward new ideas, progressing BAD ideas is most likely to occur when different people, with different experiences, and different views, take on the role". Change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good thing.

Conclusion
As members have done since the inception of the club, those present at the 2023 AGM voted overwhelmingly to accept the recommendation of the SBW committee, to accept the new constitution (contradictions and impossible interpretations included) and to limit the term of the President to three consecutive years without exception. Only Brett Davis and Karen Davis voted against adopting the constitution and limiting the term of the Presidency. Notably, there were also a couple of members who abstained.

And so we've come full circle. To quote a phrase most often attributed to George Santayana - "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

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