When the Cycling Ireland EGM takes place in Co Dublin on June 15th - just 10 days from now - those present will be asked to vote on the following motion:
"That Mr Pat McQuaid be, and is hereby, nominated by Cycling Ireland to stand as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI at the 2013 UCI Congress and that the said nomination be executed and submitted forthwith by the Board of this Company."
Those gathered at the meeting in the Red Cow Inn just off the M50 will be there to represent their clubs, rather than themselves as individuals. And the votes they cast will reflect their clubs' views on whether Pat McQuaid should be nominated.
Some clubs have already held their own meetings, where members have decided how their club representatives should vote at the upcoming EGM. Most have decided their clubs position by voting at those club meetings. Others have yet to meet to make that decision, but are expected to do so before the EGM takes place.
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Cycling Ireland currently has 252 clubs registered. A quorum of five per cent of those clubs - 13 in total - is needed on the day in question in order for the EGM to take place and be binding. Because some clubs have a very small number of members while others have in excess of 300, different weighting is attached to clubs' votes at the EGM; it's not a case of 'one club, one vote'. In a nutshell, the bigger your club is, the more say it has.
Those clubs with less than 20 members will have two votes. Clubs with between 21 and 50 members will have three votes. Others with between 51 and 100 members will have four votes at the EGM, plus one additional vote for every extra 100 members. It means a club with between 200 and 299 members will have five votes and clubs with 300 to 399 members will have six votes, and so on.
At the end of this item, we have included a link supplied by Cycling Ireland. When you click on it you'll find the full list of clubs registered with Cycling Ireland, along with how many members each has registered with the federation and how many votes each club will have at the EGM.
There are obviously a lot of smaller clubs, meaning many on the list will have just two votes at the EGM. At the top end of the scale, a small number have over 300 members and so will have six votes. There is only one club in Ireland with 400+ members registered with Cycling Ireland; Lakeside Wheelers Mullingar with 449 registered members. It means they will have seven votes; the most of any club.
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At stickybottle, we were one of a number of people/groups to add our voice to the campaign to have an EGM called. And even though Pat McQuaid has sought a nomination from the Swiss federation, we believe it's still important that the Irish cycling community has it's say on this important issue. So if your club has not held a meeting yet to decide its position, you should contact your club officials immediately and organise a meeting in the next few days.
It's also imperative that club officials going to the EGM cast clubs' votes in accordance with the members' wishes. So if you suspect your official(s) may be about to go on a solo run, you should raise that now and make sure it doesn't happen.
Despite Pat McQuaid getting the Swiss nomination - and it appears he does indeed have it - it's still important that the Irish cycling community votes on the issue and that the views held by Irish cyclists relating to Pat McQuaid's nomination are known within the sport globally.
Here's that list of clubs we mentioned, and it's in alphabetical order so it's pretty easy to follow:
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