….and brought forth a mouse, to wit ILPUK, or Information & Library Professionals UK. And we have a strap line too, The Chartered Institute for the knowledge professions [sic]. Unfortunately, the domain ilpuk.org.uk is already registered to a firm of financial lawyers based on Leyton High Street.
This proposal needs a two-thirds majority at CILIP's AGM to go through. I certainly won't be voting for it. The case for change still hasn't been made and the proposed name is no better than the old. In any case, the AGM may not be decisive. I think that members were balloted on the name CILIP; there's a strong case that a name change should similarly be subject to a postal ballot of all members. To secure a ballot, twenty members attending the AGM, or using proxies, need to support the call. The relevant bye-law is number 27, which states,
'At every General Meeting a resolution put to the vote of the meeting shall be decided on a show of hands, unless a Ballot is, before or upon the declaration of the result of the show of hands, demanded by the chair or by at least twenty Individual Members present in person or by proxy, and unless a Ballot be so demanded a declaration by the chair of the meeting that a resolution has been carried or carried by a particular majority, or lost or not carried by a particular majority shall be conclusive, and an entry to that effect in the minutes of the proceedings of the meeting shall be sufficient evidence of the fact so declared, without proof of the number or proportion of the votes given for or against such resolution.'