THERE were no great surprises among resolutions announced for this year’s Meat & Livestock Australia annual general meeting, released just minutes ago.

Sheepmeat, beef and goatmeat members will have the opportunity to vote on up to eight resolutions at the AGM, being held this year in Sydney on November 13.

MLA members will be asked to vote on:

• two resolutions to amend the MLA constitution in relation to the Board Selection Committee
• the election of three Board Director nominees, and
• three producer member representatives for the MLA Board Selection Committee. Grainfed, grassfed and sheep levy payers will vote separately for each of the three positions.

The two resolutions to amend the MLA constitution are to:

• reduce the number of MLA Directors on the MLA Board Selection Committee from three to two, and remove their voting rights and enable the Committee to elect its own Chair; and
• increase the number of cattle representatives on the MLA Board Selection Committee from one to two.

The three Board director nominees to be voted on are incombent, Geoff Maynard who is seeking re-election for a second three-year term, and two new nominees, Alan Beckett and Chris Mirams.

Mr Beckett has almost forty years’ experience with a major professional services firm, practising in the area of audit and corporate services involved in the large companies sector with an emphasis on listed public companies. If elected, he would bring extensive business experience to the board, along with general finance, accounting and governance expertise together with practical experience in doing business in Oceania, South East Asia, Japan and India. Mr Beckett is chairman of Basper Ltd (formally Berklee), is a non-executive director of Defence Health Ltd, Westbourne Capital and Westbourne Credit Management Ltd. He is deputy chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee of the Department of Defence and a member of the Audit & Risk Committee of Note Printing Australia Ltd.

Mr Mirams is an agricultural consultant based in Albury and has extensive commercial and practical experience in Southern Australian sheep meat production and managing sheep enterprises covering prime lamb, wool and meat with the latest technology and benchmarking.  He has significant experience in strategic R&D, broad commercial experience in southern beef production, specialist skills in business, finance, corporate governance, communication and leadership. Mr Mirams participated in the Australian Rural Leadership Program and is a past Chair of Holbrook Landcare Network and EverGraze National Advisory Committee and served on the Scots School Albury board.

Mr Maynard runs a 10,000ha cattle stud seedstock producing business near Jambin in Central Queensland. He has 35 years’ experience in northern production systems, and has had significant involvement in collaborative research and genetics programs. Maynard Cattle Co is one of the largest users of embryo technology in northern Australia. He was previously the vice-chair of the Beef Australia board and a past member of the industry advisory committee of the Beef CRC Mark II.  Mr Maynard is also a director of the MLA Donor Company.

The two new MLA Board director nominees were chosen by the nine-person industry Selection Committee from a field of more than 100 candidates based on the skills and experience that the committee was seeking.

Not appearing among board nominees this year was southern sheepmeats producer Rodney Watt, who joined the MLA board in 2011 and would have been due for re-election this year. It is unclear whether Mr Watt did not seek a second term, or whether he was not selected by the board selection committee.

MLA members will also have the opportunity to vote for three independent member representatives to the MLA Board Selection Committee – nominations for these positions close Wednesday 2 October. The independent nominees to the MLA Selection Committee will be announced when AGM packs are distributed in late October.

• Cattle, sheep and goat levy payers who are members of MLA are reminded to receive their full voting entitlement for the 2014 AGM by completing and return their levies notice by the 2 October deadline.
• MLA’s register of members will close for the purpose of the AGM on 2 October 2014. Any person who is a producer of livestock and eligible to apply for membership of MLA may apply to become a member before this date.
• Levies notice packs were mailed to all MLA members in July. To order a replacement notice, members should phone MLA on 1800 675 717.