<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 1, 2022, at 12:25 , Noah <<a href="mailto:noah@neo.co.tz" class="">noah@neo.co.tz</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 1 Jun 2022, 22:51 Ish Sookun, <<a href="mailto:ish.sookun@lasentinelle.mu" class="">ish.sookun@lasentinelle.mu</a>> wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" class="">Hi Noah,
<div class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 1 Jun 2022, at 22:22, Noah <<a href="mailto:noah@neo.co.tz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class="">noah@neo.co.tz</a>> wrote:</div><br class=""><div class=""><div dir="auto" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none" class="">Part of the above sentence reads ...</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none" class="">appoint "A" representative….</div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div class="">I understand the “A” and the second word is “representative”. A representative can be a person or a group of persons.</div></div></blockquote></div></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Hi Ish</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">English is not my lingo as Swahili was my first language and primary language but I tend to think that the meaning changes depending on how words are contracted together.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">1. A representative of....</div><div dir="auto" class="">2. Representatives of....</div><div dir="auto" class="">3. Representative</div><div dir="auto" class="">4. Representatives...</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Do all the above have the same meaning.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>It depends on the context, but certainly there is overlap of meaning amongst those terms.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>In the case of the bylaws, indeed, there is ambiguity (as is Ashok’s specialty) subject to interpretation of the meaning of “A representative” in that context.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>In such a case of ambiguity, especially in a context where, as Andrew mentions, legal counsel being present to advise would be potentially important, “A representative” should be construed to include whatever “representative” the entity deems necessary to constitute “a representative”, even if that includes a team of people.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>It would be legitimate to insist that only one of those members of the “representative team” do the speaking and voting on behalf of the entire representative team, but limiting the online presence only to one representative per organization is unreasonable.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Further, there is very long and well established precedence against such a restriction. Any change of such magnitude should certainly come with sufficient notice for the change to be considered, deliberated, and either agreed or rejected by the membership.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Owen</div><div><br class=""></div></body></html>