AWARE on Monday announced new projects to champion women's issues, as well as changes to its Constitution to prevent a repeat of the leadership takeover by newbies. --ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
THE Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) on Monday announced new projects to champion women's issues, as well as changes to its Constitution to prevent a repeat of the leadership takeover by newbies.
One of its main goals: to publish a report in 2011 on the status of Singapore women.
Its other plans include organising seminars, developing courses to educate and empower women, and expanding helplines for those who may be in distress.
The women's advocacy group is also putting in place new measures to keep its house in order.
This comes in the form of two changes to its Constitution.
Firstly, those who want to stand for election to the executive committee must have been members for at least two years.
The second change is to give the Aware executive committee the right to expel any member who acts against the group's interest.
This move is aimed at preventing a repeat of the incident earlier this year when a group of relative unknowns, led by bank executive Josie Lau, managed to win nine of 12 exco seats at Aware's annual general meeting on March 28.
A fight-back by the ousted committee members and their supporters ensued, culminating in an extraordinary general meeting on May 2 at which they regained control of Aware.
At a press conference on Monday, Aware president Dana Lam also revealed that her team will not initiate legal action to recover expenses incurred by the previous exco during its short term in office.
This is because the team she now leads wants to get on with their work and close that chapter quickly.
Said Ms Lam: 'We want to get on with our work, which is to identify and help remove obstacles that prevent women from realising their full potential.'
Ms Lau's team had reportedly spent more than $100,000 during their one month in charge.
The bulk of that amount went towards the staging of the May 2 extradordinary general meeting, which was attended by more than 2,400 people.
At that meeting in Suntec City, a vote a no-confidence tabled against Ms Lau and her team was carried and they were voted out.
