Chamber meeting fails to resolve chaos

PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Chamber of Commerce held an extraordinary meeting yesterday at The Metropole hotel to resolve its membership problems, but the tense evening ended only in further disagreement. Only 59 of the 220 members attended, barely a quorum under the Chamber’s constitution. The new chairman, Pamuke Achariyachai, announced that all memberships that had previously been voided because of irregularities in members’ applications, had been reinstated after the nine people remaining on the Chamber committee had reviewed and signed each application. He explained that the reinstatements also meant that the 12 disqualified members of the original 21-seat committee had also been reinstated, although four of them had since resigned, leaving 17. Some members felt that a 17-man committee was sufficient, and that no election was necessary. Others felt that a vote should be taken to elect four members to replace those who had resigned. This provoked heated debate, but since a vote to decide between a 17-man and a 21-man committee was not on the agenda, K. Pamuke ruled that another extraordinary meeting must be held to decide the size of the committee. Another agenda item called for a vote to change the wording on some of the rules to make them clearer. This was postponed after two members complained that they had not received the proposed revisions in advance of the meeting. A date for the next meeting will be announced later by the committee.