| No | Question | Answer | Asked By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why do we need a Constitution? | The minutes of a DOS Extraordinary General Meeting of 22nd November 1969 contain the comment that Mr F.G. Hollands (Secretary) suggested the Committee should make out a 'proper Constitution', presumably as no formal document was written before this date. By March 1986 the minutes of a Committee meeting show that it was by no means clear, even by then, whether the Society had a formal constitution (as distinct from 'Rules'). However, the problem was addressed in lengthy discussions and by October 1986 a new set of Rules had been thrashed out and the idea of a 'constitution' had been abandoned. The Rules were ratified at the 1987 AGM and although they have been slightly modified several times since, they are still essentially intact. Current Charity Commission guidance requires registered charities to have a "Governing Document", i.e. a formal constitution, so we finally need to put one in place. | Committee |
| 2 | Why now? | There is nothind special about now, the timing has been dictated by the length of time it has taken to create a proposal tailored to our needs. The CHarity Commission pro forma is really aimed at a much bigger organisation with employees and land so it took awhile to find a suitable example. | Committee |
| 3 | I suggest that the REGISTERED NO of the charity be included. Should you refer to CHAIR and not as chairMAN. In clause 4 you do not need to start each sub clause with Power. | Suggested amendments have been incorporated - DAR | Alan Gifford |
| 4 | Signatures at end - should they include Membership Secretary who is the fifth officer of the Society as per section 6.2? | Suggested amendment has been incorporated - DAR | Paul Bingham |
| 5 | Section 17.2 - quorum of twenty members. Clarification needed. Is this subscription membership or does it include any additional family members present? If the latter it may appear to conflict with only one vote per subscription membership. | Yes, a further review has been held following a similar question from Hilary Hodkinson. Please see the answer to that question. | Paul Bingham |
| 6 | Could the proposal result in the committee members dominating any voting? | Unlikely if we adopt Hilary's proposal of each family member over 18 receiving a vote and/or a reasonable number of members attended the AGM. | Paul Bingham |
| 7 | If a husband and wife were both at a meeting where a vote was taken, they only get one vote under the proposed constitution. This means they would have to agree prior to the meeting how to use this vote. They should really have a vote each; both have paid towards membership, and to get into the meeting. | The AGM is really the only time votes of any substance are taken and the intention of the proposal was to give one membership one vote. However, we can see the point and the proposed solution would be to offer everyone over 18 at the meeting a vote. The original proposal was aimed at restricting voting to the subscription payer to avoid any issues with people under 18 voting - our Privacy and GDPR policies would not allow this. The proposal has been amended accordingly. | Hilary Hodkinson |
| 8 | Line 71 mentions a Student Membership Scheme however no details are given, and it is too vague as written. | Agreed. More details have been added to the proposal. | Hilary Hodkinson |
| 9 | Line 74 says under 18s cannot vote, as written it is not a welcoming statement to young members and I suggest something like "under 18s are welcome as part of a family membership but may not vote until they reach 18 years of age" (see question above on voting). | Agreed and proposal amended as suggested. | Hilary Hodkinson |
| 10 | Lines 180 to 190. Personal interests. Why specifically mention Accountants? Make it more inclusive and generic. | Agreed and proposal amended. | Hilary Hodkinson |
| 11 | Line 307. Use of "other": used twice, suggest "by means other than". | Agreed and proposal amended. | Hilary Hodkinson |
| 12 | Lines 88 and 89 imply that representatives of other organisations must be DOS Members. OK for named representatives but what about substitutes of they cannot make a meeting? | Agreed and proposal amended. | Tony Wassell |
| 13 | We need to make sure everyone knows AGM business must be notified to the General Secretary 21 days in advance of the date of the AGM. | Agreed. Wording reviewed. AGM business is limited to appointing the committee and changes to governing documents. The Secretary will rule any other type, e.g. a proposal to make a donation to a worthy cause, out of order and inform the person raising it that it will be moved to the agenda for the next General Committee meeting. | Tony Wassell |