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Review of the Structure and Organisation of the Association

 

Background

 For a year or so we have been discussing the way on which organise ourselves. The time has come to make some decisions as to how we change, if we change at all, our rules, regulations, and our way of conducting the business of the YACR.

Following the May AGM, I called a meeting of all officers, including Branch Chairs, to discuss how we should proceed. It had become clear that one aspect was already to a large extent agreed, that we should keep the branch structure. Accordingly at the meeting of officers we agreed to put that directly to the Association at the September meeting.

However, that left several issues to be considered and firm proposals to be made. To make sure that this was an association led process I asked for volunteers from the meeting to lead on specific reviews of the remaining issues.

Process

The process we are following is one that will give the Association a real opportunity to discuss and decide how best we go forward. As there has already been a lot of talk thus far it was agreed that we would follow the process below.

• Each lead person or persons would come up with a proposal or set of proposals that they had researched with members. This should involve as much consultation as possible, hence the various requests from the leads for the views of members.
• Each lead would formulate a simple paper for our September meeting. The papers to be a simple statement of the possible ways forward, following consultation. I asked for no more than three suggestions for change in the specific area of responsibility.
• At the September meeting we will hear from each lead who will present their set of suggestions and will answer specific questions from those present. As President I will manage this aspect to make sure that members address the suggestions raised as at this stage we must assume that as all members have been consulted we cannot have more suggestion made from the floor of the meeting. Every member has had plenty of time to express a view to the leads. If their view is not included, it will be because there is no general support for the suggestion.
• After questions of clarification have been dealt with, we will discuss the merits of the various suggestions.
• Following the meeting the Officers and Branch Chairs will meet and construct a set of firm proposals for each aspect of the review. Any change requiring a change of rules or standing orders will be accompanied by a formal statement of the possible new rule(s) or Order(s). These will be put as a block to the February meeting and to the AGM in May for adoption.

This process is designed to give every member the chance to raise an issue but within the context of a time limited process with final approval at the AGM in May 2024.

Currently, I know that we all just want to get on with a few years of stability and development in our ringing. I hope that we can agree a new way forward. If you have a view you must make it now to the leads of the various aspects and turn up to the meetings to make your points, within the structure outlined above.  

 For clarity the aspects needing decisions are:

• Membership, lead Elaine Scott
• Agendas and conduct of general meetings, lead Peter Sanderson
• General Committee structure and business, lead Simon Plows
• Financial arrangements between the YACR and its branches, lead David Spaul
• The format and content of the annual report, lead Barrie Dove

 I look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting in September.

Andew Slade

President of the YACR

 

February 2024, Excerpts from President's report:-

At this [September] meeting, apart from the usual business, we discussed the strands of the review where strand leaders gave a short report and questions were put from the floor of the meeting in an excellent and wide-ranging discussion on each of the points raised.

In November an extraordinary meeting of the General Committee was held at which the review outcomes were discussed in detail. It was agreed to put a motion to the January meeting of the association giving notice of a change of standing orders, to be voted on at the AGM, to remove the Associate Member category of member of the association and to move to a single level membership, not counting Life Members and Honorary Members.

..... we shall make many small changes to the way in which we run the meetings next year, all designed to increase the time available for ringing and to encourage all to stay for the whole event, including the final tower.

Professor Andrew Slade

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