The following rule changes are being proposed by Don Jones and Jane Boden. They represent the culmination of a working group who have been tasked with reviewing the rules and objectives.
These changes enable the setting up a small Management Group to replace the existing General Committee. In addition a few rules have been changed to reflect current or desirable practice. This is just a start! One of the jobs of the Management Group will be to overhaul completely the remaining rules for the Association.
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Whilst supporting in principle the reduction in size of the General Committee and also supporting the objective of separating the administration of the DDA from the ringing/social functions I do believe that much more consideration needs to given to how any new or revised Rules should be drafted to achieve a truly sustainable format for the future.
I also believe that the membership should be engaged fully and should have an ability to contribute more before being asked to vote on any changes.
If the brief of the Management Group (if/when formed) is to bring forward further rule changes, would it not be preferable to allow the Management Group to examine all the present Objectives and Rules rather than being hampered by the presently proposed Rule changes which may or may not themselves need further amendment?
I understood from the presentation at the Southern District ADM that the reasoning behind moving the responsibilities from the current General Committee to a much smaller Management Group was to streamline the administrative functions of the DDA. Rather than loading the Management Group with all the responsibilities of the General Committee at the same time as examining “all the other rules” there seems to be no reason why the General Committee couldn’t continue with its administrative functions for a further period of six months up to the October GM (or even twelve months up to the 2020 AGM) and allow the Management Group to concentrate wholly on the Objectives and Rules including engaging fully with the members and then to come forward with a comprehensive proposal at the appropriate meeting. Once any restructuring of Objectives and Rules are approved, at that time the General Committee functions could be passed to the Management Group and the General Committee could be dissolved.
I do not believe that the current proposals are the minimum needed to establish a Management Group. In fact, I am not convinced that any Rule Changes would be needed to set up a Management Group with the brief to examine the Objectives and Rules.
However, if it was felt that an interim rule was needed, it could take the following form:
“A Management Group will be formed of the following Officers – The President, The Vice President, The General Secretary and the General Treasure together with the elected representative from each District as determined at the 2019 ADMs.
It will be the responsibility of the Management Group to bring forward for approval by the membership at the October GM, an EGM convened for the specific purpose or (and no later than) the 2020 AGM, comprehensive revisions to the Association Objectives and Rules, together with the Terms of Reference that will apply to each Association Officer (including District Officers) and members of the Management Group should the revised Objectives and Rules be approved.
In the event that the revised Objectives and Rules are rejected by the membership, the Management Group will be dissolved.”
Changing and revising the Objectives and Rules of any Association is fundamental and should only be proposed after significant consideration and full discussion with as many members as are sufficiently interested to contribute. When such revisions are put to a vote it should be in a manner to provide the widest participation. To put a block of rule changes to a meeting with a single vote and allowing the result to be determined on a show of hands, whether the Rules allow for that or not, is undemocratic.
After the AGM, I shall, again, try to set peal fees to nothing or abolish them. The peal fee was charge to pay for the printing of peals in the report. For the last few years it has gone straight to the BRF (£262 in 2018).
Why should those members ringing peals, an essential part of providing opportunities for good and progressive ringing, pay what amounts to a tax on their activity?
I suggest we put through an amendment to Rule iii. Management Group
d. Manage the Association finances and recommend to the October General meeting the subscriptions and peal fees for the following year and the grant to the Bell Repair Fund. And also Rule 9 – Meetings
At the October General Meeting the following business shall be conducted:-
1. The Meeting will determine the subscriptions and the peal fees for the following year.
Then it is just a simple case at the October meeting to propose that peal fees are set to zero.
Current rule 6 says that Striking Contest rules can only be changed at the General committee’s Autumn meeting. As the proposal does away with the current General Committee and the timings of the new group’s meetings are not legislated a reference regarding the striking contest rules needs to be included.
At the October General Meeting the following business shall be included:-
1. Determine subscriptions for the following year.
This should include peal fees as there is currently no provision for setting them.
6. Alteration to Rules
Alterations to the rules or objectives may be made at any General Meeting of the Association. Notice in writing must be given to the General Secretary not later than one calendar month before the relevant meeting and should clearly indicate the proposed additions, deletions and changes. Alteration to the striking contest rules shall be made by the Management Group.
Why are striking competition rules any different to the other rules? This line could be deleted – Alteration to the striking contest rules shall be made by the Management Group.
Association Trustees – The Association Trustees shall oversee the Management Group and ensure probity. They shall mediate in any dispute between the Management Group and Association Officers and cannot hold another post on the Management Group.
This seems to give far too much power to the Trustees. Surely they are only responsible for financial probity and should therefore only validate financial decisions made by the Management Group.
I understood that these proposed rule changes were the minimum necessary to bring into being the Management Group, however there seems to be other alterations that have nothing to do with this e.g. 1) The Association will be affiliated to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, 2) one of whom will also serve as a Member of the Gordon Halls Ringing Centre committee; 3) and the grant to the Bell Repair Fund. Approve and publish the Annual Report.
Although I have no objections to these rule changes I think it is going to muddy the water ate the meeting if these are all put through in one proposal.
See sentence in the 2nd paragraph at the top of the page. The ones changed reflect current practice and should be non-contentious.
I am not objecting to the rule changes. My point was that making any changes over and above those necessary to bring in the new management group are distracting and you might find that more time is spent debating these than the core theme of the proposal which is to bring in a more streamlined central organisation.
My suggestion would be to separate out these other rule changes as a separate proposal to be taken after discussion and voting on the new management group.
The words ‘and cannot hold another post on the Management Group’ (italicized) at 2.iv were in the original drafts, but were omitted from the version presented to the General Committee on 05/03/2019.
This change was considered by the General Committee on 5th March 2019 and following discussions and minor semantic changes to the wording it was agreed without dissent that this proposal be recommended to the membership.
This proposal is the minimum changes to the rules to allow the formation of a smaller management group. If voted through then the new group will as a priority be looking at all other rules to ensure we make the changes necessary to bring the Association up to date.
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