Right after many years of wondering what the BVS Constitutional was or even looked liked I have been e-mailed a copy by one of the committee, many thanks Neil
although I have a feeling its not the very latest version of the constitutional but it is at least a start.
I have placed it in the BVS General area and you will find it
HERE
Hopefully it goes someway into showing why the AGM was cancelled in particular if you read section 6
6. The annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held in May or the first half of June. Notice(s) giving the date, time, venue and agenda shall be posted or delivered to all members not less than 25 days before the date of the meeting. Similar notice shall be given of any Extraordinary meeting of the Society
As you see it appears that Notice about the actual time or venue where not given in adaquate time and hence the meeting would have been null and void, while for us on e-mail and the web we can be updated with this sort of information very dynamically the argument was for the folk who do not have access to e-mail or the interweb and rely wholey on the post etc.
My "PERSONAL" take on this is I feel it was some what of a nit picking affair, and the AGM had been given notice some months before in the Review although the actual time and place was not mentioned there are enough phone numbers on the inside of the front cover for folk with out web access or e-mail to make a quick phone call if they needed futher information, but rules is rules I suppose
Having finally seen and read the "Constitution" which is the first time I have seen it in my 15yrs membership I have noticed a few interesting sections.
2. The objects of the society shall be those agreed at the inaugural meeting, i.e.: -
(i). To encourage and assist the development of the electric vehicle and to widen its field of application.
Certain committee members could be in breach of this one considering all the stick that has gone on over the Plugged In Magazine as surely the magazine is designed to do exactly the above.
4(e). Any member who has, in the opinion of the Committee, brought the Society into disrepute may, at the recommendation of the committee, be proposed for dismissal of membership at an AGM or EGM. Persons so dismissed may only be readmitted as members with the approval of a subsequent AGM or EGM.
mmmmmmm interesting !!!
12(b). The majority decision of the committee shall be sufficient to make decisions, obtained with or without the holding of a formal committee meeting.
I presume my handling of the forum comes under that banner
Now while I know for a fact what I have posted as the constitution isnt the very latest and up to date version but it was the only one that was made available to me in electronic format it is fairly close to the current version to the best of my knowledge and once I have a upto date version I will replace it.
I am going to make a formal requistion at the AGM that the constitution is given to each and every member when they enroll and that it is also given out when a member renews their membership, that way we can all play on a level playing feild.
My own view is I've never known club have so many rules and regulations, I look after a car club and we dont have or feel we need to have such things. We rarely have any official meetings yet we still manage to put on good shows at events up and down the country without all this pettyness.
Our main show which my club actually organises at the Billing Aquadrome envolves us co-ordinating multiple car clubs togther, a set of trophies and certificates, attendance plaques etc etc the whole show generally costs the club a considerable amount of money to put on and only some of which is clawed back via a raffle and donations over the weekend. This is an amazing feat I think because the club does not have any formal subscription and is run entirely by voluntary donations by the members.
I'm also going to divide this thread away from the events section so the actual show dosnt get bogged down with discussions about the AGM.
ChrisB