Advance Notice of a change to Constitution

ADVANCE NOTICE OF A PROPOSED CHANGE TO OUR CONSTITUTION; SECTION 4.1[i]

Following our AGM in November 2023 several West Wolds u3a members queried why the principal committee officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Business Secretary & Treasurer) names were not announced at the meeting.  This is because of our charitable constitution where it states 4.1[i]) that ‘the committee vote in the principal officers at their first committee meeting following the AGM’. There is a short period of time between the AGM and the first committee meeting when principal officers are only ‘acting up’ and not officially voted into their roles. The committee have taken this opportunity to review the West Wolds constitution and would like to change it to improve the voting process for both the members and committee officers.

The committee at the February Monthly Meeting, would like to put the following proposal to the Membership to vote on. The change to the constitution in this instance does not have to be carried out at an AGM or EAGM it is within the regulations to do it at a monthly meeting with the appropriate 21 days notice given to members.

 A link to our current Constitution and the proposed amended wording will be sent by email and put on our website 21 days before the February meeting (i.e. 18^th January) for members to consider.

New Voting Process at AGM

The Committee are proposing a change to our Voting Process at the AGM’s. From this year onwards (2024), the proposed (principal officers) Chair, Vice Chair, Business Secretary & Treasurer will be voted by the membership who are present in the hall. A Proposer & Seconder will be required for each role, and following this the membership can vote; a majority will be accepted. Voting for other nominated non- principal Committee members will be en-bloc by the membership at the AGM.  Their roles will continue to be decided at the first Committee meeting after the AGM.

In advance of the AGM, each nominee will write a short piece about themselves so that the members have information on which to base their vote. This will be distributed 21 days in advance of the AGM by email and on our website.

In order for a valid vote to be recorded, we require 20% of our membership to be in attendance, so please endeavour to come along to the February 2024 monthly meeting for this important proposal and change to the constitutional voting process.

Sharon Rupp – Secretary