It is many years since there has been any significant revision to the Association Rules, and the General Committee now feels that the time is right to look at some changes.
At the 2018 AGM there was a motion proposed to change the rules of membership to remove the need for new members to be elected and instead membership will be confirmed on receipt of a completed application form and payment of subscriptions. There was overwhelming support for this proposal.
In addition the Association rules are written in a style that makes it difficult to make this change without an extensive rewrite. The General Committee undertook to make the changes and return at next the 2019 AGM with the finalised wording to be formally adopted.
As we are making changes to the rules we propose to also take the opportunity to simplify the wording and incorporate other changes where these have broad support amongst the membership.
The Committee has consulted widely on the principles of these changes and have revised the wording of the rules before presenting them to the AGM in May 2019 for adoption.
The results of the consultation on the proposal principles with clarifications and modifications together with the proposed Rule changes, to be put to the AGM, can be found in the attached documents.
If you would like to make any comment on the proposed Rule changes please send them by email to Noel Gibbin at master@surreybellringers.org.uk.
Please come along to the AGM on the 11th May in Battersea where we will debate and vote on the adoption of these proposals. We have gone through a rigorous consultation process with the Association on the principles of the proposals, and taken on board where appropriate people's concerns in drafting the revised Rules. We therefore hope to avoid a lengthy debate and hence AGM. To keep it simple we will vote on each sub-proposal in turn, and a 75% majority is required to adopt each proposal.
Click here to see the existing Rules