Notice of Meetings

Executive Committee Guidance to the Secretary and District Secretaries on the Notification of Meetings

This paper sets out detailed guidance from the Executive Committee on the practical implementation of the Rules of the Guild for the time being. In the event of any perceived conflict the Rules take precedence over this guidance.

1. Purpose

Rules 15 and 23 deal with notification of Guild general meetings and District meetings respectively. They state that:

· 15. The Secretary shall give notice of any general meeting of the Guild at least three weeks before the meeting by publishing the agenda as directed by the Executive Committee.

· 23. A District Secretary shall give notice of any meeting of the District at least three weeks before the meeting by publishing the agenda as directed by the Executive Committee.

The purpose of this guidance paper is to provide the required direction from the Executive Committee. The direction is of two types – “essential” and “desirable”. Secretaries should note that for a meeting to be valid (able to make decisions and transact business) it must have been notified in line with at least the “essential” requirements.

2. Agendas

Essential: An agenda for a meeting must include a list of items to be addressed at the meeting, and must include, or be issued along with, the date, time and place of the meeting.

3. Publishing Agendas

For the purposes of Rule 15 “publishing the agenda” should include:

Essential: The Secretary must post or e-mail the agenda to all District Secretaries, allowing reasonable time for onward transmission by the District Secretaries at least three weeks before the meeting. The District Secretaries must then deliver, post or e-mail the agenda to all towers in their Districts as soon as possible.

Desirable: The Secretary should arrange for the agenda to be placed on the Guild website and on the District Yahoo Group sites at least three weeks before the meeting and place at least one notification of the meeting in the Ringing World.

For the purposes of Rule 23 “publishing the agenda” in a District should include:

Essential: A District Secretary must deliver, post or e-mail the agenda to all towers in the District at least three weeks before the meeting.

Desirable: A District Secretary should arrange for the agenda to be placed on the Guild website and on the District Yahoo Group site at least three weeks before the meeting, and should place a notification of the ADM in the Ringing World.

Note: Secretaries may find it prudent to construct a standard agenda covering all meetings so far as possible and to circulate this, along with the proposed dates, times and places of relevant meetings, at the beginning of each year in accordance with the essential requirements set out above. This would meet the requirements of the rules, and of the essential guidance, provided that the meetings did not depart from the standard agenda and provided that the dates, times and places of the meetings remained as notified. However, while such action would constitute a useful backstop it clearly should not be regarded as a substitute for full notification of meetings when agenda items, dates, times and places are known in detail.

Approved by the Executive Committee on 3rd February 2010