1. Name and status
The name of the Society is
the Hampshire Ornithological Society. The Society is a
charitable organisation operating in
the County of Hampshire, inclusive of the cities of Portsmouth
and Southampton, as a voluntary association.
2. Objects of the Society
The objects of the Society
are, within the County of Hampshire:
i) To advance the education
of the public in all aspects of ornithology.
ii) To promote research into
ornithology and to publish the useful results of such study.
iii) To support and encourage
the preservation and conservation of wild birds and places of
ornithological interest.
3.
Organisational
structure
a) Officers and
administration
i) The Executive Officers of
the Society shall all be honorary and be elected by the members
at the Annual General Meeting. They shall be the Chair,
Secretary and Treasurer.
ii) The Society shall be
administered by a Management Committee, the members of which are
the trustees of the charity.
iii) The Management Committee
may propose an Honorary President of the Society for election at
the Annual General Meeting. Such Honorary President shall hold
office for five years and be eligible for re-election. He shall
be invited to take the chair at each Annual General Meeting
during his term of office.
b) Management Committee
i) The Management Committee
shall consist of the Society's Executive Officers, the Chairs
and Secretaries of sub-committees and the following officers:
Conservation Liaison Officer, County Recorder, Editors of the
Bird Report and Newsletter, Membership Secretary and Records
Officer. In addition, there shall be up to five ordinary
members. All committee members shall be elected at each Annual
General Meeting in every year.
ii) Ordinary members of the
Management Committee shall not serve for more than three
consecutive years and after serving for this period shall not be
eligible for re-election as an ordinary member for a period of
one year.
iii) The Management Committee
shall have power to fill any casual vacancy that may occur and
shall also have power to co-opt not more than five additional
members. Additional members of the Management Committee
appointed under this clause shall cease membership automatically
at the next Annual General Meeting but may be re-elected at that
meeting.
iv) All
nominations for officers and members of the Management Committee
must be in writing and must reach the Secretary not later than
28 days before the Annual General Meeting and nominations must
be accompanied by the written consent of the nominees.
v) The Management Committee
shall have power on behalf of the Society to enter into Gift Aid
agreements with members and to make claims for the repayment of
tax under such agreements
vi) The
Management Committee shall have power to appoint sub-committees
and to depute to them any of its powers except the power to
appoint sub-committees. All sub-committees shall report their
proceedings to the Management Committee at Management Committee
meetings and shall conduct their business in accordance with the
directions of the Management Committee.
vii) The Management Committee
shall meet at least four times a year. Emergency committee
meetings may be called at the discretion of the Chair and one
other officer of the Management Committee or shall be held
within 28 days on the written request of not less than five
members of the Management Committee or on a petition signed by
not less than 30 members of the Society.
c) Powers of the Management
Committee
In furtherance of the
foregoing charitable objects the Management Committee shall have
the following powers:
i) To promote interest in the
objects of the Society and for this purpose to arrange lectures
and meetings and to organise tours,
walks, excursions and the like.
ii) For the above purposes to
raise and maintain funds, and in connection therewith to fix
subscriptions and to receive donations, legacies and other gifts
and to make and publish appeals and requests for financial
assistance and to enter into and accept covenants to pay an
amount for a fixed number of years.
iii) To invest the monies of
the Society not immediately required for its purposes in or upon
such investments, securities and properties as may be thought
fit provided that:-
·
in
the event the society shall take or hold any property which may
be subject to any trusts, the Society shall only deal with or
invest the same in such manner as allowed by law, having regard
to such trusts.
·
in the event the Society shall take or hold any property which
may be subject to the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners
for England and Wales the Society shall not sell, mortgage,
charge or lease the same without such authority or consent as
may be required by law.
iv) All
deeds and documents which require being executed and signed by
the Society in the names of Trustees, shall be executed and
signed by the Chair and Honorary Secretary in pursuance of an
approved resolution of the Management Committee.
4. Membership
a) Membership categories
The Society shall consist of
the following membership categories:
i) Honorary Life Members -
all members and others as the Society may wish to
honour may be proposed by the
Management Committee as Honorary Life Members without payment of
any further subscriptions and such proposals shall be voted on
at the next Annual General Meeting.
ii) Ordinary Members - shall
be entitled to receive one copy of all publications of the
Society and notices of all meetings and other matters pertaining
to the Society including the rules of the Society.
iii) Joint Members - can be
any two or more members of the Society living at the same
address who shall receive one copy of the publications and
notices of the Society but in other respects shall enjoy all
privileges extended to Ordinary Members of the Society.
iv) Student
Members - can be full time registered students aged 18 or over
and under 25 who shall enjoy all the privileges of the Society.
v) Junior Members - can be
members under the age of 18 who shall enjoy all the privileges
of the Society except those of voting on the affairs of the
Society and holding office.
vi) Corporate
Members - shall be interested bodies who shall be entitled to
one vote, to send one member to meetings and to receive one copy
of the publications and notices of the Society.
vii) All Honorary Life
Members and members whose subscriptions for any year have been
received shall be entitled to the Society's publications for
that year.
b) Misconduct
i) If any member shall be
guilty of conduct, which in the opinion of the Management
Committee, is contrary to the interests of the Society or
injurious to its reputation, that person shall be liable to
expulsion by resolution of an Annual or Extraordinary General
Meeting provided that, at least seven days before such meeting,
he/she shall have had notice thereof and the allegations made
against him/her, and of the intended passing of the resolution
and that he/she shall at such meeting and before the passing of
the resolution have had an opportunity of giving orally or in
writing any defence he/she may think
fit. A notice under this rule shall be held to have been duly
given if sent by prepaid post to the address of the member
appearing in the Society's books.
5. Subscriptions
i) Annual subscriptions shall
be fixed from time to time by the Management Committee.
Subscriptions shall be due and payable in advance on the 1st
January in each year. The subscriptions for any new member
joining after 30th September shall cover the succeeding calendar
year, save that members so joining shall not be entitled to
receive the Bird Report published in the year they join.
ii) The Society's Fiscal Year
shall be from the 1st January to the 31st December.
iii) Members whose
subscriptions are unpaid by the 1st March shall be reminded that
they are overdue. Those whose subscriptions remain unpaid by the
1st June shall cease to be entitled to the privileges of
membership.
6. Meetings
i) An Annual General Meeting
of the Society shall be held once in every calendar year at
which the Chairs of the Management Committee and the
sub-committees shall submit reports, and the Treasurer his
financial report including independently examined accounts.
Notices shall be sent out not less than six weeks before an
Annual General Meeting. There shall not be more than fifteen
months between one Annual General Meeting and the next.
ii) Extraordinary General
Meetings shall be convened within 28 days at the discretion of
the Management Committee or by written request to the Secretary
from 30 members of the Society. At least 14 days notice of such
a meeting must be given by the Secretary to the membership and
must include notice of the business proposed.
iii) At Management Committee
meetings five shall form a quorum. Three shall constitute a
quorum of a sub-committee. At General Meetings 20 shall form a
quorum. Junior members may attend
general meetings but they shall not be entitled to vote and they
shall not be counted as part of the necessary quorum.
iv) At
Committee Meetings and at General Meetings the Chair shall
preside (or in his absence a deputy Chair who shall be elected
for this purpose). The Chair of all committee meetings or
general meetings shall have a vote, and an additional vote in
the event of an equality of votes.
7. Alteration of Rules
Alteration to these Rules
shall receive the assent of two-thirds of the members present
and voting at an Annual or an Extraordinary General Meeting. A
resolution for the alteration of the Rules must be received by
the Secretary of the Society at least 21 days before the meeting
at which the resolution is to be brought forward. At least 14
days' notice of such a meeting must be given by the Secretary to
the membership and must include notice of the alteration
proposed. No alteration to Rule 2. Objects, 3.c) Powers of the
Management Committee, Rule 8. Dissolution or Rule 7 (this rule),
shall take effect until the approval in writing of the Charity
Commissioners or other authority having charitable jurisdiction
shall have been obtained; and no alteration shall be made which
would have the effect of causing the Society to cease to be a
charity in law.
8. Dissolution
The Society may be dissolved
by a Resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of those present
and voting at an Extraordinary General Meeting convened for the
purpose of which 21 days' notice shall have been given (to the
members). Such resolution may give instructions for the disposal
of any assets held by or in the name of the Society, provided
that if any property remains after the satisfaction of all debts
and liabilities such property shall not be paid or distributed
among the members of the Society but shall be given or
transferred to such other charitable institution or institutions
having objects similar to some or all of the objects of the
Society as the Society may determine and if and in so far as
effect cannot be given to this provision then to some other
charitable purpose.
Updated Rules approved at HOS
AGM on March 27th, 2010.
