CTC AGM: Calling all members - Make your VOICE HEARD

[Philip Benstead]

CTC AGM

Calling all CTC members: for detail go to http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3416

There are some very important motions this year.

Its your chance to make your voice heard.

CYCLISTS' TOURING CLUB

The Annual General Meeting of the Cyclists' Touring Club will be held at the CTC National Office, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX on Saturday, 28th April 2007 at 2.00pm.

To obtain admission, members must produce a valid membership card or other proof of current membership.

Pre- registration is strongly recommended - call 0870-873-0061.

A full copy of the Articles of Association and Determinations in General Meeting, together with the proposed changes, is available on the CTC website, or by request from National Office. Copies will be available at the meeting.

K. E. Mayne, Director

AGENDA:

ORDINARY BUSINESS:

1. To adopt as a true record the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Cardiff on 22nd April 2006.

2. To adopt the Annual Report of the Council as printed in the April/May issue of the CTC members' magazine.

3. To adopt the audited accounts for the year ended 30th September, 2006 as printed in the April/May issue of the CTC members' magazine.

4. To re-appoint Messrs, Chantrey Vellacott DFK as auditors and to authorise the Council to fix their remuneration.

SPECIAL RESOLUTIONS

5. Proposed by D. Hanson on behalf of the Council, seconded N. Hayes.

That the Articles of Association be amended by the addition of a new Article 'No person disqualified from acting as a trustee of a registered charity by virtue of section 72(1) of the Charities Act 1993 shall serve as a member of the Council."
Insert and renumber the existing articles as appropriate.

Proposer’s note: With the formation of the CTC Charitable Trust Council notes that different standards of appointment apply to Councillors and Trustees. This amendment brings the two organisations into line.

6. Proposed by D. Hanson on behalf of the Council, seconded A Luxton

a) Delete Existing Articles 8, 9 & 10 referring to Officers of the Council.

b) That Article 11 of the Articles of Association of the Club be deleted and the following be substituted therefore:
'The Council shall consist of not more than twenty-two and not fewer than five members, elected as hereinafter prescribed, together with not more than four members co-opted by the Council. Co-opted Councillors shall not have the right to vote at Council Meetings or in postal ballots. Except for those Councillors filling casual vacancies, Councillors shall hold office tom 1 January following their election, or their co-option by the Council, for a period of three years."

c) That Article 12 of the Articles of Association of the Club be deleted and the following be substituted therefore:
“The Council shall within six months prior to the commencement of each calendar year appoint a President, a maximum of two Vice Presidents, an Honorary Consulting Solicitor, and a Financial Advisor. They shall have the right to attend Council Meetings, and shall hold office for the full calendar year”.

d) That Article 14 of the Articles of Association of the Club be amended by appending the words “they shall hold office until the commencement of the first Council meeting in the following calendar year”.

e) That Article 13 of the Articles of Association of the Club be amended by deleting the words "Notwithstanding the above, the Council has this power as a temporary
measure until the Annual General Meeting held in 2001'

f) That Article 19 of the Articles of Association of the Club be deleted and the following be substituted therefore: 'The Council may make such regulations as it thinks fit in relation to the election of members to the Council and the appointment of co-opted members, the President, Vice Presidents, Honorary Consulting Solicitor, Financial Advisor and any Honorary Vice-Presidents. If there shall be a vacancy the Council may fill the vacancy or appoint a deputy temporarily"

g) Renumber as appropriate.

Proposer’s note, This motion allows the Council to co-opt a small number of non-voting Councillors to complement the skills of the elected members and to give a more diverse Council it specifies a different relationship of the President Vice Presidents and Advisor to Council and amends related Articles for consistency

ORDINARY RESOLUTIONS:

1 Proposed by A Luxton on behalf of the Council, seconded P Mathison
Pursuant to Article 13 of the Articles of Association as to representation of Divisions the existing wording be deleted entirely and replaced by the following which shall apply to the council elected to serve tom 1st January 2008.

Division
Councillors
North East/North West, Yorkshire & The Humber 3
East / East Midlands 3
London / South East 3
South West/West Midlands 3
Scotland 1
Wales 1
Northern Ireland/Rest of the World 1

Proposer’s note: Motion 7 complements motion 6. It aims to produce a smaller elected council. A smaller number of divisions with a greater potential for contested elections. More multi member divisions to encourage diversely representation for devolved countries. The current council will all resign and stand for re-election in January if adopted.

8. Proposed by P. Mathison on behalf of the Council, seconded by J. Cutler
That with effect from 1st October 2007 the subscription table to the determination pursuant to Article 6 of the Articles of Association be deleted and replaced by the following:

"ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION effective from 1st October. 2006: £35.00"

Proposer’s note: This year Council is proposing subscription increases of 2.9% in line with inflationary increases in costs of membership services.

9. Proposed on behalf of the Council by J. Kieran, seconded A Luxton

This meeting endorses the proposed 5 year strategic plan presented by the Council to
Members

Proposer’s note: Council has produced an updated 5 year plan for CTC and the CTC Charitable Trust which Has been available for review by members prior to the meeting A presentation at the meeting will inform members about the plan and the feedback from the consultation.

10. Proposed by P. Gregory, Seconded by D. Moxon.

CTC believes that cycle and cycle component manufacturers, including those manufacturing specialist cycles for those with non standard needs, should be encouraged to design their products for easier specification, recycling and re-use.

Proposer’s note: Cycles created for people with special needs often use unique components that are difficult to purchase and maintain Increases in component lifespan and interchangeability would great&, assist in building cycles for people with non-standard requirements. Adding this proposal to CTC‘s policies will enable us to encourage manufacturers and development projects.

Response by Council: Council is supportive of proposals that address improved access to cycling and therefore welcomes this motion.

MINUTES OF THE 2006 CYCLISTS' TOURING CLUB AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the Cyclists' Touring Club were held at the Shandon Lecture Theatre, Cardiff University, Main Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AT on Saturday, 22nd April 2006 at 2.00pm with Pat Strauss Vice President) in the chair

ORDINARY BUSINESS:

1. Proposed by D. Aylett, seconded by K Benton. To adopt as a true record the minutes of the annual general meeting held in Coventry on 23rd April 2005.
Carried nem con

2. Proposed by J. Kieran, seconded by D. Moxon. To adopt the annual report of the Council as printed in the April/May issue of the CTC members' magazine.
Carried nem con

3. Proposed by P Mathison, seconded by A Luxton. To adopt the audited accounts for the year ended 30th September 2005 as printed in the April/May issue of the CTC members’ magazine.
Carried nem con

4. Proposed by C. Quemby, seconded by G. Selway
4. To re-appoint Messrs, Chantrey Vellacott DFK as auditors and to authorise the Council to fix their remuneration.
Carried nem con

ORDINARY RESOLUTION

5. Proposed by P Mathison on behalf of the Council, seconded by K Sutton

a) That, with effect tom the 1st October 2006 the subscription table to the determination pursuant to Article 6 of the Articles of Association be deleted and replaced by the following:

"ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION effective tom lest October, 2006: £34.
Carried nem con

The meeting closed at 3.50 pm with a vote of thanks to the Vice President for her conduct of the meeting.

END

[Diane Bulley]

Hi Phil,

Its sounds ok on paper, but how can you get a broad representation of views on all the sub-Committees, with only 15 Councillors to draw on ?
They have to attend sub-Committee meetings, as well as full Council meetings, as I did, and I was criticised by the DAs for not going running round to all their meetings as well, from Kettering through to Worcester !
L.A. Councillors now get £3,000 p.a. for what they do - we got nothing !

Also you are going to get the Chairperson trying to make all the decisions him/herself ! (Which is what happened when the new badge was put before Council.) I've got a long memory.

[Diane Bulley]

Also, I think members should contribute their view on this issue through Forum, and those views be sent to the Executive Committee. Some of us worked very hard at sub-Committee meetings, and that was after getting up at 5 a.m. to travel to London to be in time for the 9.45 a.m. start. Usually meetings finished at 4 p.m. if we were lucky, then it was off to Victoria Station, to get to main line stations, and wait for our trains home, arriving at about 7 p.m. (I served 3 years on the Leisure and Countryside Committee, and one year on the Local Groups Committee where I had experience of a Chairman wanting to run it all by himself, a very nasty man who had passed some exam or other, and thats what Councillors are there to represent the members for, to stand up to people like him. )
The members are completely unaware of the amount of dedication that Councillors put in, and after 4 years I was sent a bundle of complaint letters about me from the DAs I represented. I returned them - unopened. There is not enough publicity about the work Councillors do for the Club, and its time this was changed for the better. from Diane Bulley

[Karen Sutton]

If the motion to reduce the number of elected councillors is passed it is possible to request a poll of the membership if 200 members sign a petition requesting this. See:

Page 10 of the Articles of Association at http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/About_U ... ticles.rtf

"38. A poll of the whole Club shall be taken if either one third of the members of the Council or 200 members of the Club shall within three months of the passing of a resolution in a Council Meeting or General Meeting lodge with the Secretary a petition in writing signed by the petitioning members
(a) Protesting against such resolution and
(b) Containing a requisition that a poll of the whole Club be taken upon such resolution.
Upon receipt of the petition the Secretary shall publish in the next issue but one of Cycletouring to be distributed after the petition shall have been lodged with him full details of the petition and incorporate a voting slip therein specifying the date (not being less than 28 days after the date of publication) when all votes must be received by the Secretary. When voting has closed as aforesaid the votes shall be counted and the resolution confirmed or rescinded in accordance with the majority of votes cast. If the voting be equally divided the resolution shall be confirmed.
Provided always that any action taken upon such resolution prior to receipt of such petition shall be valid.
39. All decisions arrived at by a poll of the whole Club shall bind the Club and the Council for six months".

[Diane Bulley]

This input from Karen Sutton should be incorporated into the AGM

notice !

[Karen Sutton]

It's too late for that Diane. All motions had to be received by 1st February.

There was a motion put to the last Council meeting, requesting a postal vote of all members but the motion failed.

[bikepacker]

Of course it would fail. The last thing entrenched members of council want is for the membership to have a say.

[Mike Sutton]

On the issue of putting forward views I would suggest that any of Phil B's comments are read and taken on board, having spoken to Phil he does seem to be able to get to the base of a problem and will be happy to explain his standpoint and the history he is using for taking it.

[Karen Sutton]

Motion 7 was lost in a dramatic way!

[Graham]

Wow Karen, how did you manage to post that so quickly ????

Any chance of a summary of the arguments from the debate ( both sides ) ??

Thanks Graham

[Diane Bulley]

Yes please, and what happened to Motion 6 as well !

[simon l6 and a bit]

Wow Karen, how did you manage to post that so quickly ????

Any chance of a summary of the arguments from the debate ( both sides ) ??

Thanks Graham

motion 6 was carried. Members received assurances that Council were to set regulations governing the electoral process, but that was it....and this resolution did remove voting rights from members who were not elected. I'm not convinced that the motion changes anything, but the wording could be tightened up at the next AGM

motion 7 was lost. To be truthful there wasn't ever much doubt about it. The case for the motion was incomprehensible, and members had already picked up on the idea that to ask more of Councillors than is asked now would hardly provoke a stampede of candidates. We made the point that asking councillors from London to represent the rest of the Southeast was nonsensical, but perhaps not quite so nonsensical as asking councillors from the southeast to represent London. We also made the point that asking people in Lancashire to represent those in the northeast was just daft.

I'm really cross that this ever came to the AGM. It beggars belief that we, your elected Councillors, have spent the last year discussing how we should be elected, without any real case being made for change. I just hope that a lesson has been learnt. It was telling (and not entirely satisfactory) that the chair made a plea for someone to support the motion. My estimation is that those that did may have contributed to the size of the majority against.

I think Council has to take a bit of a look at itself and ask itself what they think they're there for. A year spent deliberating the means of our own election is hardly going to inspire people to ride a bike, far less join the CTC.

I await the paper on the future relationship between club and charity with interest.

[Karen Sutton]

Wow Karen, how did you manage to post that so quickly ????

Any chance of a summary of the arguments from the debate ( both sides ) ??

Thanks Graham

I cheated. I wasn't there. I would like to have been but Mike is now in hospital and my place today was with him, not in Guildford at CTC Towers. I got the information from Phil Benstead shortly after the meeting ended.

Simon has explained the rest.

[Graham]

Karen, SImon
Thanks for the newsflash and the details.