Membership

Club Rules

Rules as approved October 2022

Whitethroat –

Rule One: Name

  1. The organisation shall be known as the “Bedfordshire Bird Club” (herein after referred to as “the Club”).

Rule Two: Objectives

  1. The objectives of the Club shall be:
    1. to study and record the avifauna of Bedfordshire;
    2. to co-operate with national and local ornithological and other bodies in scientific ornithological enquiries;
    3. to produce an annual report on the birds of Bedfordshire to be known as the Bedfordshire Bird Report and regular newsletters;
    4. to support the conservation of birdlife in Bedfordshire;
    5. to promote an increased interest in ornithology in Bedfordshire.

Rule Three: Organisation

  1. The Club shall be the ornithological section of the Bedfordshire Natural History Society (herein after referred to as “the Society”), as constituted in the Society’s rules.
  2. The affairs of the Club shall be managed by a General Management Committee (see Rule 6).
  3. The Chairman of the General Management Committee shall be required to be an ordinary member of the Society, elected at the Society’s AGM, and serving as an officer of the Society.
  4. The Society’s Membership Secretary and Treasurer shall also act in these capacities respectively for and on behalf of the Club.
  5. All elected officers of the Club shall hold office on an honorary basis.

Rule Four: Membership

  1. Membership of the Club shall be open to all persons and organisations interested in the birds of Bedfordshire, always provided that the General Committee may at its discretion recommend the Society’s Council to refuse or terminate such membership. Members admitted during the last three months of any year shall remain members until 31st December of the following year without further payment. All members of the Club are members of the Society as defined by the Society’s rules.
  2. The Club shall consist of the same identical categories of membership as stated in the Society’s rules, these categories currently being:
    1. Ordinary members
    2. Ordinary Household (two or more members who reside at the same address)
    3. Student members (18 or over in full-time education)
    4. Student members (under 18)
    5. Corporate members
  3. Paid-up Ordinary members, Ordinary Household and Corporate members, but not Student members, shall be entitled to one copy of the Bird Report. Paid-up Ordinary and Corporate members, but not Student members, shall each be entitled to one vote at a General meeting of the Club; Ordinary Household memberships shall be entitled to two votes at a General meeting.
  4. Members of the Club shall be entitled to the full benefits of the Society on payment of an additional subscription, and will then be entitled to receive appropriate publications of both the Society and the Club, and to have voting rights in respect of both appropriate to their grade of membership

Rule Five: Presidents and Vice Presidents

  1. The President of the Club shall be elected at an Annual General Meeting of the Club, shall be entitled to hold office for three years (provided that he/she remains a fully paid-up member of the club in each year of office), shall not be eligible for re-election in the two years following that period, and shall preside over all following General Meetings (and may address such meetings) during his/her period of Presidency.
  2. Vice Presidents of the Club may be elected at Annual General Meetings of the Club and shall hold office for life.

Rule Six: The General Committee

  1. The general and financial affairs and policy of the Club shall be conducted by the General Management Committee (“the General Committee”), having regard to the wishes of the members expressed in a General Meeting. This committee shall prepare a report for the Annual General Meeting of the Club pursuant to Rule 9.1.c.
  2. The General Committee shall consist of the following members: Chairman of the General Committee, Secretary, Assistant Treasurer, County Bird Recorder (ex officio), Bulletin Editor, Research Officer, Meetings Secretary, and four ordinary members.
    1. The General Committee shall have the power to recommend to the Society for approval a County Bird Recorder who shall hold office ex officio;
    2. the General Committee shall have the power to recommend to the Society the removal of the County Bird Recorder from office, and the handing over of all the Society’s records and documents in his/her possession to the Society’s Secretary;
    3. the County Bird Recorder for the time being appointed who wishes to retire from office must give reasonable written notice to the Secretary of the Society, and on expiry of any such notice shall hand over all the Society’s records and documents in his/her possession to the Society’s Secretary.

Rule Seven: Administration of the General Committee

  1. In the absence of the Chairman at meetings of the General Committee, the Chair shall be taken by another member of the Committee elected by those present and voting.
  2. All decisions of the Committee shall be taken by a simple majority of those present and voting.
  3. At least ten days’ written notice shall be given by the Secretary of meetings of the Committee.
  4. The Committee shall be empowered to co-opt additional members (to the General Committee) who will not have voting rights at meetings of the General Committee and who shall serve until the next AGM of the Club, should the need arise.
  5. A quorum at meetings shall be five elected members present.
  6. The General Committee shall have the power to set up any sub-committee with terms of reference and membership as it may approve, provided that any such sub-committee is constituted in support of the aims and objectives of the Club.
  7. The Committee (and any sub-committees) shall keep proper minutes of their meetings, such minutes to be approved at the next following meeting of each committee, the Club’s Secretary to perform this function for the General Committee, any sub-committee to elect its own secretary for this purpose (to serve until the next AGM of the Club) by those present and voting at the first meeting of the committee either following the AGM or the committee’s initial formation.

Rule Eight: Elections to President, Vice Presidents & Committees

  1. All members of committees (except for the Chairman of the General Committee – see Rule 8.3) shall be elected at the Club’s AGM to serve for one year, but shall be eligible for any office thereafter.
  2. Nominations for President, Vice Presidents and elected positions on the Club’s committees (except the Chairman of the General Committee) must be submitted to the Secretary in writing at least two weeks before the Club’s AGM. All nominations must be proposed and seconded by fully paid up members of the Club. All persons nominated must be paid up members of the Club.
  3. The Chairman shall be elected at the Society’s AGM for one year until the next AGM (under the rules governing election of Officers of the Society), shall be eligible for re-election after the first and second years, but not for the year after the third.

Rule Nine: General Meetings

  1. An Annual General Meeting of the Club shall be held once a year on a date and at a convenient place to be decided by the General Committee, to transact the following business:
    1. to receive, and if approved, adopt the minutes of the previous AGM, and of any Special General Meetings held since the previous AGM;
    2. to receive, and if approved, adopt a statement of the Club’s accounts for the financial year ended the previous December 31st;
    3. to receive, and if approved, adopt a report from the General Committee on the Club’s general activities to the year ending the previous December 31st;
    4. to elect the members of the General Committee (except the County Bird Recorder and Chairman – see Rules 6.3a and 8.3), and, if appropriate, the President and any Vice-Presidents;
    5. to deal with any special matter which the General Committee desires to bring before the members, and to receive suggestions from the members for consideration by the General Committee;
    6. to consider any motion proposed by the members.
  2. A Special General Meeting shall be held by resolution of the General Committee or upon written application to the Secretary signed and supported by not less than twelve members of the Club, to discuss a particular subject of which full details must be provided in the application. A Special General Meeting shall consider only the business for which the meeting is called.
  3. The Secretary shall give at least twenty-one days written notice to members of General Meetings, together with an agenda of the business to be considered.
  4. The President (subject to Rule 5.1) shall preside at General Meetings or, in his absence, the Chairman of the General Committee, and in his absence the Meeting shall elect a chairman for the Meeting.
  5. A quorum at a General Meeting shall be not less than twenty members present.
  6. Any motion for consideration at the AGM must be in writing, signed by the proposer and seconder, with sufficient copies to distribute to those members present.
  7. Subject to Rule 11, any decision shall be taken by a simple majority of those present and voting.

Rule Ten: Finances

  1. The Hon. Treasurer of the Society shall keep separate accounts of the Club on behalf of the Society.
  2. All members shall pay to the Society such subscriptions appropriate to their class of membership as shall be recommended by the General Committee, ratified by a General Meeting of the Club and approved by the Society’s Council.
  3. Such subscriptions shall become due on the first day of January each year, and any members whose subscription is six months in arrears shall be deemed to have ceased to belong to the Club.
  4. The Society’s Council shall have overall responsibility to administer the Club’s funds.
  5. The Club’s Chairman (or his nominee on the Club’s General Committee) shall be entitled to be a member of any finance committee established by the Society’s Council.
  6. Upon the winding up of the Club in a General Meeting (subject to Rule 11), all monies and other assets belonging to the Club shall remain the rightful property of the Society.

Rule Eleven: Rules

  1. No alteration shall be made to any section of this Rule, and no other Rule shall be altered except by a two-thirds majority of members present at a Special General Meeting of the Club called for that purpose, subject to approval by the Society’s Council.
  2. Not Withstanding Rule 11.1 the Society’s Council shall have the right to amend the rules of the Club in consultation with the Club’s General Committee where this is deemed essential in the interests of the Society as a whole.
  3. No change shall be made to these rules which would cause the Society to cease to be charitable at law.
  4. On joining, all members of the Club shall receive a copy of the Club’s rules.