Workshop Meeting to Address Governance Issues in Quainton Railway Society Limited

1. Saturday 27th January 2018 Welcome to this Workshop Meeting for members of The Quainton Railway Society Limited facilitated by the sponsor of the Quainton View Website

2. The Quainton View website was originally set up at the request of the Executive Committee early in 2015 to facilitate greater communication between the membership and the Trustees. This was as a result of advice from an independent consultant brought in to advise on progressing the Society's application for museum acreditation.

3. Shortly after significant personnel changes to the Exectutive Committee later in 2015 the Acting Chairman decreed that the website should no longer be supported by the Trustees and no contributions should be submitted. Since that time the Quainton View website has campaigned for greater communication from the Trustees and attempted to bring comment and advice to the members.

4. We believe that the lack of communication and prevailing secrecy on the part of the Executive Committee towards loyal members and volunteers is to be decried Because of the lack of dialogue between members and the Executive this meeting today has been facilitated for members to consider and discuss remedial measures to overcome the situation.

5. Members attending this meeting will be aware that we are concerned that the Executive Committee have been misguiding the membership over the conduct of Annual General Meetings and the process of nominations to elect new persons to the committee. In failing to adhere to the rules of the Society in this respect the Trustes are acting illegally which could lead to the detriment of the Society.

6. This workshop meeting has been convened to consider the member's preference as to the conduct of the 2018 Annual General Meeting of the Society. The rules of the Society state: “To elect the officers and other members of the Executive Committee...”(Rule 21b)

7. This is further clarified by rules 30 and 31 where explicit references are made to the number of executive committee members who should not exceed six including a Vice Chairman if appointed. Which means that in addition to the Executive Committee three officers should be elected

8. The currently used nomination form for election of Officers or Members to be nominated does not enable specific nominations for officer positions. That is for Chairman, Honorary Secretary or Honorary Treasurer. This form deprives the members from being able to directly nominate officers and is therefore unfit for the purpose.

9. The rules of the Society state: - “Nominations for election to the Executive Committee at the Annual General Meeting shall be in writing, shall state the full name, address and occupation of the member nominated, be signed by the member making the nomination, contain a signed statement by the member nominated of his willingness to be elected...”

10. The rules of the Society do not require the use of a nomination form only that nominations are made in writing. Last year your Trustees disallowed a ledgitimate nomination on the grounds that an “official” nomination form was not used. This contravened the rules and was therefore illegal under charity law.

11. Unfortunately, the Society has a long history of none constitutional Annual General Meetings which had lead the tustees to believe it is OK to continue this practice. However, in 2015 the Executive Committee recognised this error and attempted to institute proper listings of officer and committee positions for election on the ballot paper for that year.

12. For 2016 Annual General Meeting this recognition was not applied quite apart from many other failings in conection with the conduct of that meeting. 2017 once again saw the none application of the recognised rules despite the Executive Committee being advised through their Chairman by this Website that members should be acquainted with their right to nominate officers for the ensuing year.

13. The conduct of the 2017 Annual General Meeting was technically illegal as more than six persons were elected to the Executive Committee. It would have been perfectly possible for some of the Executive nominated persons to have been nominated as officers. No other nominations for Officer posititions were allowed despite at least one being received.

14. The Quainton Railway Society Limited is owned by the shareholder members and it is the responsibility of these members to ensure that suitable persons are elected onto the Executive Committee and to Officer positions. This is particularly important in terms of the Society being registered as a Charity where the Commission expects the Society to adhere to it's own rules that is the rules of the Society.

15. The question that is now put before you is whether you wish to continue with the status quo whereby the Trustees continue to arrange the self perpetuation of their positions with the ocassional co-option of other members of their choosing or, if you wish to call upon the Trustees to modify their position so as to comply with the rules of the Society in connection with both nomination procedures and elective procedures.

16. THIS IS YOUR MEETING SO IT IS NOW UP TO YOU ALL!