Fetcham Residents Association Rules
Revised June 2018
RULES
1. TITLE
The FETCHAM RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION shall by that name be an unincorporated association (hereinafter referred to as 'the Association").
2. MEMBERSHIP
(a) Each residential address in Fetcham shall be eligible to become a member of the Association and membership shall be by household with a minimum of one subscription being paid by a representative of the household. Herein after all references to membership shall be deemed to refer to the address, the occupants of which shall collectively have one vote upon policy or elective decisions of the Association, which shall be cast by one adult representative of the household irrespective of how many subscriptions/donations have been paid from that address. Eligibility for membership of the Association may also be extended to the address of a person who is accepted by the Executive Committee to have a legitimate interest in Fetcham including that of a business nature.
(b) The occupants of any address becoming a Member of the Association shall be deemed to have thereby agreed to be bound by these rules and by any alteration thereof duly made (whether before or after they became a member) in accordance with the provisions therein contained as to such
alterations.
3. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION
(a) Annual subscription runs from 1st April to 31st March each year.
(b) In order to be a Member of the Association a subscription by at least one
representative at that address shall be paid annually.
(c) Renewals can be made anytime between 1st March of the outgoing year and
the 1st June of the new year. If the subscription for an existing membership
address has not been renewed by the first day of June, the membership for
that address shall be regarded as having lapsed. Subscriptions to join and/or
to re-join can however be paid at any time throughout the membership year.
4. OBJECTS
The objects of the Association shall be:-
(a To consider from time to time the expenditure and work of public authorities
exercising functions within Fetcham.
(b) To discuss and to take such action, without sectarian or party bias, as may
be considered by the Association to be advisable for the purposes of
protecting and furthering the interests of residents.
(c) To consider any matter of total interest to the residents or traders of Fetcham
and to take any action appropriate.
(d) To provide an information source and consultative link with public authorities
regarding community issues such as planning/development, trees/open
spaces, roads and traffic matters, maintenance of roads/footpaths/rights of
way, public transport and community services such as policing, health, etc.
5. OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
The Officers of the Association shall be Members of the Association and would
normally consist of a President, a Chairman, a Vice-chairman, an Honorary
Treasurer, an Honorary Secretary, an Honorary Membership Secretary and an
Honorary Solicitor.
6. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
(a) Subject to any resolution passed at a general meeting of the Association, the
affairs of the Association shall be managed by an Executive Committee
consisting of the Officers and up to twelve other Members of the Association.
(b) The Executive Committee shall have power to co-opt to membership of that
Committee Members of the Association who shall hold office without any
power of voting until the next succeeding Annual General Meeting or sooner
as determined by the Executive Committee.
(c) The officers of the Association and other members of the Executive
Committee shall in every year be elected at the Annual General Meeting and
shall hold office until their successors are elected in the next year. Any
casual vacancy occurring among those officers or other members may be
filled by a person appointed by the Committee until a new Committee is
elected.
(d) The Executive Committee shall meet at such times and places as may be
notified by the Honorary Secretary upon the direction of the Chairman or any
three other members of the Committee, and meetings of the Committee shall
not be less than once every quarter.
(e) Any member of the Executive Committee who fails to attend four consecutive
meetings of the Committee shall, unless the Committee are satisfied that
there was reasonable excuse for the failure, cease to be a member of the
Committee.
(f) Where the Executive Committee are satisfied that by reason of emergency it
is necessary to do so, then the Committee shall have power to make any
decision or take any action on behalf of the Association, so, however, that no
decision so made or action taken shall be deemed to have been made or
taken by the Association, unless it was authorised by a resolution in favour of
which there voted not less than two-thirds of the members of the Committee
present and voting.
(g) The Executive Committee may at any time delegate, subject to such
conditions as they think fit, to any special Committee constituted by them
and consisting of Members the Association, any of their functions except the
power to make decisions or take action on behalf of the Association.
(h) A General Purposes Committee, consisting of the Officers of the Association,
shall meet at a time and place notified by the Honorary Secretary upon the
direction of the Chairman to discuss and make recommendations to the
Executive Committee on matters referred to under Rule 8(d) and on any
other matters not covered by any special Committee.
(j) Two officers of the Association, together with not less than half of the number
of the other members of the full Executive Committee shall form a quorum at
any meeting of the Committee.
(k) Representatives for the Fetcham wards on the Mole Valley District Council,
Surrey County Council and co-opted members may be invited by the
Committee to be ex-officio members of the Committee but shall not be
entitled to vote at any meeting.
7. DUTIES OF HONORARY TREASURER, HONORARY SECRETARY AND
HONORARY MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY
(a) The Honorary Treasurer shall act under the direction of the Executive
Committee and shall keep such books and accounts as they may direct.
(b) A banking account/s shall be maintained in the name of the Association into
which all monies shall be paid, and from which withdrawals shall be made.
(c) The Honorary Treasurer shall prepare an annual account of the income and
expenditure of the Association, which shall be certified by the independent
examiner or examiners elected for the year in respect of which the account is
prepared.
(d) The Honorary Secretary shall act under the direction of the Executive
Committee and shall keep minutes of meetings and the records of the
Association as the Executive Committee may direct.
(e The Honorary Membership Secretary shall assist both the Honorary
Treasurer and the Honorary Secretary in keeping an up to date record of the
Members of the Association and organising the collection of subscriptions.
(f) Road stewards, whose brief shall be to distribute notices, collect
subscriptions etc., may be appointed by the Executive Committee whose
members also act in that capacity.
8. ORDINARY AND SPECIAL GENERAL MEETINGS
(a) An Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held in every year at
such place and at such time as may be appointed by the Executive
committee that all Member’s representatives are entitled to attend, each
household having only one vote on matters requiring policy or elective
decisions of the Association.
b) Notice of every general meeting, specifying the place and time thereof and
indicating the nature of any extraordinary business to be transacted thereat
shall be announced by notice on the Society Notice Board in the Village not
less than seven days before the meeting and by other written and electronic
notice accordingly as appropriate .
(c) A special general meeting of the Association may be convened by the
Executive Committee at any time, and, if at any time a requisition in writing
signed by at least twelve separate representatives of Members of the
Association and specifying the business to be discussed (being business
comprised within the objects of the Association) is delivered to the Honorary
Secretary, shall be convened by him within twenty-eight days after receipt of
the requisition.
(d) If a prospective candidate for election for membership of any local
government authority exercising functions within Fetcham wishes to seek the
support of the Association and intends to stand as an Independent candidate
not affiliated to any political party, a written nomination duly seconded by a
Member’s representative must be submitted to the Honorary Secretary at
least 30 days prior to the published date of the respective election.
(e) Nominations so received will be considered by the General Purposes
Committee and only if a candidate or candidates is/are considered to be
worthy for recommendation shall a Special General Meeting be called at
which a majority Membership approval by those representatives attending
and entitled to vote is required for a candidate to obtain support by the
Association.
9. PROCEDURE WITH REGARD TO GENERAL MEETINGS
(a) General meetings of the Association shall be held at such places and at such
times as may be appointed by the Executive Committee.
(b) Any representative of a Member of the Association desiring to propose any
motion at a general meeting of the Association shall give notice thereof in
writing to the Chairman to accept that proposal.
(c) The Chairman, or, in his absence, the Vice-chairman, shall preside at all
general meetings of the Association, but if after the expiration of five minutes
after the time appointed for any such meeting neither the Chairman nor the
Vice-chairman is present the Member’s representatives present may elect
one of their number to preside at the meeting.
(d) At every Annual General Meeting the Honorary Treasurer shall present for
adoption the certified accounts for the preceding year, and at every Annual
General Meeting the independent examiner or examiners shall be elected.
(e) At every general meeting the Executive Committee shall submit a report of
the work of the Committee since the last general meeting.
(f) At all general meetings voting upon any question shall be by show of hands
by a representative on behalf of each Member unless upon a question
whether any persons shall be secured or supported by the Association as
candidates or prospective candidates for election for membership of a local
government authority, voting shall, if the number of such persons exceeds
the number of vacancies, be by ballot of the Member’s representatives
present at the meeting.
10. EXPULSION OF MEMBERS
If at an Executive Committee meeting of the Association it is resolved by a threequarters
vote of those present and entitled to vote, that any representative of a
Member of the Association has acted in a manner detrimental to the interests of
the Association or otherwise such as to render them unsuitable to be a member
of the Association, and shall for so long as the resolution remains un-revoked, be
disqualified for membership of the Association.
11. ALTERATION OF RULES
Any alteration of these rules may be made by a resolution passed at an Annual
General Meeting, or at a meeting specially convened for the purpose if, in either
case, notice to the effect that the alteration of the rules will be proposed at the
meeting has been duly advised to Members, but not otherwise. No resolution
making any alteration in these rules shall be deemed to have been passed at any
meeting unless there voted in favour thereof not less than two-thirds of the
Members of the Association represented and present and entitled to vote.
12. INTERPRETATION OF RULES AND DETERMINATION OF QUESTIONS
(a) In these rules, words importing the masculine gender import also the
feminine gender, and except where the context otherwise requires, words in
the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular.
(b) References in these rules to any meeting shall, except in relation to any rules
requiring notice to be given of any meeting or of any business to be
transacted thereat, be construed as including references to any adjournment
of that meeting.
(c) If any question arises as to the interpretation of these rules or as to any
matter touching the affairs of the Association not provided for by these rules,
the question shall be determined by the a two thirds majority of the Executive
Committee present and entitled to vote, whose decision shall be final.
13. WINDING UP
In the event of the Association being wound up, the funds and assets thereof
shall be disposed of as determined at a general meeting of the Association.
APPENDIX 1
Confidentiality Statement
By the terms of our Rules, the information made available during the proceedings
of the Executive Committee of the FRA is confidential. No reports of facts provided
or of discussions or decisions reached or opinions voiced may be transmitted to or
used by any other person, group or organisation for any purpose what-so-ever
without the express permission of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.
Such information is contained entirely in the Minutes of each meeting, which are
prepared by the Hon. Secretary in collaboration with the Chairman and provided to
all Committee Members and our local Councillors. They are the official record of
these meetings and are themselves confidential and are solely for the guidance
and record of those persons. These Minutes are not verbatim and will attempt to
avoid reference to sensitive facts or un-attributable remarks made during meetings.
The Executive Committee reports only to the membership of the Association at the
AGM each year and only its actions are reported, not its proceedings. No resident
of Fetcham is entitled to receive any information from Committee meetings.
Unless all members of the Executive Committee respect this confidentiality, its
members will not feel free to discuss topics openly. Our Councillors rely upon our
discretion when they speak in confidence at our meetings upon aspects or details
of subjects or matters not available to the general public, and should they be
unable to do so their ability to perform their duties with respect to the membership
will be curtailed.
Additionally; any responses/contact/correspondence made directly with residents/
members, verbally by telephone or in writing, by a committee member should
never include/pass on any personal details of a third party unless he/she has
agreed they may do so. Particularly poignant with email correspondence,
forwarding and threads involving multiple parties. The FRA policy for such
correspondence would always be to use BCC as oppose to CC.
Equally private contacts of the Committee Members are private and for internal use
only. There are not to be passed on to the public unless in agreement with the
individual committee member. Our approved public channels of communications
are the contacts as listed on our website.
All officers and members of the Executive Committee are required to abide by this
Rule.
APPENDIX 2
FRA EXPENSES POLICY
A statement showing the cost of local journeys, postage, telephone calls and/or
other incidental expenses that are incurred will be submitted for authorisation.
Authorised expenses incurred by Officers and Members of the Executive Committee
will be reimbursed upon submission of a written claim.
Extraordinary car journeys made on FRA business can be claimed for at a rate
currently 40p per mile, alongside the reimbursement of associated parking charges if
necessary.
Authorised personal costs that are claimed as they occur will be reimbursed as
promptly as possible.
APPENDIX 3
FETCHAM RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
PRIVACY POLICY MAY 2018
How We Collect Information
We obtain information about you in a number of ways; when you use our website, for
example, when you contact us via our an online contact form, or telephone, when
you subscribe to our membership, manually or electronically or when you register to
receive emails from us.
The Type of Information, that is collected
• Personal Information: If you make an online subscription payment, or
register for membership, the information we collect might include your
name, the first line of your address, telephone number and or email
address.
• Transactional information: If you make an payment to us, and if online
you will be redirected to a third party payment processor, who
specialises in secure online processing of credit/debit card
transactions.
• Other information you provide to us: such as in online contact us forms
or via direct correspondence or telephone calls.
• Online usage information: When you visit or browse our website,
information about that visit.
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to track the performance and visits
to a site in order to make improvements for the user. Our website
www.fetchamresidents.co.uk may from time to time use cookies to monitor its usage.
These cookies however do not store any personal information about you or your
computer. In the same way our site may also make use of Google Analytics for
online visitor tracking, you can read more about Google’s own privacy policy
at: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
What We Do with the information we gather
We will only use your personal information for legitimate FRA purposes, to
administer your membership, provide an audit trail for your payment or to provide the
services you have requested from us.
These will include some or all of the following:
• To provide you with the, information and services that you request from
us.
• To send you messages and contact you by text, telephone or email, in
response to your requests.
• To manage and renew your membership.
• If you consent, to provide you with additional community information
and services by email.
Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep
your personal data rights in high regard. We will only collect the minimum information
we require to provide you with our membership service. You do not have to give us
any of your personal information, you reserve the right to simply make an
anonymous donation. However in doing so we would naturally be unable to assign
any membership service or monies to you. Equally if you gave us incorrect
information you are unlikely to receive the full benefits of a member experience.
We will not share your information for marketing purposes with any other third party
companies.
Marketing, Members Email Updates
If you have given us consent, we’ll send you Members Updates by email containing
local community information and latest news, possibly with links to third party
websites. Residents who consent to receiving these emails will always have the
option to ‘unsubscribe’ at any time via a link at the bottom of every email they
receive.
General enquiries received online or otherwise are NOT automatically added to any
marketing database and will not be sent unsolicited email without first being asked if
you would like to ‘opt in’ to receive such material.
Keeping your information
We’ll hold on to your information for as long as you have a membership with us, or
as long as is needed to be able to provide the services to you that your have
requested. If reasonably necessary or required to meet legal or regulatory
requirements or for example you have been part of an ongoing joint community
response, we may also keep hold of some of your information as required.
Controlling your personal Information
We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If
you wish to delete or make changes to your personal details, you can do so at any
time.
We request your consent to agree to receive members emails. If you consent but
decide you would like to subsequently delete or make changes to your personal
details, you can do so. You can also ‘unsubscribe’ to our emails at any time by
following the link incorporated within each email. You have the right under data
protection law to access information held about you and you can do so by contacting
us at membership@fetchamresidents.co.uk
Your rights
Your rights relating to your personal information:
• The right to be informed about how your personal information is being
used (like this privacy notice).
• The right to request access to the personal information held about you.
• The right to rectify inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• The right to request that we delete your data.
• The right to withdraw consent and stop direct members email updates.
Sharing your information
We will endeavour to keep your details safe and will never sell your data on to any
third parties. However, we do share data with the following categories of companies
as an essential part of being able to provide our services to you, as set out in this
statement:
• Payment service providers, whom we both partner to process your
membership subscriptions such as Pay Pal.
• Professional service providers, such as mail chimp, and our website
hosts who provide the platforms from which we deliver our information
sources.
• Additional Companies whom we both partner and are approved by you,
such as social media sites.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This
privacy policy applies only to our website www.fetchamresidents.co.uk. We therefore
encourage you to read the privacy statements on any other websites you visit. We
cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you
access those using links from our website.
Changes to our privacy policy
From time to time we may change our privacy policy to reflect how we are
processing your data. We will always update the privacy policy on our website, so
please try to read it when you visit the website.This privacy policy was last updated
in May 2018.
Contact Us
If you have any other questions relating to your privacy with Fetcham Residents
Association, please contact membership@fetchamresidents.co.uk or call
07833620744. Postal Address, 41 Pound Crescent, Fetcham, Surrey KT22 9JW.