Motion to
the Annual General Meeting of Chelmsford YHA Local Group 31/10/07:
The Group’s
constitution should be amended to remove explicit ties to the Youth Hostels
Association (England and Wales). These changes
should be in line with the guidance given in the document distributed by YHA
entitled “Changes to Affiliation – Guidance for Hostelling and Local Groups –
August 2006”.
Proposed by
Dave Plummer
The
proposed amendments are attached here.
Notes:
- The changes are in no way
intended to affect the way the Group operates at the moment. They simply
bring the constitution in line with the changed relationship with YHA.
- The existing constitution could
be interpreted to imply that the Group is a Branch of YHA. The YHA have
made it clear that as from 1st March 2007 this is not the case.
The Group is independent of YHA, but may be affiliated to YHA. The
constitution needs to be clear about this.
- The constitution refers to “The
Youth Hostels Association (England
and Wales)”.
This association was dissolved in 2005, and replaced by YHA (England and Wales) Ltd. So currently our
main object is to support an association which no longer exists.
- Instead of promoting the
Association explicitly, support the youth hostels movement in general.
This allows us more flexibility should we disagree with policies of the
YHA.
- Add “appreciation of the
cultural values of towns and cities”, as well as “love of the countryside”, so
as to include trips to city hostels. This reflects the change made to the
YHA object.
- We are no
longer required to register with YHA. We may (optionally) affiliate to
YHA.
- The YHA can no
longer require us to change our constitution, and the YHA constitution no
longer takes precedence.
- Should the group be dissolved,
any remaining assets will be passed to a charity of our choice, not
necessarily the YHA.
- Note that the name of the group
remains unchanged. Although YHA had asked groups to remove “YHA” from
their names, a compromise has now been reached. This involves us entering
into a licensing agreement with YHA, which enables us to continue using
the name whilst protecting the YHA trademark.