Northbrook AC Annual General Meeting 2018
Proposals to be put before the Annual General Meeting
The Club Constitution requires that proposals to be put to the Club’s next Annual General Meeting be published in advance of the meeting.
The following proposal will be put before the Northbrook Annual General Meeting to be held at Jaguar Sports & Social Club, Browns Lane, Coventry on
WEDNESDAY 24th JANUARY 2018 at 8.30pm.
Proposal 1
The minimum age for Club membership to be changed to 18 years.
Clause 5 of the Constitution to be changed to read:
“Membership of the Club shall be open, on application, to anyone interested in recreational or competitive running, aged eighteen or over but otherwise regardless of age, and regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, race, nationality, sexual orientation, occupation, religion, political or other beliefs.”
Consequent upon this change Rule 2 of the Club Rules be changed to read:
“Anyone satisfying the general admission criteria (as determined from time to time by the Committee) can become an Ordinary Member, provided that they are an amateur as defined from time to time by UK Athletics and that they are aged 18 or over at the date of their application.”
Also consequent upon these changes the Club committee to review Rule 15 (Guest Runners) to ensure that the Club’s policy on allowing guest runners does not give rise to possible safeguarding issues where guests are aged under 18.
Reason
In the current constitution the minimum age for Club membership is 16 years. The previous constitution had no lower age limit so when the constitution was rewritten in 2014 it was thought prudent to specify a lower age limit, and the limit of 16 years was taken from the UK Athletics model constitution.
A person under the age of 18 years is classed as a child and special arrangements have to be in place where children are involved in activities outside of the home. For example, a Safeguarding Policy should be in force and there should be a person designated as the responsible person. There are also issues around the sharing of showers and changing areas where adults are present, and there is a need to have special reporting procedures should a child make a complaint. Clearly the Club does not have the wherewithal to comply with these requirements. In addition, there is special duty of care placed on the leaders of sporting activities in which a child is included, and the Club is not able to ensure that an activity group that included a child would be controlled by a person with the requisite knowledge and/or readiness to accept that responsibility.
Proposed by: Roger Ladbury
Seconded by: Tony French