Honorary Membership

[AlastairW]

Honorary Members

I did promise at the last meeting that I would have a look at the constitution of NHPC, particularily with regards to the classes of membership, following on from issues that were raised at the last meeting and in forum posts concerning the status of Honorary members.

There are three categories of members designated by the constitution:

CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP:
(a) Members - Full membership shall be limited to persons permanently domiciled in the counties of Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and Durham, herein after called Northumbria and members of the B.H.P.A.
(b) Associate Membership - Associate membership for persons unable to fulfill the requirements for full membership. Flying Associate Members will be required to produce evidence that they are covered for Third Party liability risks.
(c) Honorary Member - Honorary membership shall be at the sole discretion of the Committee.


My interpretation of this is that "Members" also defined as "full members" is intended to cover people who are resident in the Northumbria area, and who are therefore the people who will be using the facilities the club provides.

Associate members are people who dont live in the Northumberland/ Tyne & Wear area, but still wish to be members of the club….. the classic example of this would be Mr & Mrs Miskin.

Honorary members….. the bestowing of an honarary membership is entirely at the discretion of the committee. It appears to me that this is to be treated as an "honour" given to a club member, presumbaly for whatever reason the club thinks fit, whether that be life long services to the club, a particualr acheivement in the sport, or similar.



So we then turn to the issue specifically raised by Chris, namely do you have to be a full member to vote at meetings.

The relevant section of the constitution is as follows:


VOTING AT CLUB MEETINGS:
Voting shall be restricted to full members. All matters which have to be decided by vote, with the exception of those for which a special majority is required, shall be decided by a simple majority of votes. In the case of equality of votes, the Chairman shall have a second or casting vote. A member whose subscription is in arrears shall not be entitled to vote at any meeting

It does clearly state that voting is restricted to full members. Of more relevance is the final sentence of the paragraph….. ie that you cant vote unless you are paid up.


So my interpretation is this:

The intention of the constitution is to create a class of membership (full members) who are active in the club, are resident in the clubs area, and who fly the clubs sites.

These are the members who are entitled to vote at meetings, but only if they have paid their subs.

There is no mention in the constitution of the rights of Associate members, or Honorary members.


Akin to the Boston tea party….. no taxation without representation, although in our case it is kind of reversed to mean no representation without taxation.

Ie, if you pay your subs, you can vote.

[ron freeman]

After all these years I am now told (thanks to CHRIS FOSTER ) that I have not been a full proud member of this club with voting rights !

I am gutted and now feel that I am in no-mans land...If I pay my membership I will no longer be an Honorary member which I am very proud of and not prepared to lose it because Chris feels peeved about honorary members not having to pay.

I am more than happy to donate £15 to the club funds but due to our club constitution I will still only be an honorary member..

[Kitt Rudd]

As an interested outsider looking in, I do side with Ronnie in this situation, It seems ludicrous that the your club honours a particular member with an Honorary membership status, and then removes their rights to vote. Some thanks that for whatever great deeds they have done to be awarded honoury membership in the first place.

Sort it out !

Kitt

[AlastairW]

Where on earth does it say that you are not an honorary member Ronnie???

In my opinion, the Honorary membership is something that was bestowed upon you by the Club to reflect your contributions to the club and the sport.

That can not be taken away from you.

You will always be an honorary member.

All the constitution says is that if you want to have voting rights, then you also have to be a paid up member of the club.

[Fingers]

So an honorary member has no more rights than a non member?

Mmmm

Ronnie is and has been an honorary member for some time, it would seem some people are now not happy with this, for some reason?. The committee has the power to give and take away. Is it not more noble to just kick him out if that is what you want. Rather than looking for loop holes in coffee stained scraps of paper written decades ago by a bunch of raggy arsed thrill seekers like our selves?

Rather embarrassing,

[AlastairW]

Please tell me Steve where it says that anyone is not happy with Ronnie being an Honorary member? I am certainly not suggesting this, and if you look at my previous post I commented on what an Honorary member was. I said Ronnie is and always will be an honorary member.

And as for looking for loopholes, all I was asked to do was to give an opinion on what the constitution said.

I am certainly not looking for loopholes.

I did not draft the constitution.

But we are as a club bound by the constitution.

If you think the constitution should be changed, feel free to do it..... there is actually a procedure set out in the constitution for doing this.

Personally I would like a section on the website giving details of the Honorary members. It is part of the history of the club.

[Fingers]

There's no smoke without fire, the clubs not having this on going discussion about honorary members just for the fun of it.

A member whose subscription is in arrears shall not be entitled to vote at any meeting

Apart from the common sense of it all.

Honorary members have no subscription, therefor can not be in arrears.

[chrisfozz]

I’d like to start by saying, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have any personal disagreements with any members of the club.
As I’ve said before, I think Honorary Memberships are a good thing, if its for services to the sport, sporting achievements or another worth cause. I certainly don’t have a problem with Ronnie being an Honorary Member, if anybody deserves one he does and I think he has every right to feel proud of his achievements; representing Great Britain, wining the HG team worlds in 81 and, I think, again in 85 are fantastic achievements. He also helps a lot of people to progress in the sport, outside his job as an instructor, he’s helped me in my early days hang gliding too, so I won’t argue that he shouldn’t be an honorary member.
If I was to make a list of all the people from our club who’ve helped me to progress I guess I could start with Chris Appleby, don’t know if he’s still flying, but day one, fresh out of school I turned up at the Bowl and he offered his support. Since then, well, as they say the list is long but distinguished.
Similarly, with sporting achievements, In my time in the club, perhaps none have matched Ronnie’s level but there are certainly some worthy of note.
The point I tried to make in my original post on the subject was that if we honored everyone who deserves it then there won’t be many people left paying the princely sum of £15.00.
I n my opinion, honorary memberships should be used to recognize contributions to the sport and allow people to continue their association with the club if they’ve moved away or stopped flying. I believe generally that people should be treated equally; if anyone wants to fly the club sites etc. and take an equal part in the club then they should be a full member. That is my opinion.
Chris