29 Aug 2008 1:31 PM:
Hi All
Dil posed the question about experience either being on or setting up a committee. For the past 12 years I have been involved in setting up and sitting on Committees and Board of Directors and I am currently a Director of a Voluntary Sector organisation and board member of a UK wide organisation.
The systems in Spain and Uk are pretty similar but I think it is important not to be railroaded into agreeing to specifics at the first meeting, this is generally where things can go wrong. There are different ways in which to set up a committee and sometimes this will depend on what type of committee it will be. Generally a steering group will be set up to look at the formalities of the committee e.g. will it be corporated, unincorporated, Limited by Guarantee. The steering group would be responsible for looking at budgets, quotes, forming the consitution, Articles of Association & Memorandum etc.
Once that has been done the steering group would come together to officially form the committee and appoint the Office Bearers, i.e. Chairperson(President), Vice Chair (Vice President) Treasurer, Secretery (Administrator, it would seem in Spain this is a dual role). Ocassionally where there are more than one niomination for the office posts, the nomimnees would be asked to submit a synopsis of their relevant knowledge, experience for the post, this info given to each voting member so they can make a reasonbly informd decision on who they wish to vote for.
I think broadly speaking this could work for our community, although time is very much against us. A few people could come together to form the steering group and one or more could look at specific action points e.g quotes for maintenance work, adminsitrator fees, look at what is working for other communities of similar size, owners etc, no point in reinventing the wheel! This can then be brought back to the community as a whole and agreements made on agenda items, appointment of administrators, Office bearers and budgets. My understandisng is the Administrator will deal with the formalities of setting up a community.
It is fairly simple to operate on the above basis, the difficulty in this case (telling you what you already know) is not everyone can be there at the same time. Although legally they only need to give 6 days notice for an AGM or EGM, any other meetings throughout the year can be planned with formal notice given in time as a reminder of forthcoming meetings.
With regards to the meeting on Monday ,if the LFO is not in place then I am sure the meeting can be adjourned, from the group of people that will be present ,perhaps a small steering group could be organised. If the LFO is in place then the agenda items can be dealt with and the community can agree to postone discussing the budget and appointment of Adminstrator. On any agenda there should be the opportunity for 'Any Other Competent Business' . At this point the group could agree to set up a steering group to look at the above.
Reading back over this it seems a bit long winded but in reality it is pretty straightforward to do as long as all or at the very least the majority are in agreement with that particular course of action..
Hope it has been helpful.
Regards to all and good luck to those of you who are going to the meeting.
(We will be over on the 6th September so will hear how it all went.)
Janet & Billy (28)
Community thread:
Dogs on beaches
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