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Rules of the Society

Rules as adopted at the resumed Annual General Meeting of 4th December 1982, with amendments adopted at the Annual General Meeting of 10th June 2017.

1. NAME

The name of the Society is "THE GREAT BRITAIN PHILATELIC SOCIETY".

2. CONSTITUTION

The Society is a non-profit making association of Members and the property of the Society is vested in the Officers of the Council as trustees for all of the Members for the time being.

3. OBJECTS

The objects for which the Society is established are:–

  1. To promote, encourage and contribute to the advancement of the philately of Great Britain;
  2. To publish as often as may be decided by the Council a bulletin, newsletter or journal;
  3. To publish or sponsor the publication of papers and books and to hold or support the holding of exhibitions, displays, competitions and meetings dealing with any aspect of the philately of Great Britain;
  4. To facilitate trading and exchange of philatelic material between members, by means of auctions, circulating packets, website advertisements or other appropriate means;
  5. To co-operate with other bodies engaged in the publication, study, exhibition or advancement of the philately of Great Britain;
  6. To organise and manage a website to promote the Society and which is to be used to advance any of the objects of the Society;
  7. To undertake any other activity whatsoever which may seem to the Council to be conducive to or assist in the attainment of any of the foregoing objects.

4. MEMBERSHIP

  1. Membership shall be open to any person over the age of 18 residing in any part of the world, provided always that the Council may grant membership to a person below the age of 18 if they think fit;
  2. Application for Membership shall be in writing on the form provided for the purpose addressed to the Honorary Secretary and shall be proposed and seconded by Members, but this formality may be waived by the Council in appropriate cases;
  3. No applicant shall be admitted to membership until his application has been approved by the Council and his subscription received by the Honorary Treasurer;
  4. Application for membership shall impose on the applicant, if accepted, an obligation to be bound by the rules and regulations of the Society;
  5. The Council shall have the power to suspend or expel any Member whose conduct is considered to be prejudicial to the Society and may do so in the case of a Member whose current subscription shall not have been paid by the 31st March in any year;
  6. Resignations shall be submitted in writing to the Honorary Secretary;
  7. Members shall inform the Honorary Secretary in writing of any change of address;
  8. Members may introduce visitors to the Society's meetings but the same person may not normally be introduced more than twice in any one year without the consent of the Chairman of the meeting;
  9. A Member may be elected an Honorary Life Member on the recommendation of the Council, by the Society in general meeting, provided that there shall not be more than ten Honorary Life Members at any one time;
  10. At the discretion of the Council persons may be admitted to membership of the Society without payment of subscription.

5. SUBSCRIPTIONS

  1. The entrance fee shall be £3 but the Council shall have power to suspend or reduce this fee for such periods as it sees fit;
  2. The annual subscription for Membership shall not be less than £4 per annum. Such subscription shall be payable in advance to the Hon. Treasurer on the 1st January in each year;
  3. The Membership shall extend from the 1st January to 31st December in each year but any new Member admitted on or after the 1st October in any year shall not be required to pay the annual subscription for the following year;
  4. The Council shall have the power to refund the whole or part of a Member's subscription.

6. COUNCIL

  1. The affairs of the Society shall be administered by the Council in accordance with the rules;
  2. The Council shall consist of the President, Vice Presidents (restricted to two in number), the Honorary Secretary and the Honorary Treasurer (all of whom shall be known as the Officers), the Immediate Past President, the Founder of the Society, and eight other Members. All Past Presidents shall be entitled to receive Council papers and to attend such Council meetings as they wish in a nonvoting capacity;
  3. The Officers and other Council Members shall be elected by the Society in General Meeting and shall hold office until the following annual general meeting, except that the President shall be elected for a term of two years and shall be eligible for re-election but not for a consecutive term;
  4. The Immediate Past President shall hold office for a period of two years from the date of his retirement as President of the Society;
  5. On retirement Officers and Council Members shall be eligible for re-election and a retiring President may be elected to another office;
  6. Nominations for appointment of Officers and Council Members shall be made in writing by any Member and seconded by any other Member and shall be forwarded to the Honorary Secretary to reach him at least twenty-eight days before the date fixed for the Annual General Meeting and shall be accompanied by a written statement of the Nominee declaring his willingness to serve if elected;
  7. The Council shall meet at least once in every quarter and the quorum, which may consist of Officers and/or Council Members, shall be five;
  8. The Council shall appoint one of their number to be Chairman of the Council and he shall hold office until the next Annual General Meeting;
  9. At any Council Meeting at which the Chairman is not present at the commencement of the Meeting, the President or failing him a Vice President or failing him a past President, shall take the chair at that Meeting, and in the absence of any such person the Members present may appoint any one of their number to take the chair of that Meeting;
  10. In the event of an equality of voting at any Council Meeting the motion before the meeting shall be declared lost;
  11. A resolution in writing signed by all the members of the Council for the time being, shall be as valid and effective as if it had been passed at a meeting of the Council.

7. ADMINISTRATION

Without limiting the general powers of the Council to manage the affairs of the Society and in addition to the powers provided in Rules 4(i), (ii), (v), (viii), and (x), 5(i) and (iv) and 6(i) and (viii) hereof the Council shall have the following specific powers:–

  1. To make regulations which shall be binding on all Members of the Society;
  2. To appoint Members to fill casual vacancies and to co-opt additional Members to the Council but all Members appointed under this paragraph shall retire at the next Annual General Meeting but shall be eligible for election under Rule 8(iii);
  3. To appoint an Auditor in the case of a casual vacancy, to hold office until the next Annual General Meeting;
  4. To appoint an executive committee to administer the day-to-day affairs of the Society. The executive committee shall consist of the Honorary Secretary, who shall be secretary of the executive committee and four members of the Council who shall be charged with the co-ordination of the Society's principal activities. The quorum of the executive committee shall be three. The executive committee shall elect its own Chairman and shall report to the Council and its decisions shall be subject to ratification by the Council. Members of the executive committee shall hold office or be removed from office at the pleasure of the Council. Except the Honorary Secretary no Member of the Council may be a member of the executive committee for more than five years consecutively.
  5. To appoint and rescind the appointment of sub-committees, study group secretaries, Editors of the Journal and of the Newsletter (and of any other publication which the Council may sponsor), Website Administrator, Packet Sale and Postal Auction Superintendents all of whom shall be answerable to the Council;
  6. To fix (and if appropriate to vary) the dates of Society meetings for the twelve months commencing the 1st September in each year and to provide a Programme based thereon to every Member of the Society;
  7. To lay down and vary (if thought appropriate) the rules of the Society's annual competitions;
  8. To invest the funds of the Society in such manner as the Council may think fit;
  9. To form or wind-up any company promoted by the Society and to invest the funds of any such company as the Council may think fit.

8. GENERAL MEETINGS

  1. The Annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held not later than the 30th June in each year;
  2. The notice of the Annual General Meeting contained in the Programme shall be deemed to be sufficient notice thereof to every Member who has received such Programme notwithstanding that a Member may not have received the special notice referred to in the next succeeding paragraph;
  3. The Council shall cause to be sent to the last known address of every Member not less than fourteen days before the date of the Annual General Meeting, a notice which shall contain a list of all nominations which have been proposed for appointment of Officers, Members of the Council and Auditors and particulars of all other matters notice of which under these Rules has to be given twenty-eight days before the date of the Annual General Meeting for consideration thereat and shall contain a copy of the Annual Statement of Accounts signed by the Chairman of the Council and by the Honorary Treasurer and bearing the Auditor's Report;
  4. An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be called for a date within eight weeks of the receipt by the Honorary Secretary of a written requisition signed by ten Members or of an appropriate resolution by the Council. The place and hour of such meeting shall be determined by the Council. Any such requisition or resolution by the Council shall specify the reasons for calling the Extraordinary General Meeting and a notice thereof shall be despatched to every Member not less than fourteen days before the date fixed for the meeting and shall set out the reasons for the meeting and the meeting shall have no power to deal with any other matter;
  5. At all General Meetings of the Society the President shall take the Chair and failing him a Vice President and if no Vice President be present or willing to take the Chair the Chairman of the Council and failing him any other Member appointed by the Meeting shall take the Chair;
  6. The quorum for Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings shall be twenty;
  7. Every Member present who has paid his current subscription shall be entitled to vote and the voting shall be by ballot if so demanded.

9. CHANGES IN THE RULES

Changes in these Rules may be made by a two-thirds majority of the Members present and voting at an Annual General Meeting or an Extraordinary General Meeting. Notice of such changes to be considered at an Annual General Meeting shall be sent in writing to reach the Honorary Secretary at least twenty-eight days before the date fixed for such meetings and in the case of an Extraordinary General Meeting such notice shall be in accordance with the requirements of Rule 8(iv).

10. AUDITOR

The annual Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet of the Society shall be submitted to the Honorary Auditor(s) for their Report. The Honorary Auditor(s) (at least one of whom shall be a Member of the Society but neither shall be Officers nor Members of the Council) shall be appointed at each Annual General Meeting and in the absence of a nomination in writing to appoint some other person as Auditor received by the Honorary Secretary at least twenty-eight days before such meeting, the Auditor(s) if willing to act shall be deemed to be re-appointed.

11. WINDING-UP

If upon winding-up or dissolution of the Society there remains, after the satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities, any property whatsoever, the same shall not be paid to or distributed among the Members of the Society, but shall be transferred to some other Society or Societies having objects similar to the objects of the Society to be determined by the Members of the Society at or before the time of dissolution.

12. DEFINITIONS

  1. In these Rules the words "Great Britain" shall mean the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
  2. In Rule 3(v) the word "bodies" shall include person, partnership, Society, Company, body corporate, Government agency or Corporation.

REGULATIONS re OFFICERS of the Council

  1. The Honorary Treasurer shall take charge of the funds of the Society and pay therefrom all proper liabilities of the Society. He shall keep proper books and shall inform the Council at each of their meetings of the financial state of the Society and shall if required produce the books of account and vouchers for their scrutiny;
  2. The Society's bankers shall be instructed to honour such of the signatures of the Officers and Members of the Council in combination or otherwise as the Council may from time to time resolve;
  3. The financial year of the Society shall be the calendar year from the 1st January to the 31st December and the Treasurer shall submit an Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet of the Society to the Auditor not less than six weeks before the date fixed for the Annual General Meeting. There shall be included in the Annual Account, the accounts of any Company the Society may promote, Packet Superintendent, Postal Auctioneer, and of any other function involving the handling of money by any person other than the Honorary Treasurer;
  4. The Honorary Secretary shall keep full and correct Minutes of all Meetings in furtherance of the Society's affairs;
  5. On election of each new Member the Secretary shall notify him thereof and shall provide him with a copy of the Rules and Regulations and of the current Programme.