SoBRA Charitable Status
As discussed at last year’s annual general meeting (AGM), in order to protect the long term future of the Society the Executive Committee have applied for SoBRA to obtain Charity status. The application has been well received by the Charity Commission and accepted in principle. However, we have been asked to make two minor changes to our constitution in order to formally qualify, as follows:
Change 1
Clause 13.2 – legally, the ex-chair must retain voting rights. The clause below (which originally stated that the ex-chair did not have voting rights) will be amended to reflect this:
- Ex officio charity trustee[s]
The immediate past Chairperson for the time being (“ex-Chair”) shall automatically, by virtue of holding that office (“ex officio”), be a charity trustee for a period of one year.
If unwilling to act as a charity trustee, the office holder may:
- Before accepting appointment as a charity trustee, give notice in writing by electronic means to the trustees of his or her unwillingness to act in that capacity; or
- After accepting appointment as a charity trustee, resign under the provisions contained in clause 15 (Retirement and removal of charity trustees).
Change 2
Clause 24 – to comply with charity commission requirements, we will amend the threshold from two thirds to 75% when deciding whether the constitution can be accepted, as follows:
- This Constitution may be amended at an AGM or at an EGM convened for the purpose by a 75% majority of the votes cast, but:….
(Sub-clauses a. through to e. follow on as at present)
Our current constitution is available on our website: https://sobra.org.uk/about-us/constitution/
We will be holding a vote to ratify these changes during our AGM on 5th December (ran at lunchtime during our winter event at the Royal Society of Chemistry) and will be asking for your support. The committee would therefore greatly appreciate your consideration of the changes of the AGM and should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the [email protected] address
BSI Update On Standards
Please find the latest update here
SoBRA Financial Report (2017)
Please see below the 2017 Financial Report and Audit Report:
SoBRA Survey Results (November 2017)
Please see below the results of the recent survey: