Constitution

Morecambe Bay Amateur Radio Society
(MBARS) Constitution

Society

The Society shall be known as, “Morecambe Bay Amateur Radio Society”.
The aim of the Society shall be to further the interests of all its members in any amateur radio and social events.
The Society shall be non-political and non-sectarian.
The Society shall be affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain.

Membership

Membership of the Society is through election by the Committee.
The Committee shall have the power to elect honorary members to the Society.
Membership of the Society shall be at the discretion of the Committee. A filled in application form with the signatures of two paid-up members is required. Upon acceptance of the
application, the treasurer will collect the appropriate
membership fee.
Senior members shall be 18 years of age or over, on the 1st of March.
Junior members shall be under the age of 18 on the 1st of March and pay no MBARS subscription fee.
Student members in full-time education shall pay ½ of the
membership fee.
Honorary Life Membership may be granted to any person who, in the opinion of the Committee, has rendered outstanding service to the Society.
Any person wishing to take advantage of training facilities, must apply for membership of the Society.

Committee

The conduct of the Society shall be vested in the Committee, which shall retire and a new Committee elected at the Annual General Meeting, which shall be held in March each year.
The Committee shall comprise the following officer positions:
President
Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer

—–The informal positions;
—–Training Officer
—–Web site administrator
—–Auditors (2 members)
—–are not voted on but agreed with those willing to fill the
—–positions. Others as and when needed as decided by the
—–committee, are not voted on but agreed with those willing to fill —–the positions.

All fully paid-up members of the Society have full voting rights at any meeting they attend.
The Committee shall have the power to co-opt members to form
sub-committees and shall define the function of such
sub-committees.
At least one third of the Committee shall constitute a quorum, providing at least two of the four officers are present.
No officer of the Committee may be an official of any other radio Society, excluding support groups such as repeater groups or the RSGB.
In the event of a vote becoming tied, the Chairman shall exercise a casting vote.
The President is not elected annually unless the position is vacant or the Committee votes to remove the current President from the position.
The position of President does not exempt that person from
payment of membership fees.
Committee meetings shall be held when necessary. Committee members who are unable to attend such meetings may forward apologies to the Secretary.
Casual vacancies for absent members of the Committee may be filled by co-option. The co-opted members shall only hold office for the period until such time as the absent members are
re-installed.
The existing officers shall retire at the AGM and the President shall conduct the election of the officers. If the President is not present, then the assembled members should nominate a
member to conduct the election of the officers.
The Committee shall approve all Society expenditure.
The Secretary shall:
a. publish the Societies’ calendar of events,
b. keep proper records of the minutes of all meetings,
c. give notice to the members of the dates of each meeting,
d. inform members of the date of any AGM/EGM giving not less
—than 21 days’ notice,
e. maintain a register of all Society equipment and relevant
—serial numbers,
f. keep a copy of the Constitution of the Society, which shall be
—available for inspection by any member.
The Treasurer shall:
a. keep proper account of all finances of the Society,
b. maintain a register of all members of the Society,
c. prepare an annual balance sheet, properly audited for approval
—at the AGM,
d. ensure the Secretary has an up-to-date copy of the
—membership list,
e. with the exception of the petty cash, pay all monies received on
—the Societies’ behalf, into the Societies’ bank accounts as soon
—as possible.

Finances

The accounts shall be open to inspection by any member of the Society upon request to the Treasurer.
The financial year of the Society shall end on the last day of November.
The banking account shall be in the name of the Society. Four
officers of the committee should be registered with the bank as account signatories. If it is not possible to have four officers, other member(s) of the Society should be co-opted as signatories, as agreed by the members.
The officers are;
President,
Chairman,
Secretary,
Treasurer.
This is to enable changes to be made to the bank account when needed.
n.b. The above must not be related in anyway.

—–The bank account must be set up so that the signatures of TWO
—–out of the FOUR signatories will be needed to allow changes to
—–be made to the bank account. The Treasurer and one other
—–officer (or member, as agreed by the membership) will hold bank
—–debit cards. The holders of the two banking cards must not be
—- related in any way.

—–If required, a savings account can also be opened by the
—–treasurer, in the name of the society, to earn interest on any
—–monies not currently earmarked for spending. The account
—- signatories are to be the Treasurer and one other member as
—–nominated by the committee. The two people must not be
—–related in any way. Withdrawals will require the signatures of
—–both signatories.

The Society shall take out public liability insurance to cover all its meetings and activities, if not provided automatically by RSGB membership.

Subscriptions

MBARS annual subscriptions are to be due from after the
completion of the AGM. Subscriptions to be paid to the societies’ bank account (via BACS transfer) or cash to the Treasurer
(if BACS is not possible), and in such an amount as the Committee shall decide.
If any person joins the Society between our AGM and August 31st, they will pay the full MBARS membership amount. If they join between September 1st and the AGM, they will pay ½ of the MBARS membership fee.
Any member who is more than two months in arrears with annual subscription, shall be deemed to have resigned their membership of the Society.

Meetings

Members may invite guests to the Societies’ meetings.
No guest or visitor may attend more than three meetings in any one year without applying for membership.
One third of the total membership of the Society shall form a quorum at the Annual General Meeting.
Nominations for the Officers shall be delivered to the Secretary before the date set for the Annual General Meeting. In the event of insufficient nominations, the acting chairman shall call for nominations from the Members at the Annual General Meeting.
An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society shall be
convened at the request in writing to the Committee by one
quarter of the membership. The meeting shall be convened as soon as possible, giving members 21 days’ notice in writing and containing the agenda and motions submitted for the EGM. The EGM shall only deal with items on the agenda. A quorum shall be one third of the total membership of the Society.
In the event of the members wishing to wind up the society, an EGM must be held to discuss the matter. Following that EGM a further EGM will be held to confirm the decisions of the previous EGM.
Following a decision to wind up the society, all assets are to be disposed of, preferably sold. The money to be distributed to fully paid-up members. All bank and building society accounts are to be distributed to members. Any residue is to be distributed to charity.
Committee meetings shall be open for all members to attend. Where matters of a personal nature are discussed, then all or part of the meeting may be limited to the officers only.
The Committee shall have the power to expel any member whose conduct, in the opinion of at least three-quarters of the Committee, renders that person unfit to be a member of the Society. No member shall be expelled without having first been given the opportunity to appear before the Committee.
The Committee may ask any person attending a meeting to leave, if that person is deemed to be causing disruption.
No equipment belonging to MBARS may be disposed of without the agreement of the Committee at a full Committee meeting, AGM or EGM, following a vote to approve the same.
The Committee, whose decision shall be final in all matters, shall deal with any matter not provided for within this Constitution.
In the event there are not enough candidates to fill the officer
positions at an AGM, the members present may decide to place the control of the Society temporarily in the hands of one of the members present, and that member shall abide by this Constitution except that the following text shall be omitted from rule 5 in Meetings above “at the request, in writing to the Committee by one quarter of the membership”. They will use this temporary position to arrange an EGM to resolve the problems encountered. This may only happen if a two-thirds majority of the members present at the AGM vote in favour of this option.

Email Group reflector

Non-members of the club will not be added to the email group
reflector. (Presently at https://groups.io/g/mbars).
Any member in arrears with their subs (under Subscriptions rule 3 above) will be removed from the email group reflector.

No alteration shall be made to the Constitution, except at the Annual General Meeting, or at an Extraordinary General Meeting called for this purpose.
No alteration shall be made to the Constitution unless approved by a majority of two thirds of the number of votes cast at an AGM or EGM.
All members shall abide by the Constitution of the Society and any decisions decided upon by the Committee.

Last revised August 2026

Morecambe Bay Amateur Radio Society(MBARS) Constitution