Committee
The Friends of Manor Farm Park is administered by a Management Committee, elected by the membership at the Association's AGM.
The Constitution allows for three Officers. Chair; Secretary and Treasurer; with up to seven other Committee Members. For this year, which began at the AGM on 8th July and ends at the 2013 AGM, along with the Officers, four other Committee Members were elected.
In March 2012 Steve George Foley decide to leave Committee: he will be greatly missed, having been a tireless worker on behalf of the Association for the two years he served. On the positive side, in March and April, two young ladies were co-opted on, which brought the average age of Committee crashing down! They are Sarah O'Hanlon and Caroline Montalvo, to whom we extend a very warm welcome and the hope they find the job interesting and worthy enough for them to remain for a number of years at least.
At the AGM, both Sarah and Caroline put themselves foreward as candidates for Committee, showing they are up for the challenge of full-time membership.
Following a ballot of the general membership earlier in the year, several changes were made to the length of time Committee Members and Officers would serve, following election (see here). The Committee of 2011 - 2012 had prepared and circulated Proposals to Amend the Constitution which were voted on via a postal/Internet ballot. One of the proposed changes was to have the term of service on Committee extended from one year to two years. It was felt that the longer term would give the Committee Member a better chance to become familiar with the job, as well as affording the general membership an extended period of time in which to better judge the Committee Member's value and contribution.
Rather than all Committee Members having to stand for election at the same time, it was felt that approximately half should be elected every other year; in this way, there would always be sitting Members before, during and after the AGM, regardless of elections. As this was the first year of the new election procedure, it was decided that immediately following the elections, Committee would draw numbers from a hat to resolve the question of who would be serving for one [1] year and who for two [2]: however, because it would be unwise to have both Chairman and Secretary standing for election in the same year, it was agreed that whichever number the Chairman drew, the Secretary would automatically accept the other one.
Taking into account all of the above and the Elections at the AGM, the Committee structure is as follows:
- Navtej Singh Ghaleigh, [Chairman]: elected to Office until the 2014 AGM
- Daniel Alexander Bryson-Peart, [Secretary]: elected to Office until the 2013 AGM
- David Spellman, [Treasurer]: elected to Office until the 2014 AGM
- Lesley Pattenson, elected as Committee Member until the 2014 AGM
- Tessa Mitchell, elected as Committee Member until the 2014 AGM
- Sarah O'Hanlon, elected as Committee Member until the 2013 AGM
- Caroline Montalvo, elected as Committee Member unti the 2013 AGM
We encourage anyone who may be interested in joining to contact the Secretary via the Contact Us page, where you should use the message box to email your details. The Secretary will contact you, usually within a few hours, but certainly within fourty-eight.
We meet at least once a month (except December) to discuss how best to manage the affairs of the Association in accordance with the Constitution. We are volunteers, so receive no financial reward for our efforts and expertize, though sometimes, we may be reimbursed for larger, out of pocket expenses.
Anyone wishing to put their name forward to be on the Committee should be prepared to submit around 100 words expressing their reasons why they want to join and what it is they think they have to offer. All candidates require a proposer and a seconder prior to putting their name forward; should they wish to, they may Contact Us to arrange to have a chat with an existing Member and learn what a rewarding task being a Committee Member is.
If you are interested, then please be aware that it is not necessary to wait until the AGM to put your name forward; the Committee have the power to co-opt Members and that Membership can be ratified at the AGM, or not, depending on the individual and whether or not remaining on Committee is what they want.
