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Constitution

Gurkhas during an attack on a hill near Palel

'Gurkhas during an attack on a hill near Palel, April 1944, Burma Campaign' (National Army Museum)

As amended at the Annual General Meeting 2022

Name [1]

The name of the Society shall be 'THE SOCIETY FOR ARMY HISTORICAL RESEARCH', Registered Charity No 247844

Objects [2]

The objects of the Society shall be the encouragement and development of Army Historical Research and the promotion and maintenance of regimental and military traditions by means of a charitable character, including:

  1. Research into all aspects of the British Army or its predecessors, and of the Land Forces of the Empire and Commonwealth.
  2. Publication of a Journal to be called The Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, containing original articles, extracts from rare and not easily accessible old military works and manuscripts, pictures, drawings, notes, questions and answers.
  3. Advice and encouragement to those responsible for regimental and other military museums.
  4. Arrangement of lectures and meetings on matters relating to the Society's objects.

Membership [3]

  1. Membership shall be open to all persons or institutions who are interested in actively furthering the objects of the Society. The membership shall include existing Life Members so long as any survive.
  2. Persons or institutions desirous of being admitted to membership shall complete the Society's application form which, accompanied by the appropriate subscription, shall be forwarded to the Honorary Treasurer/Membership Secretary.
  3. The Council shall have the right to remove any person or institution from the list of members if continued membership has or is likely to bring the Society into disrepute.

Subscriptions [4]

  1. Each member shall pay a subscription on joining the Society and, if paying by traditional means - cheque, credit card or bank Standing Order - shall pay that subscription in January in each subsequent year. Members paying by PayPal, subsequent payments of which subscriptions are received on the anniversary of the first payment whenever that falls during the year, shall be considered to be on a rolling subscription and they will enjoy all privileges of membership as if they had paid subscriptions in January of each year.
  2. Subscription rates and categories and conditions of membership shall be such as are from time to time fixed at the Annual General Meeting.

Patron, President, Honorary Officers and Trustees [5]

The Society shall have the following honorary positions the holders of which shall not be officers of the Society:

  1. A PATRON
  2. A PRESIDENT who shall be chosen by Council. He or she shall not, at the time of selection or afterwards, be an approved member of Council and need not, until after selection, be a member of the Society. He or she shall be proposed to the membership at the next Annual General Meeting and shall be approved/endorsed at that meeting. He or she shall be eligible for re-selection for further terms of five years consecutively until he/she shall declare his/her wish to retire.
  3. VICE-PRESIDENTS who shall be elected for life at an Annual General Meeting.
  4. AN INDEPENDENT EXAMINER OR AUDITORS who shall be appointed at an Annual General Meeting.

Council [6]

  1. The management of the Society shall be vested in a Council of not more than thirteen members of the Society. Each Member of Council will serve as a Trustee of the Society. A minimum of five Members shall form a quorum. Each Member of Council will normally be responsible for an area of the governance of the Society. The area of responsibility shall be indicated on any election paper. Where a Member possesses more general qualities that may be useful to the Society, and a portfolio is not required, they shall be annotated as ‘without portfolio.’
  2. All Members of the Council shall retire at each Annual General Meeting. They shall be eligible for re-election.
  3. Ordinary members may nominate fully paid-up members of the Society for election to Council. In the event of there being only one candidate for each post, the election of Council shall be taken en bloc. In the event of a nomination for a particular post being received by the announced date and a vote being required, the Secretary shall inform the membership prior to the Annual General Meeting. Statements from candidates giving their reasons for wishing to stand and their qualifications for the post in question shall be circulated by the Secretary. A vote will be held at the Annual General Meeting using a secret ballot and the person with the most votes will be declared as elected.
  4. Council shall have the power to co-opt additional Members of the Society to fill vacant portfolios. It may also co-opt additional persons, who need not be individual members, to assist with its work. As with Trustees any such appointments shall be until the next Annual General Meeting. Such Members will not be able to administer or disburse Society funds. Any non-members shall be non-voting Members. Co-opted non-members will not be required to serve as Trustees of the Society.
  5. Council shall, in addition, find from amongst the membership a member who is willing and able to serve as Chair. Council will recommend the person for election at the Annual General Meeting for immediate appointment. On election the Chair shall serve normally for a maximum period of five years. Council may recommend a single extension of a further period of up to two years.
  6. Trustees wishing to resign from Council shall be taken to have done so as from the date of their letter of resignation. Resignation from Council does not absolve the former Trustee from accounting for his or her conduct during the period of his/her trusteeship in the event of investigations by the charity authorities in relation to the Society during the period when the former Trustee was a member of Council.
  7. In the event of more than thirteen Society members offering themselves as Trustees in any one year, the Honorary Secretary shall endeavour to negotiate a reduction in the number offering themselves for Council. In the event of failure to achieve this, all of those offering themselves shall supply statements of the reason for their candidature eight weeks before the AGM which shall be circulated to all individual members of the Society by post with a voting form for return to an independent examiner before the date of the AGM. The elected candidates will then be offered to the AGM for approval.

Committees [7]

  1. Council may delegate responsibility to specialist committees, who shall choose their own officers, keep minutes and report to Council regularly through an Officer or an approved member of Council.
  2. All Committee decisions are subject to the approval of Council and a Committee shall not exceed the level of expenditure allocated to it by Council.

Annual General Meeting [8]

  1. The Annual General Meeting shall be held during April of each year at such time and Meeting place as Council shall determine. A formal notice shall be published not less than three months before the date of the meeting. This notice shall include details of any proposed alteration to the Constitution or to the subscription rates.
  2. All business for the Annual General Meeting, including any nominations for Council, and items of ‘Any Other Business’ shall be in the hands of the Secretary not less than six weeks before the date of the meeting. Any nomination for membership of Council must be signed by the nominee and proposer, both of whom shall be paid-up members of the Society. A reasoned statement as to the portfolio for which the candidate is being proposed must accompany the nomination. An agenda for the Annual General Meeting, including a report and accounts certificated as having been audited or examined for the previous calendar year, shall be made available through the website to all members entitled to attend and vote not less than fourteen days before the date of the meeting.
  3. Members eligible to vote at the Annual General Meeting shall be: Life Members; members whose subscriptions have been received by traditional means prior to the AGM and members on rolling subscriptions.

Extraordinary General Meetings [9]

The Council shall have power to call an Extraordinary General Meeting at any time, and Council shall call such meetings if so required in writing by no fewer than ten individual members. Fourteen clear days' notice of such meeting shall be given to members.

Amendments [10]

Alteration to these rules shall require the assent of two-thirds of those members present and entitled to vote at an Annual General Meeting or Extraordinary General Meeting. A resolution for the alteration of the rules must be received by the Honorary Secretary of the Society at least six weeks before the meeting at which the resolution is to be brought forward. At least 14 days' notice must be given by the Honorary Secretary to the members and must include notice of the alteration proposed. No alteration shall be made to Clause 2 (OBJECTS), Clause 11 (DISSOLUTION) or this clause without the prior approval in writing of the Charity Commissioners or other authority having charitable jurisdiction; and no alteration shall be made which would have the effect of causing the Society to cease to be a charity in law. A formal record of amendments to the Constitution shall be kept including the date/s when such amendments are proposed and the date of the Annual General Meeting at which such amendment or such further adjusted amendment is assented to by the Members. Dated copies of the new Constitution shall be provided to the President and all members of Council by the Secretary before the next Council meeting after the Annual General Meeting at which the amendment was incorporated. New Members of Council co-opted before the next Annual General Meeting shall receive a copy of the Constitution at the time of their acceptance onto Council.

Dissolution [11]

The Society may be dissolved by a resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of those members present and entitled to vote at an Extraordinary General Meeting convened for the purpose of which fourteen days' notice shall have been given to the members. Such resolution may give instructions for the disposal of any assets held by or in the name of the Society, provided that if any property remains after the satisfaction of all debts and liabilities such property shall not be offered for sale to or distributed among the members of the Society, but shall be given or transferred to such other charitable institution having objects similar to some or all of the objects of the Society as the Trustees shall determine and if and in so far as affect cannot be given to this provision then to some other charitable purpose.