> We propose that the Committee members must be residents of the
> Midlands counties. Any elected Committee member who move out of
> the Midlands counties should resign. The Midlands Counties are
> defined as:
> Worcestershire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, Staffordshire,
> Shropshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire,
> Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Cheshire,
> Cambridgeshire.

(Jackie) Rational: The MRC was set up as a local club for local ratters.
As
such a local Committee, which can easily meet face-to-face without some
Committee members having to travel hundreds of miles, is surely better
for the Club.

(Alison) The MRC was set up by a 6 ratty people, 3 who did not live in the
Midlands, all of whom served on or assisted (were involved in the decision
making process) the committee at some time. There was choice. I would still
maintain that maximum choice of committed volunteers is desirable. The
credentials for serving on the committee could be many... I would feel it
important that committee members were deeply committed to the MRC and her
corporate vision, attended as many shows as possible and as many committee
meetings as possible, and helped out in as many ways as possible, encouraged
as many members as possible, shared as much experience and expertise as
possible, and championed the cause of the MRC within the fancy as a whole.
It would be well down on my list of credentials where they lived if they
could give this kind of commitment. I live in the North East of England, and
since joining the committee have started a system that gives us more face to
face committee meetings that ever before (6 a year)on the request of the
rest of the committee who felt it would be beneficial to spend more time
together, face to face. Despite not living in the Midlands I wouldn't
consider a committee post if I didn't feel able to make the commitment to
attend these meetings.

On the distance front - Lesley in the wilds (very pretty wilds) of
Shropshire takes as long to get to The Mobbs' in Lincoln as I do (probably
longer)... the distances within the Midlands itself are potentially
enormous. Surely we can't seriously be saying that distance from other
committee members should be the deciding factor as to whether a person is on
the committee or not? I would prefer these decisions to be made on a case by
case basis by the members, who I would trust to make good choices far better
than I trust a rule to.

(Jackie) Also a Committee with local members would facilitate the signing of
cheques as per Committee Proposal 1.

(Alison) All cheques are (and I think have always been) signed by one
signatory only. We have recently put in place other methods of maintaining
financial accountability within the club as part of the bomb proofing
project. The signing of cheques is therefore not particulalry relevant to
this debate (though might form a completley different one of its own!) Of
the members of the committee who are currently within the Midlands I can't
think of any who live within easy travelling distance of each other, except
for sandra and graham ;-)(if we did decide to always ask for 2 signatories)
but to safequard against potential financial mismanagement in the future we
would like to see unrelated committee members signing cheques. ie. Committee
Proposal 1.

Love Alison
and the Shunamite rats
http://www.shunamiterats.co.uk

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.2 - Release Date: 3/11/05