Mercia Fell Runners Club

As a condition of accepting the recent grant from Sports England we agreed to ensure that our constitution was consistent with the objectives and principles that they expect of sports clubs that they support. We are therefore obliged to review and amend the Constitution. This has been done initially by Colin Williams and reviewed by Bob Dredge.

In reality the main elements of the constitution-the purpose of the club, membership categories, management through the Committee and so forth-are entirely consistent with the model constitution provided through Sport England. In practice their document is somewhat lengthier and more detailed on matters of the duty of officers, and more specific on the formal duties of the Committee and management of meetings. They generally describe what we do in practice.

The revised constitution has the added advantage of being consistent with that required of any club that wished to register as a Community Amateur Sports Club, and thus avoid any risk of a tax liability on “trading” profits. This is a move we may consider when we have more detail on the financial benefits from the 2012 FRA relays.

Our view is that there are no material changes in this proposed constitution and we will ask members to agree it at the AGM.

A full copy can be read here

Bob Dredge
Colin Williams
23 September 2011