SUBSCRIPTION REMINDER
Subscriptions for the year 2006 were due on the 1st January and a renewal form
has been sent with this newsletter. Please send your subscription to the Membership
Secretary Del Smith, 12 Tring Gardens, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex RM3 9EP.
Tel: 01708 375555
If you do not currently pay by standing order, please consider changing to this
method. Every year a great deal of effort and money is spent reminding some
members about their subscription.
We hope soon to become a charity
You will notice that the charity hit is on the AGM Agenda again. But, if lots of you come along
to vote, this could really he it! Last summer I sent all the completed paperwork off to the Charity
Commission, and I got a very helpful reply. Only the objectives at the front need to be changed,
and all the rest of the Rules are fine. Our Commissioner actually suggested what words we use,
and then, if we accept them, and I get the paperwork off to him, he can guarantee that charitable
status will soon follow. You will notice the changes in meaning are small, but the reorganisation
of the phrasing is important, to cover the charitable aspects more clearly. So, please come to
vote on this momentous change in the history of our Club; that after 125 years, we shall become
a recognised charity. So please put the date in your new diaries now, and make a great effort to
come to this splendid occasion. Please read the details below carefully, and do ask me about any
questions you may have, or if you want in advance a full set of the proposed Rules. Mary Smith
(01708 228921 or by email to mary@smith33gpr.fsnet.co.uk.)
Council recommends:
Proposal to change the Club objectives, as recommended by our Charity Commissioner,
and adjust one of the powers of the Council to fit.
To replace the present Section 3 by:
3. The objectives of the Club shall be:
To promote, for the benefit of the public, the conservation, protection and improvement of the
natural environment of Essex (defined here as the total of the two Watsonian Vice-counties of
North Essex and South Essex) and to advance public education in its natural history (defined
here as including its fauna, flora, geology and lithic archaeology) by such charitable means as
the Council sees fit, in particular, but not exclusively, by:
3.1 studying and recording natural histoiy;
3.2 encouraging and supporting the maintenance of an up-to-date record of all local sites of
natural history; and
3.3 publishing and making the useful results of research, data and other historical material
available, where appropriate, for the benefit of the public in furthering the above purposes.
Add a clause to the beginning of Section 6.2 (iv), so that it reads:
(iv) power to promote interest in the natural environment generally, including the power to co-
operate with other charities, voluntary bodies and statutory authorities operating in further-
ance of the objects or of similar charitable purposes and to exchange information and advice
with them;
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 49, January 2006 3