RSAF Apprentices Association Constitution

APPROVED : 14 April 2002
AMENDED: 18 April 2004, 17 April 2005 and 26 April 2009

1. Title: The name of the Association shall be The Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, Apprentices Association. The approved short form, for banking, etc., is RSAF Apprentices Association. The colours shall be Black, Red and Gold symbolising the motto:

(Out of Darkness through Fire into Light)

2. Aims and Functions:

Primary Aim: To promote and facilitate friendship between former RSAF apprentices and create an organisation whereby they can maintain contact and exchange correspondence.

Secondary Aim: To promote and facilitate recognition, establishment and preservation of the history and heritage of the RSAF and associated apprentice training.

Functions: In pursuance of the above aims, the Association shall:

Organise at least one social function a year, an Annual Reunion, which may also incorporate an Annual General Meeting.

Establish and maintain lists of former RSAF apprentices and of Members, Honorary Associates and Friends of the Association, including contact details, and circulate them to Members, Honorary Associates and Friends of the Association.

Prepare newsletters about matters of interest to Members and circulate them to Members, Honorary Associates and Friends of the Association.

The Association may also:

Organise technical visits to companies and places of interest.

Organise any other events which are of interest to members and consistent with the Associations aims.

Provide services to members by stocking and selling ties, tie clips and books etc related to RSAF.

Engage in historical research related to RSAF or give assistance to other individuals or bodies engaged in such activities.

Locate, record and, if appropriate, acquire artefacts, photographs and memorabilia related to RSAF and, in particular, items made by apprentices during their time in training.

Express collectively views about the future of the former factory site and the recognition of its heritage.

Co-operate with any other organisation whose objectives are consistent with those of the Association and which include the recognition, preservation and promotion of the history and heritage of RSAF.

Engage in any other activity that is consistent with the Associations aims and has the support of members.

All Association activities shall be subject to approval, and review from time to time, by the Committee or a General Meeting. Any new activity involving a significant financial commitment shall require approval either by a properly convened General Meeting or by a postal ballot of Members.

3. Honorary Life Members: Honorary Life Members of the Association may only be proposed and elected at a General Meeting.

4. Executive Committee: The affairs of the Association shall be administered by an Executive Committee comprising four (4) Principal Officers; a Chairman, a Vice Chairman, a General Secretary and a Treasurer & Membership Secretary who shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting and shall hold office until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting. Additional Officers (including a President) and/or Committee Members, as may from time to time be expedient for the discharge of the Associations business, may be elected at any properly convened General Meeting or be co-opted by the Committee and shall hold office until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting.

5. Membership:

Member - Any person who was apprenticed at the RSAF is entitled to be a Member of the Association with full voting rights, provided that their details are recorded by the Treasurer & Membership Secretary and that, at the time the vote is taken, their Subscription for the current year (and any arrears) are fully paid up. If Subscriptions are not received without an explanation acceptable to the Committee, then Member status may be reviewed and revoked. Membership entitlement will extend to all persons who have undertaken apprentice type training at RSAF under any other name, eg Cadets etc. and to persons who served only part of their apprenticeship at RSAF or who failed to complete the full term of apprenticeship for any reason. Membership may be extended, by invitation rather than entitlement, to persons who were not themselves apprenticed at RSAF, but who:

Were Apprentice Masters or Instructors at RSAF;
or

Had managerial responsibility for apprentice training at RSAF;
or

Have previously been President of the Association (i.e. former Superintendents and Directors of RSAF).

Honorary Associate - A person not meeting Member criteria, but having shown by their actions and influence that they support the Aims of the Association and are deemed worthy by the Committee and approved by vote at an AGM, may be invited to become an Honorary Associate. Honorary Associates have no voting rights and may not be elected to the Committee. No Subscription is levied, but Donations will be gratefully received, particularly to cover the administrative costs of production and postage of Association correspondence.

Friend of the Association - A person; not meeting Member criteria, who may have connections with RSAF and/or the Association and/or who supports the Aims of the Association and who wishes to maintain contact with the Association may, at the discretion of the Committee, be invited to become a Friend of the Association. Such persons may include for example the widows/widowers of former RSAF apprentices, former Lockies and persons involved in researching, preserving and promoting the history and heritage of RSAF. Friends may participate in Association activities, but where places are limited precedence will be given to Members. An annual Subscription is required from Friends to cover the administrative costs of production and postage of Association correspondenceA person not meeting Member criteria, who may have connections with RSAF and/or the Association and/or who supports the Aims of the Association and who wishes to maintain contact with the Association, may, at the discretion of the Committee, be invited to become a Friend of the Association. Such persons may include for example the widows/widowers of former RSAF apprentices, former Lockies and persons involved in researching, preserving and promoting the history and heritage of RSAF. Friends may participate in Association activities, but where places are limited precedence will be given to Members. An annual Subscription is required from Friends to cover the administrative costs of production and postage of Association correspondence, but confers no voting rights. A Friend may not be elected to the Committee. If the Subscription is not received, without an explanation acceptable to the Committee, then despatch of Association correspondence will cease and the Friend status reviewed and may be revoked.

6. Finance: The financial year shall end on the 31st December. All payments are to be made or authorised by the Treasurer & Membership Secretary. An Honorary Auditor, who cannot be a serving Officer or Member of the Committee, shall be appointed at the AGM.

The four (4) Principal Officers acting jointly shall be authorised to open and, as appropriate, close such bank accounts (including National Savings or Building Society accounts or the like) as may from time to time be expedient and beneficial to the handling and investment of the Associations funds. Withdrawals shall require the signatures of any two of the said Officers, but transfers between accounts with the same organisation may be made on the Treasurers signature alone. All payments are to be made or authorised by the Treasurer and one of the two signatures for any withdrawal from the bank accounts shall be his (unless he is indisposed or unavailable and has arranged for one of the other authorised signatories temporarily to manage the accounts).

If required for the efficient discharge of business, the committee may authorise additional signatory(s) for specified bank accounts, subject to the agreement of all four Principal Officers.

Where any payment received exceeds the amount required for the relevant subscription, order or other identified purpose, the Association will assume it is intended as a donation unless the amount is substantial and circumstances suggest it has been included in error, in which case the member will be contacted to ascertain their intent..

If the Association is wound up, then, in the absence of any resolution to the contrary passed by a properly convened General Meeting or postal ballot of all paid up members, the assets of the Association shall be distributed, in proportions as determined by the Committee, to:

Any appropriate organisation dedicated, possibly amongst other things, to the preservation of the heritage of RSAF;
and/or

The Benevolent Fund of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers;
and/or

The Benevolent Fund of AMICUS [one time Amalgamated Engineering Union].

7. Subscriptions: The AGM sets a range, within which the Committee is authorised to determine the subscription rate for the following year, and:

The Committee sets the actual subscription rate at the start of each new financial year having regard to the end-of-year outturn and projections for the new year.

Subscriptions may be paid in advance for future years and will be credited at the rate prevailing when the payment is received. Members who pay subscriptions in advance will not be required to make any additional payment if the rate is subsequently increased.

A subscription received from a new member during the final four months of the year, in response to an invitation to join sent during that same period, will be credited to the next year as well as the remainder of the current year.

8. Responsibility of Members: Members shall abide by the decisions of the Committee in respect of all matters pertaining to the Association, but shall have the right to call an Extraordinary General Meeting by presenting a petition, bearing the signatures of at least twenty (20) Members, to the General Secretary in time to allow him to give fourteen (14) working days notice of the Meeting. If any Member, Honorary Associate or Friend of the Association engages in conduct likely to bring the Association into disrepute or to cause general offence or annoyance to fellow members, then the Committee shall consider the matter and take such action as they deem appropriate, including immediate removal of the person concerned from the Association.

9. Annual General Meeting (AGM): The AGM is normally to be held to coincide with the Annual Reunion. The AGM shall:

Receive the Committee's, Treasurer's and Auditor's Reports.

Elect Officers and Members of the Committee and the Auditor.

Vote on Association matters.

10. Special and Extraordinary Meetings: Fourteen (14) working days notice, with Agenda, of a Meeting shall be circulated to all Members of the Association..

11. Personal Information: Member in this section refers to all categories defined in Membership. As a fraternal organisation, consent will be assumed to the release of personal information to the membership through the membership list or Association newsletters, unless a member indicates otherwise.

Contact details including addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc, published in the Associations membership list or newsletters shall be treated as confidential to members of the Association for purposes of fraternal contact. Such details shall not be used for any commercial or other purpose that might annoy members nor be passed to any third parties who might so use it. The Association will not normally release personal information to third parties, but may exceptionally do so in connection with bona fide historical research or educational projects.

Members are requested to provide the Association with an up-to-date telephone number (and e-mail address, if appropriate) on which they may be contacted. Telephone numbers provide the primary means of contact between members and will normally be included in the membership list circulated to members. Where a member so requests, ex-directory numbers will be confined to the central membership records only and not appear in the published list, but this may preclude contact with fellow members.

The central membership records are held on computer and every member shall be entitled to see the information held about them on the central register. A copy of that information will be provided, free of charge, on request.

12. Heritage Collection.

The Committee shall be responsible for the custody and preservation of any memorabilia or heritage material acquired by the Association or donated into its care. To ensure its safety and preservation, the Association may accept into its custody material, which it recognises to be of interest and historic significance, but which is not strictly relevant to the Associations usual locus of activity.

If, for any reason, the Association shall cease to be able to provide safe and effective custody for all or any of the collection of memorabilia and heritage material, then the committee shall be responsible to ensure that such items are passed into the custody of other appropriate body or bodies which are in a position to provide proper custody, care and preservation of the items.

The Committee may, at its discretion, pass on to other appropriate body or bodies any item/s which:

Are considered to fall outside the scope of the Association's collection.

Duplicate other items in the collection.

Require special conservation treatment which the Association is not in a position to provide.

When considering the disposal of any or all items from the heritage collection, the committee shall, without being constrained in their ultimate freedom and responsibility to determine appropriate recipient/s:

Consider the desirability of keeping parts, or all, of the collection together as entities.

Seek so far as possible, consistent with the ultimate safe preservation thereof, to keep the collection in the UK.

Give consideration to the merits of the following as potential recipients:

The London Borough of Enfield Museums Service

The Royal Ordnance Heritage Centre

The Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills.

The RSA Trust.