NMRA British Region – Proposed Change to Constitution
Notice of an Extra General Meeting on Saturday, 7th May, 2022
This document is giving the required 21 days’ notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting being called by the Board of Directors (BoD).
The purpose of this constitutional change is to expand the area of the British Region (BR) to include that area currently covered by the European Region (ER). The current “Constitution of the British Region of the National Model Railroad Association, as approved by ballot on January 3rd 2018” can be found at https://www.nmrabr.org.uk/nmra-br-constitution/
Constitution change
Following consideration by the BR’s Constitutional Committee, the proposed change to the Constitution is as follows:
“Article 3. Geographic Area” is changed from:
The area of the Region is defined as England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, together with the offshore islands under the same administrations.
to:
The area of the Region is defined as British Isles, Republic of Ireland, mainland Europe and offshore islands.
Reason for change
The need for this has come about due to several factors. ER has about 60 members, but they are widely spread across a number of countries. It has become increasingly difficult to fulfill the legal requirements in Luxembourg, where ER is constituted as an organisation, and leader Alain Kap now has great difficulty in filling BoD posts, staffing responsibilities and running the ER. The NMRA has been aware of this for some time, and the BR BoD were approached in the winter to see whether reintegration of ER into BR would be possible and practicable. Prior to the formation of ER, BR did have a lot of European members.
Once ER is integrated in BR then a new European Division of BR will be created.
There is some need for expediency in the timing of this merger. It is understood that if we can complete the change within three months then BR can renew memberships for ER members without them being derailed and running the risk of losing them.
Procedure
Normally a constitutional change is progressed by a discussion and vote at an AGM and then a ballot of the membership. However, owing to the urgency of the situation, an online Extraordinary General Meeting is being called to discuss this proposal instead of waiting until the AGM this autumn. This EGM will coincide with the Brew and Natter session on Saturday, 7 May. Shortly beforehand, information will be circulated to all Region members giving details for accessing this meeting. The required ballot of all BR members will then follow.
The current wording of the Constitution does generally allow for online meetings, but some minor rewording is likely the next time the Constitution is reviewed so as to make the process, such as in Article 7E changing “hand” to “deliver”.
Finally
Both BR and ER stand to gain from this, in the BoD’s view. It will involve some additional work by our officers, but our Treasurer Chris James and Registrar and Renewals Officer James Lucas in particular have expressed their willingness to help accomplish this.
