Charity Debate - Message from your National Councillors

Statement from Helen Vecht and Greg Price - CTC National Councillors representing London and signed also by John Meudell, CTC National Councillor for the South East.

Below is the text of a message that Helen and Greg asked the Chief Executive of the CTC to issue to the members that they represent.

The Chairman of the National Council is refusing to allow this message to be sent to their constituents without an accompanying message from him.

Draw your own conclusions!

Here is the message that the Chairman found so threatening that it could not be issued without a parental warning:

Dear Members

As you may be aware, when you receive your copy of ‘Cycle’ this month it will be accompanied by a yellow sheet of paper. This sheet is a ballot paper and members are being asked to vote again on a motion that was put to the AGM in May.

You are being asked to vote again on Motion 8 – which is proposing that the Club be converted into a charity and merged with the CTC Trust. This motion was narrowly passed at the AGM, after the Chair of Council used his discretionary proxy votes to push it through. Prior to the Chair casting his discretionary votes the motion had been lost on the directed votes of the members.

This re-run of the vote has been forced upon Council by the action of ordinary members who were dissatisfied by the way that the vote at the AGM was handled and by the unbalanced view of the proposals which had been put forward by Council prior to the AGM. Contrary to what is implied in some of the messages currently being put out by those supporting Motion 8, the use of the Article 36 procedure to call for a re-vote is perfectly legitimate and proportionate, and it is a valuable protection for members’ interests enshrined in the CTC’s constitutional documents. Only 200 members’ signatures are required to trigger a re-vote under Article 36 – and over 600 members’ signatures were gathered in a very short space of time.

Before the AGM in May, we made it clear that we did not support the proposal outlined in Motion 8 and we encouraged you all to vote against it – and we regret that since the AGM nothing has happened to change our views on the matter. Unfortunately, Council has not fully grasped the opportunity arising after the AGM to put things in order within the existing structure.

We would urge all members to vote against Motion 8 in this re-vote.

We appreciate that our views put us at odds with the formal position of Council. However, we believe that we have an obligation to you, our members, to be open and honest in our views and to act to safeguard your interests.

However, whatever your decision on the merits of Motion 8, we would urge you to make sure you vote. Please be part of the decision-making process, rather than letting others decide for you.

We should also note that we are aware that some of the ballot papers sent out by National Office have errors on them (e.g. the wrong names or people who are eligible to vote omitted). Please check your ballot paper carefully and, if it is wrong, please contact Peter Jackson at National Office (peter.jackson@ctc.org.uk) to get a corrected ballot paper.

For further information on our objections, please see the Save the CTC web-site: www.savethectc.org.uk

Kind regards

Helen Vecht and Gregory Price

CTC National Councillors for London

John Meudell

CTC National Councillor for the South East