The CTC is at it again

Draft CTC Policy Handbook for Member Groups

The CTC has returned to one of its favourite pastimes - meddling with the structure of District Associations, Sections and Member Groups. It has produced a draft CTC Policy Handbook for Member Groups. I do not recall reading anything about this in Cycle or CycleClips and can find nothing on the new CTC website. Have I missed it? The CTC continues its superlative record of communicating openly and fully with its membership. To be fair, the document has been sent to our DA Secretary, except there is no DA.

We are told that "Groups MUST no longer use words such as 'District Association' or 'Section' in their titles as these terms are now redundant." As Editor of the Sou'Wester, I imagined that this was the Newsletter of South West London DA - that is what it says. The centre pages give details of our 'Section Rides'. Oh dear, what terrible punishment awaits us?

A couple of years ago, without any cogent argument or understanding of what it was doing, the CTC made a dog's dinner of the membership structure. As a result, the Midweek Wayfarers decided that they did not want to become a formal Member Group and opted to be an Informal Member Group.

This new draft policy instructs that if we want to be an Informal Member group, "we must submit a written request to the Secretary of the Formal Member Group with which (we) wish to be associated." There isn't one! And there isn't a DA! But the Cheam & Morden is a Formal Member Group.

So perhaps we shall go back to what we were before, but call ourselves a Member Group insead of a DA. Maybe the wheel will turn full circle. All we want  is to be left alone to organise our rides, within the reasonable requirements of what used to be our Club. But we are not a charity and are not part of the CTC Charitable Trust. Where exactly do we fit into the CTC, other than by paying our subscriptions? Nobody has yet told us.

Despite this disorganised shambles, I'm sure that we shall be able to sort ourselves out.

If anybody would like to punish themselves by reading this draft policy, I have put a copy on Google Docs. You will find it much more effective than valium in helping you to sleep and it is not addictive. Masochists, please click on this link and good luck!

The document does not say that it is for consultation nor invite comments, but we may wish to respond. Gordon Seabright, the 'new' CTC Chief Executive, will be attending our DA AGM at Hersham on 14 November. You might wish to raise a question or two.

Jeff

The CTC Charity Proposal and Vote

When you think that it couldn’t get worse, it does!

The Charity Commission has now explicitly stated that, with the CTC as a Charity, its members will have no power whatsoever to control or influence the policies and governance of the CTC.

Having advised the CTC on how to reword the relevant Articles within the revised M&As to meet its own requirements, the Charity Commission has now noted that Article 11 provides for a poll of the whole Club on any question, the outcome binding the Club and Council for 6 months. This is the Article that we used to challenge the conversion proposal.

The CC has now told the CTC, at some length and in some detail, that this Article, while not affecting charitable status ‘isn’t really appropriate for a charity’ and ‘we would strongly recommend its deletion’. If not at the AGM, because a 'faction' might oppose it, then at a subsequent General Meeting.

It is pretty difficult to summarise the 1,367 words used by the CC to support this claim.

The nub of it is that the trustees of the charity have ‘a legal duty to act as trustees only in the best interests of their charity in furthering its charitable purposes. ………In the case of a charity with a membership, the members role in its administration is normally to elect the trustees………But it would not be appropriate for trustees to be obliged to act on the recommendations of the membership.’ As we have been able to require since the CTC was founded in 1878.

The CTC responded to the CC: “The poll of the whole club was used for the first time in many years during the campaign by a small CTC faction to try and stop this charitable proposal. To suggest its removal at this point could antagonise this group again and jeopardise the prospects of getting the new objects approved.”

The CTC has asked the CC for further advice on how to respond to this concern. When is it going to be honest with members? Before the AGM on 12 May? It won’t because it is too scared that the truth would influence the vote!

Is it the legitimate role of the Charity Commission to conspire with the directors of a company owned by its members in order to influence and manipulate the outcome?

In other words, this is precisely what we have been saying for the past 18 months. The CTC ceases to be a members’ club, the members lose all power to control or influence the policies and governance of the Club and the members (an appropriate word) become no more than impotent eunuchs in the harem of the CTC and Charity Commission.

Are you prepared to vote for the castration of your Club? Is that worth a cycling jacket?

How on earth do we get this message out to the 50,000 odd voting members of the CTC, the media and the wider public?

Jeff

How the charity rejection is seen in Chester

Another View

You may be interested to see what the Chester Easy Riders have to say about the CTC charity rejection

Jeff

Rejection Letter - a bit more legible

New link

For those with an interest, here is a link to a more legible copy of the Charity Commission's rejection letter. Click twice on the + magnifier to make it much better. I have highlighted a number of paras in red.

Jeff

Rejection of CTC Application for Charitable Status

Charity Commission's Rejection Letter of CTC Application to Register as a Charity in England and Wales

Most of you will know that the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales have rejected out of hand the application by the CTC Club for registration as a charity.

The Chairman and Chief Executive have been fighting what I consider to be a discreditable and determined rearguard action to conceal from members the comprehensive rejection of the CTC's case and disguise the importance of this outcome. Their duty is to answer to the membership and keep us informed. However, they have steadfastly refused to publish the contents of the Charity Commissioners' rejection letter.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information request to the Charity Commission, the content of the letter detailing the reasons for rejection is now available for all to read, see link:

CC's Rejection Letter to CTC request for registration as a charity in England and Wales. (see pages 2 and 4)

Kevin Mayne's gloss on October 25th was:

"...it's certainly not something I assumed we would be putting on the web site, most members have told us they are rather bored with the internal workings of CTC...... if we need to make some changes to smooth our way past the Commission we will do so in due course."

IF??? Does he not understand what the letter says, or is he trying desperately to disguise its importance?

It is quite clear that the Commission sees the CTC as essentially a Members' Club that also indulges in politics. Hardly surprising, since that is what it is. It cannot understand why the application has been made in the first place. The application for registration as a charity has been unambiguously rejected.

The Charity Commissioners recognise that the CTC already has a charitable arm and their rejection letter states: "..the Club itself is not established for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit. It is a members' organisation established to promote the interests of its members and provide them with benefit. It is not therefore established for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit."

How much clearer could that be?

Not the End of the Story

However, the CTC also made an application for registration as a charity to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. This application was accepted in Scotland on 29 August (and not reported to members at the time). What therefore, is the constitutional status of the CTC Club in England and Wales?

The technical term is 'a mess'! We now really know where we stand, don't we? No doubt the CTC will be appealing against this decision. With Kevin Mayne's imminent departure, who now will inherit this poisoned chalice?

Jeff

Charity Vote - John Meudell resigns from CTC National Council

Dear All,

In the light of the voting papers that you will have just received, you may be interested to read the following letter of resignation from John Meudell, who represents members in SE England on the CTC National Council. I share his concerns.

Your District Committee opposes the proposed conversion of the CTC into a full charity. You can still oppose the conversion by voting against Motion 1 on the voting form. Do not forget to put your signature in box 2a (beneath your membership number) and put a X in the appropriate box for Motion 1 in section 3, headed Charity Vote - Direct your proxy how to vote. The other blank columns are for family members, who may wish to vote differently from you.

Don't forget to vote on Motions 2 - 9 on the back of the page - and don't throw it away!

Please contact me if you would like to discuss.

Comment to follow.

Jeff

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

Uncharitable Debate - VOTE

Re-Vote on the Future of the CTC

Dear All

By now you should have received with your December/January issue of Cycle magazine a yellow voting paper and Freepost envelope. This is to give you another opportunity to vote on the controversial and divisive proposal to change the constitution of the CTC and convert it into a full Charitable Trust.

Because of the way that the CTC tried to bludgeon through its proposal and its handling of voting procedures at the AGM in May 2010, a petition signed by some 600 members has forced the Chief Executive and National Council to undertake a poll of the whole Club on the contested proposal (Motion 8).

The CTC was required to publish the Petition in Cycle magazine. I was offered a telephone interview with the magazine to state my case, but only on its terms, which were unacceptable to me.

I therefore submitted to the Editor a brief statement, giving reasons to oppose the proposal, consisting of 11 bullet points. You will see a heavily edited version of this statement on page 8 of the magazine. Of the 11 points, three were unchanged, three edited and five censored. The CTC's electronic newsletter, CycleClips, is being used heavily to promote only the arguments in favour of the proposal. Hardly balanced.

You can see the full, unexpurgated version of my Statement, as well as much else, on the savethectc (click on link) website under News and 'read more'. Click also on the other links on the left for much more information.

You will know that our DA Committee decided that the proposal was not in the best interests of members. It opposed the proposal and recommended voting against the motion.

Remember, if the Club converts to full charitable status, our elected National Councillors would become trustees of the charity and obliged to put the interests of the charity and its duty of 'public benefit' before the interests of members. The two are not necessarily the same. What do you pay your sub for?

Unfortunately, this vote is not under the auspices of Electoral Reform Services, but now is your chance to vote again. You know my views, but please make up your own mind. Put an indelible X in the appropriate box (not a tick) and make sure that your details are correct. If they are wrong, get a correct version. There is no lower age limit, so if your great grand-daughter is a family member, she has a vote! I wonder how many toddlers will exercise their independent, democratic right to influence the future of the CTC.

Whatever you think, please vote.

Don't be a Sheep, be a Lion.

Grrr!

Jeff

Les Warner

Les Warner, former CTC secretary, died last week. The funeral is tomorrow, Thursday July 1st at 3.30 pm at Guildford Crematorium.

Outcome of Charity Status Vote - CTC AGM, 15 May 2010

Follow this savethectc link to see the outcome of the AGM vote at Loughborough on 15 May on converting The CTC into a charity.

Jeff

ATTENTION PLEASE

As I am sure you are all aware, at the CTC AGM at Loughborough on 15 May there is a proposal to change the constitution of the CTC from its present dual structure of a membership club and charitable trust to one unified charity. This has been publicised in CTC mag CYCLE, also Jeff Tollermann has published an article in the Sou 'Wester and on the DA, Wayfarers and Cheam and Morden blogs, see also www.savethectc.org.uk . If you are not attending the AGM, be sure to use your proxy vote - the appropriate form is in the current issue of CYCLE.

Terry

Message from our CTC Councillors for Greater London

Dear All

Below is a message from Greg Price and Helen Vecht, our CTC Councillors for Greater London. In it they give their views on the proposal to turn the CTC into a Charitable Trust. They state their own reasons for rejecting the proposal and recommend that members vote against the 3 motions numbered 8, 9 and 10 on the voting form which comes with the current issue of Cycle Magazine.

Please make sure that you use your vote. You will not have another chance.

As they are Councillors who oppose this proposal, the CTC has not extended to them the opportunity to have their views circulated from CTC HQ through centrally held membership lists. Councillors who support the proposal have been given this opportunity. This posting is made partly to redress that imbalance.

Jeff

A message from your CTC Councillors for London

Hello everyone

Over the next few days, the April-May copy of Cycle will be dropping on to your doormat. Along with the magazine will be the agenda for CTC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 15 May, together with a proxy voting form. It is the AGM, and certain motions before that meeting, that we are writing to you about.

At the AGM on 15 May, Council will be asking members to agree to changes in the status of the CTC – these changes will have significant and far reaching implications for the membership and for the future of the organisation. Council wants members to authorise it to change the Club, the organisation that has existed as a membership company for over 130 years, into a charity and to merge it with the CTC Trust.

You may have noticed over the few months that there have been a lot of positive messages put out about the proposals – for example the new issue of Cycle which accompanies the AGM agenda and proxy voting paper has a pro-change article on pages 6 and 7, and subtle (and some less subtle) hints have been appearing in the weekly CTC email newsletter. There has been a ‘hard sell’ going on and, although a previous issue of Cycle had an opposing view eloquently put by Simon Legg (a former Councillor), those who may oppose the proposals have been denied full access to the resources being deployed by Council and National Office to persuade you to vote in favour.

For Council’s decision to put these proposals to the membership was not unanimous, and as more information about the possible implications for members and member groups has emerged, a number Councillors have become uneasy about the direction Council and National Office are trying to take the Club in. We are two of these Councillors and, despite a number of unfortunate attacks on the personal integrity of those councillors and former councillors who do not support the proposals, we have made our views known publicly as we believe that is what you, the members, would want.

We oppose the proposals being put forward by Council as we are of the firm opinion that they are not in the best interests of the members, the member groups or the Club. Making the CTC a charity will not restore control of the Club and the trust to members – indeed it will have the opposite effect.

Under charity law, Councillors (who would also be trustees) would have to put the wider public interest and the interests of the organisations before the concerns of members or member groups. No amount of spin or fine words from those supporting these proposals can change this simple fact. And the members of other organisations, such as the Youth Hostelling Association, have found to their cost that the lure of supposed tax breaks doesn’t make up for losing control of your club.

There is also the issue of Club and Trust finances. These are far from transparent but it is clear that the Club is pumping in large amounts of members’ money to ensure that the Trust is able to balance its books - £453,051 in the last financial year alone. This is addition to the £407,000 paid by the Club for services provided to it by the Trust.

Council and National Office have assured the membership that the finances are in fine fettle, and they have made much about offering a meeting on the accounts to those with concerns. But we have to report that this meeting was far from successful. National Office and Council were not able to adequately explain the finances and the figures they were putting forward as supporting the proposal to change the Club to a charity did not stand up to scrutiny. These are not just our views – but those of an expert accountant who was at that meeting.

Council has tried to suggest that those who are opposing the changes are doing so for nefarious reasons. This is not the case. Those who have concerns over the proposals (us included) simply believe that there is a better way forward for CTC and that, with proper governance and clearer accountability, the present structure can be made to work properly and in the best interests of members.

We would urge all members to consider the proposals very carefully. Look at all the information that is available and take care to look behind the spins and rhetoric. You might also find it useful to look at the discussions on the CTC’s forums (http://forum.ctc.org.uk) or the information available on the Save the CTC web-site (http://www.savethectc.org.uk).

Please bear in mind that the changes being proposed by Council – if agreed and enacted – will be irreversible. You are being asked to take a step that will not only affect you and your family, but future generations of CTC members.

Our personal recommendation to members is that they should vote against Motions 8, 9 and 10 at this year’s AGM.

But whatever you do, and whichever way you decide to vote, please ensure that you do vote in this AGM. If you are unable to attend the AGM itself in Loughborough on 15 May, please use your proxy vote. If you haven’t received a form you can ask for one from National Office.

This is your club and your chance to have a say in its future! Please make sure you vote.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Greg’s e-mail is greg.price@ctc.org.uk and his telephone number is 07986 217852 . Helen’s e-mail is helen.vecht@ctc.org.uk

Kind regards

Greg Price and Helen Vecht

CTC Councillors for Greater London