Constitution

as of March 2020

CONSTITUTION 

Access4Equestrians is a British Horse Society affiliated Equestrian Access Group that has been protecting and creating bridleways and horse rides in and around Worplesdon since 1992. 

  1. The objectives of Access4Equestrians: 

  1. Build relationships with landowners and authorities 

  1. Link equestrian routes across the countryside 

  1. Collaborate with other organisations to improve road safety for equestrians 

  1. Help to maintain equestrian rights of way 

  1. Protect equestrian rights of way for future generations 

MEMBERS 

  1. The Categories of Membership are: 

  1. Individual 

  1. Junior (16 years and under) 

  1. Family (up to 3 family members including 1 adult) 

  1. Associate (non-riding) 

All Membership is subject to approval by the Committee and only remains valid when subscriptions are up to date.  

OFFICERS 

  1. The following shall be the Committee who shall be elected from any category of Membership: 

  1. The Chair 

  1. Vice-Chair 

  1. Secretary 

  1. Treasurer 

The above Committee Members may co-opt other Members onto the Committee on such terms and for such periods as they shall think fit. 

No Member shall hold more than one of the offices (a) to (d) at the same time. 

  1. The Chair, Secretary and Treasurer must each resign from office after three years. The Vice-Chair must resign after four years, at the end of which they may stand for re-election along with other candidates who may be proposed. 

  1. The Chair may only stand for a maximum of three terms, not necessarily consecutively. 

 

  1. If any office or post of Access4Equestrians shall become vacant (other than at an Annual General Meeting) the Committee shall, where possible, at the Committee meeting following the arising of the vacancy, appoint a Member to fill that office or post, until the following Annual General Meeting.  

 

  1. Members of the Committee shall not be entitled to any honorarium, but they shall be entitled to such reasonable expenses as may from time to time be approved by the Committee. 

MEETINGS 

  1.  

  1. An Annual General Meeting shall be held once in each calendar year, at which: 

  1. A report shall be presented by The Chair for the preceding year; each other Member who was a Committee Member during the preceding year may present such a report as they shall think fit. 

  1. The Treasurer for the preceding year shall present the accounts of Access4Equestrians for any accounting period completed during that year. 

  1. Elections to the Committee shall be held as necessary. Nominations shall be made to the Committee and shall have a proposer. No nominee shall be elected unless before the election they shall have consented to stand for the office in question. 

Nominations and consents shall be recorded in the Minutes and may be verbal or in writing and the nominee need not be present at the meeting at which they stand for election. Any change of Officer(s) resulting from such election shall take effect at the close of the meeting at which the election was held. 

  1. An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held: 

  1. If the Committee so decides, or 

  1. If at least one quarter of the Members (or twenty Members, whichever is less) notify the Secretary in writing that they require an Extraordinary General Meeting. The notice shall specify the reason(s) for the request and the Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within two months of the receipt of the notice by the Secretary. 

  1. Committee Meetings shall be held as the Committee may decide. 

  1. A quorum for Committee Meetings shall be three Members of the Committee and for all other meetings shall be fifteen Members. A count shall be taken at the beginning of each meeting and unless there is a quorum, no business shall be transacted. 

 

8. 

  1. At least three weeks' notice of an Annual General Meeting shall be given. 

  1. At least three weeks' notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting shall be given. However, in an emergency an Extraordinary General Meeting may be called with less than three weeks' notice, if the Committee thinks this necessary, but in such case at least seven days' notice shall be given. 

  1. Notice of all general meetings shall be promptly communicated to each Member, but provided that they shall act in good faith, the Secretary shall not be held responsible and the meeting shall not be invalid in the event that any Member fails to receive such notice. 

  1. The Committee shall decide on the date of each Committee meeting. 

 

  1. The Chair (or in their absence, a Vice-Chair elected for the purpose) shall preside at all meetings and in the event of an equality of votes, they shall have an additional casting vote. 

 

VOTING 

10. 

  1. Subject to (b) below, all motions and decisions of the Committee shall require a simple majority. 

  1. All motions affecting this Constitution shall require a majority of at least three­quarters of those voting in person or by proxy and must be voted for by at least twenty Members. No such motion shall be put at a Committee Meeting. 

  1. Only fully paid-up Members shall be entitled to vote. 

11. 

  1. Any Member may appoint a proxy to vote in their place. Such appointment must be in writing and signed. A Member appointing such a proxy must ensure that the Secretary receives the written appointment before the opening of any meeting at which such a proxy is to be effective. 

  1. Any Member not present at any meeting may vote in writing, provided that such written vote shall be signed and shall reach the Secretary before the opening of the meeting at which such a vote is to be counted. 

FINANCE 

12. 

  1. Access4Equestrians shall raise a fund to meet all liabilities. 

  1. Members shall pay such subscriptions as the Committee may fix for each year, but the Committee's decision may be altered by a vote in general meeting. 

  1. Access4Equestrians shall maintain a bank account, to be operated under the signatures of any two of the Officers referred to in Clauses 3(a), 3(b) and 3(d), unless otherwise agreed by the Committee for reasons of easy and smooth operation.  

  1. Where possible, a receipt must be obtained for anything bought with Access4Equestrians funds. Details of the amount, purchase and payee shall be recorded and given to the Treasurer as soon as possible. 

  1. The Treasurer shall have a statement of account available at all general meetings. 

 

DATA PROTECTION 

This policy has been drafted in line with the new General Data Protection Act which came into force on 25 May 2018. 

The privacy and security of your personal data is extremely important to Access4Equestrians. 

This privacy policy explains how and why Access4Equestrians uses your personal data to make sure you stay informed and can be confident about giving us your information. 

The data Access4Equestrians holds is the information necessary to administer your membership. 

It is necessary for Access4Equestrians to hold and process this personal data to comply with its obligations to our members under Access4Equestrians’ constitution. 

 

  1. Data protection principles 

Access4Equestrians will comply with data protection law. 

This states that the personal information we hold about you must be: 

  1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way 

  1. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes. 

  1. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purpose 

  1. Accurate and kept up to date 

  1. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about 

  1. Kept securely 

  1. What personal data do we collect and how is it collected? 

Your personal data means any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally. Access4Equestrians only collects the personal data it needs. 

This includes the information you give us when interacting with us, for example, on joining Access4Equestrians or renewing your membership, updating your personal details, entering an event. 

The information includes name, address, phone numbers and email address, membership category and record of subscription payment. It may include age range, gender, place of work and position at work. 

  1. How Access4Equestrians will use information about you 

Access4Equestrians uses the personal data you provide us as a member to administer your membership. For example, sending renewal information and membership cards annually, sending newsletters, sending information on events, clinics and activities which may be of equestrian interest to members. 

  1. Data sharing 

Personal data collected and processed by Access4Equestrians may be shared with the following groups when necessary: 

  • Publishers, Printer and Database manager. 

At no time will we sell or pass your details to third parties without obtaining your consent. 

  1. How Access4Equestrians secures your data 

Data security is imperative to Access4Equestrians to ensure that we are keeping our members safe. 

We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect the security of your information and to prevent it from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. 

By utilising strong encryption when our information is stored or in transit, we minimise the risk of unauthorised access or disclosure. 

  1. Data retention 

Access4Equestrians will only use and store your information for as long as it is required for the purposes for which it was collected. 

Information on archived/lapsed members will only be held for one year from the time of renewal, unless otherwise instructed, and then destroyed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. 

  1. Rights of access, correction, erasure and restriction 

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. It is your responsibility to keep us informed if your personal information changes. 

h) Your rights in connection with personal information 

  1. Request Access to your personal information. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you. 

  1. Request Correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected. 

  1. Request Erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing. 

  1. Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. 

  1. Right to withdraw consent 

Where Access4Equestrians is using your personal data on the basis of consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose/purposes to which you originally agreed. 

  1. Changes to this privacy policy 

Access4Equestrians reserves the right to amend this privacy policy at any time to ensure it remains up to date and reflects how and why we use your personal data and new legal requirements. We will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

  1. The Committee or Members in general meeting may delegate to one or more Members any business of Access4Equestrians for such a period as may be thought fit. During this period a report on such business shall be available at every meeting. 

  1. Subject to this Constitution, the Committee may prescribe such rules for the conduct and administration of Access4Equestrians as it may think fit. 

  1. In the event of a dissolution of Access4Equestrians any assets remaining after the payment of debts and liabilities shall be given to an organisation with similar objectives to that of Access4Equestrians or to an equestrian society or institution or shall be otherwise dealt with as those who are Members at the time of such dissolution shall decide.  

Access4Equestrians works to safeguard the interests of photographic subjects and to use images only in ways that will enhance the reputation of Access4Equestrians and its members. Scenes in which any member is not the main subject will be deemed fictitious. Members will not seek financial reward for any photographic image of them that is used in conjunction with the business of Access4Equestrians.