Further information on proposed New Articles of Association

The MCA Trustees recognised some time ago that our current articles were out of date, both in relation to current guidelines for a charity like ourselves, and for the fact that they no longer represented the current activities and mode of operation of MCA. As a result the Trustees have been working to update them, and sought regular advice from our lawyers to ensure that they were in line with all relevant guidelines. Recently the final version that had been cleared by the lawyers was submitted to the Office of the Scottish Charity Register (OSCR) for approval. After some further exchange on the charitable objectives of MCA, OSCR has now approved them. The final step is for the members of MCA to adopt the new Articles at the forthcoming AGM.

 

The main changes that have been made are:

 

• To ensure the membership proactively say that they wish to remain as members. Previously all residents of Madderty were members by default and nowadays that approach is not considered appropriate.

• Update the charitable objectives of MCA to include the provision of services not necessarily tied to the village hall e.g. adopting the public phone box etc.

• To replace the automatic trustee positions for local organisations with a provision to allow for such trustees to be appointed, but not for an empty position to be retained if unused.

• Provision for holding electronic meetings and votes – to cover the situation that we found ourselves in during the pandemic. Proxy voting has also been introduced.