CURNOCK ESTATE TENANTS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (TRA) CONSTITUTION

1 Name

1.1 The name of the TRA is CURNOCK ESTATE TENANTS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

The association will represent members in the blocks: Barnbrough, Billingley, Conisborough, Darfield, Goldthorpe, Hickleton, Mexborough, Ravenscar.The Marr, Thurnscoe, Trimdon, Warmsworth.

2 Aims

2.1 The aims of the association are:

  • To represent the interests of its members;
  • to promote the rights and needs of Camden Council tenants and leaseholders in relation to the maintenance and improvement of their housing conditions, amenities and the environment;
  • to achieve changes and improvements to; o the quality of life of residents o housing services provided by Camden Council
  • to promote social, welfare and recreational activities for the benefit of the community;
  • to promote equal opportunities and work for good relations among all local residents;
  • to regularly consult and inform all members;
  • to represent the majority view of residents;
  • to be non-party political; and
  • to promote open membership to the TRA for all members of the community.

 

3 Membership

3.1 Full voting membership of the Association shall be open to all tenants, leaseholders and freeholders who pay service charges to the Housing Revenue Account and live within the area covered by the TRA.

3.2 The following are allowed to be office holding members who are also entitled to vote:
• Family members living with tenants [Must be over 16 and listed as family member on tenancy agreement].

3.3 The following are allowed to be non-voting, non-office holding members:
• Residents from the association’s area of benefit who are not any of the above; namely, housing association tenants and private sector residents.

3.4 Should a person stop living within the area covered by the TRA, they will no longer be a member of the TRA unless they are co-opted to the committee. Should this person be an elected officer of the TRA, the post will become vacant and an election for the newly vacated post must take place at the next general meeting of the TRA.

3.5 In the event of continuous or serious breaches of the constitution or code of conduct, a person’s general membership of the TRA can be suspended or ended by a majority vote at a Special General Meeting.

3.6 In case of a committee member breaching the code of conduct, membership can be suspended or ended by two thirds of the majority of the committee.

3.7 A committee member whose membership has been suspended in line with clause 3.6 shall be entitled to have that suspension reviewed at a Special General Meeting.

4 Annual General Meeting (AGM)

4.1 The TRA shall call an AGM each year to:
• Accept the resignations (and subsequent elections) of the TRA’s committee and officers;
• receive the annual report of the committee and the statement of financial accounts;
• receive reports of any member elected to represent the TRA on another body
• (e.g. District Management Committee representatives);
• consider any proposed changes to the constitution;
4.2 Any proposed amendments to the constitution should be presented to the membership for consideration at least 10 days prior to the AGM.
4.3 The TRA must hold an AGM within 15 months of their previous AGM. Failure to do so will result in the TRA ‘lapsing’ and no longer being recognised by Camden Council. The bank account must not be used for TRA business during lapsed periods. In order to regain recognition, a full AGM must be held under the rules above.
4.4 A minimum of 14 days’ notice of the AGM should be given to all members.
4.5 The AGM must be moderated by an Independent Observer, to check that the AGM has been conducted in accordance with Camden Council’s registration process. The Independent Observer must be one of the following: Council Officer, elected Councillor, District Management Committee Chair or Vice Chair.
4.6 Quorum – AGMs must be quorate according to the following guidelines
• TRAs with less than 50 households 5 households
• TRAs with 50-100 households 10 households
• TRAs with 101-250 households 15 households
• TRAs with 251 -350 households 25 households
• TRAs with 351 – 500 households 35 households
• TRAs with 501 – 1000 households 50 households
• TRAs with 1001-2000 households 75 households
4.7 For the purposes of the election, one vote is allowed per member.

5 The committee
5.1 The TRA shall democratically elect a committee to conduct the majority of their business. The committee shall be made up of no less than five members of the TRA unless the TRA has less than 50 households in which case this is three members.

5.2 Only tenants, leaseholders of Camden Council, or freeholders paying a service charge to Camden Council and family members living with tenants are eligible to be full voting committee members or officers of the TRA. Annually, the committee has the power to co-opt additional non-voting members as it sees fit.
5.3 Committee membership should be broadly representative of the area covered by the TRA.
5.4 In cases where more than one member of a household or family is elected to a TRA committee, that family or household will be entitled to one collective vote.
5.5 The TRA shall elect officers in the form of a Chairperson, a Secretary, a Treasurer, , and a District Management Committee representative (this increases to two if the TRA represents 300 or more eligible households).
5.6 The TRA may also elect committee members to represent the TRA on any other relevant strategic group or body at a general meeting.
5.7 Only one resident from an individual household may fill the officer positions of the TRA [For example, Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, TRA hall co-ordinator or District Management Committee representative].
5.8 The committee and/or its chair have the power to delegate business to subcommittees, for example, to run the TRA hall. These can be chaired by any committee member.
5.9 Any vacancies on the committee or officers arising from a resignation or otherwise should be filled [by an existing committee member for officer positions] until the next general meeting. At this meeting, a replacement member should be democratically elected from within the membership of the TRA.
5.10 Copies of the constitution are free to all members of the association. The secretary should send out copies of the constitution within seven days of a person requesting it.

6 General meetings

6.1 Each TRA should hold two general meetings annually [1 of which should be the AGM].
6.2 A minimum of 14 days’ notice of the general meeting shall be given to all members. Where possible a reminder should be sent.
6.3 Meetings are open to all eligible members of the TRA [see section 3: membership].
6.4 Attendance records should be kept to show active membership.
6.5 The quorum for general meetings is as in paragraph 4.6.
6.6 Decisions of the general meeting shall be binding on the committee.
6.7 Decisions of the general meeting shall be made via a simple majority of votes.

6.8 One vote is allowed per member.

7 Special General Meetings

7.1 A Special General Meeting may be called by the committee, or if requested by at least 10% of members. This request must be made in writing to the secretary at least 14 days before the requested meeting date. The secretary must then send written notice to all members at least 7 days in advance of the meeting.
7.2 A Special General Meeting may also be called by the committee within 21 days of being advised by a committee member that they are appealing against action taken as a the result of a code of conduct breach.

 

8 Committee meetings

8.1 The quorum of the committee meetings shall be a majority of committee members. Committee meetings may be called by the chair and secretary or the request of one-third of the committee members. As least 7 days’ notice must be given to committee members.
8.2 All committee meetings are open to all members as observers on request. Dates of Committee meetings shall be available to all members i.e. advertised in notice public boards [not less than 7 days’ notice for each meeting].
8.3 If a committee member misses 3 consecutive meetings without apologies, the rest of the committee may choose to suspend or exclude that member from the committee.

 

9 Code of Conduct

9.1 TRAs may adopt its own Code of Conduct [Camden has a Model TRA Code of Conduct] but should also abide by the Tenant and Leaseholder Engagement Code of Conduct.

10 Conduct of Business

10.1 At all meetings decisions shall be taken by a simple majority of those members present and eligible to vote.
10.2 The chair has a deliberative vote only, therefore in the event of a tied vote, then the motion must be taken as defeated, the chair does not have a casting vote.
10.3 Conflict of interest must be declared. Members with a conflict of interest should then withdraw from discussions and voting on the issue in question.

11 Minutes

11.1 All votes at an AGM, General Meeting, Special General Meeting or Committee Meeting shall be counted and recorded in the minutes.
11.2 All minutes will be posted on noticeboards in the area and/or available online once formally approved.

12 Finance

12.1 A simple record of income and expenditure must be produced each year at the AGM and should be available to all members on request.
12.2 Accounts should be independently audited if the turnover is over £5k per year.
12.3 Accounts should be open to inspection by the members on request.
12.4 All monies raised by or on behalf of the TRA shall be applied to further the aims of the TRA and for no other purpose.
12.5 Account(s) must be opened in the name of the TRA. Cheques, transfers and other banking instruments or instructions shall be signed by at least two signatories from separate households and are unrelated who must also be members of the committee.
12.6 Use of the TRA bank debit card can only be used with approval of the committee
12.7 Proper records of all transactions including petty cash must be kept.
12.8 The Treasurer should present quarterly financial reports to the committee.

13 Dissolution

13.1 Should an AGM not have been held within 15 months of the last AGM, six months will be allowed to lapse before the bank account shall closed and dissolution rules applied.
13.2 The TRA can only be dissolved by a special general meeting called to consider a motion to dissolve the TRA with 14 days’ notice to all members of this intention.
13.3 The TRA can only be dissolved if all members are notified of this intention 14 days in advance and two thirds of the member’s present vote for the motion to dissolve the TRA.
13.4 The meeting shall decide on the disposal of any assets remaining after the satisfaction of debts and other liabilities.
13.5 All assets of the TRA must be applied to charitable purpose agreed with the members of the TRA.
13.6 Any Council assets the TRA has been permitted to use must be returned to the Council.

This Constitution was adopted by:

Curnock Tenant & Resident Association at a public Meeting held at Saint Pancras Community Centre, 67 Plender Street,
London NW1 0LB on 12th October 2016

Signed …………………………………………………………. (Chair)
Signed ………………………………………………………….. (Secretary)

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