• This page provides information for Societies on the proposed governance reform. 

June 2024 - EGM result:
 

The General Meeting took place on Monday 3 June for the vote on the Special Resolution.
As Counting Officer for the vote CES (Civica Election Services) declared that the result of the vote was:

• The total number of votes cast in favour of adopting the Special Resolution was 86
• The total number of votes cast against adopting the Special Resolution was 206 
• The total number of abstentions was 5

The percentage turnout of eligible voting members was 80.5%.

A special resolution requires 75% or more of the votes to be cast in favour for it to be approved.

The votes cast in favour was below the 75% threshold, and therefore the special resolution was not approved by the voting members. 

The Trustee Board would like to thank all who participated in the debate and the vote on the recent governance changes.

May 2024 update:
 

15 May:
The Trustees held an online Zoom session for Soceity members regarding the governance reform at 10am on Wednesday 15 May 2024. 

13 May:
We've been asked if the proposed Articles that are being voted on are identical with the previous iteration. As discussed in the last Town Hall meeting some minor corrections have been made and a few points clarified, reflecting some of the comments received.
The Articles to be voted on were put forward in the form accompanying the notice of the General Meeting on 3 May 2024.

The main changes are:

• Correction of a transcription error in Object 3.1 (the word 'appreciation' is used as in the current Articles - no change was intended)
• 9.1 - additions to provide clarity to the Article
• 16.3 - removal of unnecessary wording ('commitment to deliver')
• 19 - Interpretation: clarity provided to terminology around 'local society', 'member of local society', 'member', and 'representative of local society'. 

A track-changes document is available here.
 

3 May 2024: 
A new notice for the General Meeting on 3 June 2024 has been emailed to Society voting representatives, along with a letter outlining the approach to a hybrid meeting and the proposed new Articles of Association which will be voted on at the meeting. The email also contained information on voting for Society representatives.
All three documents can be downloaded below:
Notice of general meeting on 3 June 2024
Letter to members
Proposed new Articles of Association

For any technical help with the voting process, including votes already cast, please contact takepart@cesvotes.com

Non-voting Society members will be able to join the meeting online as observers. If you wish to join as an observer please register here by 12pm Friday 24 May 2024.
Registered observers will then receive a unique invitation link from CES (by Friday 31 May) in order to join the online meeting on 3 June 2024. 

April 2024 update:
 

The latest iteration of the revised Articles of Association was shared with Society voting representatives on 25 March. Since then the Trustees have heeded that Societies would like more time to make their decision.
Therefore the Trustees have decided to postpone the EGM to 3rd June 2024.

This will allow more time to digest the information, to have discussions with committees and to reflect on what has been shared over the last couple of months. It also provides the opportunity to share the Trustees Annual Report for 2023, ahead of the new EGM date. Further information on the EGM on 3 June including voting information for this meeting will be shared shortly.

March 2024 update:

Thank you to everyone who engaged during the consultation period on the governance reform and provided valuable feedback. 

The Trustees have taken this feedback on board, and revised the proposed Articles of Association.

The revised Articles were sent to all Society voting representatives (usually the Chair) on 25 March 2024.

Explanatory information about the changes since the first iteration is also available below, and we encourage Societies to read the documents in full ahead of making their final decision.

The email communications reference a number of associated documents which are available below:

Articles of Association (new proposed Articles) (March iteration)
Changes - explanatory document of the changes since the first iteration
Appointments Committee Terms of Reference
Track changes of the Articles (from the first iteration to current proposal)

Feedback:
If you wish to submit any queries or have any feedback, please email:

governancereform2024@theartssociety.org 

Jan 2024 - Governance Pack

Please click here to access the Governance pack which was circulated on 29 January 2024. This was the first iteration of the proposal.
 

Useful links:

The Arts Society Strategy 2023-2026

The Charity Governance Code

Current Articles of Association

Your Feedback so far:

We have hosted multiple one hour weekly drop-in sessions on Zoom through February and early March for any Society members who had questions or wished to learn more about the Reform. These have proved very valuable and provided important engagement with and feedback from Societies. 
All feedback, comments and queries received are being collated and will be reviewed as part of the consultation process. Whilst it may not be possible to respond directly to every query received, please be assured it is all welcomed and being collated.
As part of this we have compiled some updated FAQs and responses to some frequent queries. We will endeavour to continuously update this document, and whilst it may not contain answers to all queries raised, we hope it provides further useful information.
Feedback FAQs

Key Dates:

29th January 2024: Governance pack emailed to Society Chairs and CASTs. Consultation and feedback period begins.

25th March 2024: Revised Articles of Association circulated to Society Chairs

8th April 2024 at 11am: Town Hall meeting (on Zoom)

3rd June 2024: An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) will be convened for a vote seeking approval of the new Articles of Association. 
The meeting will take place online.