Working towards a new constitution

[Rakesh]

Dear all

We had a very fruitful meeting today with a local lawyer, who looked
at our constitution and is helping us rewrite it to make it more
appropriate and robust.

A few decisions were made from this discussion which are aimed at
protecting our members. These will be reflected in the constitution
which we are now drafting. If you have any objections, please email me
within a week, so we can enter into an appropriate dialogue and make
sure your views are taken into account in the reviewed constitution.

As current members we will send you a draft proposal of the
constitution for your consideration before the constitution is
ratified.



1. Transition Pimlico Food Coop will be used solely for Food Coop
purposes as described in the constitution. This means non food coop
activities, even if they are food related should not go through the
food coop or it's bank account. Which means we will have to set up a
new entity for Transition Pimlico activities.

2. To make membership criteria more simple and manageable. We would
like to propose scrapping the idea of full member and buying member
and replace it with a member. All members will get the full wholesale
price, regardless of their participation.

3. To become a member we are proposing a yearly membership, with an
annual subscriptions. This could be by some kind of alternative
currency or a nominal cash amount, such as £1. If we decide on a cash
sum, we can decide where this money will be spent (i.e. bags and boxes
to carry divided foodstuffs, web site).

4. The management committee has the right, by way of a consensus
decision to refuse a member from joining or from renewing their
membership (this is just in case the catering staff at Monsanto try to
join our coop http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gm-food-banned-in-monsanto-canteen-737948.html).

5. Remove chairman right to hold a casting vote in favour of true
consensus

6. Management committee will be made of between 3 and 7 people. Of
which 3 will be the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary. The remaining 4
will be members. All committee members must be voted in annually.

7. All operational procedures should be taken out of the constitution
and placed into an operations manual, which is updated by the members,
upon approval from the members.

We are also revisiting the role of the management committee. To help
facilitate this we have started a document on the functions of
Transition Pimlico Food Coop, from which we will decide what role the
management committee takes in each action (if any); from which we can
form an operations manual and the responsibilities of the management
committee.

I have started a document under bubbl.us, but struggling to work out
how to share it. So here is a cut n paste of what I have so far (will
share it properly once I have worked it out).

Transition Pmlico Food Coop Activities

Select wholesaler
Core values
Local
Ethical
Wholesale price
Ordering process
Receiving delivery
Choosing when to place order
Payments
Refunds
Sorting
Collection
Membership