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YORKSHIRE SUN SOCIETY
CONSTITUTION
MARCH 2010
Amended March 2010
Name and Objects
1. The Society, which consists of Members as defined in this Constitution, shall be known as
the “Yorkshire Sun Society.” Hereinafter called the “Society.”
2. The objects of the Society shall be the promotion of naturism, sunbathing and recreation
where nudity is both desired and encouraged.
3. The Society shall not be conducted for profit and may be registered as a legal charity.
Membership
4. Membership of the Society will be open to members of the general public without regard to
race, politics, religion or sexuality.
5. No new applicant under the age of eighteen years shall be admitted to Membership. A
single applicant who is not the child of a member shall be admitted to membershp only
provided that the admission does not make the numbers of one sex exceed the numbers of
the other sex by more than one sixth (1/6th) of the total number of members.
6. Each applicant for membership shall be interviewed by an interviewing panel consisting of a
male member and a female member nominated by the President, Secretary or Membership
Secretary.
The General Committee shall consider a report from the interviewing panel and thereafter
decide whether or not to admit the applicant to Probationary Membership . The General
Committee shall be under no obligation to state any reason for any decision. A child of a
Member shall be offered Probationary Membership on reaching the age of eighteen (18).
7. When a Probationary Member has been in probationary membership for a period of twelve
(12) months, the General Committee shall decide whether or not to admit the Probationary
Member to full membership. The General Committee shall also have the option of
extending the Probationary Membership for a further period not exceeding twelve months.
At the end of any period of extended Probationary Membership the General Committee
shall decide whether or not to admit the Probationary Member to Full Membership. No
further period of Probationary Membership shall be granted. If the decision is not to admit
to full membership, the probationary membership shall thereupon terminate. The General
Committee shall be under no obligation to state any reason for any such decision.
8. Probationary Members and Members shall be introduced to Probationary Members and
Members by their names only and no other information about them shall be disclosed by
any Probationary Member or Member to any third party.
9. Only such persons as have been admitted to full membership shall be Members in the
terms of the Constitution.
Suspension and Expulsion
10 The General Committee may suspend any Probationary Member or Member provided that
person proposed to be suspended shall have been sent notice of such proposal by
recorded postal delivery, and provided that the date of such posting shall have been at least
three (3) weeks before the date of the General Committee Meeting and provided that the
person proposed to be suspended shall have been permitted to attend the General
Committee Meeting and to address it before it decides on the proposal for suspension.
11. No such suspended person may enter the Society's grounds during the period of
suspension except at such times, if any, and under such conditions, if any, as the General
Committee shall determine, nor may any suspended person attend any meeting of the
Society except any meeting at which it may be proposed that the suspended person may
be expelled.
12. The General Meeting may, upon the recommendation of the General Committee, expel any
Probationary Member or Member provided that the person proposed to be expelled shall
have been sent notice of such proposal by recorded postal delivery, and provided that the
date of such posting shall have been at least three(3) weeks before the date of the General
Meeting and provided that the person proposed to be expelled shall have been permitted to
attend the General Meeting and to address it before it decides on the proposal for
expulsion.
13. A meeting of the General Committee attended by not less than eight (8) Members may, by
unanimous resolution, endorsed in writing by not less than two (2) Trustees exclude any
Member or Probationary Member from the Society's premises and may expel him or her
from membership of the Society if satisfied that such action is desirable or necessary to
promote the welfare and/or protect the continuity of the Society. Any such action by the
General Committee shall be reported to the next General Meeting, which any Member so
excluded or expelled may attend and at which he or she may appeal against the decision of
the General Committee.
Trustees and Solicitors
14.The land comprising the Society's grounds having been purchased with money lent by
and later repaid to Members of the Society, are held in trust for the Society by the Trustees.
The Trustees are the survivor or survivors ,if any, of the four (4) persons EC Marshall, EML
Ramskir, D Sharp and G Washbrook to whom the land was conveyed for an estate in fee
simple by conveyance dated 11th August, 1944, and their successors as Trustees duly
appointed.
15. The number of Trustees shall be four (4). On the death or retirement of trusteeship of a
Trustee, the remaining Trustees shall appoint a successor. Such successor shall be
selected from amongst the Members of the Society and his or her name shall first have
been approved by the General Committee.
16. The Society's solicitors, who at the date of this amended Constitution are Messrs Payne
and Payne of Kingston upon Hull, shall be changed only by a minuted decision of the
General Committee and with the written approval of at least two (2) Trustees.
Government of the Society
17. The government of the Society shall lay with General Meetings, which shall, except as
elsewhere provided in this Constitution be open to all Members who may speak and vote.
Probationary Members may attend meetings and may speak but may not vote. General
Meetings shall be chaired by the President or if they are unable or unwilling, then by a full
Member nominated by the General Committee. The Annual General Meeting shall be held
at a date in March to be determined by the General Committee and held in the Society's
grounds unless the General Committee decide that in a particular year there is good reason
for holding it in another place. An Extraordinary General Meeting may be called by the
General Committee or by a requisition of one-quarter (¼) of the Members and shall be held
at a time and place to be determined by the General Committee.
The quorum for a General Meeting shall be one quarter (¼) of the Members.
Except as elsewhere provided in this Constitution, resolutions may be carried by a simple
majority vote of those Members actually voting with the Chairperson having a second or
casting vote. Minutes shall be kept of each General Meeting and read to and approved by
the next succeeding General Meeting.
18. The Secretary shall give each Member at least fourteen (14) days written notice, which may
include for those Members who have agreed to receive data or information by this method,
of the time and place and agenda for a General Meeting. The Annual General Meeting
shall not conduct any business not among the Agenda unless the meeting decides by a
two-thirds 2/3) majority vote of those Members actually voting, that the business is of
sufficient importance and urgency to warrant it being conducted. An Extraordinary General
Meeting shall not conduct any business not among the Agenda.
19. The Agenda for the Annual General Meeting shall include the adoption of the Minutes of the
previous Annual General Meeting and of any intervening Extraordinary General Meetings,
together with the President's address and reports of the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Social
Treasurer, the Warden, the Social Organiser and the Membership Secretary, together with
the presentation of the account book or account books and of a signed report by the
Auditors, together with the election of a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Social Treasurer, a
Warden, a Social Organiser and a Membership Secretary and five (5) other General
Committee Members so elected that the General Committee shall include at least three (3)
persons of either sex and provided that no person shall serve as Treasurer, Membership
Secretary or Social Treasurer except with the approval of any two (2) Trustees. The
election of President shall take place every alternate year and he or she shall hold office for
two (2) years, but no person shall hold office for two (2) successive terms.
20. The General Committee shall appoint as Auditors two (2) Members who are not Trustees or
Officers or any other members of the General Committee.
21. Between General Meetings the affairs of the Society shall be conducted by the General
Committee consisting of the President, who shall not vote, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the
Social Treasurer, the Warden, the Social Organiser, the Membership Secretary and the five
(5) elected members which shall hold office for one (1) year beginning on the first day of
April immediately succeeding it's election. The General Committee shall elect it's own
Chairperson and shall meet at least six (6) times during it's term of office. The quorum for
a General Committee Meeting shall be eight (8), including at least two (2) Officers. Minutes
shall be kept of each General Committee meeting and shall be posted in the Clubhouse.
Any Officer or other member of the General Committee who fails to attend three (3)
successive meetings of the General Committee, except for what the Committee may
consider good reason, shall cease to hold office and the General Committee shall
thereupon co-opt another Member as a Committee Member for the unexpired period of
such office. In the event of the death or resignation of an Officer, or in the event the Annual
General Meeting fails to elect an Officer, his or her place shall be filled by appointment of a
Member by the General Committee for the unexpired period of Office and the General
Committee shall fill any resulting vacancy on the General Committee by co-option, at all
times complying with Article 19 on Trustee approval. The General Committee may appoint
such sub-committees as it may deem necessary. The position of Yorkshire Region
Representatives of the Society be nominated and voted for at the Annual General Meeting,
also the position of Sports Officer be elected from the Committee so elected at the Annual
General Meeting.
Financial
22.The Society's account book, or account books, shall be annually made up on each
st
31 December for the period of the preceeding twelve (12) months. Annual subscriptions
and any other annual charges payable by Probationary Members or Members shall relate to
the twelve (12) months beginning each 1st April and shall be payable to the Treasurer or
Membership Secretary not later than 1st May of the year to which they relate.
23. The Annual General Meeting or an Extraordinary General Meeting shall from time to time
determine the annual subscriptions payable in respect of Probationary Membership and
Membership together with any annual charges in respect of occupancy of accommodations
and caravans and camping sites. It shall also from time to time determine the amounts
and dates of payments of charges payable in respect of camping in, and visits to, the
Society's grounds together with any other charges which may properly be made for the use
of the Society's properties or facilities. It shall also from time to time determine what
additional charges shall be made in respect of any person's failure to pay any of the
aforementioned sum or sums by the date or dates upon which such sum or sums may be
due for payment.
24. Any Probationary Member or Member who has failed to pay any sum due to the Society
within one (1) calendar month of receiving a written request for such payment from the
Treasurer or the Secretary or the Membership Secretary shall automatically be debarred
from entry to the Society's grounds and from the use of any of it's facilities and from
attendance to any of it's meetings until such payment, together with any additional sum
payable by reason of the tardy payment, of the original sum has been made. If within two
(2) calendar months of the said written request, the sum remains due, the Member or
Probationary Member will automatically cease to be a Member or Probationary Member of
the Society and any accommodation will be subject to Article 32.
25. The Society's funds shall be kept in a bank or banks or building society or societies
approved by the Trustees and at no time shall any sum or sums totalling more than two
hundred pounds (£200) of the Society's monies be kept in cash for any continuous period
exceeding four (4) weeks.
26. Drawings from the Society's accounts may be made only on the joint signatures of any two
(2) nominated signatories. Five per cent (5%) of the previous year's annual subscriptions
shall be transferred to the reserve account if the reserve account is in excess of twenty
thousand pounds. (£20,000). If the reserve account falls below twenty thousand pounds
(£20,000), ten per cent (10%) of the previous year's annual subscriptions shall be
transferred to the reserve account. The Trustees shall be nominated signatories of the
reserve account. Seventy five per cent (75%) of the balance of the previous year's Social
Account shall be transferred to a Social Reserve Account in the name of the Society with
the Social Treasurer and the Chairperson of the General Committee as nominated
signatories.
27. The Society's bank or building society accounts shall be presented to the General
Committee at each of it's meetings.
Grounds and Buildings
28. Entry to the Society's grounds is restricted to Probationary Members and Members except
as follows:
Probationary Members and Members may bring their children up to the age of eighteen (18)
years. Members may, with the advance consent of the President or any Committee
Member or any Trustee, bring with them occasional naturist visitors. The President or any
serving Officer or any Trustee may give permission for non naturist visitors to enter the
grounds accompanied by a member for purposes beneficial to the Society providing that the
General Committee may define or restrict the categories of any such visitor and provided
that Probationary Members and Members in the grounds at the time of any such visits are
informed of the presence of any such visitors. All visitors, except delivery drivers and
service engineers must sign in the Visitors' Book that is held in the pavilion.
29. Any person bringing any visitor into the Society's grounds is entirely responsible for the
good conduct of the visitor. The Society accepts no responsibility of any sort for the
personal safety or the property of any Probationary Member or Member or other person in
the Society's grounds.
30. Trees in the Society's grounds may be lopped or topped above a height of fifteen (15) feet
only with the specific and quantified written consent of the General Committee. Such trees
may be lopped or chopped below that height or may be felled only with the specific and
quantified written consent of any two Trustees.
31.Accommodation may be erected in the Society's grounds to a maximum of seventy-five (75)
sites only, within the area designated for that purpose by resolution passed at an Annual
General Meeting. Such accommodation may be erected only with the consent of the
General Committee, which shall satisfy itself that such erection would not be detrimental to
the interests of the Society. Members erecting or taking over an accommodation on the
site shall be known as the owners of that accommodation. No Probationary Member or
Member or other person may reside permanently or temporarily in the Society's grounds
provided that this restriction is not intended to preclude the use of accommodation,
caravans or camping sites for holiday or recreation purposes. Any such accommodation
shall be erected or sold subject to the conditions specified in the next two clauses of this
Constitution
32 No accommodation shall be erected except on licence granted by the General Committee
and with the prior approval of the General Committee of it's design and of the materials to
be used in it's contruction No accommodation shall be sold except to the Society or one of
it's members. The owners of the accommodation shall keep it in a state of repair
satisfactory to the General Committee. In the event of the owner's failure to do so the
General Committee may, after serving by recorded postal delivery of twenty eight (28) days
written notice of it's intent, proceed to effect such repairs as it may consider necessary and
to charge the cost of such repairs and or disposal to the owners unless before the expiry of
the notice such repairs have been effected by the owners provided that the said owners of
the accommodation has been permitted to attend a General Committee meeting to present
any mitigating circumstances prior to the General Committee effecting any repairs or
disposal. Any costs incurred will be charged to the owners.
33.In the event of any site or accommodation or any other material structure in the Society's
grounds being unused by it's owners for a continuous period of one (1) year or it's falling
into a state of disrepair considered by the General Committee to be detrimental to the
Society's interest a General Meeting shall have the right to effect the demolition or disposal
of the site or structure without payment of any compensation to it's owners, unless, after
receiving notice from the Secretary by recorded postal delivery of such intention the owners
effects within twenty eight (28) days such repairs the General Committee may require, or
requests the Secretary by recorded postal delivery to effect the sale of said structure on the
owners behalf and any cost incurred to be met by the owners. In the event of such a
request being received the sale shall be effected by means of an auction sale open to
Members and a bidder, appointed by the General Committee on behalf of the Society, in
which event the proceeds of such sale shall be paid to the owner after deduction of
expenses of the sale and of any sum or sums due to the Society from the owner. If a
Member receives two letters during a twelve month period and the General Committee
consider the site still to be detrimental to the Society's interest the General Committee will
reclaim the site after further notice from the Secretary by recorded postal delivery,
provided that the interval between the dates of posting of the two letters is at least six
weeks and that the Member has been offered by recorded postal delivery the opportunity to
attend a General Committee Meeting to discuss the matter prior to the site being reclaimed.
34.The General Committee may make regulations for the conduct of the Society's grounds and
shall display a copy of such Regulations in the Clubhouse. Such Regulations shall include
the following requirements:
Namely that the General Committee or their duly elected representatives shall have the
right to inspect camping sites and enclosures relating to accommodations or other
structures and that persons using the Clubhouse shall be responsible for keeping it in good
order and that owners of accommodations or other structures shall be responsible for any
related enclosures in good order and that campers shall be responsible for keeping any
camping area in good order and that no animal shall be brought into the Society's grounds
except under such conditions as may from time to time be determined by a General
Meeting and that no radios or record players or other equipment may be used in such a
manner as to annoy Probationary Members or Members.
35.Members or Probationary Members shall not take any photograph or cine film or video or
digital images in the Society's grounds except of their own family exclusively. Members
shall not take any photograph or cine film or video or digital images in the Society's grounds
except with the express permission of the person or persons being photographed or filmed,
including anyone in the background. No visitor shall, except with the prior approval of the
General Committee, take any photograph, cine film or video or digital images in the
Society's grounds. No photograph, film, video, or digital image taken in the Society's
grounds shall be published or displayed in public except with the written permission of the
person or persons who have been photographed, filmed, video taped, or digital imaged and
any two (2) of the Society's Officers.
Winding Up
36.The Society shall cease to exist only on the resolution to that effect passed by the votes of
not less that two thirds (2/3) of all Members at each of two (2) Extraordinary General
Meetings held with an interval between them of not less than four (4) weeks and not more
than ten (10) weeks. Such a meeting shall be called to consider such a resolution only by
recorded postal delivery to each Member and a Notice of it's time, place and agenda. If
such a meeting prove inquorate then another such meeting may be similarly called. In
such circumstances a resolution of the nature referred to in this clause may,
notwithstanding anything to the contrary elsewhere in this Constitution, be validly passed by
a two thirds (2/3) majority of Members present irrespective of the total numbers of Members
of the Society.
General
37. A copy of this Constitution shall be given to each Probationary Member and Member and a
copy shall be given to the Society's Solicitor and a copy shall be displayed in the
Clubhouse.
38.This Constitution may be amended only by a two thirds (2/3) majority vote of Members
voting at a General Meeting.
39. Any dispute about the interpretation of this Constitution shall be determined by the
Society's Solicitor.
40. The Society's grounds shall be open for the use of Probationary Members and Members
twenty four (24) hours of each day throughout the year subject to the conditions of our
caravan licence.
41. The permitted bar hours in the club pavilion will be as decreed by the Social Treasurer and
as defined in Local Legislation.
42. The Club Premises Certificate will be held in the name of the Society by the Chairman or
Secretary. The licensing authorities must be informed of any change of holder within forty
two (42) days of that change. The Social Treasurer may, in cooperation with the
Secretary, seek bar extensions as required. Only Members authorised by the Social
Treasurer may serve drinks and handle cash in the Licensed Bar.
43. Probationary Members, Members, and Visitors are advised that any inappropriate
behaviour towards a child may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
