Because it’s your company, your community, your money. It’s not the Directors’ money, it’s yours and it is being spent in your community. As a ‘member’ you not only get to vote on which Directors you want on your Board but you also get to see exactly what decisions are being made by them on a regular basis. You also have a right to vote at General meetings including the Annual General Meeting of course, to receive the Minutes and other communication produced by Directors, to view the company’s accounts and to call a General meeting if you wish. All the details of what you can do are listed in our Articles of Association.
If you're over 16 and your home address is included in the post code table below, you are entitled to become an Ordinary Member i.e. vote at meetings, elect directors, or even join the board.
Because we are a ‘company’ we have to abide by the rules set out in the Companies Act 2006. This means that we can choose to become any one of a number of different types of organisation. Having sought advice from experts with extensive knowledge in the area we will be operating, it was decided that we should become a ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’ and that our ‘structure’ would be made up of ‘Members’ and of ‘Directors’.
A company limited by guarantee is a not-for-profit business set up to serve social, charitable, community-based or other non-commercial objectives. Rather than distribute profits to members, guarantee companies typically retain any surplus income for reinvestment or use it to promote the non-profit objectives of the business. Since returning profit to shareholders is not a corporate goal, the incentive for members is to commit to the purposes and aims of the organisation rather than for any personal gain.
In our Articles of Association and in the Companies Act 2006.
The law does not allow us to force anyone to become a member which is why we can’t create an automatic membership.
Absolutely not. The company model we've adopted is as democratic an organisation as you’ll find anywhere. Anyone who lives within the Bays of Harris Estate, aged 16 or over can join. It’s free to join, you get to vote in new Directors every year, you get to see all the Minutes and Accounts, you can stand for Directorship yourself and you can request general meetings. Your Community Company is yours…….and by taking that positive step to become a member, you have actively decided to take an interest in the workings of the company.
Because no one can be forced to become a member, we have to have proof that you have volunteered to join up hence needing to complete a form.
By law, we must keep a register of members including your name and address. Your data is protected by the data protection laws, by which we must abide.
Because we are a company limited by guarantee, our guarantee is that should the company go bust, each member will be liable to pay no more than £1. In other words, £1 is the ‘limit of your liability’.
No problem - just send written notice of your wish to resign to the Company.