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This is a draft written with the Whitegoods Trade Association as the working name, which can obviously be changed as deemed appropriate:
Constitution
Introduction
1. The name of the Federation shall be the “Whitegoods Trade Association” (referred to in this constitution as “the WTA”).
2. The WTA was established on (DATE ESTABLISHED)
3. The WTA has the following mission statement –
“The Whitegoods Trade Association provides services to independent appliance service, repair and sales companies by helping to establish a favourable operating environment, by providing a forum for discussion on non-competitive issues, and by providing information to assist them in their business.”
Objectives
4. The WTA shall have the following objectives –
a. To be a central representative body to put the views of companies within the independent appliance repairs and sales industry to Government departments and agencies, Parliament, the European Commission and Parliament and other relevant organisations.
b. To be a research and statistical centre, to aggregate and publish statistics, and to provide analysis on independent appliance industry and other relevant market information as appropriate and wherever possible.
c. To be a technical centre providing commentary, guidance and advice on all legal and other regulatory developments of relevance to the appliance industry.
d. To provide a forum for the exchange of non-competitive information.
e. To promote the independent appliance repairs and sales industry.
Membership5. Membership of the WTA is available to companies which manufacture, sell, service or are directly involved in the appliance industry. Admission to membership is at the discretion of the Executive Committee.
1. Members will be expected to adhere to the WTA Code Of Practice at all times
2. Members will be expected to maintain their status and operate within all legislation as issued by UK Government
Associates
6. The Executive Committee shall, at its discretion, admit as an associate of the WTA any organisation that does is not an independent trader but which is otherwise interested in the business. Associates shall be entitled to receive most publications and other literature prepared under the auspices of the WTA, and otherwise be entitled to participate in the affairs of the WTA as decided by the Executive Committee.Finance of the WTA
7. The financial year of the BWF shall be the calendar year but this may be changed by resolution of the Executive Committee.
8. The subscription scale shall be set by the Executive Committee.
9. Associates shall pay an annual subscription fixed by the Executive Committee.Meetings of the WTA
10. The WTA shall hold an annual general meeting not later than four months after the end of each financial year. At least 10 members of the WTA, or the Executive Committee, may at any time require the Secretary to convene a general meeting of the WTA. In convening such a meeting the Secretary shall give not less than 21 days notice to members.
Executive Committee
11. The affairs of the WTA shall be directed by an Executive Committee comprising –
a. Representatives of independent companies in membership. The status of a company in respect to fulfilling the term “independent” is defined by the initial Executive Committee.
b. Six members elected on a democratic basis, each member serving for a three year term. Each member shall have as many votes as there are vacancies. The Executive Committee may make bye-laws governing the conduct of elections including provision to phase retirements.
c. No more than three members co-opted by the Executive Committee.12. A member of the Executive Committee shall cease to be a member if he resigns from, or if he ceases to hold office in, the institution in which he has hitherto held office.
13. Each member of the Executive Committee shall have one vote. The President shall have a second, or casting, vote in the event of equality.
President and Deputy President
14. The Executive Committee shall, at its first meeting in each financial year, elect a President to hold office until the first meeting in the following financial year. The Executive Committee shall also elect a Deputy President. No person may hold the office of President, or of Deputy President, for more than three consecutive years. In the event of the President or the Deputy President resigning or ceasing to be a member of the Executive Committee, the Committee shall have power to elect a replacement to serve for the remainder of the term, this period of office not counting for the purpose of the requirement in the previous sentence.
Publicity
15. The Federation shall publish an annual report on its activities and a list of subscribing members. Both these documents will be published with the membership list being always up to date.
Committees and Panels
16. The Executive Committee may establish and maintain sub-committees and project groups, and may delegate matters to them.
17. The Executive Committee may appoint technical panels to advise and assist it.
Director General
18. The Executive Committee shall appoint a Director General who shall be responsible to it for the management of the Federation and who shall also be the principal representative of the Federation and the principal policy adviser to the Executive Committee.
Delegation
19. The Executive Committee and the Director General may delegate any of their powers
Revision of the Constitution
20. This constitution shall be amended by the WTA, provided that at least 75{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the members of the WTA present at the meeting vote in favour of amendments of which prior notice has been given.
Transitional arrangements
21. The following transitional arrangements shall apply ……….
[This should cover among other things, the composition of the initial executive committee, the officers who will serve to the first AGM, the initial subscription scale, and entry fee if any, and the name of the initial director general.]Re: Constitution
Small point Ken and not nit picking 🙂
The Executive Committee shall, at its discretion, admit as an associate of the WTA any organisation that does is not an independent trader but which is otherwise interested in the business. Associates shall be entitled to receive most publications and other literature prepared under the auspices of the WTA, and otherwise be entitled to participate in the affairs of the WTA as decided by the Executive Committee.
😀 this bit doesn`t make sense 😀and feel free to delete this post once fixed
Re: Constitution
kwatt wrote:5. Membership of the WTA is available to companies which manufacture, sell, service or are directly involved in the appliance industry.
Also, this was stated early on in the subs forum….
But you have to remember that, if we go down this path, that this (in my view) would be an association for independent repairers and retailers, not corporate bodies, not insurers, not work providers, not manufacturers and so on.
Not that I suppose it really matters, but could we clarify if the WTA will be open to Manufacturers?
Thanks 🙂
Re: Constitution
Yeah.
I read up on this and to quote a TA has to be as “inclusive as possible”. Basically my understanding of it is that you can’t exclude people in the industry should they wish to join. Which makes sense when you think about it as we may well need help or indeed other parties may want our help and it could prove mutually beneficial. I guess there’s also an element of “it’s our ball and you’re not playing” about arbitrarily banning such organisations, which let’s face it, isn’t exactly professional.
That doesn’t mean that you have to give them voting rights or that you don’t charge for membership accordingly, it is up to the governing body obviously to set the charges etc. and rule on what is deemed an “independent” and that isn’t as easy as you may think.
IMO, it is not wise to shun these groups as I also said somewhere.
The point made in that quote is that the TA is for repairers, run by repairers and not having anyone but independents within the governing body so that we don’t end up with a WP sitting in that body pulling strings. 😉
K.
kwatt wrote:nit pick away, that’s the point of the exercise.
K.
To my mind, and knock me down if i’m out of line here, a TA should be something akin to a union for the self-employed and their employees and such should commit to slightly more direct assistance for individual members…so perhaps 4.c could be worded to include legal advice for individual members if required in the course of running their business?
I’m quite clear about the use of the word ‘advice’ rather than ‘representation’ (although i think ultimately that representation would be desirable) in case this became a charter for an open ended cheque writing exercise at a time when initial funding will be crucial.
Re: Constitution
No-one’s out of line, I always find the best results are gained from kicking these things about. The greater the breadth of opinion the more robust it is.
I would have taken that that was what was meant, but it’s easy enough to clarify it some.
Ultimately yes, I agree Clive as it seems that little legal battles crop up on a fairly regular basis. For example, the one about Indesit the other night that Jackal, Martin and I replied to, wouldn’t it be great if we could just turn round and say, “oh just contact the UK Whitegoods solicitors on…” rather than getting into a panic over things like that. Personally I’d do something like that in a heartbeat as to me it’s like nuclear weapons, it’s not the fact that you use them, the fact that you have them is enough.
I have no idea on costs to do it, I’ve never looked into it in all honesty although I have to say that so far I have been massively impressed by the firm that we are using for “other matters”. Their website is http://www.pinsentmasons.com
Way back at the very start of UKW, due to the hassles with a certain WP being all arsey with us this was discussed, but I never did anything about it although I’m sure I read that you can insure for this sort of thing. I’d need to look into it if it was wanting done, but I would think that getting all the ducks in a row first is more important.
K.
Re: Constitution
If the intention is ‘One engineer, One vote’; is that to include every engineer of each of the larger companies? Or will it be each large company gets a single vote? To be fair to the larger firms, the latter may not fully represent their workforce and could be dictated by company obligations to WPs or the like. To be inclusive, the former seems the only way.
As long as internal company politics don’t distort the results.
Otherwise the constitution looks pretty comprehensive and well structured.
Steve.Re: Constitution
Yes Steve it would be open to that but, in all honesty, there’s not too many employed engineers on UKW other than the BG and Indesit ones along with assorted others. If a whole troop of them sign up for any one company over a short space of time, remember we verify every request, that would raise a flag.
It would, or could, skew the vote for those that employ multiple engineers but it would do nothing in the small company and sole trader areas, as I explained last night, that are in many ways more important even if they are more remote from each other.
From a democratic perspective it’s a bit like proportional representation in a way, but in this case the only area that could be open to abuse is that one segment of the industry. In the end, any system of voting is open to abuse in one way or another, strategic voting for example, and all you can do is minimise the chances of it being skewed IMO, you can’t make it 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} if you want to retain freedom of speech. It’s sad, but true.
And remember, if there’s say six people on the “council” and only two are from larger companies they still have to get past/sway at least another two out of four to clear a vote, even if they join forces, on an issue. 😉
K.
Re: Constitution
Not sure if it fits here but as we are bouncing ideas about …
can we set up a system whereby a member of UKW automatically becomes a member with a general vote but limited access to the benefits of the TA,maybe just recieve the newsletter etc .
The subs forum becomes the TA forum open to “full” members of the TA
Then you lose this pay us your money then you can see what we offer scenario .
We may find that some people that opted not to subscribe actually join if it’s a TA
It then means that with transparency the trade can see that the TA is benefitting the “whole “trade not just the perceived elite.obviously there needs to be benefits of being a full member ,and not just being able to vote for the executive etc,maybe we can get a tie up with someone for extra discount on spares ?
like I say just an idea
discard or use ,whatever not worriedLawrence
Re: Constitution
Lawrence wrote:Not sure if it fits here but as we are bouncing ideas about …
can we set up a system whereby a member of UKW automatically becomes a member with a general vote but limited access to the benefits of the TA,maybe just recieve the newsletter etc .
The subs forum becomes the TA forum open to “full” members of the TA
Then you lose this pay us your money then you can see what we offer scenario .Hold up! That’s is the whole point of a TA, open to all, free no fee surely?
And subscribers automatically become members of the TA and have a casting vote on ALL issues. Have greater benefits such as legal representation etc etc (as would be decided).
Open, free, no closed doors old boys TA pandering to WP’s and their stringpullers, no sir! 😉
Re: Constitution
Sorry for the long posts but I’m trying to explain my thinking.
Basically that’s more or less what was in mind, that everyone has a say. The point being that a TA has to listen to the trade as a whole IMO, not just, as you put it, a small elite band of traders. My thinking being that on many issues the voice of the small indie is just as important and, often more so as there’s usually many with the same problem/s, than that of the larger companies. Often this comes down to cost, a few hundred quid for say a waste management license is nothing to a company with 10+ engineers, but to a sole trader it can be a week’s profit. So, no effect on the larger businesses but a possible profound effect on many small traders.
This is also the reason why I always have fought tooth and nail to keep the subs as low as possible as, to larger businesses it’s nothing to pay £300 but for a small sole trader it gives pause for thought on value. Hence I have always tried to structure UKW to bring the benefits at little or no cost to the engineers, instead trying to fund what we do through programs that offer us a little to get that funding but also so that the engineers can also earn from them. The model is actually very simple in many ways although the instigation can be extremely complex and involved.
It is my opinion that that ethos should be carried by the TA so basically, if it benefits the repairers then we’re all for it.
Also it is my opinion that we should be as open as we possibly can be, even on more mundane issues, by perhaps running dual polls as we did when asking about the TA in general and it’s quite amazing that the two polls show almost the same result by percentage. But in any event it allows for a more open and informed process which can’t be a bad thing.
So in effect, I’d give out as much information as we can, shout about what we do rather than hide behind a “well, if you join up you’ll see what it’s all about” type statement. To me, that’s useless and merely a case of the Emporer’s New Clothes.
For example, if we did a newsletter, I’d actually invite people to sign up to receive the newsletter by email, or download it totally free. But then I’d use that as a driver for involvement and membership as well as keeping people informed.
In short, I’d advice being as open as possible and gamble that most people have a conscience and will join. But even without that, even adding their voice to a particular issue within the forums in general, could very well only serve to strengthen the argument for or against an issue and, at the end of the day, we’re seen to be doing what we set out to do.
Hope that all makes sense.
K.
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