7pm, Saturday 9th March 2024, at Belhaven Church Hall
A General Meeting of members of Sustaining Dunbar in order to approve the adoption of a revised constitution.
Sustaining Dunbar’s Board is proposing that we should adopt a revised constitution that is fully compliant with the Land Reform (Scotland) 2016 in order for us to be able to make use of the ‘Community Right to Buy‘, should we wish to do so. This requires approval by a General Meeting of Sustaining Dunbar’s members.
Our current constitution was adopted in 2008 and would require numerous small tweaks in order to comply with the latest legislation. It therefore seems simplest to adopt a new constitution based on the model template created by the Scottish Government -which we know is compliant.
The reason for doing this now is that we are currently investigating the potential to make use of the ‘community right to buy’ legislation in order to register our interest in bringing the premises at 95 High Street, Dunbar into community ownership after the Bank of Scotland branch closes in May this year. We are developing ideas for how these premises could be a significant asset for the community and will be canvassing ideas and opinions shortly.
The main changes in the revised constitution relate to:
- clarifying that ‘ordinary’ membership of Sustaining Dunbar is open to anyone who is resident and eligible to vote in the Dunbar and East Linton Ward in local government elections (which now includes young people aged 16 and over)
- adding a new category of ‘associate members’ for organisations plus individuals who support Sustaining Dunbar’s aims but are not resident in the Dunbar and East Linton Ward
- adding a new category of ‘junior members’ for young people between the ages of 12 and 15 years
- clarifying that at least 75% of the members of Sustaining Dunbar must be ‘ordinary members’
- changing the quorum for AGM’s and General Meetings to 10% of the ‘ordinary’ members (the minimum required by the legislation)
- updating the procedures around the election and cooption of directors and the number of terms that any elected director can serve
If you have any questions or queries about any of these changes then please do get in touch: board@sustainingdunbar.org