The role of “Member” at Moniaive Initiative has very few obligations: we avoid lengthy meetings, as we know how busy you all are.  But we do sometimes ask for members’ views and comments on projects we’re working on, and we do ask that members vote on resolutions if and when they arise.  Now is one such occasion.

We are currently in the process of drafting bids to the Scottish Land Fund and the Big Lottery for funding towards our proposed Community Shop & Hub. As part of this process we have been required to carry out a Governance Review, and that process has revealed areas where we need to improve or tighten our paperwork.

One of these areas is the Constitution, which requires minor amends to make us eligible for funding from these, and other major funders.  The required amends are shown here in italics:

Clause 5	The organisation has power to do anything which is calculated to further its purposes or is conducive or incidental to doing so.   This includes the power to own land/property, to generate income and to employ staff.
Clause 11	Membership is open to any individual aged 16 or over who is a resident of Glencairn as defined by the community cou ncil boundary.
Clause 14	The board may, at their discretion, refuse to admit any person to membership where they have reasonable grounds to believe that he/she might, if admitted to membership, act in a manner which would damage the reputation of the organisation, undermine the efficiency of its operations and/or disrupt the proper conduct of its meetings. Membership will not be refused without good cause or explanation, and may not be refused on the basis of gender, age, ethnic background, disability, caring responsibilities, sexual orientation, religious belief, or marital status
Clause 17	Minimum/maximum membership numbers Minimum number of members shall be 20. There is no maximum number of members.

A full draft of the proposed, revised Constitution is available to view here, should you wish to review these proposed amends in context:

Moniaive Initiative Constitution Revision 6 07082017

MEMBERS will be contacted by letter / email in the next few days and asked to vote (to either accept or reject the revisions).  Please do take the time to vote, as we are unable to progress our projects until this issue is resolved.

Thanks!

We are very excited to announce that we have received a grant offer of £2,750 from Nithsdale Area Committee towards the Macara Park Improvement Project. This grant, together with recent local donations, means that we have reached our fundraising target. Thanks to everyone who has supported us through this process: we can’t wait to get the new play equipment installed!

Congratulations to 9 year old Sophie, whose poster was selected from those completed during our Gala completion, to feature on our Website and Facebook Page to promote our Lower Speed Communities project.

Thank you to all those who braved the rain to visit our stall at the Gala, and talk to us about this and our other projects.  We are continuing to ‘map’ where the traffic and pedestrian problem areas are in Moniaive, and will use all your comments to help build our case for a 20mph area.

In the meantime, our ‘wee laddie’ is still out and about, moving around the verges of Moniaive, to remind drivers to slow down and be aware of children and other pedestrians.