The constitution says that "Nobody shall be appointed ...who is under age 18...". The key here is the word appointed. If you think about it, committee members are only appointed by co-option. Most committee members are elected.
Bearing in mind that the constitution comes from CC model...

I would argue, quite simply, that an election is a mechanism via which the membership appoints exec committee members.

If we accept that, then your next comment:

I can find nowhere in the text that says no-one can stand for election unless they are 18. Therefore, there is no limit on election to committee, apart from the obvious one of minimum age for membership.
is covered

However - and this goes back to our old debate about democracy and the will of the membership - if the membership decide that they want to elect a 14 year old one day, then I think they should be free to do so.

As I've said before, we want to discuss all aspects of membership after the constitution / SOs are accepted & a chair elected... this discussion needs to happen there, and not here.

But, from a purely LEGAL perspective, I would be urging members to allow only 18 year olds to the committee. We are delegating the running of our organisation to the committee, and that implies certain legal obligations (eg we want these people to go & talk to outside organisations).... only an 18 year old plus has the "legal status".


If it helps, I'll rweword the relavant bit to make things 110% clear.

I just knew that people would get confused by that clause. Even the writers!
to be honest, you'll find that maybe 90% of people get confused by something in a constitution!!!


There is a further alarm bell that has just rung in my head. Nowhere does it say that a committee member has to be a member of the organisation!
Oh for heaven's sake!

It doesn't say that in the CC one either, but I think you'd find, in law, that an exec commitee member MUST be a member of the organisation.


....I suspect the reason for this is that for the CC version, they don't envisage a membership organisation for their charities. Most small charities don't have members, just people who turn up and help out.
The CC model constitution states that members must be 18, as well as exec.

And no, the huge majority of charities DO have members.... more so now than historically, as charities will need to have suitable insurance to cover "their members".... if they ain't members, then they don't get cover. At WHR, we have a rule that sub-18, and non-members are NOT ALLOWED onsite unless accompanied by a member.


If there is going to be an issue with the age restrictions, then IN THE SHORT TERM until we discuss it further, in keeping with the CC model constiturion, I'll set the membership age to 18.



Paul