The Constitution First Hongkong Venture Scout Unit

1st Hong Kong Group Venture Scout Unit


The Constitution
Updated: 17th September 1999

1. Aim & Policy

The aim of the Venture Scouting is to continue and complete the progressive training of the Cub Scout and Scout Section provided and ensure that its members are given every opportunity and encouragement to take their place in society as young men of standing and worth.

The policy of our Unit is based on mainly self-programming and self-government.

2. Structure

The total functions of the Unit are to determine and carried out by the General Meeting, the Executive Committee, the Standing Committee and the Standing teams.

A. General Meeting

1. The highest authority lies on the general body of members. The General Meeting, chaired by the Chairman of the Unit, is the body that determines the policy and outlines the progress of the Unit. The Executive Committee, Standing Committee and Standing Teams device their respective authorities from the General Meeting, and are obliged to submit verbal reports to the General Meeting.

2. All undertakings should be carried out in consistence with the principles laid down in the General Meeting.

B. Executive Committee

1. The Executive Committee (here in after called Ex-Co) is given authority on the administrative aspects of Unit. It is also authorized to represent the Unit in external affairs except in services which are responsibility of the Service Committee. It has power to set, renew, and uphold by-laws. It is responsible for the detailed planning of the programs of the Unit for the whole Scout Year (the outline of the programs is set by the first General Meeting of each session). It is also responsible for calling the monthly General Meetings, the Annual General Meeting (here in after called A.G.M.), and any extraordinary General Meetings (here in after called the E.G.M.), and for the preparation of agenda and minutes of the above mentioned meetings

2. The Ex-Co consists of

a) The CHAIRMAN

i. Duties

(a) To preside at the Ex-Co meetings.

(b) To preside at the A.G.M., monthly General Meetings, and any E.G.M.

(c) Responsible for all matters concerning with the Unit except those in the hands of the Standing Committees.

ii. In case the Chairman is unable to chair any particular meeting due to unforeseen reasons, the Secretary will take his office and presides at the acting Chairman must be appointed to take the minutes of the particular meeting.

b) The SECRETARY Duties

(a) Responsible for the minutes of the Ex-Co meetings, the monthly General Meetings, the A.G.M. and any E.G.M.

(b) Responsible for internal and external correspondence.

(c) To send to each Ex-Co member memoranda before, and minutes after, each Ex-Co meeting.

(d) To take the office of the Chairman in chairing a meeting when the latter is unable to preside at that particular meeting. In this case, an acting Secretary must be appointed to take the minutes of the particular meeting.

(e) Responsible for the notice board.

c) The TREASURER Duties

(a) To keep an account of the Unit.

(b) To lay down the budget of the Unit for the Scout Year.

(c) To propose fund raising projects when necessary (project itself may however be carried out by an executive committee).

(d) To furnish a financial report at the General Meetings, and to submit and annual financial report at the A.G.M.

(e) To take care of the money of the Unit.

d) The QUARTER MASTER

(a) Responsible for purchasing, borrowing, maintaining and lending of equipment (The Q.M. may not be able to do these by himself, especially in the maintenance of equipment. He has the right to assign the Service Team to do this job).

(b) Responsible for the design of new devices for use in Scouting.

(c) To furnish a report at the General Meetings and the A.G.M.

(d) To be a member of the Scout Room Committee when such exists.

C. Standing Committee

There are two Standing Committees, namely the Service Committee and the Training Committee.

1. Service Committee

The Service Committee is responsible for the arrangement of duties and Service projects with the outside world. It is authorized to assign members to any service. It is also the responsibility of this Committee to schedule the timetable of service for the members of the whole Unit. The committee should also keep a service record of each individual member. The head of the Committee would be the Committee Chairman. This post is to be elected in A.G.M. The members of the committee are to be appointed by the committee Chairman subjected to the approval of the General Meeting. The number of committee members id flexible; it may vary according to necessity. However, a secretary must be elected of appointed amount the Committee members to take care of the records of the committee. The allocation of work within the committee is left to the committee itself.

2. Training Committee

The Training Committee is to look after and to keep a record of the progress of each member in his pursuits for his Venture Scout Award and SAR Scout Award. It is also to take care of newly enrolled members and the members transferred from Scout section. Its main responsibilities are to explain the award systems and requirements to those who need their help, to arrange training course for the members of the notify them in case the committee is informed of any courses that would be held by the Scout Association for any external organizations, and to arrange examination facilities for those who want to take tests for their awards.

The head of the Training Committee should be the Committee Chairman who is elected in the A.G.M. The number in the committee is subjected to demand. A committee secretary is to be elected for appointed among the committee members to take care of records. Again, the allocation of work within the committee is left to the committee itself.

D. Standing Teams

All members of the Unit (without regard to whether they are office-bearers) are divided into a certain number (under normal conditions, the number will be three or four) of standing teams.

Each team will have a team leader which is elected by the team members themselves. This team leader will hold his office for one session (four months).

A primary purpose of the team is to provide a more efficient line of communication. Programme planning is the responsibility of the Ex-co. To arrange the activities according to the plan is left the teams. One team will be assigned to be the service team, to assist the Ex-co in its work such as publication of the Unit Mirror, to maintain Gears, and to arrange facilities for various meetings.

The activities of the Unit will be divided into categories and each team other than the service team will be put in charge of one category of activities. The duties of each team will be rotated after one session. The combination of members in the teams will be determined by Ex-co, and will be revised when necessary.

3. Meetings

1. The A.G.M. should be held once a year not later than the third Saturday of September.

2. Any E.G.M. is held whenever circumstances demand.

3. The monthly General Meeting should be held early each month.

4. The frequency and time of the Ex-co meetings are arranged by the members of the committee.

5. The standing committee meetings are arranged by the members of the committee.

6. In either the A.G.M. or E.G.M. at least one leader should be present.

7. Any decision made in any meeting is considered valid only when the presence percentage is over 66%. However for the election of office bearers, a percentage of 75% is required.

8. Meetings (except ordinary Unit Meetings) should follow the following patterns:

(a) Roll Call

(b) Adoption of previous minutes

(c) Matter arising

(d) Reports

(e) Matter for discussion

(f) Any other business

4. Election & Appointment

1. Only members of the executive committee and the chairman of the two standing committees are to be elected.

2. Election should be held on A.G.M.

3. Nomination and Secondment:

(a) Each member can nominate ONLY one person to each post.

(b) No one can nominate himself

(c) Written nominations should be submitted to the person in charge of the election not later than one week, nor earlier than two weeks, before the date of the election, stating the post, the nominee, and his own name.

(d) Nominated members with more than two nominations will be considered as being seconded and will be chosen as candidates to stand for election.

(e) Lists consisting of all candidates will publish and posted in the scout room for one week before the A.G.M.

4. Withdrawal from Election:

When a candidate wishes to withdraw from election, he should submit his application to the person in charge, with sufficient reasons to support his withdrawal, at least two days before the day of election. This person in charge may accent for reject his application, according to his judgment, after consulting the applicant.

5. Any objection to any candidate being nominated to any post should be submitted to the person in charge, two days before the day of election, stating the reasons.

6. When no nomination is received during the period of one week before the election, the Venture Scout Leader shall deal with the matter; his decision will be final.

7. Administration of the election: The registration of candidates, the polling and counting of votes and the certifying of the results are in the hands of the leaders. The Venture Scout Leader is the person to preside in the election.

8. Election is done by secret ballot.

9. Each voter can only vote for one candidate for each post.

10. A candidate to a certain post is qualified to take up the post only when he has won over 50% of the total number of votes. When a voter gives up his right to vote, his vote is not counted.

11. The election is valid only when75% of the total number of voters is present.

12. Leaders have no right to vote.

13. If no candidate can win over 50% of the total number of votes, a second voting has to be carried out for the two candidates with the greater number of votes. The one with the majority of votes will be elected.

14. When there is only one candidate being nominated for a particular post, he will be elected. 15. The candidates elected to their posts should take up their posts one-month after being elected, by which time the outgoing execution committee and two standing committees should have handed over their office. 16. If anything unexpected happened in the election, which cannot be dealt with according to the constitution, the Venture Scout Leaderˇ¦s decision will be final.

17. Anyone who wishes to resign from his office after he has been elected has to apply to the executive committee, which may accept or reject has resignation. If the executive committee finds that it is unable to deal with the case, the action of leader should be sought for.

18. Recall: If the work of any particular executive committee member or either of two standing committee chairman is found to be unsatisfactory during his term of office, members of the Unit may demand the recall of that particular office bearer, a letter, stating the reasons for recall, signed by over 50% of the total number of members of Unit should be submitted to the Venture Scout Leaders. The Venture Scout Leaders, together with the other leaders will investigate into the matter and make the final decision. If a particular member of the executive committee or either of the two standing committee chairman has been dismissed from his office before the end of his term of office, E.G.M. should be held to elect another member to replace the dismissed one for the rest of the term of office.

19. When any member of the three committees takes leave, the committee concerned has power to co-op any member to act in his place.

20. Suffrage: The executive committee is authorized to appoint members to any post under it.

21. Anyone who wishes to resign from his post after he has been appointed has to apply to the executive committee at least a month before his intended day of resignation. His application is at the disposal of the executive committee.

5. Admission & expulsion of members

1. Admission: A person is admitted into Unit after he has fulfilled the requirements for the membership badge and only when there is no sufficient reason for the rejection of his admission.

2. Expulsion: If the conduct or progress of any member in the Unit is found to be unsatisfactory, he is liable to be expelled from the Unit. To expel a certain member, the Ex-co should submit a report listing all the reasons for the expulsion to the Venture Scout Leader, who is the one to make the decision.

6. Finance

1. The chief source of the financial income of the Unit should be the membership fee and the monthly fee.

2. The treasurer should collect the membership fee and the monthly fee, the amounts of which should be stated in the by-laws.

7. Complaints

1. Complaints regarding any individual should be made to the executive committee.

2. Complaints regarding the Ex-co or the Standing Committee should be made to the Venture Scout Leader. 3. All complaints should be made by writing.

8. By-laws

1. The Ex-co is authorized to compile or alter by laws of the Unit. In compiling or altering by-laws, the interests of the Service Committee and Training Committee should be taken into account.

2. Any alternation in the by-laws or addition of by-laws is effective two weeks after it is announced.

3. Referendum: Anybody who wish to protest against the issue of any by-laws should do so within the two weeks after it is submitting a letter to the Ex-co, stating the reasons why he protest. The Ex-co will decide on necessary changes. If anybody is till not satisfied with the amendments made, he should appeal to the leaders. The leaders will consult the Ex-co for the solution.

4. Anybody who proposes alternations to any by-laws which is already in defect should do so by submitting a letter to Ex-co, signed by over 40% of the members of the Unit, stating the reasons which would justify the alternation. The ex-co will consider the case and decide on the changes necessary. If anybody is not satisfied with the decision of the Ex-co, appeals should be made to the leaders.

9. Leaders' position

1. The leaders supervise the work of the Ex-co and the Standing Committee and give advises to these bodies as well as to other individual members of the Unit in solving problems related to the welfare of the Unit.

2. All external correspondence should be approved by Venture Scout Leader or the leader he has authorized. (e.g. Assistant Group Scout LeaderˇXteacher adviser)

3. The Venture Scout Leader reserves full power to deal with any matter concerning the Unit in such way, as he deems suitable.

10. Constitution

1. The constitution is drawn up by Leaders to guide the Unit in its administration.

2. Amendment of the constitution is only to be made by the leaders under the supervision of the Venture Scout Leader. If any member of the Unit wants to proposes an amendment to any part of the constitution, he should do so by submitting a letter, listing the reasons in support of the proposal, signed by over 75% of the members of the Unit, to the Unit, to the Venture Scout Leader and all Assistant Venture Scout Leaders.

3. The final interpretation of the constitution shall rest with the Venture Scout Leader.


----FINALE----

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