Bath Probus Club
THE RULES
(adopted on 14 July 2022)
(Revised to comply with the Results of the Voting Paper
12 October 2023 and 11 August 2025)
1] Name The name shall be Bath Probus Club (except that for banking purposes the former name, No 1 Probus Club of Bath, shall be retained for the sake of convenience).
2] Membership
a] Membership shall be open to all professional and business men or women aged 55 and over, residing in the City of Bath and District, who have fully or partially retired from their normal profession or business. The total membership shall not exceed 60.
b] The restrictions regarding residence or age may be waived at the discretion of the Committee.
c] Membership subscriptions are due on July 1st each year. If a Member has joined after March 31st of the year, then his/her subscription shall be valid for the following year. Members who have not paid their subscriptions by November 1st shall (subject to extenuating circumstances) be deemed to have resigned.
3] Management Committee
a] There shall be a Chairman, Vice Chairman, Hon Secretary, Hon Treasurer and the affairs of the Club shall be managed by a Committee consisting of those four Officers and three other members. The other members may have responsibility for matters such as recruitment, arranging speakers, and organising walks and other social activities.
b] The officers and other members of the Committee shall be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall be eligible for re-election subject to a maximum period of three years unless no one else is prepared to do the job. This does not prevent the officers from standing down after a year or two due to personal commitments.
c] If any office or other position on the Committee is not filled at the Annual General Meeting or becomes vacant during the year, the Committee may (but need not) fill the vacancy.
d] The Committee shall have the power to co-opt members to the Committee when appropriate.
4] Meetings
a] Ordinary meetings shall normally be held at lunchtime on the second Thursday of each month. The Hon Secretary shall send written notice of these meetings to all members.
b] An Annual General Meeting shall be held in July of each year. Written notice of the agenda shall be sent to all members,
c] The Hon Secretary shall call an Extraordinary General Meeting at the request of the Committee or on the written request of not less than ten members, and he shall give all members at least two weeks written notice of the meeting.
d] The Chairman of the Club (if present) shall preside at all meetings. In his absence the Vice Chairman shall preside. If he too is absent the Hon Secretary shall preside. In the event all three are absent the meeting shall be postponed. Voting at all Meetings shall be by a show of hands or, if the meeting decides, by ballot. In the event of an equal division of votes, the chairman of the meeting shall have a second or casting vote.
e] At meetings the normal dress code shall be smart casual.
5] Accounts
The Hon Treasurer shall be responsible for the Bank Account and check the Account every month, particularly the day prior to the meeting to check all the members who agreed to come to the lunch, have paid for the lunch by BACS. In rare cases, collect cash on the day of the meeting. Prepare a cheque for payment of lunch. In our current situation the cheque is made to Bath & County Club. If a speaker is present and a payment is to be made, prepare a cheque for payment.
It is the Hon Treasurer’s responsibility to ensure that the Bank Account is kept in order with the required number of signatories approved and the address of the bank is the current Treasurer’s home address. This aspect becomes more important when the Treasurer becomes an outgoing Treasurer.
It is the outgoing Treasurer’s responsibility to ensure immediately after the AGM and before the end of August, that new signatures of the elected members are added and that the address is amended to the new Treasurer’s address.
In addition, signatures from the account that are no longer valid, including his own, shall be deleted.
An Income and Expenditure account for the year ending 30 June shall be prepared by the Hon Treasurer and, after it has been reviewed, presented for approval at the Annual General Meeting.
August, 2025