PAK
Well-Known Member
Violettears - and others - Asking questions & showing an active interest, in my opinion, is a right and a responsibility of members. It should be welcomed.
You are right- it does not list names- just departments
A friend of mine was at the meeting and told me that it was just a few individuals who had a personal agenda. It’s got far too personal if you ask me. Come on you lot, there are over 100,000 members allegedly, that’s a lot of horsey people who think bhs do good!
Lol, I think your friend was listening to LP twitching! The BHS Members Group was strated on FB on Monday - it has over 160 members already and at LEAST 95% have answered the question: "Are you concerned about the management of the BHS?" have answered yes - and many elaborated further.
Hi Karen - I share your concern. Some suggestions - have a look at the thread BHS Meeting Update for the news since 5 Jan. Join Facebook at British Horse Society Members' Group. People there are trying to raise awareness and help change the situation for the better. We are not trying to tear this down; we are trying to make it better. We love the BHS but we don't love the way it is being run.I wish it could be confirmed that there are 100,000 members or whether figures are being massaged like the accounts! The mere fact that accounts not discussed at such an important meeting is surely not legal, how on earth are members to know what is truth and what is not. Never ever known anything like this situation and I've been a member for as long as I can remember. I am so worried about what is going on. How do we go about getting a vote of no confidence in the whole lot.
About the membership figuresHello everyone, I have been following all this.. been a bhs member for a long time and i find it bad that it seems to be a few individuals who want to spoil all the good work that bhs does... and not talk about that in the last few years they have gone right up in my opinion. A friend of mine was at the meeting and told me that it was just a few individuals who had a personal agenda. It’s got far too personal if you ask me. Come on you lot, there are over 100,000 members allegedly, that’s a lot of horsey people who think bhs do good!
For further clarification, BRC members are automatically BHS members with votes.
They have lost money year after year. I think the last surplus was made when Patrick Print signed the accounts!About the membership figures
I asked who was allowed to vote before the meeting....I didn't get a reply
I asked at the meeting....I didn't get a clear response. It seemed to suggest that BRC members are allowed to vote as well, although they are members of a separate organization.
I have asked for a breakdown of who is allowed to vote, divided by membership and age......and guess what despite being assured the IT could get the figures at the touch of a button, I haven't had reply.
Now whether you think are reasons are valid or not, under Charity law you have to know who is allowed to vote. I can show you the document. I emailed the BHS the document and the questions I wished to ask before the meeting so they should have sorted the figures for the meeting.
They should have had the Accounts for the meeting, the Treasurer should have been present to answer questions.
They should have had asked for items for the Agenda, I emailed them with mine. So nothing was a surprise.
Now I have meeting to a few AGM's in my time, from the Village Hall, to sports clubs and never seen this shambles. If the Village Hall can hold a proper AGM, or this case GM, why on earth can not they. For goodness sake they have 140 staff employed, surely someone must have been available to sort the paperwork.
They have a turnover of £11m, but made a loss.
With no clear accounts, and money mixed from BRC and BHS, its not clear what is charitable revenue and what is earned from trading and where it comes from. This is not to comply with anyone's whim but with charity law.
What they spend the money on is whole different argument, which could be a matter of opinion. Its remains unclear from the accounts as filed for 2017 where the money is being spent and from what budget.
I have a job where I have to account for everything and have an audit trail.
I try and deal in facts and the facts to not show the BHS in a good light.
Yes Red this is true. A BRC member is a voting member of the BHS and by law you should have been informed. If you read the previous posts you can find out about the deceptive, in my opinion, means of "communication". Well done Janet for shining the public light on this matter. If she had not done so, it would have been practically impossible for us to ever call an EGM to get valid questions answered.Is this true? After being a member on and off since 1985, and consistently since 2007 until I stopped last year, I am interested in what happens with the BHS. I am a horse owner former professional, interested in welfare, interested in access... and a member of a BRC since 1998, fully paid up all that time.
I am not aware of being informed about any meeting or vote apart from what I have seen on here. This is the first time I have even heard that I could have voted. If I am entitled to vote then surely they should at least inform me of the meeting?
Was there a slip in a magazine or something? I have certainly not had any email.
I got an email from the COO, Sarah saying that the minutes would be out by close of business on Friday 11th Jan, in answer to my question about how the membership was made up sent by email.Do you think the missing mins are with BHS private solicitors for checking . Given thier current reputation for not being open and honest with the membership I wonder if they are checking how little they can get away with putting in them .
Yes Red this is true. A BRC member is a voting member of the BHS and by law you should have been informed. If you read the previous posts you can find out about the deceptive, in my opinion, means of "communication". Well done Janet for shining the public light on this matter. If she had not done so, it would have been practically impossible for us to ever call an EGM to get valid questions answered.
Yes unlawful but thankfully it did not happen on the 5th DESPITE the statement from the chair that he had enough proxy votes to pass the changes without a vote. Three cheers for those who were on the front foot and submitted the petition. Without them, this would have passed and once passed, would be very difficult to undo.I was not informed. I do not get the BHS magazine as part of my Riding Club membership, so would not have seen an envelope from there.
I do get the occasional magazine from BRC, but I have not heard about, or seen, any envelopes re a meeting or vote in there.
As all members of the BHS were also emailed, why did this not happen for BRC members?
So, any vote would have been unlawful, if BRC members were not informed?
I got an email from the COO, Sarah saying that the minutes would be out by close of business on Friday 11th Jan, in answer to my question about how the membership was made up sent by email.
You were there. We were told that the IT was working well and the numbers could be retrieved easily. If she made a mistake and misunderstood how the membership is made up, fair enough but we need to know.
I have attached a document from NPS , that shows who gets what and who is entitled to vote, just for information.
Do you think the missing mins are with BHS private solicitors for checking . Given thier current reputation for not being open and honest with the membership I wonder if they are checking how little they can get away with putting in them .
Thank you Zebedee for posting this information, sadly at the meeting it would appear that some of the statements/responses from the front of the room were incorrect which IMHO calls into question how much else information given to the membership has been incorrect or not the full information. Sadly Britsh Dressage has also followed a similar path.
Please expand. Why has the BHS gone up in your estimations in the past few years?Hello everyone, I have been following all this.. been a bhs member for a long time and i find it bad that it seems to be a few individuals who want to spoil all the good work that bhs does... and not talk about that in the last few years they have gone right up in my opinion. A friend of mine was at the meeting and told me that it was just a few individuals who had a personal agenda. It’s got far too personal if you ask me. Come on you lot, there are over 100,000 members allegedly, that’s a lot of horsey people who think bhs do good!
Thank you Zebedee - I have seen and heard information to the contrary. But I believe you- so you might consider stopping the shouting.BRC MEMBERS ARE NOT VOTING MEMBERS OF THE BHS UNLESS THEY ARE ALSO BHS MEMBERS.
They are also NOT included in the BHS membership numbers. Sorry to appear shouting, but it's important that this is clearly understood.
I think so, too. They do so much to educate drivers on how to drive around horses, safely. I saw a virtual reality film on their facebook page which was really good in showing the dangers that horse riders encounter on the roads.And I know a bit about some of the work they do with treating ponies at mobile clinics using the lorry that the insurance company provided after they asked their customers to vote for their favourite charity. I haven't been a member for very long but I really like what I've seen so far from the BHS.Hello everyone, I have been following all this.. been a bhs member for a long time and i find it bad that it seems to be a few individuals who want to spoil all the good work that bhs does... and not talk about that in the last few years they have gone right up in my opinion. A friend of mine was at the meeting and told me that it was just a few individuals who had a personal agenda. It’s got far too personal if you ask me. Come on you lot, there are over 100,000 members allegedly, that’s a lot of horsey people who think bhs do good!
I wasn't there, but I would hazard a guess that either the question or the answer was misunderstood.
I think so, too. They do so much to educate drivers on how to drive around horses, safely. I saw a virtual reality film on their facebook page which was really good in showing the dangers that horse riders encounter on the roads.And I know a bit about some of the work they do with treating ponies at mobile clinics using the lorry that the insurance company provided after they asked their customers to vote for their favourite charity. I haven't been a member for very long but I really like what I've seen so far from the BHS.
For me the one big, HUGE red flag - is that they want to increase the number of people that can call for an EGM from 12 to 250+. 12 is an easily achieveable number. How many folk know 249 other members? The only reasonable reason I can see for this would be if this had been getting abused by the membership calling multiple EGMs annually and thus wasting money. I haven't seen any signs of this.
So why do they want to make calling an EGM so much more difficult? It doesn't signal to me an operation that is wanting to be open and accessible to their members.
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