Society Rules

The following are the current rules of the York Philatelic Society. A change history is given at the bottom of this page.

  1. The Society shall be known as the York Philatelic Society.

  2. The Objectives of the Society shall be to foster an interest in the study of Philately and Postal History.

  3. Meetings shall be held on the second Tuesday of each month.

  4. Candidates for election may be of either sex and must be 13 years of age. Until the age of 18 they shall be Youth members. Candidates for membership shall be proposed and seconded at an ordinary meeting and election shall be by two-thirds majority of the members present. Youth members shall not be entitled to vote at any of the meetings.

  5. Full members shall pay an Annual Subscription fee. Youth members of age between 13 to 18 years shall pay an Annual Subscription of half the full member fee. The membership fee shall be reviewed annually by the Committee and will be revised to reflect the recurrent costs incurred by the Society to enable the Society to deliver its objectives as stated in rule 2. The Annual subscription fee will be communicated to the Society at the December meeting in time for the start of the next calendar year. The subscription fee will also be communicated through the. Society webpage. Subscriptions are due on the 1st of January and shall be payable no later than 31st of March.

  6. Every member shall be considered a subscriber for the ensuing year unless they send notice in writing to the Secretary of their intention to resign not later than the 31st of December. Membership shall cease if a subscription is not fully paid by 30th June.

  7. All members agree to comply, without exception, with the York Philatelic Society Safeguarding Children Policy whenever engaging with Society activities.

  8. The Committee reserve the right to remove from the membership list and withdraw the right of engaging with Society events, any member whose conduct, in their opinion, is detrimental to the interests of the Society.

  9. Members shall inform the Secretary of any change of address.

  10. Members shall, by ballot, annually reaffirm or appoint new officers as follows: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor, Exchange Packet Secretary and two Committee members. It is expected that these officers remain in post for the duration of the Presidency. Officers with the exception of the President and Vice-President members may be reaffirmed for longer than 3 years. Any four appointed Officers shall form a quorum. The appointed Officers have the power of to co-opt additional members to the Committee to enable it to deliver the Society objectives as stated in rule 2.

  11. No person may occupy the office of President for more than three consecutive years. The two Committee members shall be elected at the same time as the election of the President and remain as Committee members until the term of the President ends or by mutual agreement of the Committee.

  12. A club packet shall be made up by the Exchange Packet Secretary and circulated amongst the members. Members shall not be entitled to receive exchange packets if their subscriptions are not paid by 31st March. Theft, swapping or intentional damage to any item within an exchange packet will be considered unacceptable conduct and may lead to the removal of the guilty party from the membership list as per rule 8.

  13. The Annual General Meeting shall be held on the second Tuesday in March, for the purpose of reaffirming/electing officers, receiving changes to the Society rules, or revising where the whole membership requires approval of the specific rule or rules, receiving reports – less the audited accounts – and any other business. A statement of the previous year’s accounts shall be available at the March meeting. Twenty-eight days’ notice in writing must be given to the Secretary of any proposal for revision of the rules by any member.

  14. The Society Rules shall not be altered except at an Annual Meeting or at an Extraordinary General Meeting called at the request of five members.

  15. It shall be within the prerogative of the elected Officers to nominate any existing or former member of the Society to be an Honorary Vice-President, provided the nominee has previously held the office of Chairman or President of the Society. Also any existing or former member of the Society may be nominated to Honorary Life Membership of the Society in acknowledgement of services of outstanding merit to the cause of Philately in York.

History of Changes to Society Rules.

Changes made at the 9th November 2010 AGM: The key changes made reflect the introduction of the YPS Safeguarding Children Policy. The details of this introduction are: New Rule 7 introduced which states: "All members agree to comply, without exception, with the York Philatelic Society Safeguarding Children Policy whenever engaging with Society activities."; Rule 8 modified to add in the text "and withdraw the right of engaging with Society events" after "membership list"; Rule 7 moved to after rule 8 and renumbered 9; all Rules after 9 increase in number by 1.

Prior to the AGM of 10th November 2009 rule 12 read:

“The Annual General Meeting shall be held on the second Tuesday in November, for the purpose of electing officers, revising rules, receiving reports – less the audited accounts – and any other business.”

Subscriptions were increased to £6 in 2007 for full members and £3 for youth members.

Changes made at the 13th November 2018 AGM: Subscriptions were increased to £7 for full members and £3.50 for youth members.

Changes made at the 2019 AGM: Subscriptions were increased to £10 for full members and £5.00 for youth members. The month in which the AGM is held was changed to March.

Changes made following the 2020 AGM: The Society Committee proposes the following changes to the Society rules to improve our governance and continuity of initiatives. The change is basically that we want to change the number of ordinary members to 2 instead of 4 but the two are in post for the duration of the Presidency or by mutual agreement of both sides. The change requires a change to Society Rules 10 and 11 to be effective.

Society Rule 10: “Members shall, by ballot, annually appoint officers as follows: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor, Exchange Packet Secretary and four Committee members. Any four appointed Officers shall form a quorum. The appointed Officers have the power of co-opt.” Change “… and four Committee members” to “… and two Committee members”

Society Rule 11: “The four Committee members may not occupy this appointment for more than two consecutive years and at the annual election of Officers a time-barred Committee member, or members, shall not be eligible for re-election for one year.” Replace with: “The two Committee members shall be elected at the same time as the election of the President and remain as Committee members until the term of the President ends or by mutual agreement of the elected members and the Committee.”

A comprehensive review of the Society rules was undertaken by. the committee and passed at an. Extraordinary General Meeting held on the 13th December 2022.