18.2    Dates of Council Meetings

Council usually meets three times per year. Dates of the meetings along with agendas and reports of the previous meeting are carried in the Club Bulletin or they may be obtained from the Leicester office on request.

18.3    Council Sub-Committees

Some of the responsibilities of BMFA Council have been delegated to several Sub-Committees of Council, each of which has its own terms of reference.

The procedures for having items discussed by these Sub-Committees is exactly the same as for the full BMFA Council meetings and, unless the matter is urgent, proposals are allocated to the next most appropriate meeting. Voting rights at these meetings are given to those specified in the terms of reference of the meeting as laid down in the Council Handbook. The Sub-Committees are:

(a)   Areas Council

Meetings take place three times per year and are attended by all Area Delegates and Area Chairmen, plus representatives of RNMAA. The meeting is Chaired by the Honorary Secretary with the Achievement Scheme Controller as Vice-Chairman.

Its main responsibilities are all Club and Area related business and the Achievement Schemes.

The Achievement Scheme Review Committee is a sub-committee of Areas Council and it advises the Council on all matters concerned with the operation and regulation of the Achievement Schemes.

(b)   Technical Council

Meetings take place two or three times per year and are attended by delegates from all the Technical Committees. The meeting is Chaired by the Technical Secretary with the Competition Secretary as Vice-Chairman.

Its main responsibilities are all competition and safety matters.

(c)   Executive Committee

Meetings take place as necessary but at least three times per year. They are attended by the Association’s Elected Officers and the Chief Executive and are Chaired by the Association’s Chairman.

Its main responsibility is the running of the Association’s business affairs.

18.4    Proposals to Council

A great many of the ideas discussed by Council are generated by you, the members and clubs of BMFA, and any member can affect the Association’s policies.

This section sets out how you go about having your ideas put forward as proposals or discussion items to a BMFA Council. It is not a difficult process and anyone can have their say on how model flying is run in the UK.

Constitutionally, only Council Members, Area Committees or Technical Committees may place proposals before Council but there are several ways that you as a BMFA member or club can have your point of view put forward.

You can attend your local Area meeting and discuss your ideas there. If you make a good enough case the Area will make the proposal for you and it will be presented to Council by the Area Delegate. On important matters you might be invited to attend the Council meeting but in any case you can apply to be an observer at the meeting through normal channels. Dates and contacts for your Area are available from the Leicester office.

If your ideas are more in line with the work of a Technical Committee, you can approach it directly and ask it to act for you. If the Technical Committee agrees then it will put the proposal forward to Council. Technical Committee contacts are available from the office.

If these two approaches fail, and you are still convinced that your point is valid, you can approach ANY Council member for help. They each have the power as individuals to put proposals forward to Council and will do so if your ideas have merit. Again, contact addresses are available from the office.

Finally, if all else fails, a letter to the Chairman of the Association will sometimes work.

You should be aware, though, that having what you think is a good idea might not be enough to have the idea placed before Council and agreed.

If you read this section carefully you will see that there is a natural filtering process in the system and you will have to convince a number of other people of the worth of your idea before it can progress.