MGMW Constitution

1 The title of the Group is the Midland Group of Motoring Writers.

2 The aim of the Group is to help members carry out their work and to improve communications with the motor industry.

3 Membership is open to anyone in the media who can show they produce original published or broadcast work (including websites) which is significantly concerned with motoring subjects. Members must live or work in one of the following areas: West Midlands, Staffordshire (as far north as Stoke-on-Trent), Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Gloucestershire, plus Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire as far south/south-east as a line drawn between Oxford, Thame, Aylesbury and Milton Keynes.

4 Most Group business will be conducted by email. Every member will be asked to provide a secure email address to which sometimes confidential Group information may be sent.

5 There will be two meetings of the whole membership each year, an annual meeting and a general meeting. The annual meeting will conduct the following business: Report of officers; Election of officers for the coming year; The level of membership fees for the following year and any other business accepted by the chairman. Both meetings will be called by the committee secretary with at least two weeks’ notice. The chairman will preside at both meetings, or in his/her absences and that of the vice-chairman any other member may be elected to chair the meeting.

6 The Group will elect a chairman, vice-chairman, treasurer and at least three other members to form an executive committee to guide the group and advise on policy matters. Members who are unable to attend a general meeting or annual meeting will have the opportunity to submit comments and, at the annual meeting, cast their votes via a committee proxy.

7 Members will uphold the reputation and integrity of the Group. The Group has the right to expel a member, but only after a recommendation from the committee is supported in a ballot of members.

8 Full members will be expected to each year supply to the committee evidence of regular, original recent work in the form of three recent, original cuttings or copies of broadcast material. Members who contribute to websites are asked to send working links to three recent web pages. Members who have not paid their subscription within three months of the due date will be deemed to have resigned from the Group.

9 Members who lose all their media outlets are expected to inform the committee of their position without delay. They may ask for a temporary continuation of full membership while they seek new outlets for their work, but would be expected to resign from full membership if they could not satisfy the Group within six months that they had resumed work within the criteria set out for full membership as above.

10 Members who are not active motoring journalists may remain in the Group as Social Members, but will not retain their voting rights. They will not pay a subscription. If a member cannot fulfil the requirements of full membership after the six-month period he/she may ask to become a Social Member of the Group.

11 Members who leave the Group may be considered for honorary membership. They will not retain their voting rights and will not pay a subscription.

12 In the event that the MGMW ceases to exist, whether by choice or circumstance, any monies remaining after all liabilities have been settled shall be shared equally between the motoring charity BEN, the Journalists’ Charity and be directed to help perpetuate the John Connor Award in association with the Coventry University Masters degree course in Automotive Journalism. If at the time the MGMW ceases to exist one or more of the beneficiaries named is no longer in operation then any monies remaining after liabilities have been settled shall be shared equally between the remaining named beneficiaries. Should none of the named beneficiaries remain in operation then the dispersal of any monies remaining after settlement of liabilities shall be decided by the elected committee of the MGMW at the time the MGMW ceases to exist.