Suffolk County Scout Council

The County Scout Council has a governance role for the charity and makes County Trustee Board appointments other than ex-officio and co-opted appointments. The membership of the County Scout Council is defined in POR Chapter 5b3.2.6. The County Scout Council has no Trustee responsibilities. The County Trustee Board is responsible for the governance of the charity. Although the County Trustee Board is responsible for the charity, it is accountable to the County Scout Council and  arranges the Annual General Meeting of the Scout Council to take place within 6 months of the end of the financial year.

Constitution

During 2019 it became apparent to the County Trustee Board that there was no one document in the county in which the constitutional requirements relating to the County Trustee Board and the County Scout Council were recorded apart from the Model Constitution in Association’s Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) which had issues associated with it when applied to Suffolk.

The County Trustee Board therefore commissioned a working party under the chair of Rodney Turner to produce a draft constitution for its consideration which would incorporate Suffolk’s operational practices and maintain compliance with POR. . This constitution was developed over a number of months in consultation with the County Trustee Board and was prepared on the basis to be a living document which would automatically incorporate any changes made to POR.

At their meeting on the 3rd August 2020, the County Trustees unanimously agreed the new Suffolk Constitution and resolved to recommend to the Suffolk County Scout Council that it adopts the proposed Constitution. The County Scout Council supported the Trustee Board’s recommendation and voted decisively to adopt the constitution at teh AGM.

Amendments

A number of amendments were reviewed and approved by the County Trustee Board on 7th June 2022 following feedback since the constitution had been approved in 2020. These changes were approved by the members of the County Scout Council at the AGM on 22-Sep-2022.

This version of the constitution therefore became operative on the 22nd September 2022.  The last revision is available to download on the link below. Updated on 21-Jun-2023 to v1.0b to accommodate name changes from POR (April-2023) of 'Executive' to 'Trustee Board'..

Model Constitution

At the AGM in September 2024, a number of recommendations from the board to the Council were made to move away from the 'Suffolk Constitution' in favour of the Model Constitution in POR since that had now been extensivley re-worked during 2024 as part of the HQ Transformation Project.

The Board recommended to the Council that:

1. the Council re-adopts the Suffolk Constitution 22 Sep 2022 Rev 1.0b (Suffolk Constitution) as its governing document until midnight on the thirty-first day of March 2025 (the Appointed Day); and

2. with effect from the Appointed Day the Suffolk Constitution shall lapse and fall away as the Council’s governing document and shall immediately be replaced by the model County constitution (Model Constitution) set out in Chapter Five Rule 5.6 (Changed to Rule 5c.3 - May-2025) of POR to be adopted as the Council’s governing document until resolved otherwise by the Council; and 

3. with effect from the Appointed Day those trustees: (i) elected in accordance with the Suffolk Constitution shall be entitled to serve out their respective term of office as an appointed trustee under the Model Constitution and (ii) those nominated trustees approved by the Council in accordance with the Suffolk Constitution shall be permitted to serve out their term of office as an appointed trustee under the Model Constitution until the Council’s 2025 annual general meeting; and
4. with effect from the Appointed Day any co-opted trustee on the Board shall serve out their term of office as a co-opted trustee until the Council’s 2025 Annual General Meeting. 

This was approved at the AGM and therefore the Model Constitution is now the one in force.  The latest version is available on the following link - Model Constitutions on the HQ P.O.R pages.and an extract for May-2025 is available below - but check on-line for the latest updates.

Annual General Meeting 2026 - Invitation & Documents

Minutes of AGM 2024 (included as part of the 2024/25 Report below)

Documents from AGM 2024

AGM Agenda 2024