The work of NADFAS is supervised by a board of twelve trustees. They fulfil the requirements of the Charity Commissioners in terms of the governance of the association, which is of course a charity.
Members might be interested to know that two of the candidates in the current trustee elections are from the South West. (see News for details). Trustees are elected for three years by a ballot of member societies. They are highly experienced in a wide variety of fields and many have served on society and area committees. Each year, one third of the trustees retire, though they may seek re-election for one further period of three years.
All member societies are autonomous bodies subscribing to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of NADFAS. They may or may not be charities and they all have their own constitutions which govern how they run. The most significant unifying factor is that they agree to use lecturers from the NADFAS directory, which ensures the high standard of all our presentations.
It is the usual practice of all NADFAS Areas to hold two area meetings annually and to invite at least one trustee as a guest. This provides a very valuable opportunity for representatives of societies to meet, hear from, question and lobby their governing board.
The other opportunity for interaction between society members and the NADFAS executive is the Annual General Meeting in May. This is always an interesting and sociable affair involving in excess of 1000 people, usually held alternately in London and the provinces. Attendance at the AGM is open to any subscribing member of a NADFAS society.
