Local Dowsing Group News :   No. 3

   The Future of the BSD...
                    and the role of local groups
I am very sorry to learn of Isabel's decision to stand down as President of the BSD at the AGM in September. We all owe her a huge debt of gratitude for the work she has undertaken in one of the Society's darkest hours.

With only around nine week's to go before the AGM on the weekend of September 14th-16th, and with many people going on holiday during that period, we must use the time available to plan for a successful transition to Life-Without-Isabel.

Nobody can foresee the future, but even if the BSD does not survive as a national organisation, the local groups will live to dowse another day.

This newsletter goes to Affiliated Local Groups, and is usually sent in the format you see before you. Edition No 2, sent out yesterday, was for technical reasons sent out as an attachment to an ordinary email.

In order to cover inevitable developments, over the next few weeks this newsletter will be sent out once a week, starting this Thursday. If, as a local dowsing group, you would like to like to use this newsletter to communicate with other local groups, please send me your text (in email form) by Wednesday night for inclusion in the newsletter the following day.
(If you wish you can of course always communicate with other local groups direct.)

The BSD and local groups

Whatever emerges at the AGM, it will be important that local groups have some kind of representation on the BSD's Council, and I hope that that people who aspire to sit on Council will report back to all the ALGs (either through this newsletter or other means), rather than just their immediate group. There is a case for arguing that at least 50% of Council should consist of reps from the ALGs.

One thing I was never clear about was the relationship between the BSD Council, and the BSD Trustees. From the material on the BSD website, which says...

the board of directors for the time being of the Society and “member of the Council” shall be construed accordingly. The directors are charity trustees as defined in section 97 of the Charities Act 1993

...I presume this means that all Council members are elected by the AGM (at some point) apart from those who are co-opted, and that some of these Council members have responsibilities such as Treasurer, etc, but that all Council members are charity Trustees. I don't think it implies that 'Trustees' meet separately. But stranger things have happened at sea, and sometimes there's an R in the month.

Dowse On !

Ced