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KC
members’ steps towards democracy
IN the hallowed halls of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London's
Mayfair last week 211 Kennel Club members, about 28%of the total
membership, eventually accepted their own committee's proposal
to open up the membership to associates of five years standing
or more.
With immediate effect they can put themselves forward to be
considered for full club membership and as long as they can
find a seconder they could be considered for full membership
at the next General Committee meeting. The maximum number of
members is 1500 and there is currently 779 including Honorary
Members and Honorary Life Members.
'The consideration process of meeting members of the committee
on meeting days will not change' as one Kennel Club grandee
stressed to those present at the meeting, 'but this is a way
of broadening the base on which Kennel Club membership is perceived
by the outside world and those in government and positions of
influence,' he concluded.
Whether the club will be inundated with applications remains
to be seen but as one member of 16 years standing said his wife
had been an associate member for 35 years and had applied for
full membership twice and had been twice turned down. What would
change?
‘Nothing’, if the response to the question was to
be accepted - the due process of consideration of membership
to a private members' club would be pursued by the general committee
and a decision reached.
The small change had been 18 months in the making from a casual
approach to members in November 2001 to a firm proposal in May
2002 part of which was accepted with a ceiling of 1500 members
agreed but the mechanism to achieve this lost when members rejected
the second half of the proposal because it was felt that three
years as an associate was not enough to show a commitment to
the sport.
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