During late 2017 and 2018, the committee of the Geological Curators' Group undertook a review of the governance structure of GCG - that is, the ways in which our current constitution determines how we run the organisation as a charity, what we can and cannot do within this framework, and how we relate to external organisations, for example our affiliation to the Geological Society of London. We also consulted with a number of similar organisations, as well as legal professionals.
The outcome of this was that the preferred route to ensure the continued success and relevance of GCG would be to convert the existing unincorporated charity to the newer Charitable Incorporated Organisation structure. It is the intention of the current committee to undertake this during 2021.
We have put together this page to answer a number of questions that have arisen from the process, as well as to provide easy access to a number of important documents. If you have any more questions, please e-mail them to
Relevant documents
Stage 1 - Approval of proposed new constitution by the membership
At the 47th Annual General Meeting (held virtually on 30th November 2020), members discussed and voted on two important votes - the first, to modify our existing constitution to allow the charity to be dissolved, and second, to approve the new constitution that will enable GCG to convert to a CIO. Due to the necessity of using a virtual format, the decision was recorded using the polling function of the Zoom videoconferencing platform.
With the agreement of the membership, the committee will now work towards completing this process.
Stage 2 - EGM to pass modifications to old constitution
Due to a complication inherent in our current constitution, it is necessary to notify the charity commission of the inclusion of the dissolution clause before a vote can be passed. Therefore an EGM is scheduled for 12th January 2021. The following e-mail was sent by the chair (
A short report from the meeting is here https://www.geocurator.org/news/507-news-from-the-47th-agm. There are a few minor changes to committee, but importantly we had two votes, both of which passed almost unanimously. The first was to add a dissolution clause to our constitution, as we currently don’t have one. The second was an approval of the motion to convert GCG to a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO). This is a slightly more involved process, but will see GCG transformed in its governance and fit for the future. For more information, have a read through the info on the website, or drop me a line.
HOWEVER, unfortunately the vote about adding the dissolution clause was not notified to the Charity Commission in advance, and cannot be added retrospectively. Therefore we will need to hold a very brief EGM in order to repeat the vote. Please attend if you can – I envisage this will take no more than 10 minutes. We will use the polling facility on the Zoom platform, as we did at the AGM, and the meeting will be recorded and minuted as before. Please see the Zoom meeting link below (please do not share this with anyone else). The proposed new constitution is also attached for reference (there are no changes from the previously circulated version).
This email is therefore notice that we will be holding an EGM at 11.30am UK time on 12th January 2021.
Agenda:
1. Apologies
2. Matters arising, questions
3. Vote to include a dissolution clause in the current constitution of GCG. The wording for the vote is as before: ‘I agree to the inclusion of the clause on Dissolution to the current Geological Curators’ Group constitution (last updated December 4th 2012).’ (YES or NO)
4. Close