Today the BF Board announces the key dates for the election of Board directors concluding in March: see http://www.britishfencing.com/news/latest-news/?n=732 

A number of amendments to the BF Bye Laws, the Administrative Procedures for the election, the Instructions for Nomination of Directors, and the Nomination Form are also published today; the relevant documents can be seen at:  Bye-Laws, Bye Laws markup, Administrative procedures,  Timeline Chart,  instructions for nominations, and Nomination Form.

The amendments, which affect Bye Laws VI.1, VI.2, VI.4 and VI.6, are mostly administrative, not affecting the substance of the election arrangements.  The main changes of substance to note are:

• There is now no limit on the number of words which candidates may use in describing their experience, aims and plans, and skills and experience.  Previously each section was limited to 100 words. Potential candidates’ attention is also drawn to the Director Job Description on the website –  which also highlights skills the Board actively seeks from these elections.

• The number of signatures of members required to nominate a candidate remains at 15.  However, it is now provided that no candidate may submit more than 20 signatures.  The extra 5 are allowed as a safety cushion in case any of the signatures are found to be invalid; but only 15 nominations will be published for each candidate.

• The rule under which no-one may nominate more candidates than there are vacancies to be filled remains in place.  Previously, the Bye Laws were silent on what would happen if a member signed too many nomination forms, or if the Board submitted too many nominations.  Now there are new provisions to cover this, written so as to preserve the validity of as many nomination forms as possible.

• The date at which a person is required to be a Qualifying Voting Member in order to validly sign to nominate a candidate for election is now the Qualifying Date (previously the date on which the nomination was signed).