Last updated: January 2020
1. The Fund shall be known as ‘The St Martin’s Guild Bell Restoration Fund’.
2. The object of the Fund shall be to advance the Christian religion by providing financial assistance to Churches in the Diocese of Birmingham and to other Churches where the St Martin’s Guild (‘the Guild’) has a major interest for the purpose of maintaining and improving a bell installation and shall be deemed to include the following:
(a) Taking out an existing ring of bells, supplying and installing a new frame and fittings, recasting the bells and erecting the same.
(b) Taking out, overhauling and re-clappering existing bells, supplying and installing a new frame and fittings and re-erecting.
(c) Taking out existing bells, overhauling existing frame and fittings, recasting or overhauling and re- clappering same and re-erecting.
(d) Augmentation and bringing existing bells, frame and fittings into an adequate state of repair.
(e) Other repairs and improvements to bells, frames, fittings and towers.
(f) The provision of bells, frames and fittings and erection of the same in Churches.
(g) The acquisition of bells from Churches within the Diocese of Birmingham declared redundant, for subsequent redeployment and/or recasting.
3. The membership of the Fund shall be that of the Guild as defined in the rules thereof.
4. (a) The Fund shall be administered by a Committee consisting of the Master, Secretary, Treasurer and Ringing Master of the Guild: ‘the Committee’).
(b) The Committee shall have the power, after considering an application submitted to it in writing, to approve a grant from the Fund.
(c) The Committee shall have the power to appoint sub-Committees which shall report back their actions fully and promptly to the Committee.
(d) The Committee shall have the power to co-opt such persons as it considers necessary to assist in its deliberations. The number of co-opted persons at any one meeting of the Committee shall not exceed three.
(e) The management of the Bell Restoration Fund shall be an item on the agenda of every General Meeting of the Guild.
5. (a) The Master and Treasurer of the Guild shall be ex-officio Trustees of the Fund and in addition two other members of the Guild shall be elected at the Guild’s Annual General Meeting to act as Trustees of the Fund.
(b) Such bank accounts as may be required shall be opened in the name of the Fund. Any two of the four nominated Trustees shall have the power to sign cheques.
(c) Any outstanding monies in the hands of the Committee not required for the immediate purpose of the Fund shall be invested in any manner authorised by law.
(d) The Committee and its sub-Committees shall have the power to raise funds by any means they deem fit as long as permanent trading is not engaged in.
(e) The Fund shall be set up by the total transfer to it of the balance of those monies collected, made available or earmarked for Bell Restoration by the Guild.
(f) Grants approved under 4(b) above shall become payable after satisfactory completion of the work.
6. In the event of the dissolution of the Fund the assets of the Fund shall be distributed equally among those Churches which at the time of the dissolution were in union with the Guild for the purpose of bell maintenance and restoration.
7. The Treasurer shall prepare a Balance Sheet as at 31 December in each year, and an income and expenditure account for the year ended on that date, which shall be examined by the Independent Examiners elected by the members of the Guild at the Annual General Meeting first held after 31 December in which the Funds accounts are prepared.
8. No alteration or addition or deletion of these rules shall be made so as to cause the Fund any time to cease to be a charity in law. No alteration, addition or deletion shall be made except at the Annual General Meeting of the Guild or at a Special General Meeting of the Guild especially called for the purpose. Notice of any proposed alteration or addition to or deletion from these rules shall be given to the Secretary four months prior to the Annual General Meeting of the Guild.