Our Constitution

York Together Constitution

1.Mission Purpose and Scope of the Group

1.i. The York Group

We are on a mission to create a space for people in York to participate, learn and act together through distributing funding, challenging injustice, and creating the conditions for better systems to emerge across York. As a constituted but unincorporated network of changemakers, we commit to the following principles:

Redistributing resources, knowledge and power to local people, organisations and networks that have previously been under-resourced.
Ensuring that there is adequate funding, training, and upskilling opportunities to support local changemakers.
Removing barriers to participation through providing the infrastructure so that our communities can be together
Taking a co-resolve approach across our work, paying as much attention to how we work as to what we do. Centering relationship-building, conﬂict resolution and transparency to support collective wisdom.

2. Values & Practice

2.i. Why we have values and practices

York Together works across the whole geographic area of York and surrounding areas. Our values and practice are an important way of holding us together across the range of experiences, networks and focuses York residents bring to our group.

2.ii. Values

Our values guide us in how to act collectively and how to hold each other to account for those actions. They will be referred to throughout decision-making, recruitment, and conﬂict resolution processes.

Trust: We operate on principles of trust, meaning open communication and demonstrating respect for each other, boundaries and self-care are central to our work. Adaptability: We understand that systems change often requires us to shift our approach as we learn from our past and imagine our future.

Consistency, care and compassion: We commit to showing up for each other, showing sensitivity and understanding to those we work alongside and ourselves.

Community Involvement: We will include the York community in our decisions and share space fairly with local people.

Reﬂecting and learning: We recognise there is always room to grow as we challenge and change the systems that no longer work for us. We will make time to learn and reﬂect on our struggles and achievements as a group.

2.iii Our practice: Keeping Space

We deﬁne space as where we gather, either online or in person. These spaces are intentional and we commit to making them work for everyone. We will do this by:

Having the patience to let ideas emerge
Making sure everyone can take part and accessibility needs are met e.g. tech, venues and times work for everyone.
Holding shared accountability, we will all take responsibility for the work and bring ourselves and others back to the intention of the group.
We will build bridges, new routes and pathways through compassion in ideas, experience and expertise in our spaces.

Roles and Group Membership

3.i. Who is a member?

Membership is open to all individuals who support the purpose of the group and who reside in, or have a strong connection to the York community. A member of the York Together group is a person who forms part of the quorum of decision makers for the group. Members are responsible for upholding the purpose and practice of the group and ensuring that all activity and funding is managed appropriately. Members are responsible for being present for group discussions, taking part in decision making processes and voting to approve decisions.

3.ii. Recruitment

New members are recruited through a deﬁned process against a role description with a commitment to diversity. The group decides through consensus who gets appointed. Recruitment is triggered when the number of the group drops below 7.

3.iii. Induction

All new members will undergo an induction process which will include adhering to all policies and procedures established for the group.

3.iiii. No. of Meetings and length of services

No member shall serve more than 2 years without a review. Once a review is done, the term can be extended up to 3 years.

As part of the induction process, members will commit to attending at least 80% of regular meetings every 12 months in addition to any extra working groups. If members can not make a meeting they will need to notify the chair role and Administrators and/or Process Hosts.

3.v. Resigning from the group

Members who wish to resign can do so by informing the group and chair role by email. If possible, we ask for a notice period of 3 months. We understand that sometimes this is not possible.

3.vi. Roles: Members, administrators and a process host

The group shall consist of members who are appointed to carry out the network’s purpose. Administrators will be recruited by the members according to a speciﬁc role description to fulﬁl speciﬁc tasks either on a PAYE or consultancy basis.

Process Hosts hold the group accountable to the decisions made and processes used to make those decisions. While there is a designated standing role for process hosts, neither process hosts or administrators can vote nor be part of the quorum or regular group.

4. Group Meetings

4.i. Regular Group meeting frequency

The group will have regular meetings, minimum every 6 weeks (minimum of 10 per 12 months) that will be held in person or virtually.

4.ii. Special Meetings

Special meetings may be called by the current chair or a petition of at least 3 members.

4.iii. Chair

The group will commit to having a rotating chair role. The role description will be added to the shared drive.

4.iiii. Agenda-setting, minutes and tasks

The Administrator will be responsible for collating agenda items for future meetings and minutes from the previous meetings and circulating at least 1 week before the meeting. The administrator will be responsible for task prioritisation, which includes the staff making recommendations to the broader group. The administrator will also be responsible for updating the plan, timetable, budget and urgent/non-urgent quadrant after any meeting.

5. Sub-groups (paid and voluntary)

5.i. Purpose of sub-groups

Sub-groups can be set up around speciﬁc task and ﬁnish areas(e.g. developing safeguarding policy, exploring funding process). If needed, the main group can decide when to bring in paid expertise if the sub group cannot cover it.

5.ii Setting up a subgroup

Subgroups can only be set up by the main group either during a standard meeting, or at a special meeting. The purpose, remit and accountability, including reporting, of the sub groups can only be set by the main group during these meetings.

5.ii Membership of subgroups

Sub-groups are to be self-nominated. If no-one comes forward, the main group explores the urgency of the task at hand, and if there are still no volunteers then the main group can contract out the task.

5.iii Strategic Decision taking

If there are any strategic, legal or structural implications during sub-group discussions, refer back to the main group for decision-making.

6. Decision Making in groups

6.i. How decisions are made

Decision making is to be assisted via a completed decision making matrix. Discussions are to take place at the group or subgroup level to decide whether the decision is strategic (a change in direction) or operational (business as usual) and then the group will refer to the Decision Making Matrix to see whether the decision will be made by delegation, majority, consensus or consent.

Decision-making shall have three stages, to ensure all members of the group are able to input. This are:

In meeting
Decision to be made is in agenda, circulated prior to meeting
Discussion in meeting
Preliminary decision in meeting, using appropriate decision-making type from matrix - e.g. majority vote, consensus or consent.

Circulate decision

Circulate via email to York Together membership (or wider if deemed appropriate at in person meeting) to garner further opinion

Final decision

Either in meeting, or virtually (to be agreed in step 1).

7. Managing disagreements and conflicts

7.i. Group Behaviours and values.

All members agree to York Together’s code of conduct, values and behaviours at induction. All members should be trained in Deep Democracy within the ﬁrst 6 months of service.

7.ii. Policies

All policies relating to behaviours, conﬂict resolution, safeguarding and whistleblowing will be held centrally and be accessible to all members.

7.iii Conﬂict and Resolution Procedure:

As detailed in Sections 1-3, there is a clear set of values and practices that those involved in York Together are expected to uphold. If a member, administrator or process host acts against this, then group members are responsible for raising concerns and following the resolution process (7.iv). If the group feels it is necessary, it can appoint up to 2 Responsible People external to the group where group members can raise concerns. The appointment is delegated to the administrators who are permitted to work with the Responsible People. The ‘Responsible People’ are then responsible for raising the issues within the group, and have permission to start the resolution process outlined below.

If someone has broken the law or committed harm to others, they will be suspended while a decision is made as to whether the resolution process can be followed. If it is decided through a vote that a resolution process cannot be followed, then the person will be asked to leave.

7.iiii. The Resolution Process:

Offer of support to all parties - both during and after
Consult Deep Democracy principles
Bring in an external facilitator to support us through processes
Vote on whether someone leaves
Deep democracy process should help to see if the situation is left unresolved in which case another round of deep democracy is undertaken.
If the situation cannot be resolved, then members will be asked to leave. The majority vote parameters

The vote should have conditions around the length of time before someone is able to reapply to join the group.

8. Register of interest and conﬂict

8.i. Register and declaration of interest

We understand that we are working within networks and people are passionate and connected with many people and activities across York. We prefer to look at this as an ‘opportunity of interest’. Knowledge and understanding is what we want to bring to the table and we also trust one another - we exist to inﬂuence and we are open and transparent in that.

Members are expected to complete a register of interest on joining the group. A register of interest should also detail interests and passions with a members manual for each group member. This is to be kept centrally by the administrator and updated annually.

8.ii Conﬂict of Interest

Conﬂict of interest is deﬁned by us as to when there is direct ﬁnancial gain from a decision being made. If a member or a family member stands to gain ﬁnancially from the decision made, then that member is not allowed to take part in the decision making.

9. Amendments, Group Review dates and process.

9.i. Review Process

As part of a living system across York we commit to continually revising our systems and processes so they are ﬁt for purpose. At a minimum we will conduct an annual review of our work to ensure that this happens. This will be undertaken by the administrators and fed into an appropriate standard meeting for discussion.

9.ii. Policies, processes and procedures

The administrators will commit to ensuring that all policies, processes, procedures and role descriptions are kept up-to-date, and available to members.

9.iii. Amendments

This constitution may be amended by a vote of at least 70% of the members present at a regular meeting, provided that notice of the amendment has been given at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

10. Dissolution

10.i. In the event of the dissolution of the group, any remaining assets shall be distributed to a similar network organisation as determined by a majority vote of the members.

This constitution shall take effect immediately upon adoption by consensus of the members present at a regular meeting.

Date of resolution: 14th June, 2023

Members Present (voted):

Miles Goring, Hilary Conroy, Oliver French, Abigail Darton, Catherine Scott

York Together