Join us
Becoming a member of the St Francis Fields Community Interest Company is free and open to all Northiam residents over 18.
There's no obligation to volunteer (although you make us happy when you do!).
St Francis Fields belongs to us all and we encourage Northiam residents to join us on this journey.
As a resident of Northiam, we would love to invite you to join St Francis Fields by becoming a member. It’s easy to do and you can get involved as much, or as little, as you want.
Our aspiration is to develop an amenity that builds the sense of community that we already enjoy in the village.
Information can be found below, as well as an online membership form which you can download from this website.
If you have any questions, or have problems downloading the form and would like it emailed to you instead, please email us at stfrancisfieldsnorthiam@gmail.com and we’ll be happy to help.
Being a member
Firstly we ask that you live in Parish of Northiam and are over the age of 18. We also ask you to confirm that you want to positively support the direction of the Community Interest Company and the St Francis Fields project. Both are run by volunteers and we both value and need, so far as you are able, members’ involvement in the project.
Community Interest Companies and membership
A Community Interest Company is a particular type of limited company; one with social objectives where surpluses must be reinvested in the business or in the community.
The St Francis Fields Community Interest Company is registered as a Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee. This means that it has no shareholders. Instead, it has members who have the right to vote at Annual and other General Meetings of the Company as well as the directors who run the Company on a day-to-day basis.
Under the model Articles of Association for Community Interest Companies, provided by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, it is mandatory that a Community Interest Company of our type has an application process for membership and that all applications are subject to approval by the directors.
Implicit in this is that the directors can set reasonable criteria for membership. The model Articles also permit the directors to remove a member on the grounds that their continued membership would be harmful to the Company.
The members of any company limited by guarantee are liable for the company’s debts if it is wound up. However, this should not be of concern as our Articles limit liability to no more than £1.
What being a member means
Voting members of the Community Interest Company (limited to one per household, although we’re happy to include other members of the household in that membership) have the right to propose motions and to vote at Annual and other General Meetings of the Company as set out in the Articles of Association and we would encourage all voting members to exercise their rights in this way.
Outside of these formal meetings of the Company, we will welcome suggestions from members about the use and improvement of St Francis Fields as an asset for the community.
However, in making these we would ask you to understand that our ability to take these forward depends on the views of the Parish Council as landowner, the Town & Country Planning system and, very importantly, on the availability of finance and man (and woman) power.
In a company and project run by volunteers, we can always use more help and this is why we ask you to tell us about any of our current working groups & activities that you’d like to be part of and about other interests, experience or skills you can bring to the project. But if you don’t feel able to help in these ways, we’re still happy to have your support as a member!
Our Memorandum & Articles of Association can be found on the Companies House website.
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