Humanism in Scotland has a long history going back well before the formation of the charity in 1989.
By 2010 Humanist Society Scotland had grown massively in 10 years:
- Our income had increased from £32,000 a year to £211,000
- Membership had risen to over 7,000
- We had over 90 celebrants all over Scotland
- We were represented on various national, European and International bodies.
- Our media profile had become more prominent
- We were clearly becoming accepted as the 'Voice of Secular Scotland'
Yet despite all this growth and change, our way of running our Society (Governance) and the way we do our day-to-day business (Management) had barely changed since the Society was founded.
So it was in 2011 the Society decided to modernise itself and at the Special General Meeting in October voted unanimously to make the following changes.
- The Society would become a charitable Company Limited by Guarantee – we ceased to be an unincorporated body.
- The Society would be governed by a smaller, supervisory Board of Trustees.
- Day-to-day business would be the responsibility of a Management Group of officials appointed by the Board.
- An Executive Secretary, a member of the Board would lead the Management group.
- Our name would be Humanist Society Scotland (no “of” in the title) to be consistent with our logo.
In early 2012 these arrangements are being put into place.
You can obtain a copy of the constitution of the Society, known as the Memorandum and Articles. You can find Minutes of the SGM and any other General Meeting or Meeting of the Board of Trustees in our resources section, when you have registered as an HSS member.
