Charity Shows The Way

The Glendale Agricultural Society Takes Key Step For Future Generations

The Glendale Agricultural Society GAS is seeking Charitable Status. At a General Meeting held on 27th November, members present voted unanimously to take the first steps that will lead to its becoming a charity. The meeting, held in Wooler, where the Society is based, supported a strong recommendation from the Board

This extremely important move and milestone in the Society’s 127-year history provoked huge interest amongst members. In addition to votes received at the meeting there were an additional 95 Proxy Votes lodged in advance at the Society’s offices in Wooler High Street.

Lord Joicey, President of the Glendale Agricultural Society, is very pleased with this outcome and speaking afterwards he said:

“For me what is significant, is the number of people in the Society who supported the recommendation. Almost 1/3rd of the membership took active part in the decision – which demonstrates the engagement of members, their keenness to support the proposed move and evidence that this is a thriving Society.

“We very much hope that the Charity Commission will embrace our application and approve registration. There are challenges in the future, both to farming and ourselves, but with charitable status, the opportunities are considerably more favourable.”

GAS has now informed Companies House, and the full application form and documentation for registering the Society as a charity has been completed and submitted to the Commissioners.

Charitable Status will enable it to apply for grants from charitable funders, such as the National Lottery, and other local organisations. In addition, the Directors will have the responsibility to ensure that GAS’s activities remain in-line with its charitable objectives. The annual Glendale Show and Children’s Countryside Day will continue, whilst benefitting from the advantages of the new status.

Lord Joicey added: “Our organisers and committee members give many hours planning beforehand and working on the show-field. For their efforts the Society was awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2017.”

With around 300 members, The Glendale Agricultural Society is one of the smallest agricultural societies in the UK; it is also one of the most progressive. Many of the members give an enormous amount of their time to help organise and steward its two key rural events, The Children’s Countryside Day and The Glendale Show.

Giving further background in terms of the support needed, Rachael Tait, Company Secretary said:

“As a Society we continue to go from strength to strength but in recent years, we have faced increasing challenges due to falling resources. Resources at all levels are stretched and in seeking Charitable Status we are ensuring the foundations for the future are firmly and adequately resourced, for both the future generations and the next century.

“We are proud of what has been achieved in terms of the education elements. which we provide through the Children’s Countryside Day and the Glendale Show. Going forward, we hope that we can further develop our educational offering of not only providing a classroom in the countryside but by working with partners to take farming and the countryside into the classroom.”