2008/10/3 Andrew Turvey <raturvey(a)yahoo.co.uk>uk>:
As a chapter we will be geographically focussed on the
United Kingdom.
however, for legal purposes we have to be incorporated in a particular
jurisdiction, which will be one of:
- England
- Wales
- England and Wales
- Scotland, or
- Northern Ireland
In practice, companies incorporated in all these jurisictions can operate in
the other parts with no problems. The only practical restriction is that the
Registered Office - often the home of the Secretary - has to be physically
located in that jurisdiction.
Given that most of us seem to be based in England, I suggest "England and
Wales" as the location. This gives us maximum flexibility, should we end up
with a secretary who lives, say, in Cardiff, it wouldn't be a problem. If
the secretary lived in, say, Edinburgh, we would just have to make some kind
of arrangements for someone else - possibly another director - to host the
registered office.
The alternative is to focus this chapter on, say, England and Wales only,
and let Scotland form their own. Given there is currently no initiative to
form a separate chapter in Scotland I suggest we dont go down that route
until then.
While you can incorporate in "England and Wales", I think you need to
decide on one or the other for the registered office. It doesn't
necessarily have to be the home of the Secretary, although that would
be ideal. Anywhere that someone can receive official mail will do, it
doesn't even need to be a board member as long as they can forward it
on as required. I'm optimistic that at some point in the not too
distant future (2 or 3 years, maybe, unlikely to be less, could easily
be more) we'll be in the position to have an actual office that could
be the registered office.
I don't see any need for a separate Scottish chapter, although my idea
about committees (if it proves legally feasible) would give a good
alternative. The Committee for Scotland could almost be a sub-chapter.