Following on from comments on the Thread "AoA Discussion Thread (AGM quorum and
voting, allowing internet board meetings, age limits, delegation)"
There are two questions here: age limit for trustees and age limit for members. I sugest
they are linked so we should take them here.
As detailed here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Candidate_FAQs#Why_do_Boar…,
because we've decided to set ourselves up as a Company Limited by Guarantee, we cannot
have any director-trustees under the age of 16. We could only have 16 and 17 year old
trustees as long as the Charity
Commission was happy that they "understands their duties and
responsibilities" and they had no cause for concern that the charity
was being mismanaged.
Generally, I think our default should be to be as open and inclusive as we can be, except
where there are good reasons otherwise. We decided to restrict the initial Board to 18,
partly because the issue was raised too late in the day to change the rules. However, we
did say the issue would be reopened for subsequent boards.
My suggestion is that we allow anyone 16 or over can stand for the Board but have the
election rules worded such that a majority of the Board at all times must be over 18.
For members, I'm not aware of any legal restrictions on the age of members and I
don't see any advantage in introducing one. Can anyone think of any good reasons to
restrict age? For me, if someone has the nouse to set up an account on wikimedia and
participate, i think they would be able to constructuvely participate in the chapter and
so should be welcomed in.
What do others think?