{"id":5849,"date":"2026-06-11T17:16:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/?page_id=5849"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:51:06","slug":"governance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/governance\/","title":{"rendered":"Governance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governance Review Update May 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shipmate Mark Slawson OBE (Deputy National President) briefed the No. 4 Area meeting on the ongoing work being carried out to update the RNA\u2019s Royal Charter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Charter was originally signed in 1954. Since that time, charity regulation has changed enormously, particularly following the formation of the Charity Commission. The Commission has oversight of the activities of UK charities and has produced guidance for the management and leadership of charities. The Trustees of charities (in the RNA\u2019s case, this is the membership of the National Council) are required to assess whether to follow the guidance or be able to explain why they do not (\u201ccomply or explain\u201d). After study and consideration, the National Council concluded that compliance was the appropriate action for the RNA. This was because of the difficulty apparent in the National Council meeting the Charity Commission\u2019s requirements for Trustees\u2019 main focus to be \u201cstrategy, performance and assurance rather than operational matters\u201d, and for a Trustees Board to have \u201cthe skills, knowledge and experience it needs to govern, lead and deliver the charity\u2019s purposes effectively\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conference in 2024 agreed that \u201cthere is a need to separate the roles of National Council and Trustees of the Association and instructs National Council to revert to Conference at the next available opportunity with proposals to amend the Royal Charter, Rules and Byelaws to effect the proposed separation of Trustees and National Council duties and any other associated required changes\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, a working party, led by the DNP and including the National Chair, Vice Chair and various members of the National Council, have been working out how this can be carried out.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of there being a requirement to change, there are a number of factors that will not change. These include, importantly, the Charitable Objects of the RNA, along with the Values (Unity, Loyalty, Patriotism, Comradeship). It has also been a principle from the outset that, to the greatest extent possible, there would be no changes made to the ways that Areas and Branches operate. The working party have also worked at separating the strategic and operational activity of the current National Council. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n

Strategic \u2013 What is the best way that the RNA can support the Royal Navy in accordance with the RNA\u2019s Objects?<\/span>
\nOperational \u2013 Do we allow a company to use the copyrighted RNA logo to advertise their product? Should we change the RNA badge?<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, an attempt has been made to reduce some of the detail in the Charter and Rules and include those details in the various Byelaws; this allows the RNA to be in greater control of its own governance and reduces the requirement for any future Charter changes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main proposal for change is that, in place of the current National Council, there will be a Trustees Board and a subordinate Members Operating Board. The Trustees Board will be responsible for strategic matters, such as legal compliance, the financial well-being of the RNA, and other \u201cbig picture\u201d issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Members Operating Board (MOB), along with Central Office staff, will be responsible for the more operational matters, including managing the in\u2011year budget, organising RNA national events such as Conference and the Biennial Parade, and assisting with Area and Branch issues. The Trustees Board will consist of the National President (as Chair), Deputy National President, National Chair, National Vice-Chair, two Association Members and three Independent Members. The two Association Members are intended to be volunteer members from the wider Association and not members of the Members Operating Board; the mechanism for electing these members has yet to be fully developed. The three Independent Members are intended to be invited to join the Board, as volunteers, having been identified for providing appropriate skills and experience. Ideas at present are that one of these three should be a serving RN member, while the others could be identified to provide finance, governance or fundraising experience. Also in attendance at the Trustees Board, as non\u2011voting members, will be the Association\u2019s Honorary Treasurer, Head of Governance and Chief Executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Members Operating Board (MOB) will have one member from each Area (as the National Council does at present), with an additional member representing foreign branches and the Lanyard Roll membership. How that additional member is chosen or elected has not yet been identified. The MOB members will elect from among themselves the National Chair and Vice Chair.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trustees and Area Members will be time\u2011limited in post, serving for a maximum of three terms of three years. There will be one exception to this rule: should the National Chair or Vice Chair be holding office at the end of their third term, they will be allowed to serve a fourth term. This will enable retention of corporate knowledge on the Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark also highlighted some changes to the Byelaws that are to be included in the re\u2011write work. In particular, Area Byelaw A3c and Branch Byelaw B11a. Currently, these refer to the Area and Branch Main Committees as Trustees of their Area and Branch. To clarify the roles of the members, and avoid any confusion around the term \u201cTrustee\u201d, these paragraphs have been amended in the draft Byelaws to indicate that: \u201cOfficers of the Area\/Branch are entrusted with the responsibility of running their Area\/Branch in accordance with this Charter, Rules and Byelaws, with commitment, diligence and probity and in line with the Ethos of the RNA.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, there is a proposed new Rule 13e making it clear that \u201cIt is not permitted for Officers of an Area or Parent Branch Committee to also be members of an Associated Club Committee\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order for the Charter to be changed, it must be ratified by Conference, approved by the Privy Council and signed by HM The King. Mark and Nick Purkis, RNA Head of Governance, are due to meet the legal team from the Privy Council Office in early February to clarify exactly what is needed and confirm that the work to date is in line with the previous guidance received from them. Area meetings are being briefed in the next few months, with the aim of having a motion at the Conference in Salford this year to ratify the new Charter. If the work has not progressed sufficiently to allow that, then a Special Conference will be necessary, in the same way that the decision to remove any requirement for subscriptions was approved a few years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark has sent through a draft copy of the latest version of the Charter and Rules. This is still changing as thinking and re\u2011writing progresses. He is happy to take any questions, suggestions or observations, to be communicated through the Area NCM, Shipmate Warwick Belfitt.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governance Review Update May 2026 Shipmate Mark Slawson OBE (Deputy National President) briefed the No. 4 Area meeting on the[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5849","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P8R0mQ-1wl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5849"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5875,"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5849\/revisions\/5875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/no4arearna.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}