The Iver Village Residents’ Association is having its Annual General Meeting and you need to be there.

While it’s a lot of fun complaining about how terrible things are on Facebook and with friends, it’s not as fun realising that things don’t change when you just blow off steam instead of doing something more productive. This something doesn’t need to be huge and you don’t need to grab a shovel and start filling in potholes.

In the last year since the current committee was elected, the IVRA has represented its members and managed to get their voices heard by councillors, the MP, private companies, and more. There’s still much more to do, but you can’t say that your voice doesn’t matter, that things won’t change, or that others won’t lift a finger to help. We get a lot of support and help, we are being listened to, and we can represent you if we know what you need.

All you need to do at this stage is to come to the AGM (if you’re not an IVRA member and you live in Iver Village, please sign up for free first: https://www.ivra.org.uk/membership/ ), vote for your representatives, and most importantly – tell us what you think needs to change in Iver Village.

To make a change, we need you to be there – it’s really important! We meet at Iver Village Hall on Tuesday 25th July at 7pm.

If you want to be voted in for the IVRA Committee and help manage and represent the association, please let us know at hi@IVRA.org.uk

Here’s the agenda for the 2023 AGM :

1. Welcome
2. Apologies for Absence
3. Minutes of AGM 2022
4. Chair’s Report on the IVRA’s activities in the last year
5. Hon. Treasurer’s Report
6. Membership Secretary’s report
7. Vote to approve changes to the IVRA’s Constitution
8. To elect and nominate Committee members
9. Resident Participation – tell us what needs to change in Iver Village
10. Any other business
11. Date of next meeting

The most important item, as we see it, is the newly added Resident Participation session. None of the current Committee members possesses mind-reading abilities so if we don’t know what you want and need, we can’t achieve what you want and need.

We promised to give you a voice and power to change – not to get power and change things in the way we think. The whole problem is that councils, MPs, and governments think they know what’s good for us without actually asking us.

Don’t let your voice be unheard – come and tell us what needs to change.

Another item will be a vote to approve changes to the IVRA’s Constitution:

The Committee recommends several small amendments to the IVRA’s constitution. These amendments largely reflect how it has been necessary to run the IVRA over the last year, the economic climate and the impact it may have on residents.

You can find the proposed new constitution here and the existing one here.

To allow easy comparison between the current statement and its proposed amendment, we created this document in which the constitution is presented in its current form with the proposed amendments to each point written in orange below each point as applicable. Any notes to the amendment are in italic purple.

A few of the main points are:

• Allowing the Committee to keep the membership free for longer.
• Adding the option of creating working groups, not just subcommittees.
• Increasing the number of committee members to 14 so that more residents can be involved in decisions and assist in making our village better.
• Electing all committee members and officers every year for simplicity and accountability.

Oliver Kraus,

Chair, Iver Village Residents’ Association