Related pages:
- Constitution
- Standing Orders – Officers’ Responsibilites
- Standing Orders – General Meetings
- Complaints against the Officers
- Complaints against members (discipline) (this page)
Simplified policy approved at the Annual General Meeting in September 2026 (which replaced the policy approved at the Annual General Meeting in 2023).
Morris Federation Policy: Dealing with complaints against members
In the, hopefully unlikely, event that we receive a substantiated complaint against an individual member or member team, we (The Morris Federation Committee) must obviously take action to address the complaint. This action may be informal or formal depending on the nature of the complaint and the severity of any possible consequences for the member.
Informal chat
It is helpful if we can solve most issues informally. Having understood the complaint, we would approach the individual member or member team to hear their side of the story, discuss the problem and agree on a plan to resolve the issue.
Formal process
If the issue requires more detailed consideration or may place the individual member or member team in jeopardy of serious consequences (up to and including termination of membership), we need to follow a more formal process.
To do so, we will pro-actively collect any written evidence and may seek and record the verbal evidence of third-parties and witnesses.
We will then:
- Send an email to the individual member or member team contact registered with us explaining the evidence and why this is a problem we need to discuss formally with them.
- Invite them to a meeting (almost certainly online, with at least 14 days’ notice) to discuss the issue. The person who conducted the initial investigation will present the evidence gathered. The individual member or nominated officer of the team concerned, will explain their side of the story. They may bring a friend for support if they want, but are not entitled to legal representation. Two Committee members (not including the investigator) will act as a panel to determine, on balance of probability, what actually happened and whether an offence against Federation rules has occurred. No decision will be taken or communicated at the meeting, it’s important that we all have an opportunity to ‘sleep on it’.
- We will email or write to the individual member or registered contact within 7 days to tell them our decision and any action required of them.
There is the right to challenge our decision. The individual member or member team must send an appeal letter (or email) within 7 days. A fresh committee of three or more Committee members, a majority of whom were not part of the first decision, will review the appeal and make the final decision.
There is no further appeal, unless the individual member or member team have their membership terminated by this process. In that case they have a final right of appeal to the wider membership at the General Meeting as per clause 2.7 of the Constitution.
Last updated: October 2026
