Procedure for the Holding of Offices

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1982/09

THE HOLDING OF OFFICES

1. An office is a quantity of work with a name attached to it and an

end date. There is no office without an end date.

2. No office is paid. Where the work costs the holder money, the money

is returned on production of the receipt and is entered in the

house ledger under the office and not under the person.

3. No office confers precedence at a table, a vote of greater weight,

a form of address, or any standing whatever in the Record. A person

who has held offices and a person who has held none are, for every

purpose the Institute has, the same.

4. No office is inherited, and no holder appoints their own successor

or sits in the meeting that considers their own renewal.

5. Every office may be laid down. Notice is given in writing where the

office keeps papers, and by saying so where it does not. No reason

is asked for and none is entered.

6. Where an office is vacant, the ordinary business continues on the

standing arrangements. A vacancy is a vacancy and not an emergency.

7. The register of who holds what, and until when, is printed in the

annual report each year in full.