Somerset CCC EGM Update
An Extraordinary General Meeting of Somerset County Cricket Club was due to take place on September 14th to appoint the new Chair of Somerset County Cricket Club.
Regrettably, we were required to cancel the election and the EGM for reasons covered in the communications which were sent to eligible Members on September 8th.
As mentioned previously, our commitment is to Gold Standard governance, and we therefore felt that it was imperative to get the process correct, with full transparency.
In the cancellation notice, it was advised that matters would be discussed at the September Board meeting and that an update would be provided shortly thereafter.
Members have now been notified of what the next steps will be; a brief outline of which is summarised below:
At that Board meeting it was unanimously agreed that rules 9.2.2 and 9.5.2 were currently too restrictive in that they did not enable the best list of candidates to be assembled for either the Chair and/or Appointed Directors. A key motivation for the Club rule changes approved in 2022, was to support a move to a skills-based Board, and to better enable the efficient operation of a modern and ambitious sporting club moving forward. Cricket will always remain our core purpose and growing the business to support our on-field ambitions has become increasingly challenging. We have previously communicated the need to transform our business, requiring a diversity of skills, which may not necessarily sit within the Membership.
The Board now propose that an EGM is called to request a change to the Club rules, to no longer make it compulsory for a Chair candidate or Appointed Director to be a Club Member for the two calendar years prior to commencing their time in office. It is felt that this change to add flexibility is necessary and in the very best interests of the Club.
Resolutions for Chair and Appointed Directors will be proposed separately, and both will require a two third majority to vote in favour for them to be carried. Specific details of these changes will be found in the voting slip, which has been sent out by Civica to eligible Members.
The EGM will be scheduled for November 18th, 2026 at 7pm in the County Room at the Cooper Associates County Ground.
To assist Members to fully understand the need for this change, we will implement further opportunities pre-EGM to hear from us and to discuss this matter in a more informal setting.
Club CEO, Jamie Cox and I have produced a short online video for the website to further explain matters. The link to this will be available on the website and will also be sent via email.
We will also host two evenings in order to present a mixture of in-person and online opportunities. For the first hour of each session, both Jamie and I will be in the County Room at the Cooper Associates County Ground, where Members will be welcome to come along and discuss the matter. For the second hour of each session, we will switch to online to enable open engagement with those who cannot attend in-person.
The dates of these events are:
- Thursday October 29th between 6-8pm
- Monday November 16th between 7-9pm.
We will forward these links via email once available.
As a process which will now be familiar to Members, voting for this EGM will be conducted online by Civica and all Members are encouraged to vote and to ideally do so in advance electronically.
However, given the complicated nature and importance of the matter, we will keep the voting open for those wishing to attend the EGM, either in-person or online, and vote either in the meeting or afterwards before midnight, when the voting will close. For anyone using a postal vote it will be important to return this in advance or bring it with you on the night if attending in-person.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and support with this matter.
Your sincerely,
Richard Brice
Interim Club Chair
