BARDES

British Alliance for Researchers in Dental Education and Scholarship

Name

The Alliance shall be called the British Alliance for Researchers in Dental Education & Scholarship usually referred to as BARDES.

The name of the Alliance may be changed by a majority decision at an Annual or Extraordinary General Meeting, subject to approval by the Charity Commission.

Objectives

The Alliance’s ultimate charitable purpose is to improve standards of oral and dental care for the public. This will be achieved by supporting dental education researchers to develop the skills and network connections to enable them to deliver an evidence base that informs the future delivery of exceptional dental education.

Research studies have led to mainstream media coverage of the challenges the public are experiencing in accessing dental care for both general dental services and specialist intervention. Within the United Kingdom to qualify as a dentist, typically a five year undergraduate degree is undertaken, with some universities offering degree entry and a slightly shorter programme. Those becoming registered specialists or those recognised with a special interest are required to undertake further study and training. One of the recommendations for remediating the shortfall in dental workforce is to train more dentists and dental professionals, with Dentals Schools asked to increase their intake of students. BARDES’ charitable purpose is to continue to advance dental education research to support new and experienced dental educators who will be responsible for educating and training this much needed dental workforce. The Alliance’s charitable purposes are to connect and support dental education researchers and scholars to deliver an evidence base that informs the future delivery of exceptional dental education.

The Alliance will do this by:

  • Facilitating connectivity of providers of undergraduate and postgraduate dental education programmes in order to identify, enable and enhance delivery of educational research.
  • Developing communities of practice with similar areas of interest and expertise.
  • Providing opportunity for networking through activities such as conferences and the webpages.

Providing support for members of the Alliance in the form of:

  • Access to expertise.
  • Mentorship.
  • Academic resources.

Support the growth of the dental education research discipline through active outreach and the development of early career colleagues.

Benefits and payments to charity trustees and connected persons

General provisions

No charity trustee or connected person may:

  • buy or receive any goods or services from the charity on terms preferential to those applicable to members of the public;
  • sell goods, services or any interest in land to the charity;
  • be employed by, or receive any remuneration from, the charity;
  • receive any other financial benefit from the charity.

Membership

Membership is open to anyone with an interest in Dental Education Research or Scholarship.

The Alliance shall consist of Honorary, Ordinary and Student Members.

Application for Ordinary or Student Membership must be sent to the Honorary Secretary together with the subscription. There are no requirements for nomination.

On the recommendation of the Board, Honorary Membership may be conferred upon any person of high standing in dental education research or scholarship through unanimous vote at the Annual General Meeting, or Extraordinary General Meeting called for that purpose.

Annual Subscription

  • An annual subscription shall be payable on admission to the Alliance and subsequently in the September of each year.
  • The annual subscription rate shall be proposed by the Board and requires approval by Members at the Annual General Meeting.
  • Honorary Members shall be exempt from payment of annual subscriptions.
  • Failure to pay subscriptions shall be dealt with as thought best by the Board.

Directors

The Directors of the Alliance shall be Trustees (Founding Members), President (Chair of the Board of Directors), Immediate Past President, President Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, Assistant Secretary and Communications Officer.

Directors shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting. Their term of office will usually be three years, except for the Treasurer whose term of office will normally be five years.

Duties of Directors

The trustees may make reasonable additional rules to help run the charity. These rules must not conflict with this constitution or the law.

  • The President shall preside for one year, commencing at in January.
  • The President shall be responsible for organising the Annual Conference with support from the Committee.
  • The President will preside over all meetings and supervise their arrangement.
  • The President shall act in the best interests of the Alliance at all times.
  • The President-Elect shall assist the President and preside in his/her absence. The term of office for the President-Elect shall be one year and will precede that of the President they will succeed.
  • The Honorary Secretary shall keep minutes of the business of the Alliance, conduct all correspondence of the Alliance, work with the President in the organisation of meetings of the Alliance and shall submit a report on the work of the Alliance to the Annual General Meeting. (The term of office for the Honorary Secretary is linked to that of the Honorary Assistant Secretary, with that person being first elected Honorary Assistant Secretary. In this way, the elected Honorary Assistant Secretary shall serve for 1 year as Honorary Assistant Secretary before moving into the office of Honorary Secretary on retirement of the incumbent Honorary Secretary. The term of office for the Honorary Secretary shall be 3 years.)
  • The Honorary Assistant Secretary shall become familiar with the duties of the Honorary Secretary, provide assistance as required and take over the post of Honorary Secretary when the Honorary Secretary retires. The term of office for the Honorary Assistant Secretary (1 year) and its relationship to the office of Honorary Secretary is outlined above. It is implied in this that there will not always be an Honorary Assistant Secretary on Council - rather this post shall be filled so that a person is in post during the final year of office for an existing Honorary Secretary.
  • The Communications Officer shall have as key tasks and responsibilities: Website Management (Monitoring and arranging updating of the content of the website on a monthly basis to ensure dissemination of the organisational progress and achievement), Social media Engagement (ensure social media presence, co-develop creative content for posting, update all social media outlet at least once a week, respond to comments and request coming from social media postings), and relations with media (Prepare news releases and other public briefing notes in relation to key developments).

The Board

The authority of the Alliance will be vested in a Board consisting of the Directors of the Alliance and two ordinary members. The Board shall conduct the affairs of the Alliance with equity and arrange for its meetings.

The Board shall meet prior to the Annual General Meeting and refer to it any matters which may affect the welfare of the Alliance.

The term of office for ordinary Board members will be three years after which such an elected Board member will be ineligible for re-election for a period of one year except under circumstances approved by Members. Not more than two ordinary members shall be elected each year to fill the vacancies occasioned by the retirement of the longest serving ordinary members.

Each Dental School will have a BARDES representative from which two ordinary members of the Board will be elected or co-opted. The Secretary shall invite expressions of interest from school representatives, and if more than two are received a postal or electronic ballot of all Members that are eligible to vote will be arranged by the Secretary.

The nomination by the Board for the President Elect together with the results of any elections shall be announced at the Annual General Meeting for its approval.

If a vacancy occurs on the Board, the Board shall be empowered to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the current year by co-option. The proceedings of the Board shall not be invalidated by any vacancy among their number nor by any failure to appoint or any defect in the appointment or qualification of a Member. The Board shall have the power to co-opt not more than six additional members as required; co-opted members will not have voting rights.

The Board retains the right to co-opt members to the Board from time to time.

Meetings

The Alliance shall meet as and when the Members consider best.

The quorum for meetings of the Alliance shall be one third of the membership, and for Board meetings three or one-third of Board membership, whichever is the greater.

From time-to-time groups relating to the interests of the BARDES may be established by its members. These are required to be endorsed by the Board.

The Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting shall take place in January.

The following agenda should be used as a guide:

  1. The minutes of the preceding meeting.
  2. The result of the election for Board Members shall be announced.
  3. President's Report.
  4. The report of the Treasurer.
  5. The report of the Secretary.
  6. The report of the Communications Officer.
  7. Any other business.

The President Elect having been confirmed at the previous Annual General Meeting shall be installed as President for the succeeding year.

Extraordinary General Meetings may be called by the Board or when requested by at least one third of members if they shall so notify the Secretary in writing - such meeting must be convened within six weeks of the request in accordance with Clause 9 below. The quorum for an Extraordinary General Meeting shall be 20 Members, such number to include three Members of the Board.

Amendments of the Constitution

Amendments to this Constitution shall receive the assent of two-thirds of the Members present and voting at an Annual General Meeting or an Extraordinary General Meeting convened for that purpose. A resolution for the alteration of the Constitution must be seconded and received by the Honorary Secretary at least 21 days before the meeting at which the resolution is to be brought forward.

At least 14 days' notice of such a meeting must be given by the Honorary Secretary to the membership and must include notice of the amendment proposed.

No alteration shall be made to Clause 2 (Objectives), Clause 10 (Dissolution) or this clause without the prior approval in writing of the Charity Commissioners or other authority having a charitable jurisdiction shall have been obtained; and no alteration shall be made which would have the effect of causing the Alliance to cease to be a charity in law.

Dissolution

The Alliance may be dissolved by a Resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting at an Extraordinary General Meeting convened for the purpose of which 21 days' notice shall have been given to the members.

Such resolution may give instructions for the disposal of any assets held by or in the name of the Alliance, provided that if any property remains after the satisfaction of all debts and liabilities such property shall not be paid to or distributed among the members of the Alliance but shall be given to transferred to such other charitable institution or institution having objects similar to some or all of the objects of the Alliance as the Alliance may determine and if and in so far as effect cannot be given to this provision then to some other charitable purpose.