Everything we do is governed by Rules which we decided when we started.
Our full Rules are available here: Rules PDF.
As a charitable community benefit society, the “rules” are basically our constitution. They are the formal document registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that sets out how our society must operate: its purpose, who can be a member, how decisions and voting work, how directors are appointed and removed, what happens to profits and assets, how meetings are run, and what happens if the society closes. They are legally important: the society and its members/directors are expected to act in accordance with them.
A charitable community benefit society (CCBS) is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 whose purposes are exclusively charitable. It must operate for the benefit of the community rather than primarily for its members, use its assets and income to further its charitable purposes, and follow both its own registered rules and applicable charity law.
It is registered with and files its annual return and accounts with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rather than the Charity Commission; charitable societies are currently exempt charities, so they cannot register with the Charity Commission but remain subject to charity law, while HMRC separately determines eligibility for charitable tax reliefs.