Aigas Community Forest

A productive, working forest providing measurable social, economic and environmental benefits for local residents and visitors alike

Governance

Aigas Community Forest has been established as a Company Limited by Guarantee. We are also a registered Scottish charity, No. SC041614.  You can download a copy of our Articles of Association here.  These are the legal documents that define the way we are governed and state our purposes.

In order to meet various statutory requirements we were required to define our community.  In setting the boundary we wanted to make sure that we included as many people as possible with a potential interest in the forest either because they live close to it or because it forms a major part of their view. It was important that this encompassed both sides of the River Beauly and as a result we moved away from traditional community council and parish boundaries.  Our community is defined as the following postcodes: IV4 7AD, IV4 7AE, IV4 7AF, IV4 7AG, IV4 7AQ, IV4 7EY, IV4 7JJ, IV4 7JL, IV4 7JN, IV4 7JR, IV4 7JT, IV4 7JU and Eilean Aigas, and those parts of the Kilmorack Community Council area not covered by the preceding list of postcodes.

The Governance of our company requires us to have at least 20 ‘Company Members’ at any time. Company members are a bit like shareholders but with no financial stake or risk in the company. The majority of directors are elected from the company members - Kilmorack Community Council have the right to nominate one director and the option exists to co-opt up to three others if specific skills or experience are not otherwise available.

If you live within the community boundary you can join our company and as an ‘Ordinary Member’ you will have full voting rights and a direct influence over the election of Directors, or you can stand as a director yourself and take a hands on role in the future of the Forest.

If you are not ordinarily resident in the community or wish to join as an organisation you can become an ‘Associate Member’. Unfortunately you won’t have voting rights but you can still attend the AGM and be heard. The constitution also allows for up to 3 Associate Members to be co-opted onto the Board at any one time.

We also have a ‘Junior Member’ category for those individuals aged 12 – 17 who want to be a part of Aigas Community Forest. Junior Members cannot vote or be Board members.

Members are required to confirm their membership once a year on the anniversary of the date they first joined. We currently do not charge a subscription but encourage you to make a donation.

The Board meets mostly bi-monthly, on pre-arranged dates, and any member of the public is welcome to attend our meetings.  You can find a list of meeting dates in the Minutes folder on our Documents page.  At each AGM, company members will be asked to vote on a third of the directors. Any company member will have the option to stand for the Board and of course the chance to remove directors from the Board. Additionally directors can only serve a maximum of two consecutive terms of three years before stepping down. This puts control of the company and the way the Forest is managed directly in the hands of the Community. If you don’t like the way things are going, or think you could do a better job, then once a year you will have the chance to take a hands-on role. Please take the opportunity to become a company member and exercise your right to direct the future of Aigas Forest.

EU General Data Protection Rgulations.

Such data that is kept on Community Forest Members is not shared with any other organisation. Any information is private and only retained for the purposes of contacting members in relation to activities of the Forest. We do not retain any financial information on members or customers. In the case of a data breach we undertake to inform all members immediately. To check what information we retain on any member please contact the Secretary.