Bristol Women’s Voice Membership Policy

Introduction

This policy is designed to provide clarity on Bristol Women’s Voice membership and membership criteria (set out below), commitment, benefits and, where necessary, the process for removing membership and appeal.

The Director will monitor the implementation of this policy, collect information about required improvements, and will report all complaints and outcomes to the Board of Trustees on a quarterly basis.

Bristol Women’s Voice Membership Criteria

Women must indicate that they have read and agree to act in accordance with:

1. Our membership criteria:
   • Our membership is free and open to any woman who lives, works, volunteers or studies in Bristol;
2. Our membership and projects are open to non-binary people who may wish to access our service if they feel comfortable to do so (understanding that they may be ‘read’ as women) and feel that this will benefit them;
3. We are a trans-inclusive organisation.
4. Our mission, vision, values.
5. Our code of conduct:
   • Bristol Women’s Voice understands that people join us for many reasons, and we value their contribution, commitment and participation. A core purpose of Bristol Women’s Voice is to bring women into connection with us and with each other.
   • Bristol Women’s Voice is an intersectional feminist organisation committed to creating inclusive, safe and respectful spaces. Members do not need to share all our views but must respect our approach and the way we hold space.
   • We will not tolerate behaviour or language that is, or could be perceived as, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ageist, disablist, sexist, misogynist, or otherwise discriminatory. This includes, but is not limited to, racist microaggressions, deliberate misgendering, or questioning someone’s right to be in the space.
   • We will not tolerate abuse or harassment of Bristol Women’s Voice staff or volunteers. 

 

Membership Benefits

Members will receive the following benefits:

• A monthly newsletter, updating you on our work and upcoming opportunities
• Opportunities to attend twice-annual members’ events
• Voting rights at our Annual General Meeting
• Opportunity to become a trustee
• Opportunity to influence the organisation’s strategy, through the annual members’ survey and other events and platforms

Breach of membership terms

Bristol Women’s Voice reserves the right to remove membership from women who are in breach of our vision, values or Code of Conduct.

In most circumstances, those found to be in breach will be given a warning outlining the concern/s. This might include, but is not limited to, concerns about:

• discriminatory/exclusive behaviour at our events;
• public or private damaging communications about Bristol Women’s Voice or women more broadly;
• campaigning on issues that are misaligned with our values.

 

The director will speak with any disruptive member in person to outline concerns and to explore alternative opportunities for learning, training and a restorative approach to mitigate on reputational damage to Bristol Women’s Voice . This will be followed up in writing and a copy of the Membership Policy.

Where there are ongoing causes for concern, membership will be automatically removed for a minimum of 12 months.

Bristol Women’s Voice reserve the right to remove membership from any individual found to be in serious contravention of Bristol Women’s Voice’s vision, values, membership and or Code of Conduct with immediate effect.

Removal of Membership

When a decision is made to remove membership, the member will be informed in writing and the reasons for this decision clearly laid out.
Bristol Women’s Voice may remove membership at the point of sign-up in the following circumstances:

1. The person signed up does not meet our membership criteria. In this case, we may write to the applicant to ask if they want to remain as a newsletter subscriber or participate in activities involving allies of gender equity.
2. The person signed up does not meet our membership criteria on the basis of misaligned values, clearly evidenced through overt behaviours, for example:
   • History of campaigning for far-right political groups
   • Harassment of women entering abortion clinics
   • Repeated promotion of hateful communications about transgender, older women, or other marginalised groups

All decisions to remove membership will be made by the Director.

Appeal

Where the person wishes to appeal against the decision to remove membership, they can do so in writing to the Bristol Women’s Voice Board of Trustees.

The Governance and Membership Subgroup of the Board will review the appeal and respond to the complainant.

Appeals will be acknowledged in writing within 10 working days of the complaint and responded to as soon as is practicable. 

In all instances, complaints will be included in the Board reports and reviewed quarterly.

Excluded members will not be eligible to apply again for 12 months.

Excluded members will lose their rights to the membership benefits outlined above for the duration of their exclusion.