East Coast Sea Kayaking Club

There are several reasons. Firstly it allows us the possibility to give different rights to different groups of people within the club, according to membership class. In practice this is used only to limit voting rights and the right to stand for a position on the general committee to full members. This makes good sense because a new member would likely have little idea about what's best for the club as an organisation, before they've spent some time in the club seeing how it operates and what the membership expects.

Secondly, it provides a measure of protection for the club against the possibility of a large influx of new members joining for the sole purpose of changing the direction of the club to suit their own needs and priorities, possibly against the wishes of the existing membership. In effect there's a time-delay of one year before such members have a say in the running of the club, during which time others have an opportunity to fully understand their motivations and reasons for wanting to do so.