for an alleged grassroots organisation, the rank and file have no voice.
The original "Shoppers" groups that "Shirley Scot" set up were "grassroots".
I don't know why but Shirley added Heather to every Shoppers Twitter DM Group. Shirley then had to step back for a while for personal reasons, things changed and she did not come back.
On 1st August 2021 Joanna Lear wrote "A Word from your admins" that was signed by "Jo and Heather".
No idea who Joanna is or what happened to her but she disappeared off the scene.
A Word from your admins
Dear extraordinary ordinary women,
Hello and a huge welcome to you all, we are so glad that you are all here. It is really exciting and humbling to be part of a group with such accomplished, talented and creative women. We have women from the medical profession, the legal profession, teachers, the criminal justice system, students and beyond; we have mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, wives and more. It is phenomenal, welcome to you all.
We are following the model that @SisterFlo/Shirley has started in Scotland of creating private groups on Twitter so we can discuss, share and meet like-minded women who feel that the public forum, the workplace and home, have become unwelcome and even unsafe. Shirley is on all your groups so please follow her and you can read more about how these groups were started. It is truly inspirational.
We are emphatically pro-women rather than anti-trans and while the conflict of rights and the undermining of women’s rights is indisputable, we want to focus on our interests (women’s rights) over our ‘position’ which may be more inflammatory (TMAM etc). I have to credit the amazing Helen Joyce, author of TRANS, with that helpful stance.
A word about the groups and a request.
For the last few days Heather and I have been setting up groups in your area by demand, it may be that you are in a group covering several areas and in time these will generate satellite groups more local to you. Alternatively, you may be in a group on your own, don’t worry, others will come, and you can stay in the GC Witches group until you are up and running. These groups are yours, run by you, not by us or anyone else and you know best what is happening in your local area and can organise accordingly.
As such we are looking for a nominated coordinator from each group to disseminate information as and when needed. Coordinators will act as liaison between groups but I assure you it won’t be a big job. We are asking for one coordinator for each group that will enable that group to then be responsible for admitting new members. Heather has done an excellent document which we will share with you, showing you the procedure, such that it is, that we have been following adding people. And of course Heather and I remain here to help you and to help generate new membership.
A final word about Twitter groups, you can’t delete or edit messages. I need say no more on that.
Heather and I are two ordinary women who had seen what the Scottish women were doing and wanted to be a part of it. We are certainly not experienced in organising and activism, we are admins and part of the groups like everyone else. We will be sending out a document in the next couple of days with some suggestions of activities that you may like to look at or ignore completely. In the meantime, keep those conversations going. We welcome any suggestions from you but these are your groups and we can’t wait to see what you do and we continue to be inspired by all of you.
Thank you for your patience while we’ve been setting up and thank you again for joining us and being little braver today.
Jo and Heather
Fast forward to 12th April 2022 and Heather Binning registers Women's Rights Network Ltd as a Private Limited Company with Companies House.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14041486/filing-history
Who knew at the time? Certainly not the majority of women who were already members of what they thought the Women's Rights Network was: a voluntary membership organisation, voluntarily organised into a loose network of local groups with Coordinators appointed or elected by members of those groups.
I am not aware that Heather informed the Coordinators about this development, let alone consulted them or the members.
Today I asked Perplexity AI, "Do the Articles of Association of Women's Rights Network Ltd suggest that it is a grassroots organisation? Certificate of Incorporation attached."
Answer:
No. On their face, the Articles of Association of Women’s Rights Network Ltd describe a tightly controlled, non‑profit company limited by guarantee, but they do not suggest a grassroots, member‑led organisation; if anything, they point the other way.
What the Articles clearly show
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It is a company limited by guarantee with members’ liability capped at £1, and no share capital.
-
It adopts a strong non‑distribution clause: income and property must be used to promote the company’s objects and cannot be distributed to members, and any surplus on dissolution must go to another body with similar activities and equivalent non‑distribution rules.
- Directors can be remunerated or paid for professional services in certain circumstances, but only within the limits and safeguards described in article 39.
These features are consistent with a non‑profit or voluntary‑sector body, but they do not in themselves indicate a grassroots structure.
Control and governance (key for “grassroots”)
- On incorporation, a single individual (Heather Binning) is the only subscriber member, the only director, and the only person with significant control, holding 75% or more of the voting rights and the right to appoint or remove a majority of directors.
- Members only become members if they apply in a form approved by the directors and the directors approve the application, giving the board gatekeeping control over who, if anyone, joins as a member.
- The directors hold broad powers to manage the company’s business, to delegate, and to make rules or bye‑laws that govern membership classes, rights and conditions, and the conduct of members.
^^
Grassroots organisations are typically characterised by broad, participatory membership and collective decision‑making; these Articles instead centralise control in the directors and, in practice at incorporation, in one person.
Member rights and participation
- Members have standard company‑law rights to attend and vote at general meetings, but there is no requirement in the Articles for a wide base of members or for members to be drawn from, or accountable to, a particular community or constituency.
- The directors can shape membership rules and conditions (including classes of membership and fees) through internal rules, so meaningful participation depends entirely on how those powers are used in practice, which the Articles do not constrain.
This gives a legal possibility of a participatory, grassroots membership, but the Articles do not build it in or protect it.
Non‑profit, but not inherently “grassroots”
- The non‑distribution and asset‑lock‑style provisions (articles 39–40) are typical of charities and non‑profit companies and show that the company is not designed to distribute profits to members or directors.
- However, the combination of: one founding member/director with significant control, directors’ gatekeeping over membership, and strong board powers means the structure is better described as a centrally controlled non‑profit company than as a grassroots, bottom‑up organisation.
So: the Articles are compatible with a grassroots practice if the directors chose to open membership and share power, but they do not in themselves suggest that the company is grassroots or community‑led; they leave control in the hands of a very small number of people, initially one.
None of that means that there is anything inherently wrong with the organisation nor that it cannot function effectively to meet its Aims and Objectives.
However, it cannot be honestly described as "grassroots".
The manner of Incorporation and drafting of the Articles of Association might perhaps be described as "by sleight of hand", or "underhand" or even "hijack"? That's history now though and WRN is what it is.
If Heather seems inclined to conduct purges and behave like a despot, it is not against the rules. She could sack all the other Directors tomorrow if she chose, appoint new ones or rule alone in splendid isolation. Or she could wind up the organisation if she felt like it, though that seems very unlikely as she is riding high.
WRN is doing very valuable work. If it "imploded" it would be a loss but that too seems unlikely, given that it seems many if not most groups are oblivious to what has been going on and the majority of the "core team" are still in place.
Maybe it would have "imploded" long before now if it had been a true "grassroots organisation"?
It looks, and sounds from comments in this thread, like it is made up of three distinct parts with a top-down "management structure":
- Local Groups providing mutual support for members and doing local activism and online campaigning in support of the corporate aims and objectives
- A "think tank" group that does all the "high level" work listed in the Aims and Objectives, doubles as "corporate management" and mobilises Local Groups in support of specific campaigns
- A boss who does the media and parliamentary gigs and lays down the law
https://www.womensrights.network/about-wrn
Perhaps that is the best model in this case?