On Legalities and Pumpkin Festivals

Today was a busy day on the allotments. But not anything to do with the Plot.
For a while now we have been trying to get self management sorted out. Going self managed means that we can have our own say in what happens to the site and we won't be at the whim of the Council. The Council have decided that the allotment sites around the borough should pay a higher rent. At Martin Way is the largest allotment site in Merton then our rent increases would also be substantially larger. Going self managed we can by pass a lot of the Council red tape and get things sorted ourself.
But it hasn't been easy.
For one there is a legal of legal work that needs to be undertaken. The existing Allotment society (Merton Allotment and Garden Association) is the wrong structure. To be a legal entity we need to have a limited liability - hence we need to be incorporated as a Company. Except we don't want to pay all the extras that are associated with a company since we're not in this for a profit. So instead we will become and Industrial and Provident Society.
Now this sounds very fine, but as I said, there are a lot of legal things we have to sort out. First is the new constitution. Fortunately we're in luck here since the NSALG have a set of model rules we can use. These can be submitted to the FSA to get the ball up and running. However the model rules are quite old and don't suit how the Allotments are run. It's more suited to old fashioned industrial companies. They require a President to be elected for one. At the meeting to discuss the constitution a few weeks back, a lot of (pointless) argument was placed on this. So it has been decided to remove this post. Did I say that each change we do to the constitution costs us money? Ah well thats what (some of) the members want. It's all over now. But there are still dissenting voices.
So now we have a new society - Martin Way Allotment Gardens Association Limited. Or MAGA Ltd. for short. Yeah, we thought we'd keep it simple for the hard of thinking.
So now the legal stuff was out of the way, it's time for the bonfire, BBQ and pumpkin festival.
The bonfire was a roaring success.

As was the BBQ.

And the sparklers I bought (last seen as the fuse to the "bomb" cake I made for last year's Guy Fawkes bake off at work) cheered up the crowd.

(Our Chairwoman - and son)

(Other half and friend)

All in all it was quite a good evening. Once the dissenters left that is. There are some people who just want to cause trouble and don't contribute to the overall running of the allotments.
And as for the pumpkin festival, there was a judging of carved pumpkins. The bat (left front) and house (left back) were the two winners.

Maybe I should grow pumpkins next year?