Industrial & Provident Societies Acts

Register No. 29242R

  Rules Of the
Hardwick Sports and Social Club Limited

  Registered on 25^th June 2001under the
Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 1968

Note - These Rules are in part Copyright of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union Ltd. and also Hardwick Sports and Social Club Ltd., and may not be printed without permission of the Union and the Club.

Name and Objects
The society (hereinafter called “the Club”) shall be called the Hardwick Sports and Social Club Limited.  Its objects are to carry on the business of a club by providing for the use of its members, the means of social intercourse, sporting activity, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, rational recreation and the other advantages of a club.

Registered Office
Its registered office shall be at The Pavilion, Egremont Road, Hardwick, Cambridgeshire CB3 7XR.  Notice of any change in the situation of the registered office shall be sent by the secretary within 14 days thereafter to the Registrar of Friendly Societies or its successors in manner and form provided by the Treasury regulations.

Seal of the Club

The Club shall have its name engraven in legible characters upon a seal, which shall bear the device of a circle having the word “Limited” in the centre and the remaining words of the name of the Club in the margin. The seal shall be in the custody of the secretary, or such other officer as the Committee appoint, and shall be used only under the authority of a resolution of the Committee, the date whereof shall be mentioned on the instrument to which the seal is attached, and shall be attested by the signatures of two members of the Committee and the secretary.

Use of Name

The registered name of the Club shall be kept painted or affixed on the outside of every office or place in which the business of the Club is carried on, in a conspicuous position, in letters easily legible, and shall be engraven in legible characters on its seal, and shall be engraven in legible characters in all business letters, notices, advertisements, and other official publications of the Club and in all bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, cheques, and orders for money or goods, purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the Club, and in all bills, invoices, receipts and letters of credit of the Club.

Powers

The Club shall have full power to do all things necessary or expedient for the accomplishment of all objects specified in its Rules, including the power to purchase, hold, sell, mortgage, rent, lease, or sub-lease, lands of any tenure, and to erect, lease, sub-lease, pull down, repair, alter, or otherwise deal with any building thereon.

Shares

Shares shall not be withdrawable or transferable and shall be of the value of £1 and shall be deemed paid up from a member’s first subscription payment.
No member shall hold more than one share, and no interest or dividend shall be paid upon it. A member shall forfeit his share on ceasing from whatever cause to be a member.

Admission of Members

The first members shall be the following four persons, Nigel Atkinson, Maurice Cracknell, Stephen Rose and Christopher Turner all parishioners of the village of Hardwick in Cambridgeshire who, having determined to form themselves into a club more than two days before these rules are intended to become operative, are in this rule referred to as the founder members.  Until there shall be fifteen members of the Club, election of members may be by a majority of votes at a meeting of which all the founder members and such persons as shall then already have been admitted to membership under this rule shall have been given two clear days notice.

Every candidate for membership, other than the founder members, must be proposed by one member of the Club and the proposal must be seconded by another member, both the proposer and seconder being members and both vouching for the candidate's fitness for membership. The name and address of every candidate proposed for membership, together with the names of his proposer and seconder, shall, for a period of at least seven days before such candidate is elected, be posted in the Club in the manner prescribed in rule 10.  The candidate shall deposit the full amount payable for his first subscription payment inclusive of the full amount payable for one share.  Such sum deposited shall be returned in the event of non-acceptance as a member.  The candidate shall sign a declaration of his concurrence with, and adherence to, the purposes of the club as required by the Committee.

The election shall be by the Committee whose decision on admission shall be final.  No reasons shall be given to any candidate in event of his rejection.  No candidate shall be elected who is under 18 years of age or an employee of the club.  Every member on election shall be supplied with a copy of these Rules at such charge not exceeding £1 as the Committee may determine from time to time and which is deemed paid from a member’s first subscription payment.

Subscriptions

Every member shall pay to the funds of the Club a subscription, which must be paid before the member is entitled to any of the privileges of the Club. The rate of subscription shall be such sum as may from time to time be determined by the members in general meeting being not less than £2.50 and not exceeding £25 per year payable on the first day of January in each year.

Any member who has not paid his subscription by 1st February shall be considered in arrear and if it be not paid by 1st March he shall cease to be a member.

No member in arrear shall be permitted to use the Club, or be considered a member for the purposes of these Rules unless the Committee, on receiving information that any member is unable to pay his subscription owing to want of work or other good cause, has, at its discretion, in writing, excused payment of such member’s subscription for such period as they think fit and the member shall not then forfeit the privileges of membership.

Register of Members

The Club shall keep at its registered office a register of members in which the secretary shall enter the following particulars:

(a) The names and addresses of the members;

(b) a statement of the number of shares held by each member and of the amount paid or agreed to be considered as paid on the shares of each member;

(c) a statement of other property in the Club, whether in loans, deposits or otherwise, held by each member;

(d) the date at which each person was entered in the register as a member, and the date at which any person ceased to be a member;

(e) the names and addresses of the officers of the Club, with the offices held by them respectively and the dates on which they assumed office.

For the purpose of this rule “an officer” includes every member of the managing Committee.

The Club shall so construct the register of members that it is possible to open to inspection the particulars entered therein mentioned in paragraphs (a), (d) and (e) hereof without so opening to inspection the other particulars entered therein.

Notices

Each member shall keep the secretary informed at the secretary's office on the Club premises of that member's private address, or of some other address at which communications may be addressed for him.  Correspondence sent to a member’s last known address shall be deemed to have been received.  Nevertheless, it shall not be necessary to send any notice intended for members generally to any member, by post or otherwise, except in the case of notices for the purposes of Dissolution in rule 28.  All notices shall be posted by being affixed in a prominent position on the Club premises in a part of the Club that is frequented by members; and it shall be the duty of the secretary to ensure that any such notice remains so exhibited throughout any period required in that behalf by or under these rules.

Cessation of Membership

Members shall cease to be members:

(a) By non-payment of subscription. Any person whose membership has ceased from this cause shall not again be elected to membership unless he pays such fee or fine as the Committee may in its discretion determine.

(b) By expulsion.

(c) By resignation by notice of not less than three months given to the secretary in writing unless the Committee waives the requirement for the same.

(d) By death.

(e) By becoming an employee of the Club.

Misconduct of Members

(a) The secretary or president or in the absence of both such officers any officer present upon the Club premises shall have power to order the withdrawal from the Club premises of any member who shall infringe any rule or bye-law or whose conduct whether within the Club or elsewhere shall in his opinion render a member unfit for further entry to the Club.

(b) The secretary or president or officer who orders the withdrawal of a member for misconduct as per Rule 12(a) shall at the next ordinary meeting of the Committee or as soon as practicable thereafter lay a complaint upon which the Committee must decide whether or not to formally charge the member. If the Committee by a majority of members present at the meeting and entitled to vote so decide that on the face of the complaint there is a case to answer the secretary will write to the member setting out the charge or charges and summon him to appear before the Committee giving not less than 3 clear days notice to afford the member an opportunity to advance a defence.

(c) The managing Committee having found a member guilty of a charge by a simple majority of their number present and entitled to vote must by at least two-thirds of the said management Committee vote for the member to be reprimanded, suspended (for a period not exceeding 12 months) or expelled to render it effective.  A member convicted of any offence by any court of law may be suspended or expelled in his absence.  A suspended member shall not be entitled to any of the rights and privileges of Club membership but shall remain liable to pay his subscription.  The decision of the Committee shall be sent to the member in writing within three days of the committee meeting at which the decision was reached.

(d) A member who is suspended or expelled shall have the right to appeal at a general meeting having duly written to the secretary requesting the appeal to be added to the meeting agenda posted in the Club.  The suspended or expelled member may appear before the meeting and having pleaded his case the decision of the managing Committee can be confirmed or amended by a simple majority of those members present.

General Meetings

Annual Meetings

(1) An Annual General Meeting of the Club shall be held in every year, and there shall not be more than fifteen months between one Annual General Meeting and the next.  Notice of the day and time of the Annual General Meeting shall be posted in the Club in the manner prescribed in rule 10 for a period of at least fourteen days before such day.

The business of the annual general meeting shall be to receive the account or accounts and balance sheet or balance sheets as audited if required, and the report of the auditor on the revenue account or accounts and balance sheet. At the annual meeting a report for the year shall be presented by the Committee.

At each ordinary general meeting the purpose of the meeting shall be to consider such other business as may be submitted by the Committee or any motion to be proposed by a member of which at least seven days’ notice has been given to the secretary in writing.  On receipt of such notice the secretary shall add it to the agenda posted in the Club.

The auditor shall be entitled to attend any general meeting of the Club and to receive all notices of and other communications relating to any general meeting which any member of the Club is entitled to receive and to be heard at any meeting which he attends on any part of the business of the meeting which concerns him as auditor.

Special Meetings

(2) A special meeting shall be called by the secretary in the following cases:

(a) Upon the direction of the Committee, and in accordance with such direction.

(b) On a requisition signed by one-fifth of the total number of members entitled to attend and vote at a general meeting or 30 such members, whichever is the less, stating the special object thereof.  Such meeting shall be held within n