The
National Correspondence Chess Club Constitution
1.
Name:
The
Club shall be called the ‘National Correspondence Chess Club’.
2. Objects:
a)
To promote the practice of Correspondence Chess in
Great Britain
; with a special emphasis on
friendship between participants.
b)
To organize correspondence tournaments and matches.
c)
To provide opportunities for correspondence chess players to meet, by the
organisation of social activities and over-the-board chess events
3. Governing Body:
a)
Subject to section 9 of this Constitution, the affairs of the club shall be
managed by a
Committee
comprising of a Chairman;
Secretary; Treasurer; Editor of ‘En Passant’; Continuous Tournament
Controller; Continuous Tournament Pairings Secretary; Continuous Tournament
Recorder; Match Captain; and a Social Secretary. (A Member may hold more than
one office, but not more than one vote.
b)
The
Committee
shall be empowered to co-opt
additional non-voting members.
c)
The
Committee
posts specified in section 3a
shall be subject to annual election by postal ballot of all members, except for
the Chairman, who shall be elected by the voting members of the
Committee
.
4. Membership:
a)
Membership of the club shall be open to every chess player whose application is
acceptable to the
Committee
.
b)
At the discretion of the
Committee
, recruitment may be encouraged
by the offer of a free trial period, not exceeding one year. Such members shall
be offered all the rights and benefits of full membership, but shall be under no
obligation to re-join at the end of the trial period.
c)
Applications for life membership may be accepted at the discretion of the
Committee
.
d)
Honorary membership may be granted to any chess player at the discretion of the
Committee
. Such Membership may be for
either one year or life. The class of honorary membership shall be specified at
the time of being granted.
e)
Membership of the NCCC carries the following obligations: -
1)
To maintain the traditional friendly atmosphere that has been associated with
the club since Its
foundation.
2) To write a letter of good cheer at least once during the course of a
game, to ones opponent.
3) To preserve for reference all NCCC rules, the appropriate playing
rules.
4) To share fairly in the provision of window envelopes and make good the
wear and tear on
score sheets during the course of a game.
f)
The
Committee
shall have the power to
terminate the membership of any member whose continued membership is considered
by the
Committee
not to be in the interests of
the club. The
Committee
shall give any such member an
opportunity to make written representation to the
Committee
before reaching a final
decision.
5. Subscriptions:
a) A subscription of
an amount determined by the
Committee
shall be paid by each member
(Except honorary and life members) on September the 1st each year.
b)
The
Committee
shall have the power to fix a
reduced subscription for members who are less than 18 years old or more than 65
years old.
c)
The initial subscription payable by new members joining the club during the year
shall be assessed on a monthly pro-rata basis to August 31st.
d)
Any member who fails to renew his/her subscription within two months of
September 1st shall be removed from the membership list.
e)
The subscription for life membership shall be determined by the
Committee
.
6. Club Funds:
a) Cheques and postal
orders in respect of subscription, donations, tournament entry fees, etc. shall
be made payable to the “National Correspondence Chess Club” crossed “A/C
Payee” and sent to the Treasurer.
b)
The financial year shall be from January 1st to 31st
December.
c)
The Treasurer shall prepare a statement of accounts at the end of the financial
year.
7.
General Meetings:
a) The Annual General
Meeting shall be held each year in May.
b)
The AGM shall elect an Auditor (Who shall not be a member of the
Committee
); a Returning Officer and a
President.
c)
The AGM may discuss all matters concerning the organisation and administration
of the club which have been included in the agenda.
d)
Motions for inclusion in the agenda for the AGM shall be received by the
Secretary not later than March 25th.
e)
The Quorum for a general meeting shall be four members.
8. Election of the
Committee
:
a) Nominations for the
posts specified in section 3a shall be invited in ‘En Passant’.
b)
A nomination shall consist of the signature of the proposer, and seconder, and a
statement by the proposer that, if elected, he/she will be willing to serve.
Candidate, proposer and seconder must be all fully paid up Members.
c)
Members of the
Committee
willing to continue in office
will automatically be placed on the ballot paper.
d)
In the event of a contested election, ballot papers will be sent out with the
September ‘En Passant’, together with manifestoes (If written by the
candidates) to a maximum length of 300 words each.
e)
Ballot papers shall be sent to the returning officer, who shall be responsible
for counting the votes cast for each candidate and notifying the Chairman,
Secretary, and Editor of ‘En Passant’ of the results by October 15th.
f)
In the event of a tied vote the Chairman shall cast a vote for one of the
candidates.
g)
Successful candidates shall take up office as soon as possible and not later
than January 1st following their election. The retiring
Committee
member shall inform his
successor fully as to the duties of the office.
h)
In the event of an elected member of the
Committee
resigning during the year, his
replacement shall be co-opted by the
Committee
until the next election. Such a
member shall then seek election by being nominated as specified in section 8b.
i) In
the event of a co-opted member not being readily available to replace a
Committee
member who has resigned, then
another
Committee
member may take over at the
discretion of the Chairman until the next election.
9. Policy Motions:
a) Any member of the
NCCC may call for a postal ballot of all members by submitting a motion to the
Secretary.
b) Such a motion must
bear the signatures of the proposer and four seconders.
c) Ballot papers shall
be prepared by the returning officer and sent out to all members within two
months of receipt of a motion, together with manifestoes to a maximum length of
300 words.
d) For each motion, it
shall be the responsibility of the Returning Officer to ensure that the case
against is fairly put, either by soliciting a volunteer or writing the case
himself.
e) The Returning
Officer shall fix a date by which all ballot papers shall be received, which
shall not be less than ten days, nor more than three weeks, after the date of
despatch of the ballot papers and manifestoes. The Returning Officer shall
notify the result to the Chairman, Secretary and Editor of ‘En Passant’
within one week of the date fixed for receipt of the ballot papers.
f) Results of any such
vote shall be binding on the
Committee
.
g) No alterations or
additions to this Constitution shall be valid unless supported by a majority of
members voting.
h) No decision on the
dissolution of the club, or its amalgamation with any other organisation shall
be valid unless supported by at least 90 per cent of the votes cast in a postal
ballot of all members.
10. Official Journal:
a) The Official
Journal of the NCCC shall be called ‘En Passant’ and shall be issued free to
all members.
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