1. Name. The Club shall be called the Watford Bridge Club.
2. Object. The object of the Club shall be to provide facilities for, and to encourage the playing of, duplicate and rubber bridge.
3. Committee. (i) The affairs of the Club shall be managed by a committee which shall be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall consist of the following Honorary Officers :-
(a) Chairman
(b) Treasurer
(c) Secretary
(d) Rubber Bridge Secretary
(e) Competitions Secretary
(f) Bulletin Editor
and (g) Three representatives
Nominations for the Committee shall be made in writing to the Secretary not less than seven days before the General Meeting at which the elections are to be held and shall state the names of the proposer and seconder, the permission of the nominated member having been obtained in advance.
(ii) The Committee may co-opt to fill vacancies, form and disband sub-committees and co-opt members to serve thereon. The Chairman and Secretary shall be ex officio members of any such sub-committees.
(iii) The quorum for a Committee Meeting shall be four elected members, including officers.
4. Membership. Membership of the Club shall be open to all persons on payment of the subscription, provided that the Committee of the Club shall have the right to limit the total membership; to refuse any applicant; or to ask an applicant to play on a number of occasions with a member of the Committee at their discretion. In the event of a complaint being made to the Committee about the conduct of a member of the Club the Committee may (and if a written complaint is received signed by at least three members of the Club shall) investigate the complaint. On investigating such complaint the Committee shall give the member about whose conduct the complaint has been made an opportunity to be heard. If, on investigating such a complaint the Committee is of the opinion that the member has behaved in an unacceptable manner or in such a manner as to cause injury to the interests of the Club, then the Committee may reprimand the member, suspend the member from the privileges of membership for such period as it may think fit, or expel the member from the Club. The Committee shall forthwith notify the member of any decision made on the investigation of a complaint about their conduct, and may if it thinks fit publicise the decision by displaying a notice at the meeting place of the Club. An appeal shall be to a General Meeting of the Club against any decision to reprimand, suspend or expel a member of the Club following the investigation of a complaint about their conduct. Notice of such appeal must be in writing and delivered to the Secretary within two weeks of the notification to the member of the decision of the Committee. In the event of an appeal the decision of the Committee shall not be put into effect until the appeal has been determined. On the appeal being heard by a General Meeting of the Club, the General Meeting shall have the power to over-rule the conclusion of the Committee, or to uphold it, in which event the sanction imposed by the Committee may be confirmed or varied to any sanction which the Committee was empowered to impose, or to none. Nothing in this Constitution shall preclude the Committee from referring a matter of conduct to the Conduct Committee of the Hertfordshire County Contract Bridge Association or to the Laws and Ethics Committee of the English Bridge Union if it considers it appropriate to do so.
5. Visitors. No visitor may play rubber bridge on more than six occasions without applying for membership, but the Committee shall have the power to make exceptions according to individual circumstances.
6. Subscriptions and Fees. The annual subscription shall be due on April 1st each year. The amount of the subscription and table money levied at the Club shall be determined only by a resolution passed at a General Meeting of the Club or by a resolution passed by the Committee and subsequently approved at the next General Meeting. Candidates for membership who are accepted may play as visitors until the beginning of the next quarter when a subscription calculated according to the number of quarters remaining shall be levied.
Where any member's subscription is three months overdue then the Committee may expel that member from the Club. Any member so expelled may be re-admitted in accordance with Para 4, but this shall be conditional upon payment of such arrears of subscription as the Committee may require.
7. Finances. The financial year shall run from 1st January to 31st December. The day-to-day control of all monies and of the Club shall be vested in the Committee. The Treasurer shall be responsible for the collection of all subscriptions, table monies and other monies due to the Club, the payment of all accounts and the keeping of books of account and shall present statements of accounts to the Committee and present a report and audited accounts to each Annual General Meeting. The Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer shall have authority to sign cheques on behalf of the Club. Two such authorised signatures shall be required. The accounts shall be audited annually. The auditor shall be appointed annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall not be a member of the Committee.
8. General Meetings. The quorum for a General Meeting shall be 40 members or one-fifth of the membership, whichever is the fewer.
(i) Annual General Meeting. This shall be held in March, on a date decided by the Committee and published in the club programme. The Meeting shall consider the minutes of the previous AGM and any intervening SGM, receive officers' reports and transact all business required by this constitution, including that of which due notice has been given to the Secretary, and any other business relating to the affairs of the club. The agenda of the meeting and the accounts for the preceding year shall be available at meetings of the club for at least two weeks prior to the AGM.
(ii) Special General Meeting. A SGM shall be called at the direction of the Committee, or within 42 days of receipt by the Secretary of a written requisition signed by at least eight members, or one-fifth of the membership on the date of the requisition, whichever is the greater, stating the purpose for which the meeting is to be called. Notice of the date, time and place of any SGM shall be given to each member not less than fourteen days beforehand together with a copy of the agenda.
9. Alterations of Constitution.
(i) No change shall be made to the Constitution except by votes of two-thirds of the members present and voting at a General Meeting.
(ii) Any proposed change shall be notified in writing to the Secretary:-
(a) By 1st February in the case of an AGM, or
(b) By inclusion in the requisition of a SGM
(iii) Details of any proposed change shall be included in the Agenda for the relevant meeting.
10. Competitions. The Committee may make and amend regulations for the play and conduct of any competition or rubber bridge session organised by the Club.
11. Play. Play shall be governed by the Laws of Contract Bridge as published by the Portland Club and Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge as published by the English Bridge Union.
12. Disputes. In any dispute arising at a Club meeting:-
(i) at a duplicate session the decision of the director is final at the time.
(ii) at a rubber bridge session the dispute should be referred to a member of the Committee, whose decision is final at the time.
All parties shall have the right to appeal to the Committee who will consider the facts, each party having the right to present his own case in person at the meeting called to discuss the dispute. Not less than 14 days notice shall be given to each party of the date and time of such meeting. The decision of the Committee shall be final, except that any question of interpretation of the laws or ethics of duplicate bridge may be referred to the English Bridge Union.
13. Winding up. In the event of the club being wound up any remaining assets shall be disposed of in a manner to be decided by a majority of those present and voting as a General Meeting of the club.