ORION HARRIERS RULES AND REGULATIONS
(Up to and including AGM 2008)
RULES
1. The club shall be called "Orion Harriers" and its members shall be amateurs as defined by the Laws of the UK Athletics.
2. The object of the Club shall be the promotion of Amateur Athletics especially cross-country running.
3. The management of the Club shall be vested in a Committee consisting of a President, a Captain, a Deputy Captain, a Ladies’ Captain and a Ladies’ Deputy Captain, an Honorary Secretary, an Honorary Assistant Secretary, an Honorary Treasurer, an Honorary Fixtures Secretary, a Junior Liaison Officer and four other members of the Club, all of whom shall be elected annually at a General Meeting of members. The Committee shall have power to add to its numbers and seven members shall constitute a quorum. All decisions of the Committee on matters concerning the management of the Club or in the case of any dispute shall be final and binding on all members of the Club.
There shall further exist a Junior Committee to run and administer the junior section of the Club. The Junior Committee shall comprise a Junior Manager, a Junior Membership Secretary, a Junior Treasurer (all of which posts to be held by first claim senior members of Orion Harriers) and three others of whom up to two may be non-members of the Club but parents/guardians of bona fide junior members of Orion Harriers. All Junior Committee members shall be elected at the Club’s Annual General Meeting and four members shall form a quorum.
Both the Committee and the Junior Committee shall convene no less than four times each year. The Committee shall, within 2 weeks of each meeting, record the decisions it has taken and publicise the decisions to members on the website and in the clubhouse. As soon as it is reasonably possible after the meeting, the Assistant Secretary shall distribute the minutes to other Committee members for comment and agreement.
4. The offices of Captain and Deputy Captain shall only be open to men and the offices of Ladies’ Captain and Ladies’ Deputy Captain shall only be open to women, but unless otherwise stated all the other offices of the Club shall be open to both sexes. The post of Junior Liaison Officer shall be a first claim member of the Club and shall have been earlier elected at the same Annual General Meeting to serve on the Junior Committee for that same year in any capacity.
5. Candidates for election shall be proposed by one member of the Club and seconded by another (provided that either proposer or seconder be a member of the Committee). The candidate will then be considered by the Captain, Ladies Captain and Honorary Secretary and admitted to the club within 21 days, unless they believe the candidate’s membership would be contrary to the best interests of the sport or the club.
6. The Annual General meeting of members of the Club shall be held on the first Saturday in October or as soon as possible thereafter and not less than seven days notice convening the meeting shall be sent to all members.
7. The Honorary Secretary shall keep a record of attendances at meetings of the Committee and shall report at the Annual General Meeting of the number of meetings attended by each member of the Committee.
8. At the Annual General Meeting, members shall be elected Honorary Handicapper, Honorary Website Manager and Honorary Headquarters Manager and two members who are not members of the Committee shall be elected Honorary Auditors.
9. The financial year of the Club shall end on the thirtieth day of June.
10. The Annual Accounts of the Club and of the junior section, which shall have been audited and signed by the Honorary Auditors shall be presented by the Honorary Treasurer and the Junior Treasurer respectively at the Annual General Meeting.
11. On receiving a requisition signed by at least twelve members, the Honorary Secretary shall call within twenty-eight days a Special General Meeting at which twenty members shall form a quorum. Notices convening the Meeting and stating the business to be transacted shall be sent to all members not less than seven days before the date of the meeting.
12a The subscription for first claim senior members over 20 years of age (both men and women) shall be a minimum of £35.00 per annum and that of second claim members shall be a minimum of £15.00 per annum, all such subscriptions being payable in advance on the first day of October in each year. A member elected on or after the first day of April shall be required to pay half the appropriate subscription for the current subscription year. Members who are bona fide students in full-time attendance at a university (or such other course of instruction as, in the opinion of the Committee, corresponds for the purpose of this rule to a university course) shall be eligible for a special reduced subscription of £6.00 per annum. The Committee may at its discretion reduce the subscription of any member who is temporarily abroad undergoing military service or suffering financial hardship. Any subsequent changes to the subscriptions of senior members shall be determined by the Committee prior to the season in which they intend to implement them. The Junior Committee shall be responsible for determining and collecting the subscriptions of junior members or devising and collecting such method of payment as they think fit.
12b Should any fully paid-up senior member be solely or jointly legally responsible for the care, custody or control of a member under the age of 20 years (family member), the senior member shall be entitled to have the subscription of the family member waived. This entitlement shall be limited to one person per senior member.A junior member who has (or will have) reached the age of 20 by 1st October will, unless he or she has instructed otherwise, automatically become a Senior Member without re-election, and be liable for the increased subscription.
12c. The junior account shall receive by no later than 31 December in each year a sum of no less than 10% of the total of subscriptions received from senior members for that year. For this purpose, the figures for senior membership submitted to the Annual General Meeting of the Club in October by the Honorary Secretary will be used, but the actual sum transferred will be entirely at the discretion of the Honorary Treasurer.
13 The Club shall admit Associate Members upon the following conditions namely:-
a. Associate Members must be proposed by one member of the Club and seconded by another and be balloted for by the Committee; a quorate number of signatures shall admit.
b.The subscription for Associate Members shall be £6.00 per annum payable in advance on the 1st October in each year. Any subsequent changes to the subscription shall be determined by the Committee as in Rule 12a.
c. Associate Members shall receive all Club Notices and any publications issued by the Club.
d. Associate Members shall not be allowed to take part in Saturday Club runs or any Club races or to represent the Club in any fixture.
e. Associate Members shall be allowed to use Headquarters and to take part in midweek training runs.
f. Associate Members shall be invited to attend all General Meetings, but they shall not be entitled to vote.
g. All questions regarding the privileges of Associate Members that may arise at any time and are not provided for in these rules shall be decided by the Committee.
14. (i) The Club shall give members the option of becoming Life Members or Associate Members and the election to Life Membership or Honorary Life Membership shall be on such terms as the Committee shall from time to time lay down.
(ii) All Life subscriptions shall be allocated between the Endowment Fund and the Reserve Account in the proportion of four fifths and one fifth respectively and shall be invested or placed on deposit as and when received by the Treasurer and in such securities or banking accounts as the Committee shall from time to time decide. Any interest or other income earned by the Endowment Fund shall be credited to the Reserve Account.
(iii) The disposal of the balance in the Reserve Account shall be at the discretion of the Committee as determined from time to time by a majority of all its members.
(iv) Expenditures or withdrawals from the Endowment Fund shall not be made unless authorised at a properly convened and constituted General Meeting of the Club.
(v) In the event of the disbandment of the Club, the Endowment Fund and the other assets of the Club shall, after all liabilities have been met, be distributed among all members then existing whether Ordinary, Life or Associate Members pro rata to the total amount which each has paid in subscriptions.
15. Any member wishing to resign from the Club shall give notice in writing to the Honorary Secretary before October 1st, or shall be liable for another year’s subscription.
16. The Committee shall have power to terminate the membership of any member, without notice, whose subscription is six months in arrears, provided that all reasonable efforts have been made to ascertain the correct address of the member and remind him or her accordingly, or take into account any mitigating circumstances which might explain the arrears.
17. Any member infringing the laws of UK Athletics or any Rule or Regulation of the Club or whose conduct shall, in the opinion of the Committee, be injurious to the character and interest of the Club, may be expelled from the Club by a vote of the majority of the Committee, the Honorary Secretary or, in the case of a lady member, the Ladies’ Captain having previously given the accused member at least seven days notice of the intended proceedings.
18. No rule or regulation shall be made, altered or rescinded except at an Annual General Meeting of members or at a Special General Meeting called for the purpose. Notice in writing of the proposed alteration, addition or deletion shall be given to the Honorary Secretary by 1st September in the case of the Annual General Meeting or in the case of the Special General Meeting as provided in Rule 11, and then circulated to members with the notice of the meeting. Only members aged 16 or over on the day of the meeting shall be entitled to vote.
19. A copy of these rules and regulations shall be displayed in the clubhouse and be posted on the club website. The Secretary will, on request, mail out a copy to any member who has not ready access to either of the above.
GENERAL REGULATIONS
1. On training runs all members will run in the pack to which they have been allocated and each pack shall be under the control of a pack leader appointed by the Captain or the Ladies’ Captain. No member shall run ahead of the pack leader without permission of the pack leader.
2. When representing the Club, all Club members must wear the Club colours which shall be a white vest with the Club badge (a black 'O' encircling a red 'H') to be worn on the left breast, and the shorts shall be black.
3. The Committee shall have the power to exclude any member or classes of members from using Headquarters for changing purposes or any other purpose as it in its discretion thinks fit.
4. It is the duty of every member proposing or seconding a candidate for election to acquaint him or her with the customs and traditions of the Club.
REGULATIONS GOVERNING COMPETITIONS AND CLUB AWARDS
1. The Club Championship is held over a distance of ten miles, and all members are eligible to compete who on the day of the race are first claim members of the Club for cross-country running in accordance with the Rules of UK Athletics.
2. The Club Junior Championship is held over a distance of not more than 6 miles, if in the opinion of the Junior Committee, there will be sufficient competitors to warrant the event, and all members are eligible to compete who, on the day of the race, are over the age of 17 but under the age of 20 years and are first claim members of the Club for cross-country running in accordance with the rules of UK Athletics. Youths (over the age of 15 but under 17 years of age), and Boys/Girls (over the age of 11 and under 15 years of age) may run a maximum distance of 4 miles and 2.5 miles respectively, and if these younger categories participate with the Juniors in the Junior Championship, the distance of the race will be reduced accordingly.
2a. The Club Ladies Championship is held over a distance to be determined by the Ladies’ Captain and the Ladies’ Deputy Captain and may be staged either separately or in conjunction with an appropriate cross-country event as the Committee may from time to time decide.
3. The Club Road Championship is to be held over any distance at an appropriate event decided on an annual basis by the Committee.
4. All members are eligible to compete in the Club Handicaps held over 5 miles, 7.5 and 10 miles respectively.
5. A perpetual trophy known as "the Mercury" is awarded to and held for one year by the winner of the Club Championship and a perpetual trophy in the form of a shield is awarded to, and held for a year, by the winner of the Club Ladies Championship.
6. A perpetual trophy is awarded to, and held for one year, by the winner of the Club Road Championship.
7. A prize known as "the Novice Award" is given to the first member under 30 years of age as at 1st October to finish in the Mercury, who has not either in that year or previously won a Club Championship or Novice Award.
8. A special trophy known as "the Memorial Trophy", in memory of the members who fell in the 1939-45 war, is at the conclusion of each season awarded to and held for one year by the active member whose contribution to the Club in the opinion of the Captain shall have been the most meritorious and in keeping with the traditions of the Club.
9. The Committee shall be entitled to award such further trophies or prizes and to limit those awards to those classes of person or persons as it in its discretion thinks fit.
10. The Committee shall be further entitled to withdraw, change or modify any such trophies or prizes awarded in accordance with Paragraph 9 hereof as it shall think fit.
11. The Committee by a resolution duly approved by at least three fourths of all its members shall have power to award a special badge called an "Honours Badge" to any first claim member for a performance for the Club of outstanding merit. The Holder of an Honours badge shall be elected an Honorary Life Member without payment on retiring from active membership.