Club Rules & Conditions

THE RACEGOERS CLUB

RULES AND CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

(Revised August 2020)

1. Title

The Club shall be called the Racegoers Club and the offices of the Club shall be situated at Winkfield Road, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7HX.

2. Constitution

(a) The Club shall not be carried on for the making of profits for itself, or for its members.

(b) All activities of the Club shall be directed to primarily help drive, support and increase enthusiasm for the sport of horseracing.

(d) At every opportunity the Club shall champion its members, racegoers and all those who seek entertainment by watching horse racing.

(e) The Club shall facilitate engagement of its members with the sport of horse racing by: i) Organising events and visits, ii) Encouraging two-way communication between members and the wider racing industry.

3. Governance

A committee shall determine that the Club is directed, run and administered according to its constitution and for no other purpose. The committee shall at all times retain responsibility for the strategic direction of the Club.

The Racecourse Association Limited (RCA) are appointed by the committee to provide specified management and administration services, as defined in the management agreement between the Racegoers Club and the RCA. Under that agreement The RCA is entitled to appoint the Club Chairman and Secretary.

The Committee shall be responsible for maintaining and updating the management and administration agreement with the Racecourse Association Limited and for monitoring their performance under that agreement.

In the event of termination of office by resignation or otherwise, of a committee member, the committee shall have the power to fill any vacancy that may occur and such committee member so appointed will remain in office until the next Annual General Meeting.

The Committee shall have power to alter the rules but no such alteration shall take effect until the same has been confirmed at the Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting convened for the purpose.

The Committee shall have power to make bye-laws for regulating the conduct and affairs of the Club provided the same are not inconsistent with these rules. Such bye-laws shall be notified to members and shall be binding on all members.

The Committee may invest surplus monies and funds of the Club not immediately required for the daily running of the club and shall not be responsible for any loss incurred thereby provided that the investment made conforms to the provisions of the Trustee Investment Act 1961 as if the investment were of Trustee Funds. Any income arising from such investment shall be duly expended only according to the Clubs constitution and/or the current expenses of the Club.

4. The Committee

The Committee shall consist of the Chairman and the Secretary and no more than ten others.

Election of such remaining members of the committee as are required, shall be at the Annual General Meeting of the Club. The ordinary term of appointment of a Committee member shall be three years, however at the end of that termmembers of the Committee shall be entitled to stand for re-election. The process for applying to be elected onto the committee is defined in the “Committee applicant” document, supplied on application to the Club offices.

5. Committee Meetings

The Committee shall meet at regular intervals and at least twice a year, and keep Minutes of its proceedings; the Minute Book shall be open for inspection by any Club member attending the Annual General Meeting, for thirty minutes prior to such Meeting.

A General Meeting of the Club shall be held in every year not later than December 1^st to transact the following business:

Confirm the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting and any subsequent General Meetings.
To receive and, if approved, to adopt the Club’s accounts to the end of the preceding year. Such statement of account shall be signed by the Chairman or by the Secretary, and shall carry the certificate of a suitably qualified independent accountant (who shall not be a member of the Committee, an employee of the Racecourse Association, nor any associate of either).
To consider and, if approved, sanction any duly-made alterations of the rules.
To elect such members of the Committee required to fill vacant positions.
- To appoint an independent accountant.
- To receive suggestions from the members for consideration by the Committee in relation to the encouragement of British racing, previous notice of which shall have been given.
- To conduct any other business which the Committee desire to bring before the members.

A Special General Meeting may be convened at any time by the Committee for any of the following purposes:

To consider and, if approved, sanction any duly-made alterations of the rules.
To deal with any special matter which the Committee may desire to place before the members for the purpose of encouraging British racing.
To deal with any special matter which the members requiring the meeting may desire to place before the Club.

At Committee meetings and general meetings, in the absence of the Chairman, a Vice-Chairman shall be elected, from the existing Committee, to preside and he shall have a casting vote in the event of an equality of votes.

6. Membership

Persons who are racegoers or those in agreement with the aims and objects of the Club are qualified for membership.

Every new member of the Club shall give all particulars required by the Committee with an undertaking to be bound by the rules and byelaws of the Club after election to membership.

The election of candidates shall be by the Committee or by a sub-committee appointed by the Committee for that purpose.

On the candidate being so elected by the Committee he will upon payment of a first annual subscription be entitled to take advantage of any concessions, privileges and facilities as may from time to time be granted to members of the Club.

No candidate who has been elected a member shall be entitled to the concessions and privileges of membership until payment of the annual subscription for the period in which those concessions and privileges apply.

Racegoers Club membership subscriptions are deemed to be annual commitments; membership refunds will not be issued.

Any member has the right to have their name deleted from the Racegoers Club membership database at any time, but in this event there shall be no rebate of any part of the subscription already paid.

In circumstances where because of lead times, e.g. in the case of Direct Debits, it has not been possible to prevent collection of a payment despite having been contacted by the member to cancel or amend their subscription prior to their renewal date, a full refund will be made by the Club.

Part refunds will not be made to members who indicate that they could retrospectively have been in a lower cost membership category, e.g. a special offer promoted by the Club.

It is the member’s responsibility to inform the Racegoers Club of any required changes to contact details (email address/postal address/phone numbers), at the time of their membership renewal.

There is a 7 day ‘cooling-off’ period during which members have the right to cancel their subscription and receive a full refund. If members decide to cancel within the 7 days of their subscription booking, the Racegoers Club will refund the payment within 30 days of the cancellation.

Access to the membership area of the Racegoers Club website www.racegoersclub.co.uk is governed by a unique member username and password, which will be de-activated if a Racegoers Club membership is cancelled. Notwithstanding the above 7 day ‘cooling-off’ period clause, no refund will be issued if the Racegeors Club has reason to believe that a member has benefited by having had access to privileged member-only information, obtaining member discounts or registering for courses and programmes during the 7 day period.

Members wishing to cancel their subscription within the 7 day ‘cooling-off’ period should email [email protected] or write to The Racegoers Club, Winkfield Road, Ascot, Berkshire RG17 8XZ, stating their contact details, membership number, within the required 7-day period. Refunds will only be given on the return of the members unused Racegoers Club voucher booklet (or any alternate provision), which must be returned to the address stated above, before the refund process can commence.

No Club member may sell, assign, transfer, share or otherwise part or deal with any rights, concessions or privileges to which such member may be entitled as a member.

Any concessions issued are for the personal use of the member as a racegoer, and are not intended for resale or for use in connection with commercial activities on racecourses. Racecourses are entitled to decline to accept to accept the concession where they believe a member to be in breach of this restriction of use.

7. Exclusion from Membership

The Committee shall have the power to expel any member who shall:

Offend against the rules of the Club,
Be found to have breached the Rules Of Racing,
Or, whose conduct, including but not limited to bringing Racing into disrepute, in their opinion shall render them unfit for membership.

The body responsible for the management of the Club shall follow the procedure agreed by the Committee before any such member is expelled.

8. Dissolution

a) If, at any General Meeting of the Club, a resolution be passed calling for the dissolution of the Club, the Secretary shall immediately convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Club, to be held not less than one month thereafter, to discuss and vote on the resolution.

b) If, at that Extraordinary General Meeting, the resolution is carried by at least two-thirds of the Members present, the Committee shall thereupon, or at such date as shall have been specified in the resolution, proceed to realise the assets of the Club and discharge all debts and liabilities of the Club.

c) No Club member shall be entitled to any refund of subscriptions donated to the Club nor shall any excess of incomings over outgoings or any asset of the Club be at any time distributed to the members or any one of the members.

d) The Club shall not be disbanded nor its affairs wound up until any remaining assets have been fully realised and fully disbursed in accordance with section e) below.

e) After discharging all debts and liabilities of the Club, the remaining assets shall not be paid or distributed amongst the Full Members of the Club, but shall be given to any non-profit making organisation that shares some or all of the objectives of the Club or applied for charitable purposes in connection with horseracing.