ARTICLES OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RYDE-EASTWOOD LEAGUES CAMERA CLUB

As at 15 February 2018

1. NAME.

The name of the Club shall be RYDE-EASTWOOD LEAGUES CAMERA CLUB, hereinafter called (the Club). The Club shall be non-proprietary and all income shall be applied towards the promotion of its objects.


2. OBJECTIVES.

(a) To be an asset to the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club.
(b) To assist members regarding the techniques of photography.
(c) To organise and manage Club photographic competitions and to host and/or be otherwise involved in inter-club and other competitions.
(d) To arrange social, workshop and outdoor activities for the benefit of Club members.

No one of the above objectives shall be deemed to be predominant or subsidiary to any other objective.


3. MEMBERSHIP.

Eligibility

Membership of the Club shall be open to financial members of the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club.

Every member of the Club shall furnish his or her name, address, telephone number and, if applicable, their email address and is to notify any changes of these details to the Club Secretary. These particulars, and any subsequent amendments, shall be entered in the List of Members.

Life Members

Life membership may be granted to any member who has given exceptional or distinguished service to the Club. Nominations may be submitted to the Committee who after careful consideration will make an appropriate recommendation. There can only be one nomination in any one year and only at the Annual General Meeting. A life member has all privileges of full membership of the Club but none of the financial obligations referred to in Clause 4- Subscriptions- of these Articles.

Honorary Members

Honorary members shall be an invited guest of a member provided that they have not been expelled from the Club or the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club. An honorary member has all the privileges of the Club, but as they do not have full membership shall not be entitled to vote at meetings, hold office or enter competitions.

Resignations

(a) A member who gives written notice to the Secretary of his or her resignation shall be deemed to have resigned.
(b) A member whose subscription is more than three (3) months in arrears shall be deemed to have resigned.
(c) On resignation, there will be no entitlement to refund of fees or portion thereof to that former member.

Expulsion

The Club by resolution at a Special Committee meeting shall have the power to expel any member for conduct which may be deemed by the Committee to be either detrimental to the Club or appears to be calculated to bring the Club into disrepute. Written notice is to be given to the member so charged and a copy of such notice is to be given to every member of the Committee, containing full particulars of the charge or charges. The member so charged shall have the right to appear at the appropriate meeting and enter their defence or offer explanations. Provided that the Committee has acted in good faith in relation to such expulsion, no member of that Committee may be held liable for any loss or damages of or by any person, including that member to whom the expulsion applies.


4. SUBSCRIPTIONS.

The annual subscription shall be due on joining the Club and thereafter at the first meeting in March each year.

The annual subscription shall be determined at the final Committee meeting of the previous year or at such other time as may be deemed appropriate by the Committee.

Subscriptions must be paid within one calendar month of becoming due. Until such payment is made, the person will not be considered to be a full member and therefore may not take part in any Club activities. Any member whose subscription becomes three months in arrears shall cease to be a member. Should a member anticipate being away when payment of Club fees are due, payment may be made in advance.


5. MEETINGS.

The President shall preside at all meetings of the Club and in the President's absence the Vice-President shall preside. In the event of both being absent the members shall elect one of their number to preside over the meeting.

Ordinary General Meetings

These will be held at 7:30pm on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month except for December, January and public holidays. If a meeting night falls on a public holiday, arrangements for an alternative date may be made by the Committee.
The business of these meetings will be to endorse or reject matters as raised by the Committee. Members may also bring forward matters which they wish the Committee to consider. The Club's president and/or secretary have the discretion to determine whether Minutes are to be kept of any Ordinary General Meeting.

Special General Meetings

A Special General Meeting may be called by twenty-five (25) financial members (or 75% of the financial members - whichever is the lesser) by a written requisition to the Secretary stating the object for which the meeting is required. Such meetings shall be held within 20 days of receipt of the requisition by the Secretary and at least seven (7) days notice of any such meeting shall be given to each member. A Special General Meeting may also be called by an official written direction from the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club or the Committee by resolution.

Committee Meetings

The Committee shall meet at 7:30pm on the third Monday of the month or as otherwise arranged. The business of Committee Meetings will generally be to manage and control the affairs of the Club, to arrange and distribute a programme of events for the year, govern competitions and distribute awards in accordance with the By-laws. All recommendations made by the Committee are to be approved at the next Annual General Meeting or Ordinary General Meeting at which there is a quorum for that meeting.

Special Committee Meetings

These may be convened by the President or Secretary. Notice of such meetings must be given to the Committee members at least seven (7) days prior to the meeting.

Annual General Meetings

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 7:30pm on the 2nd Monday of February each year, unless arrangements are made for an alternative date in February.

The agenda for the Annual General Meeting shall be:

(a) To receive apologies for absences.
(b) To receive the minutes of the previous A.G.M.
(c) To consider matters arising from those minutes.
(d) To Receive the President's report.
(e) To receive the Treasurer's report, Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet.
(f) Induction of incoming Committee.
(g) To elect an Auditor for the ensuing year.
(h) To deal with any other business of which due notice has been given.
(i) To deal with any other business that the meeting may approve.

Voting

Members must be financial and present at the meeting to be eligible to vote. At all meetings of the Club, each member has one vote except the presiding officer who shall have a casting vote.

(a) At Ordinary General Meetings and Committee Meetings, voting shall be by show of hands

- a simple majority of members will be sufficient.

(b) At Special Meetings and the Annual General Meeting voting shall be by ballot.

- a majority of two-thirds of members who are present and eligible to vote will be required except for the election of officers and Committee members.

(c) At the election of officers and Committee members voting shall be by ballot. A simple majority of members present will be sufficient.

Quorum

(a) A quorum for an Ordinary General Meeting shall be ten (10) members or 75% of financial members (whichever is lesser).
(b) A quorum for a Special General Meeting shall be fifteen (15) members or 75% of financial members (whichever is the lesser).
(c) A quorum for a Committee Meeting shall be six (6) members.
(d) A quorum for a Special Committee Meeting shall be eight (8) members.
(e) A quorum for an Annual General Meeting shall be fifteen (15) members or 75% of financial members (whichever is the lesser).

In the event of a quorum not being reached the competition or other activity planned for the night may still proceed.

Notices

Notices to members may be given by any member of the Committee by any verbal or written means (including by electronic means) as may be appropriate under the circumstances and must be issued or made so that it is received at least seven (7) days prior to such meeting. Communications sent to members by electronic means or by pre-paid mail to their last known electronic, residential or postal address (as may be applicable) as recorded in the list of members or as notified to the Secretary (whichever is the later address) shall be considered sufficient notice under these Articles. For the purposes of notification by electronic means, notice is deemed to be received by the member when that notice is sent unless there is notification of failure of delivery and for the purposes of notification by pre-paid mail, notice is deemed to be received by the member to whom the notice is addressed on the third day after the date on which the notice is sent by mail. However, as the Annual General Meeting, Ordinary General Meetings and Committee Meetings are held on fixed dates, no notice of such meetings need be given.


6. BY-LAWS.

The Committee shall have the power to make, repeal & amend such By-laws as the Committee may from time to time consider necessary for the well-being and proper functioning of the Club. Such changes to the By-laws, either by the making of new By laws, by repeal or by amendment, shall have effect until approved or rejected at the next Annual General Meeting or Ordinary General Meeting. If rejected at such meeting, the change to the By-laws ceases to have further effect forthwith.


7. THE COMMITTEE.

The President, Secretary and Treasurer shall be known as the Executive of the Club and shall singularly or collectively be empowered to act on behalf of the Club if necessary in situations where there is not time to consult the Committee or members. In these circumstances they shall report their actions at the next appropriate meeting.

(a) The Committee shall consist of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Competition Secretary, Publicity Officer, Webmaster and three or more elected members (the latter as may be considered appropriate depending on the requirements for the good management and operation of the Club). These three or more members shall fill the positions of Assistant Secretary, Assistant Competition Secretary, Assistant Webmaster and any other position which may be required or considered necessary.

(b) The Committee members shall be proposed, seconded and elected at the first Ordinary General Meeting in October of each year. Any vacancy occurring by resignation or otherwise may be filled by election at the next Annual General Meeting or Ordinary General Meeting of members. Retiring officers and Committee members may be re-elected.

(c) The Committee may from time to time appoint from among its number such sub-committees as they consider necessary and may delegate to that sub-committee such powers and duties as the Committee may determine. All sub-committees shall periodically report their proceedings to the Committee and shall conduct their business in accordance with the Committee's directions or delegations.

(d) In addition to the members so elected, the Committee may appoint further members as it deems fit and allot to such persons such duties as the Committee may deem appropriate to prescribe.

(e) The position of any Committee member absent for two (2) consecutive Committee Meetings without leave of absence shall automatically become vacant. Acceptance of an apology shall be deemed to be granting of such leave.

8. OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS.

The duties of the President shall be:

(a) To take care that all proceedings are conducted in a proper manner.
(b) To ensure that members understand any matters or questions properly put before a meeting.
(c) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of President.

The duties of the Vice-President shall be:

(a) To carry out the duties of President in the President’s absence.
(b) To arrange judges for competitions and lecturers as required.
(c) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Vice-President.
(d) To assist in the business and management of the Club as required.

The duties of the Secretary shall be:

(a) To keep the list of all members.
(b) To keep a true record of the proceedings of all meetings of the Club and Committee.
(c) To issue all notices.
(d) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Secretary.

The duties of the Treasurer shall be:

(a) To keep an accurate record of all accounts and financial books pertaining to the Club.
(b) To receive all subscriptions and other monies of the Club and issue receipts.
(c) To prepare monthly Receipts and Payments statement (which may be submitted to the first general meeting of each month).
(d) To submit an annual report and audited statement of receipts and payments and such financial statements as may be required by the Committee.
(e) To promptly bank all monies in a bank account as nominated or approved by the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club. All payments made on behalf of the Club shall be by cheque and these cheques shall be signed by any two of the following: President, Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer. However if the bank used by the Club provides electronic banking facilities, such payments may, at the discretion of the signatories to the account and with the approval of the payee, be made electronically, with such payments being authorised by any two of the authorised signatories.
(f) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Treasurer.

The duties of the Competition Secretary shall be:

(a) To issue numbers to financial members who enter Club competitions.
(b) To keep proper records of entries by each member.
(c) To make any necessary determination in relation to entries which are submitted for a competition as to their eligibility for, or compliance with the requirements for, the use of those images in competitions.
(d) To ensure that entries are properly prepared for Club competitions.
(e) To ensure that the judge is supplied with a written definition of the set subject identical to that given to the members. At the same time a written request for the number and type of awards to be allocated in each section should also be handed to the judge.
(f) To prepare awards for competition.
(g) To record points acquired by members in a monthly competition and, during the first half of the year (and more often if the Committee considers appropriate), display a chart showing progressive totals at the next general meeting.
(h) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Competition Secretary.

The duties of the Webmaster shall be:

(a) To ensure that the computer and any associated equipment used for the projection of digital images and pointer torch are in proper working order and set up ready for use as required.
(b) To prepare, including with the assistance of an Assistant Webmaster, the digital images which are submitted for competition and to submit the entries to the judge.
(c) To assist, as may be required, the Competition Secretary, in the recording of results of competitions.
(d) To exhibit digital images in a proper manner, giving deliberate concern to focus and 'onscreen' correct colour presentation but without being concerned for the correction, in any manner, of any images which have been submitted for competition.
(e) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Webmaster.

The duties of the Publicity Officer shall be:

(a) To submit articles for publication in the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club Journal by the due date.
(b) To arrange any other publicity as required.
(c) To perform those duties pertaining to the office of Publicity Officer.

The duties of the additional Committee members shall be:

(a) Assistant to the Secretary: To carry out the duties of the Secretary when absent and to assist the Secretary when required.
(b) Assistant to the Competition Secretary: To carry out the duties of the Competition Secretary when absent and to assist the Competition Secretary when required.
(c) Assistant to the Webmaster: To carry out the duties of the Webmaster when absent and to assist the Webmaster when required.
(d) To perform any other activities which may be required for the efficient and proper operation of the Club and its activities.

9. INDEMNITY.

Member of the Club, acting in relation to any approved affairs of the Club, may be indemnified out of the funds of the Club in return for any expenditure losses, damages and reasonable expenses which they incur or sustain by reason of any act rendered to or on behalf of the Club. The extent of such indemnity shall be at the discretion of the Committee, and members will be notified at an Ordinary General Meeting, when payment of such indemnity shall be proposed, seconded and carried by members before any such payment is made. Members of the Committee will not be held liable for any loss or damage caused to any person by any decision that may be made by any Committee member in good faith and in the ordinary course of the duties of any person as a member of the Committee, including a member of any sub-committee. For the purposes of this Article, a member of the Committee includes a person appointed by the Committee under Article 7(d) above.


10. AUDITOR.

An auditor shall be elected from amongst the members present at the Annual General Meeting and those who have given their intent in writing to the Secretary. Members of the Committee cannot be an auditor. The Auditor shall verify the accuracy of the books of the Club and vouch for the correctness of the financial statements therein. If it is not possible to fill the position of Auditor from amongst the members of the Club, a person who is not a member of the Club may be appointed or elected (as appropriate) to the position. A "member", for the purposes of this provision, includes a person who is a "life member" or "honorary member" of the Club.


11. ALTERATIONS.

These Articles may be added to, deleted or amended by resolution at any Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting. They may also be altered by an official written direction from the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club.


12. DISSOLUTION.

A motion to dissolve the Club shall only be proposed at a Special General Meeting.
The dissolution shall take affect from the date of the passing of that resolution as provided by these Articles. The members of the Committee shall be responsible for the winding up of the Club's assets.
All monies, property and assets remaining after the discharge of the debts and liabilities shall be transferred in their entirety to the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club.

BY-LAWS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RYDE-EASTWOOD LEAGUES CAMERA CLUB

As at 15 December 2019

1.
For the purposes of notices with or within the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club, the name of the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Camera Club (the Club) shall NOT be abbreviated unless used with the Club's emblem.

2.
The emblem of the Club shall be a hawk carrying a camera.

3.

(a) For the purpose of the point score in the Club's monthly competitions, the Club year shall run from the 1st February to the 30th November, both dates inclusive.

(b) An image which has won an award in a monthly competition cannot be entered into any subsequent monthly competition in the same year or in any subsequent year, regardless of category, unless, in the opinion of the Competition Secretaries, that image is substantially different from the award-wining image. For the avoidance of doubt, converting an image by changing (or removing) its colour(s) is not, in itself, considered to constitute that image as being substantially different from the former image.

(c) Subject to this paragraph, a member of the Club must attend 10 meetings in the competition year in order to be eligible to enter the Print and Digital Image of the Year and Club Outing Competitions. The awards night and digital meetings do not qualify as a "meeting" for the purpose of this clause. Exceptions to this Rule are as follows:

(i) A member who has not been a member for a full year but has become a member prior to 1st September of that year is required to attend the equivalent of at least one meeting for each month or part of a month that they have been a member prior to the Competitions in question (not including any meetings which may be held after the date on which the entries are due to be submitted). Note that only those members who became members prior to September of that year are eligible to enter the Print and Digital Image of the Year and Club outing Competitions of that year.

(ii) The committee at its discretion may approve an exception to the minimum attendance requirements of this paragraph of the By-Laws and determine the number of meetings required for that member. A request to the committee may be made by a member who could not attend the required number of meetings due to extenuating circumstances such as illness or family care commitments for exemption from, or variation to, the minimum attendance requirements.

(d) To be eligible for a competition award trophy, a member of the Club must attend at least 5 meetings throughout the competition year. The provisions of By-Law 3(c)(ii) apply as if they were a reference to this paragraph.

(e) Subject to By-law 3(b) and excluding the competitions for the Print and Digital Image of the year, no images may be entered more than three (3) times in any category of any of the Club’s competitions, whether those competitions are in that same year or in any subsequent year.

(f) Unless the committee determines otherwise a maximum of two (2) print images in each section and two (2) digital images may be entered by any member for each of the Club's monthly competitions.

(g) If an image wins a trophy in one of the Club's annual trophy competitions, that image cannot be used for any other annual trophy competition conducted by the Club regardless of the trophy competition, the format in which the image is presented in any of the trophy competitions and the year of that trophy competition

(h) No part of this By-law applies to any images that are entered in any inter club competition and inter-club competitions do not form part of the Club's monthly competitions.

(i) A judge, when judging an image, is ordinarily expected to consider the merits of that image without any assistance from the author of that image. Accordingly, no Member should, at any time prior to the judge finalising the granting of awards in a particular category, enter into any discussion with the judge in relation to that Member’s image(s) in that category unless the judge initiates that discussion with the Member. The failure of a Member to abide by this requirement may result in any award which may be given to that image at that month’s competition being cancelled by the Competition Secretaries.

(j) All entries at a competition, must meet all of the rules and requirements for that competition. However should an entry not comply with the rules and requirements of that competition, the judge may disqualify that entry. Furthermore, should the entry clearly not satisfy the rules and requirements of that competition, the Competition Secretaries may disqualify that entry from that competition, even if that entry has been given an award by the judge. Any entry which is disqualified will be deemed, for the purposes of Clause 7 of these By Laws, not to have been entered into that month’s competition and accordingly will not be awarded any points in that competition, however the provisions of Clause 3(d) of these By Laws will still apply to deem that entry to have been entered in a monthly competition.

4.
Sections for the Club’s monthly competitions shall be:

(a) A Grade Small Prints
(b) B Grade Small Prints
(c) A Grade Monochrome Prints
(d) B Grade Monochrome Prints
(e) A Grade Colour Prints
(f) B Grade Colour Prints
(g) A Grade Digital Images
(h) B Grade Digital Images

5.
The Committee will decide

(a) whether there is sufficient interest to continue with a particular section and

(b) whether a member will eligible to enter the Club's monthly competitions in either A Grade or B Grade in any category which may be applicable from time to time and a member may enter competitions of only A Grade or B Grade of that category as determined by at least two members of the Committee. Should there be competitions in which there are both A Grade or B Grade, a member may, at the discretion of the Committee, be in different Grades in those different categories. It should be noted that a member who is in one particular Grade cannot change to a different Grade after competitions have commenced for the year without the approval of the Committee.

6.
The number of awards of "merit" and "credit" for each section in the Club's monthly competitions shall be awarded at the judge's discretion.

7.
Competition points will be awarded as follows:
....... 5 points for a merit award
....... 3 points for a credit award
....... 1 point for an entry not otherwise scoring points under this By-law.

Points awarded to a member in respect of entries for each section shall be cumulative for that section. For example: A member with 3 entries in a section gains one merit and one credit. That member's point score in respect of the entries for that section for that month is 5 points for the merit award, 3 points for the credit award and one point for the entry for which no award is made. The member's total points received for that section in the Club's monthly competition is therefore 9 points.

8.
All prints and digital images must be the original work of the member submitting the entry. The images must not include or incorporate any material whether copyrighted or not by another photographer (either professional or amateur) nor is the image to include commercial (including “clip art”) elements, borders, graphics or photographs or elements of other photographs unless such material forms only an incidental part of the background of the image at the time that the image which is being submitted was captured by the member. In addition, the following provisions are to apply unless the Committee declares otherwise:

(a) The use of digital “filters”, such as those in photo-editing software or third party “plug-ins” for such software to create or modify elements of the image is permitted.

(b) Images must be presented for competition in an orderly manner as may be directed by the Committee.

(c) Digital Images must be the correct size (maximum dimensions of 1920 pixels wide, 1200 pixels high) and file size (1mb). Images not of the correct size and file size may be rejected.

(d) Prints may be commercially processed, must be mounted and the back of the mount must be clearly labelled with the members name, number and image title. While there is a maximum size stipulated for the various categories of print images, there is no minimum size.

(e) All prints in the Small Prints section (both A Grade and B Grade) must be no larger than 310cm2. Mounts must be no larger than 500cm2.

(f) All prints in the A Grade Monochrome and A Grade Colour Print sections must be on mounts that would fit in a rectangle which has maximum external measurements of 50cm x 40cm.

(g) All prints in the B Grade Monochrome and B Grade Colour Print sections may have a maximum print dimension of an A4 sized sheet of paper (21cm x 30cm) and must be on mounts that would fit in a rectangle which has maximum external measurements of 30cm x 40cm.

(h) All Digital Images entries for the Club’s monthly competitions (both A Grade and B Grade) are to be entered by email to the Webmaster and each Assistant Webmaster no later than 6pm on the Monday two weeks prior to the competition night unless alternate arrangements or timetable are requested by the Webmaster.

(i) All of the Competition Secretaries must be notified of the details of all the print entries by 6pm on the Saturday before the competition night.

(j) All Prints are to be handed to the Competition Secretaries before 7:30pm on the Club’s competition night.

9.
End of Year Competition

(a) The competition for the annual trophies for Best Small Print, Best Colour Print, Best Monochrome Print and Best Digital Image of the Year (combined A Grade and B Grade in all categories) will be held in December each year.

(b) A maximum of four prints and/or digital images may be submitted by each member for each section.

(c) Prints and digital images submitted for the annual trophy competition must have been entered in that current year's monthly point score competition.

(d) Entries which have won a previous annual trophy competition will not be accepted.

10.
Any image which receives an award, whether merit or credit, in a club competition must, at the discretion of the Committee and provided that the member remains a member of the Club, be made available for use by the Club in interclub competitions to which the Club is a participant in that year and in the two of the immediately following years.

11.
The Committee will decide how many trophies will be awarded in each section at the end of the competition year in respect of the Club's monthly competitions for that year. At its discretion, the Committee may also decide to award any other trophies which the Committee considers to be appropriate.

12. The Patron’s Trophy can only be awarded once to any particular member. Should a member who has, at any time, previously been awarded the Patron’s Trophy, again become eligible for the award in any subsequent year, the award will be awarded to the next eligible member who has not previously won that Trophy.

13.
Any Member who disputes a decision made by the Webmaster, Competition Secretary, Assistant Webmasters or Assistant Competition Secretaries in relation to any of that Member’s entries, results or participation in any of the Club’s competition may appeal that decision by referring the matter to the President of the Club or, in the absence of the President, to the Secretary or another member of the Executive Committee of the Club. The procedure for the resolution of the dispute shall be:

(a). Once a dispute has been received, a Review Committee is to be established.

(b). The Review Committee is to be comprised of each of the members of the Executive Committee, or if any member of that Executive Committee is not able to be involved due to absence or because they were involved in any manner in the making of the decision being disputed, that member is to be replaced on the Review Committee by a non-Executive member of the Committee provided that the replacement member was not involved in any way in the making of the decision being disputed.

(c). The Review Committee is to be formed and meet at the earliest possible opportunity and is to inform itself by whatever means is considered appropriate under the circumstances including, but not limited to, hearing argument by the Member who brought the dispute and by the decision-maker(s) whose decision is being disputed.

(d). The Review Committee is to decide the matter as expeditiously as possible and is to notify the Member who initiated the dispute and the person(s) whose decision is subject to the dispute of their decision.

(e). The decision of the Review Committee is to be the decision of the majority of the members of that Review Committee, but in the event of a majority decision not being reached, the decision of the original decision maker(s) will be deemed to have been confirmed.

(f). The decision, or deemed decision as the case may be, is final and not subject to further dispute under these By Laws.

(g). For the avoidance of doubt, any decision made by a judge in relation to a Member’s entry in any competition is final and non-appealable for the purposes of the Club’s competitions and any Member who submits an image for judging in any of the Club’s competitions is, by the act of the submission of that image, acknowledging their agreement that the decision of a judge in relation to that entry is final and non-appealable.