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As Club Welfare Officer, Tom Henson headed the working group to review the Club’s code of conduct and new by-laws.

Here is the text of his presentation to the AGM revealing the background to the new by-laws, what they mean and some practical first steps in application. The by-laws were approved unanimously at the AGM and are attached to this article.

“Following the changes in Club structure last year to a limited company, we are now governed by the Memorandum & Articles of Association of Staplehurst Cricket & Tennis Club Limited. That is a legal document which follows company law, apart from where we have added to it, to meet the Club’s needs.

This constitution sets out in detail the Club’s disciplinary process but doesn’t set out what behaviour might or might not end up with disciplinary action.

The constitution also states that we follow the rules and policies of tennis and cricket’s governing bodies (the England & Wales Cricket Board and Lawn Tennis Association). We also have to comply with policies for HMRC, Sport England and the sporting bodies rules relating to our Clubmark and CASC status.

On top of this we have our old Club code of conduct which needs to be better owned and promoted by the members.

The Executive Committee felt that in order to get members on board, understand and promote it, it would need to be more realistic and relevant. So we decided that the Code of the old club should become the by-laws of the new club, thereby giving it more meaning.

The Committee set up a small working group, led by me as CWO to review the Code and make it more realistic. We haven’t changed it dramatically, but we changed some things to accept the reality of modern club life.

We have also strengthened some parts, especially references to policies on welfare, safeguarding, inclusion and diversity. That is for vulnerable adults as well as children.

It is important that you know what those policies say and mean. It is important to know how they relate to you. It is important to also know what is expected of you in certain circumstances.

That means accepting responsibility and growing a culture with in the club in which people say ‘I can do that’ or ‘leave it to me’ rather than ‘the committee should be doing x, y or z.

The Code and all the policies referenced are largely common sense and basically say ‘treat others as you, or your family, wish to be treated’.

I am not expecting you to be able to recite the new laws, but they are divided into seven principles:

Fairness Independence Co-operation Tolerance Responsibility Inclusiveness and Fun. We will be working hard to highlight the new by-laws, what they mean and what practical implementation looks like.

So to start with, there is the reporting of welfare issues whereby if you have an issue to report you should now fill in an incident or concern form – the ‘green form’ – for reporting an issue to me. These can be found on the noticeboards.

I hope you will all help and support with these new by-laws moving forward.

If not, there are red and yellow cards behind the bar to be awarded for any breaches of the Code!"