HGS Charter

The objective of the HGS is to play golf and have fun.

History

Gary’s stag weekend started the ball rolling at the Belfry in 1995… 10 years on the HGS has grown into what it is today. A well organised, social, 22 member strong society with a register of around 10 guests, regularly playing various monthly and annual events at differing venues throughout the year.

Membership

In June 2005 a Committee decision was taken to reduce membership back to 20 from 24.
As at end of June 2005 the HGS membership was 22.

For Yearly/Monthly Events (22 membership):

    1)    All events should plan for an attendance of 20 (on the basis that 2 members may drop out)
    2)    If 2 members drop out we keep number at 20.
    3)    If more than 2 members drop out we ask guests to make up to 20 only.
    4)    If all 22 members want to come we make it up to 24 with guests.

• Automatic entry into the monthly events and annual events (a member is automatically entered for all monthly and annual events unless they decline, for which, due notice is required)
• Automatic entry into all HGS member competitions, see trophies section
• An HGS handicap, see handicaps section

An Annual Membership Subscription of £20 is payable by 31^st May each year to the Treasurer. Any payments offered after this date will not be accepted and the membership offer will be withdrawn.. There will no exceptions to this rule. This Subscription will cover the annual membership until the following May. This period shall be known as the HGS year.

The Subscription is allocated against the members name in the HGS treasury account and will be a payment towards that years May Ryder Cup event. If the member cannot attend this event then it will count towards the following years May Ryder Cup event along with that years subscription (total will be £40).

The total Annual Membership Subscription of 22 x £20 = £440. This provides a necessary float for the HGS account during the 12 months up until the May Ryder Cup event.

• The Annual Membership Subscription must be paid by 31^st May each year.
• The member must have submitted 3 signed scorecards from official HGS monthly events played within the HGS year.

The events that do not count toward re-qualifying for membership include:

• Annual May Ryder Cup event
• Annual Return Match Ryder Cup event (Sept/Oct)
• Matches played between members for any private or official HGS competition where the match is not played during a HGS monthly event

If a member fails to meet the re-qualifying criteria they will be asked to step down.

The committee accepts the possibility that on a very few occasions there may be some extraordinary reason(s) as to why a member has not been able to meet the Annual Membership re-qualifying criteria. In such circumstances the member must state their reasons to the committee prior to the May 31^st renewal date and the committee will meet to make a decision on the case. The decision of the committee will be final.

What has to occur to revise the membership?

• A member leaves of his own accord
• A member is asked to leave by the committee
• A member dies

In any of these given situations a guest will be invited to take the members place using the Membership Selection criteria, see below.

Appointment of New Members

In the event that the HGS membership level falls below its current level at anytime in the HGS year, the appointment of new members may be undertaken. This process, if required  will be undertaken in June and December only. The committee will decide on and manage the appointment process.

The Membership Selection criteria are as follows:

• The guests registered on the HGS web site will be listed in order by the number of scorecards handed in from HGS monthly events
• Membership will then be offered in strict order – highest number of cards first
• In the event of a draw between any guests using the above criteria, those guests will then be put in order by the date of their earliest scorecard. The guest with the earliest dated scorecard will be the first to be offered membership
• Should this still result in a draw the order on the list will be finalised by a draw (first out of the hat)

When the committee has reached a decision, a committee member will be designated to contact the guest to invite them to become a member. The guest then has 14 days within which to accept the invite by paying their £20 Annual Membership Subscription to the Treasurer.

The HGS is committed to the invitation of guests when members decline an HGS event. Guests are the responsibility of the member introducing them. It is the responsibility of the member to explain the etiquette and behaviour expected of the guest and the specific HGS rules to the guest, any breech of which may cause the committee to exclude the guest from invite to any future society events.

When guests are invited to attend an official HGS event they will be asked to submit their signed scorecard for registration. When they have submitted 3 scorecards from official HGS monthly events they will be issued with a ‘Guest Handicap’. The ‘Guest Handicap’ will be recorded on the HGS web site in the Guests Handicap list. The guest must use this handicap when invited to all official HGS events. Like the handicap process for members, the guests will be required to submit their scorecards after every event and their handicap will be subject to ongoing review and appropriate adjustment.

Invites for guests to HGS monthly events will be issued to all guests when a place becomes available, via the HGS Forum. The invites are issued on a strict first come first served basis, by looking at the guest replies listed on the HGS Forum.

Invites for guests to HGS Annual events will be managed using the Membership Selection criteria as stated above. The number of invites issued will be determined by the committee as appropriate in each year, according to the number of members who are able to attend.

For these annual events, if the society has a registered handicap for the guest then they will play of this handicap. However, if this is not the case the guest must accept as a condition of attending the event a handicap adjustment of minus 2 strokes at a minimum. The committee will determine what the reduction in handicap will be. There will be no exceptions to this rule.

HGS Events

• Monthly x10 rounds of stableford (usually the 2^nd Sunday of every month, usual exceptions are May and September)
• Annual May x2 round stableford competition
• Annual May x3 round matchplay competition
• Annual September x2 round matchplay competition

For calculating HGS handicaps, 1) and 2) are used.

For guest selection criteria to annual events, 1) is used.

For membership re-qualification and new member qualification, 1) is used.

For the HGS MIP trophy, 1) and 2) are used.

For the HGS JUG trophy, 1) is used.

HGS Committee

The committee is in place for the good of the society.

The main objective of the committee is to ensure fairness and equality to its members.

The committee currently consists of 7 HGS members listed here in alphabetical order:

Andrew Boulter

Gary Granger

Michael Hammond

Paul Cook

Pete Billington

Richard Hammond

Terry Collins

Committee procedure

Although no strict ballot procedure is performed, every year at an AGM the members decide whether the committee is continuing to run the society at a high standard and as such the committee continues into the following year.

Meetings are held every month, or more or less as is required. All committee members will be given due notice of date, venue and agenda.

Meeting minutes will be forthcoming and issued onto the HGS website for members to view.

All committee decisions will be made at these meetings unless all members of the committee agree the item can be discussed outside of the meetings. Meetings require a quorum of 5 members to be present. All decisions require a majority vote if a unanimous decision cannot be reached. If members are not able to attend any meeting they must make their views known on any agenda item they wish to comment on, to a fellow committee member. Their views if so given, must be shared at the meeting before a decision is made. Once a decision has been made at the meeting, the decision is deemed to be final.

Future

Although some committee members undertake certain roles no titled roles currently exist. In the future there may be a case for allocating titles to certain roles such as chairman, secretary, treasurer, rules and handicap secretary, events co-ordinator (and 2 additional members to help with committee and society tasks, such as the co-ordinating events and auditing of accounts etc..)

There may also be a case in the future for opening up eligibility of these committee roles by vote to all the HGS membership.

Monthly events

Each 2^nd Sunday of the month an HGS monthly event takes place.

Usually 10 events a year omitting May and September.

Each month is a qualifying stableford event for the members such that it is used to provide scores to adjust handicaps and count towards the yearly MIP and The Jug competitions.

Members are encouraged to attend and places are usually limited to number of members.

A committee member (or on occasions, a member) will be allocated to each monthly event as that particular monthly event organiser. It will be the responsibility of each monthly event organiser to book a venue and post the information 2 to 3 months in advance on the website to give due notice to the members of date, venue, cost.

Confirmation Date, Deposit and Payment

There will be a ‘confirmation date’ of 2 weeks before each monthly event. Any deposits owing must be paid prior to the confirmation date. Any declines after this date may mean that the member may be responsible for any deposit paid.

All payments to be made to the treasurer or events organiser.

Events Forum

This Events forum is to be used by the committee to inform the members of future monthly events and to help the committee ascertain who is going to each monthly event.

Each Topic under the Forum will relate to be an HGS event. E.g. ‘Topic: November’.

Topics on this forum will be posted by the committee event organiser ONLY. No other Topics should be posted by anyone.

The forum will also be used as a means for guests to register their availability in the situation that a member declines an event. Guests should then be asked by the committee on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

Therefore the Forum should therefore only contain:

1) DECLINES from members

2) Guests registering their availability

This event occurs once a year usually in the May including staying away in accommodation for around 4/5 nights and comprises of 2 rounds of stableford competition and 3 rounds of Ryder Cup format competition. The event is usually held in a ‘special’ location not normally visited on monthly events.

The Annual May event is open to all members. Due to the nature of the competition the number of players is required to be divisable by 4.

Each member is expected to attend unless they have declined by the confirmation date. If any member declines, then and only then will guests be invited to attend.

Confirmation Date, Deposit and Payment - May

The committee will give due notice to its members of venue and dates along with a ‘confirmation date’. The members must confirm their attendance by this ‘confirmation date’ (on the web site Events forum or to a committee member), and pay any deposit due, normally £50. After this confirmation date (and no deposit having been paid) has passed the committee may start offering any spare places to guests.

All Payments for the event must be paid up a month in advance of the leave date. It is advisable that part payment starts as early as possible so as to spread the cost over the ensuing HGS year.

A rematch of the May Ryder Cup is usually staged in September each year.

The Annual September event is open to all members.

The committee will give due notice to its members of venue and dates along with a ‘confirmation date’, by which time members must confirm their attendance (on the website Events forum or to a committee member) and pay any deposit due, normally £50 to be paid by the confirmation date. After this confirmation date (and no deposit having been paid) has passed the committee may start offering any spare places to guests, see below.

All Payments for the event must be paid up a month in advance of the leave date.

Annual September event - Guests

Although this event was formed to create a rematch of the May Ryder Cup event. The September event as with all HGS events is open to members first, any spare places will be offered to guests using the committee selection criteria, although there may be case of inviting those guests who attended the May event next, and then inviting other guests after.

Handicaps

Members - All members use HGS controlled handicaps for all HGS competitions. HGS use a handicap adjustment calculator that checks scores and calculates handicap adjustments. This is done according to CONGU standards.

All members signed scorecards from qualifying events are submitted to the handicap committee and the gross scores are recorded. See Qualifying Events section.

Guests - All new guests must provide the HGS handicap committee with their recent playing handicap prior to playing in an HGS event, such as proof of a club handicap.

All Guests signed scorecards should be submitted to the handicap committee. A ‘guest handicap’ will be calculated and issued by the handicap committee using the guests 3 recent gross score cards from HGS qualifying events.

Handicap adjustments

Qualifying Events – All members and guest scores are recorded from HGS events and are fed into the handicap adjuster calculator. Up to date handicaps are posted on the HGS website.

General Play - Whenever the Handicap Committee consider that a member’s handicap is too high or too low and does not reflect his current ability an adjustment may be made within the guidelines set out in Clause 19 of the Handicapping Scheme.

This means that the committee must decide whether to adjust a handicap when they feel ‘circumstances have led to a players handicap no longer reflecting his ability’. If the players level of play has improved so that his ability has improved, then he deserves a cut, if he is just going through a period of good form then he should be allowed to stay where he is.

The Handicap Committee is obliged to and may or may not use the prerogative to conduct an annual review of all Handicaps.

HGS Accounts

The Treasurer handles the HGS account. All cheques require 2 HGS committee signatures (Paul Cook and Peter Billington). The HGS accounts are audited annually by 2 different committee members (Michael Hammond and Richard Hammond). The HGS accounts are open to perusal by any HGS member.

All monies owing must be paid direct to the Treasurer or other designated committee member.

HGS Trophies

Below is a list of the trophies and prizes awarded by HGS.

The majority of HGS trophies are not to be retained by the recipient but passed back at the end of the HGS year prior to the Yearly May event to be subsequently passed onto the following years recipient, see below.

The ‘Most Improved Player’ (MIP) Trophy – awarded to the player who has proved to be the most improved player over the year. This will be the player whose handicap has been reduced by the largest percentage over the HGS Year. Eligibility: Open to Members ONLY

The ‘Bloody Nice Jug’ Trophy – awarded to the player who has achieved the highest accumulated 'score' over the year. This 'score' will be calculated for each member using the sum of the player's best 5 scoring Stableford rounds from a possible 10 monthly events during the HGS year. Eligibility: Open to Members ONLY

‘Annual Event’ Trophies:

Top Dog Trophy – awarded to the player who has the best total stableford score after 2 rounds, during the Annual May Stableford event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees

The Pennell Stray Dog Trophy – awarded to the player who from those players that finished 13^th-24^th (bottom half) after the 1^st Round, has the best total stableford score after 2 rounds, during the Annual May Stableford event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees

The Frankie ‘Lucky Bastard Shot’ Trophy – awarded to player who is deemed to have played the most Lucky Bastard shot during the Annual May Stableford event, voted for by those present at that event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees

The Cookie Limp & Lame Trophy – awarded to the player who is deemed to have played the most ‘limp and lame’ shot during the Annual May Stableford event, voted for by those present at that event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees

The Terry Collins ‘Can’t Handle the Pressure’ Trophy – awarded to the player who is deemed to have not been able to ‘handle the pressure’ during the Annual May Matchplay event, voted for by those present at that event.

The Tony Fay ‘Worst Drive’ Trophy – awarded to the player who is deemed to have played the ‘worst drive’ during the Annual May Matchplay event, voted for by those present at that event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees

‘Ride-Her Cup’ Shield – awarded to the captain of the winning team during the Annual May Matchplay event.

‘Ride-Her Cup’ medals – awarded to the 12 players competing in the winning team during the Annual May Matchplay event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees (KEPT)

‘Annual Event’/’Monthly Event’ Prizes:

Nearest Pins/Longest Drives/Nearest Pin (In 2) Prizes – awarded to the winner of each relevant prize during the event. Eligibility: Open to ALL attendees (KEPT)

Rules of golf

The playing of golf shall be governed by the rules of golf as laid down by the R & A.

These rules shall be upheld by the committee. The committee’s decision is final.

It is the responsibility of every member and guest to police his own game in accordance with the rules.

The HGS website shall contain links to the R&A website and shall have some rules explained for the benefit of the members.

Golf Disputes

Any decisions sought for disputes during a round, should be raised first with your playing partners (in stableford before leaving the course, in matchplay before the start of the next hole). Once raised, as soon as possible request a decision from the committee when leaving the course before the signing of any scorecards or shaking of hands.

Etiquette and Behaviour

When HGS members and guests are playing golf they are representing the HGS and they should conduct themselves as such. All practices of etiquette should be observed, such as course care, speed of play and dress code.

The committee’s decision is final

For the good of the HGS any exceptions to the above will be at the discretion of the committee. The committee’s decision is final.