Commodore Free 28/Commodore_Free_Issue_28_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/rules

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* COMMODORE COMPUTER CLUB (UK) *
*   RULES AND REGULATIONS      *
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These rules were agreed on Saturday
26th July 2008 at our first meeting
held at Blackburn, Lancashire. They
cover all rules of the running of the
Commodore Computer Club (UK), herein
referred to as 'the club', and also
regarding complaints made to the
club, and membership of the club.

(1) Membership subscriptions, raising
funds and re-selling items.
(a) All members will pay a membership
fee as follows: 3 GBP for six months,
5 GBP per year and life membership at
30 GBP. This fee will entitle the
holder to free entry to the meetings,
and special limited areas of the
website, such as private forums and
exclusive downloads, should we get
anything exclusive to download.
Membership will always be back-dated
to the start of the month in which
the member took out the subscription,
so that everyone joining in the month
of April for one year will see their
membership expire on the 31st of
March the following year.

(b) We should have a 'Commodore
Computer Club Shop', which will stock
all of the latest hardware mods and
sods for Commodore computers where
possible. To stop the 'Maurice
Randall' effect, in which the club
will have to repay people for not
receiving their goods because they
haven't been delivered but have been
paid for, items will only be on sale
if they are in stock.

(c) There will be two prices, one for
members (cost of item + postage and
packing + 10%), one for non-members
(cost + postage & packing + 20%).

(d) Any members that do work for the
club, organising events, donating
items for auction, coding, or are
otherwise active, with exception to
posting on forums and turning up to
meetings, will be considered for free
membership and/or lifetime membership
on merit based only on work they have
done for the club. In certain
instances, will include what they
have contributed overall to Commodore
computing or gaming during their
life-time, should any 'Commodore
legends' show sufficient interest to
join the club.

(2) Events, software and other
developments.
(a) Any money that is raised by the
club should be used primarily for
setting up events, or bolting onto
other events as appropriate This is
to go towards, or cover costs of van
hire, hotels, and food and drink, so
the person or people who are willing
to travelling to these events, man
stalls and generally promote the club
and its work are not be out of pocket
as far as possible.

(b) Profits made from items sold at
events should contribute to cover the
costs of attending, or hosting,
and/or expenses accrued during the
event. This will not include monies
raised from membership subscriptions
paid for during the event.

(c) The club should also seek to
raise money for the purpose of
developing hardware and/or software
that will benefit Commodore users in
the UK and world-wide, and such items
could therefore be sold through the
club Shop.

(d) Payments to developers who are
commissioned to work on behalf of the
club should not be made in advanced
or up front unless otherwise agreed
by the treasurer and chair-person,
and any other two members. This
should be openly discussed with all
members either in private members
areas of the site, or at an organised
meeting as appropriate.

(e) Hardware that is commissioned on
behalf of the club which reaches
production should be sold at a small
profit, and monies raised to put back
into the clubs funds.

(f) If it is agreed that the club
should commission entertainment
software, the productions should be
available to download for free from
the site for members only. Real-media
versions should also be sold through
the shop with non-members able to buy
copies, though at a higher price than
members.

(g) Any software commissioned by the
club will either be purchased
outright, paying the programmer an
agreed fee on completion, or paying a
lesser fee and splitting the profits
at an agreed rate. This should be
discussed on a case-by-case basis.
The chair-person and treasurer, and
two other members, must agree which
method should be implemented.

(3) Meetings and monies.
(a) The club should hold an annual
general meeting in which members have
a say in its running, and are able to
make suggestions and table official
club business for the year ahead.
Membership subscriptions should be
reviewed at the annual general
meeting, and any price increases must
be agreed by the chair-person,
treasurer and at least two other
members.

(b) There should be an annual audit
of the clubs finances, with a
news-letter at least every three
months. The audit should be published
before the annual general meeting,
and this and the news-letter should
be available to current members
online in the private member areas.
Former members may request this
information, which will be granted on
a case-by-case basis.

(c) Members will be able to attend
any events that organised and run by
the club for free when ever possible,
whilst non-members will pay a small
signing in fee of at least 2.50. With
agreement with other event
organisers, and at events that the
club is attending in an official
capacity, we will work towards
getting members a discounted entry
fee.

(d) All monies raised will go back
into club funds.

(4) End of line.
(a) If it is apparent that the club
is not running within its means to
the extent that it is likely to fold,
or that legal action against it will
lead to the club being dissolved, all
club assets should be sold or
auctioned off, the monies raised
pooled and members will be refunded
their current subscriptions based on
the length of time they have been
members. The longest-serving paying
members will be refunded first as
appropriate, either partially or
fully depending on the financial
circumstances at the time. The newer
members will be dealt with last.

(b) Personal donations to the club's
funds can never be fully refunded,
and are not guaranteed to be paid
back at all depending on the
circumstances.

Club complaints procedure:
Phase 1: Where a complaint is made
against the club, or one of the club
members, there should initially be a
private apology between the club or
individual and the plaintiff. This
apology should be for 'any undue harm
or upset caused', and will not amount
to an admission of guilt or a
retraction in any way. The club will
not be able to force any of its
members to make this initial apology
except in the instance that the
individual has clearly and admittedly
worked on the clubs behalf in the
matter specifically relating to the
complaint that has been lodged.

Phase 2: The matter should then be
investigated to establish the facts.
If it is deemed that an individual
club member has not been acting on
the clubs behalf with regards to the
specifics of the complaint, then this
becomes a personal matter between the
two parties. The club should
therefore stop any further
investigations or involvement in the
matter.

Phase 3: If the complaint lacks any
real evidence, or it is felt that the
findings are not conclusive, then the
matter should be closed. Neither the
club, nor any of its members, should
therefore discuss the matter
publicly. All findings should be
reported to the plaintiff, and the
matter should be considered closed
from the club's point of view.

Phase 4: Where a complaint is upheld,
a public apology and/or retraction
should be published through the
official website, and in the
newsletter. The club should also give
the plaintiff the opportunity to give
his or her point of view through the
website and/or newsletter as
appropriate In this instance, the
case will be considered closed from
the club's point of view unless the
plaintiff wants to take the matter
further through due legal process.

Emergency phase: If at any point
during this process the plaintiff
feels aggrieved to the extent that he
or she instructs a solicitor to take
the matter up against the club or
club members who have clearly being
acting on behalf of the club in this
instance, the club should then
consider its legal position on the
matter, and a meeting should be set
up with the principle members of the
club within two weeks of receiving
legal notice to discuss the matter,
and what to do next. Obviously, one
would hope that any complaint would
ever get to this stage.

Membership:
People who join the club will have a
personal membership to it. They may
not join the club as a company,
publisher or software distributor or
hardware vendor.

Newsletter and reviews:
The Commodore Computer Club (UK) is
an independent user group which will
review and stock all appropriate
wares. We will do so on merit only,
and invite all members to have their
say about any literature published
through the newsletter or any reviews
written on behalf of the club. We
will invite hardware and software
vendors and publishers to have their
say on reviews written, and we will
publish their comments through the
newsletter.

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