C2

The Five Towns Quiz League shall exist as an Unincorporated Association as defined in English and Welsh law.  The ownership of the organisation and its assets and liabilities shall be vested in its current member teams and their currently properly registered players within the current Rules of the Five Towns Quiz League.  The Five Towns Quiz League in this respect, shall be non-profit making.  For the avoidance of doubt, "current member team" shall deemed to be any team that has finished a particular season and shall not cease to be a member team until the following season's league programme has commenced without that team's participation.

The Five Towns Quiz League shall maintain a set of operational rules, mainly to cover match play and etiquette and these shall be appended to and form part of this Constitution.  These rules can be amended by the AGM.  This Constitution can only be amended by an EGM.

Responsibilities and liabilities in the sense of individual teams is vested in its currently properly qualified players (including properly named seasonal question readers) within the current Rules of the Five Towns Quiz League

"Current member teams" during a close-season period shall be taken to mean those teams which finished the previous competition season and "currently properly registered players" in a close-season period are the players properly registered with a team at the point that it completed the most recent competition season.

The Five Towns Quiz League shall maintain a bank account and this shall be accounted for annually at the AGM with a balance sheet and verbal report from the Treasurer.

Membership fees and the frequency with which they shall become due and paid, shall be set by the AGM each year.

C3

The ethos of the Five Towns Quiz League is to exist to provide a social and friendly yet competitive quiz competition(s) for teams of four players on Monday evenings over a winter season, each year.  The evening and/or format of the competition is able to be changed by a proposal and vote at the AGM.  The Five Towns Quiz League will also entitle itself to raise money for chosen charities as and when it deems fit.  The Five Towns Quiz League recognises that it will have as members people to whom the competitive aspect is important, those to whom the social aspect is important and people who represent a mixture of those attitudes and is keen to stress that as an organisation that considers itself inclusive, there is room in our organisation for all those members.

The Five Towns Quiz League shall maintain a concept known as 'The Spirit of the Game', which is intended to foster sporting play and attitudes and shall be deemed to mean a fair-minded interpretation of playing the game and its attendant events that would be taken by a reasonable person.

The aims/objectives of the league shall be to foster social relationships in a competitive quiz competition environment and to reward both quiz achievement and sportingness in a manner that the league shall deem appropriate.

The Five Towns Quiz League is open to people of all gender, creed, colour, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, marital status and disability, but not limited to these specific areas.  The Five Towns Quiz League shall hold itself to be bound by the Equalities Act 2010.  Any deemed transgression of this shall be dealt with through the Five Towns Quiz League disciplinary policy administrated by the Committee and Appeals Procedure.

C4

An Annual General Meeting will be held at the beginning of each season to elect officers, approve annual accounts and consider and vote upon changes to this Constitution and Rules, which are appended to this Constitution.

Items for discussion at the AGM need to be brought to the attention of the Secretary at least fourteen days before the AGM.

Motions to change the Constitution or Rules must be with the Secretary in writing at least fourteen days before an AGM/EGM.

C5

A Special or Extraordinary General Meeting can be called if 66% or more of the existing teams as define above call for such meeting in writing.  An EGM can be called by the Committee at any time, in order to debate and/or pass any matters that would need to be in place before the next AGM.

C6

The management of the League will be vested in a Committee and a Committee will be elected to run the League consisting of:

An 'Executive Committee' consisting of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.  Then as many non-executive Committee members as to make the Committee total five Committee members in terms of bodies, as in different individual persons.  This number of members may be varied by the AGM or an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).  No executive Committee Member may hold two executive Committee positions.  The Chair however, will hold a casting vote to be used in tied Committee and AGM/EGM/SGM situations, in addition to their own initial vote.

All Committee positions are held until the next AGM, whereupon all positions become available and are elected at the AGM, where if new Committee positions are created at the behest of the meeting, those positions can be filled with ad hoc nominations ie 'on -the-spot" at the AGM.

As per the above paragraph, all members of the Committee must resign at the point of the "Committee for...20??-?? season" item on the following AGM agenda. If they wish to stand for re-election they must announce their intention to do so in writing at least fourteen days before the AGM and be nominated and seconded by FTQL members. This also applies to any new members wishing to join the Committee.                                           

Nominations to stand for Committee against an existing Committee member who is presenting themselves for re-election must be received by the Secretary not later than fourteen days before the scheduled AGM.  A valid nomination consists of a written submission (by postal letter or email) to the Secretary with nomination from an existing Five Towns Quiz League registered player from the previous season and with seconding from an existing Five Towns Quiz League registered player from the previous season.  These two proposers must be different people but can be from the same team or different teams.

No individual person may stand for more than one Committee position simultaneously, whether executive or non-executive.

The Committee shall be vested with the power to appoint a sub-committee or sub-committees to administrate, investigate, discuss and adjudicate individual matters as and when it becomes apparent that one or more sub-committees would be appropriate.  This is most likely to be in a disciplinary matter where one or more existing Committee member could be reasonably portrayed as possessing possible automatic bias or vested interest but also might be to run a new competition or event or the like.

C7

At any general or Annual General meeting, one team has one vote.  This makes clear that one attending delegate cannot wield or cast two or more votes.  This is effectively one vote per delegate attending and a maximum of one delegate per team to vote.

If a team has a team member on the League Committee they may still have a separate delegate with a vote but in any event, only two votes per team including that Committee member.  All votes shall be carried by a simple majority of all eligible votes present.

C8

The Chair may use a casting vote in any meeting in addition to their own vote if casting for a team and also in Committee in the event of tied votes.  A Committee member must be present at a Committee meeting to cast a vote and a team must have a delegate or delegates at the AGM/EGM/SGM to cast a vote.

C9

The signatories for cheques shall be the Treasurer and one other from the Secretary and the Chair, ie two signatures required.

C10

The Committee shall be responsible for organising:

1) A weekly league competition, consisting of two divisions with relegation and promotion, unless and until weight or lack of numbers dictate that more divisions or less divisions are required.

2) A Knockout Cup competition for all the teams in the league.

3) A Plate Knockout competition, held between Knockout Cup Round One losers and/or Preliminary Round losers should one prove necessary.

4) A Handicap Cup competition for all the teams in the league

5) An Individual top scorers' average competition for all players in the league, divided on a divisional basis.

...and any other ad hoc competitions that may be from time to time considered desirable.

The Secretary will maintain a database of contact details of members for communication purposes regarding the running of the FTQL.

C11

Member teams shall agree by their participation to:-

a) Abide by the Rules of the League and of the competitions run by the League.

b) Abide by this Constitution and any byelaws made under it (including the Code of Conduct annexed below);

c) Pay in a timely manner to the League the annual subscription;

d) Use their best endeavours to provide a reasonable venue for their home matches;

e) Nominate a person to act as Team Captain who will be responsible for communication with the Committee and with whom the Committee shall be entitled at all times to deal as the authorised representative of such member team.  Team Captains must also be prepared to have their contact telephone number published on both the Five Towns Quiz League website and in fixture leaflets and handbooks etc.

f) Should the Five Towns Quiz League cease to exist, all remaining monies belonging to the organisation shall be divided equally among all member teams at the time of dissolution.  In the same manner, any outstanding liabilities shall be met equally by existing member teams at the time of dissolution.

C12

The Five Towns Quiz League attaches the highest importance to its matches being played in a convivial, inclusive and friendly manner. All players and match officials are expected to conduct themselves accordingly.  This principle extends to all other FTQL events, informal gatherings of FTQL players, and any other context where the reputation of FTQL might be affected. One might summarise this principle as simply "treat other people with courtesy and respect at all times".

The FTQL Committee will be concerned about any breaches of this principle, and will take an especially dim view of behaviour or language that is (or could be construed as) sexist, racist or homophobic, or as bullying.  A serious breach of this principle, or a pattern of repeated breaches over time, may lead the Committee to invoke existing FTQL disciplinary procedures.  The Committee will note all breaches that it hears about, whether formally or informally, and may take these into account should the issue of sanctions arise.

C13

The operational and already existing "Official Rules" of the League are appended to and form part of this Constitution.