Please note that this document is an unofficial copy of the constitution, and you should contact the club for an official version in case of query. The author makes no guarantee as to the accuracy of the information represented herein.

This document is based on the constitution of 1992-1993, with the 1995 and 1997 AGM amendments. If anyone is aware of any further updates within this period, please contact the author.

A text copy of the Constitution is also available (without the notes); this is not guaranteed to be any more accurate than the HTML version.

The Constitution of Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club

Disclaimer Title Membership The Committee Meetings Ordinary Meetings General Meetings Formal Motions Committee Changes Constitutional Changes Commitee Voting Subscriptions The Senior Treasurer Miscellaneous

Article: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Notes

We, the members of the Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club, with the consent of the Senior Proctor, do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.

The style and title of the Club shall be The Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club, which may be abbreviated to C.U.Tw.C..

The purposes of the Club are:

1. To promote the sport of Tiddlywinks
2. To maintain the honour and good name of Cambridge University.
3. To play both serious and social Tiddlywinks, and to develop friendly relations with other clubs, societies and institutions.
4. To play and beat Oxford University Tiddlywinks Society, should it exist, at least once a year.

Membership shall be open to all members of those Institutions of Further and Higher Education situated within three statute miles of Great Saint Mary's Church. Honorary Membership may be conferred at the discretion of the Committee upon anyone.

A person shall sue for the status of member during his first, second or third meeting, and shall then attain such status after a formal motion. See Article 14.

1. The Committee shall have the right to expel any person from membership of the Club, as they shall deem fit.
2. Before the Committee may expel any member, they shall give him seven days' notice of the proposed expulsion, and allow him to make representation to them regarding the proposed expulsion.
3. Any member of the Club shall have the right to have the reason for any such expulsion announced at a Club meeting.
4. A member may resign from the Club.

A person shall, having attained membership, remain a member of the Club for life, subject to Article 5.

The Committee

There shall be established as the sole administrative organ of the Club the Committee.

1. Six ex-officio members of the Club, being in order of precedence the President, the Secretary, the Junior Treasurer, the Publicity Officer, the Assistant Secretary and the Senior Treasurer.
2. Any past Presidents of the Club who are resident members of Cambridge University, who shall be honorary Committee members.
3. As many honorary Committee members, so long as they are and remain in statu pupillari, as are elected by a majority of the votes of members of the club present and voting at an ordinary or general meeting, subject to Article 9 and Article 22(2).

1. This article is here because we were pissed and male when we wrote the Constitution.
2. If the algebraic sum of the body weights of the individual members of the whole Committee exceeds the equivalent weight of 1000 pints of real ale, then the heaviest and lightest member shall each amigos one standard sized Mars bar sideways at each meeting of the Club whilst this condition is true.

A quorum for a Committee meeting shall be a majority of the Committee members, provided that at least three ex-officio members are present.

1. The President shall be the titular head of the Club.
2. The selection of teams shall be the responsibility of the four senior Committee members. If the four senior Committee members are unable to reach a decision by common consent, the matter shall be decided by a decision of the full Committee, with the exception of the Senior Treasurer.
3. A member of the Committee may resign from the Committee during an ordinary meeting provided he announce the date of resignation at an ordinary meeting at least one week beforehand.

1. The Secretary, or his deputy, shall keep minutes of ordinary and general meetings of the Club.
2. The Publicity Officer shall be responsible for raising the profile of the Club and the Sport of Tiddlywinks within the University and the World.
3. The Assistant Secretary will help the other Committee members in the running of the day-to-day affairs of the Club.

All meetings shall be chaired by a Committee member who shall be:

1. The ex-officio Committee member of highest precedence, or, failing this
2. The longest serving honorary Committee member present.

For the purposes of attaining membership, meetings shall include the Club Dinner, Club matches, Club parties, and other official Club functions, in each case provided that at least two ex-officio members of the Committee are present.

1. Ordinary meetings of the Club shall be held if possible:
   1. Once a week during Full Term.
   2. In licensed premises.
   3. During licensing hours.
2. Meetings may be reconvened, but a new meeting may not be called until the next day or within the space of 12 hours, whichever is the later.

A quorum shall be the number present.

1. A general meeting of the Club shall be held annually during the Easter Term, before its division, and shall be held on licensed premises during licensing hours.
2. Refer to Article 9 paragraph 1.
3. When arranging the venue for elections of officers to the Club, the Committee shall make every endeavour to avoid the elections being held within the bounds of the College of any candidate standing seriously for a post.

An extraordinary general meeting may be called only by:

1. A decision of the Committee.
2. A written request by one-third of the paid-up members of the Club.

1. The Chairman shall give notice at two successive ordinary meetings of the Club of the forthcoming general meeting.
2. The general meeting shall be held within thirty Full Term days of the notice having been received by the Committee.
3. The general meeting may replace the ordinary meeting for that week.

1. Formal motions, Committee changes and constitutional changes shall be proposed, seconded and voted upon by paid-up members only.
2. For the purposes of any vote regarding formal motions, Committee changes and changes to the Constitution, every paid up member shall have at least one vote, but paid up members holding one or more Cambridge degrees shall have the number of votes equal to the number of Cambridge degrees they hold.

Formal motions:

1. A decision on a formal motion shall only be taken if at least five paid-up members are present, of whom at least two shall be Committee members.
2. A decision shall be made by a simple majority of the votes of those present and voting, subject to Article 22(2).
3. The Chairman shall have a vote. In the event of a tie the Chairman shall don a tie and may either exercise a casting vote, or call for a revote. The casting vote should, where possible, be given in favour of the status quo.

Committee changes:

1. Elections to the Committee may take place at ordinary or general meetings of the Club.
2. Elections to membership of the Committee shall only be made if twice the square root of the number of paid-up members of the Club, of whom at least four shall be Committee members, are present.
3. A decision shall be made by a simple majority of the votes of those present and voting, subject to Article 22(2).
4. The President or highest ranking officer who is not seeking election shall act as returning officer. The returning officer shall have a vote. In the event of a tie the returning officer may either exercise a casting vote, or call for a revote. The casting vote should, where possible, be given in favour of the status quo.
5. At the Annual General Meeting, elections to the Committee will occur after all other scheduled business.
6. The officers will be elected in decreasing order of seniority.
7. Nominations for positions on the Committee, each registering one seconder, shall be given in writing to the returning officer at lest 48 hours before the AGM.
8. Voting for each position shall be done by confidential written ballot.
9. The returning officer may appoint assistants to help count votes in any elections; these assistants must not be seeking election.

Constitutional changes:

1. A decision on a change of the Constitution may be taken if at least twice the square root of the number of paid-up members of the Club, of whom at least four shall be Committee members, are present.
2. A decision shall be made by a two-thirds majority of the votes of those present and voting, subject to Article 22(2).
3. Constitutional changes shall take effect at the beginning of the meeting following the General Meeting at which they were introduced.
4. Any constitutional amendment proposed during a general meeting to be voted upon at the same general meeting shall incur a pint amigos for the proposer.

Committee voting:

1. The Committee shall, where practicable, reach decision by general agreement.
2. Where voting is necessary, decisions shall be made by a simple majority of the votes those present and voting, subject to Article 22(2).
3. The Chairman shall have a vote. In the event of a tie the Chairman may either exercise a casting vote, or call for a revote. The casting vote should, where possible, be given in favour of the status quo.

1. An upper bound for the annual subscription (which shall contain an odd half-penny) shall be the sum of one half of the price (including postage and packing) of a Tiddlywinks playing surface as supplied by the approved suppliers, and the public bar price of one seventy-second of a firkin of real beer.
2. Within this constraint, the annual subscription shall be decided by the Committee from time to time, subject to ratification by an ordinary or general meeting of the Club.
3. The subscription may be reduced by a decision taken by a meeting of the Committee subject to Article 10.

1. The annual subscription shall be payable for the remainder of the University Year by each member (except the Senior Treasurer) who attains the status of "paid-up member"
   1. On attainment of membership of the Club
   2. If already a member, on attending his first meeting of the academic year.
2. An honorary member may pay the annual subscription to assume the status of paid-up member for that year.

1. Any person who has not paid his annual subscription by his fourth meeting of the academic year shall receive warning of suspension.
2. If such a subscription is not paid before the ending of his fifth meeting of the academic year, he shall be suspended from the Club until such a subscription be paid.

1. The Senior Treasurer shall be elected, in accordance with the University Statutes and by a decision of the paid-up members of the Club present at either a general or an ordinary meeting, subject to Article 30(3).
2. The Chairman shall have an additional vote in the event of a tie.
3. A decision under this article shall not take effect without the proposed Senior Treasurer's consent.
4. The Senior Treasurer shall, if he is already a paid-up member of the Club, amigos a yard of ale upon his election, and at every general meeting thereafter.

Article Thirty-two

1. Any Committee member has the right to amigos his Mother Superior by means of whipped cream (5% by weight chopped walnuts and 5% honey) and take his place, should he have tenuous grounds to suspect that his Mother Superior has become incapable or unsuitable to perform his role as a Committee member.
2. For the purposes of Article 32(1), the Mother Superior of the President shall be considered to be the leading brand of Pope as seen fit by the Secretary.
3. Any upright member may challenge any Assistant Secretary in the same way, according to Article 32(1).

This section is not officially part of the constitution, and was added for clarity by the author.

Article 3 was considered at the 1997 AGM to have been amended to include the clause ", or others at the Committee's discretion". This makes the distinction between an honorary member and a normal member of the club, the difference (unnofficially) being that honorary members are invited to join, whereas a normal member must request to join the Club. This means that "townies" are normal, not honorary, members of the Club. Later discussion showed that in fact this amendment had insufficient votes to be included, so the "townies" are presumably honorary members (or not members at all). How confusing. :-)

Article 8:

To avert future concerns on this subject, it has been determined (by discussion with the Senior Proctor) that there is no requirement that any of the Committee be members of the University.

Article 9:

The clause "and male" was a constitutional amendment in 1995.

Article 17.2 used to read:

2. A general meeting involving the election of officers to the Committee shall take place on different licensed premises to that used for the previous Committee election.

This was removed in the 1997 AGM, acknowledging the difficulty of arranging for a large number of people to occupy a given licensed premises.

Article 22:

In the Year 2000 AGM, the voting mechanism was changed to include Article 22 part 2. This required minor changes to Articles 8.3, 23.2, 24.3, 25.2, and 26.2. The intention is that members with multiple votes may split their votes between the available options. Note that members with an MA have two degrees for the purposes of this calculation, and that in order to preserve anonymity during the Committee elections, members may need multiple ballot papers.

Article 23.3:

The phrase "shall don a tie and" was added at the 1998 AGM (to confirm common practice), after much ranting. The precedent set (and the cause for the ranting) was that the two-thirds majority requirement of article 25 is met in the case of an exact two-thirds majority (i.e. a 4-2 vote in favour results in a change), and that only the total votes for and against are counted in the calculation of this majority, not the "votes" cast as an abstention. This precedent may or may not affect future debates.

Article 24.2:

The entire constitution invalidates itself, since there was a time in the Club's history since the instigation of the constitution at which the condition of Article Twenty-four part 2 was not met. This may or may not be relevant, since the Consitution will probably have been acknowledged since that date by the Senior Proctor, and hence would overrule any previous Constitution, valid or not. This point is generally brought up whenever constitutional rants get too tedious. Somebody should probably collect together a number of old members from before the days of the destruction of Article Thirty-Two, possibly get them to stay overnight in Cambridge to satisfy Article Eight part 2, and get them to take the place of the Comittee according to the original reading of 32. They could then vote in some members, resign, and we could try to sort out this mess once and for all. There may or may not ever be someone organised enough to do this.

Article 25.4:

The clause requiring an amigos for each proposal was added in 2000 (give or take some technicalities), in the vague hope of limiting future constitutional ranting. It would be nice if each changed clause counted under this article, to limit widespread changes.

Article 32:

I assume this once used to read:

1. Any Committee member has the right to replace his immediate superior by means of (probably something about voting - formal motion or vote of no confidence requiring a certain percentage?) and take his place, should he have good grounds to suspect that his immediate superior has become incapable or unsuitable to perform his role as a Committee member.
2. For the purposes of Article 32(1), the immediate superior of the President shall be considered to be the ? as seen fit by the Secretary.
3. Any paid-up member may challenge any Assistant Secretary in the same way, according to Article 32(1).