A club is an association of people who have a common cause or interest-such as running a village hall, a gardening / sports club or in our case, a social members club. It is common that a club will then appoint a chairperson / president, a treasurer and a secretary; these officers form a management committee together with any other members of the club who are appointed to it. It is this management committee that administers the club’s actions in accordance with the wishes of its members as expressed in meetings. The management committee are responsible for the club’s compliance with any appropriate legislation e.g. Health and Safety, alcohol licencing, the Equality Act 2010 etc. They are also responsible for ensuring that appropriate insurance cover is obtained. The responsibilities of these officers and other management committee members, who are usually unpaid, may therefore be extremely onerous, something many are unaware of.

The management committee can only act based on the rules set out in the MGC rule book and any by-laws. From time-to-time the committee may create a sub-committee to which roles can be delegated. It is important to remember that any decisions made by any sub-committees or groups remain the responsibility of the management committee. Therefore a reporting-back procedure is usually put in place where-by the committee are provided with a monthly update.

The committee is made up of four officers (secretary, president, vice-president, and treasurer), plus nine committee men (any club member aged over 21). Any vacancy on the committee may be filled by the management committee, in the event that there are more applicants than vacancies, this will then be put to a membership vote. At each AGM, three positions should be available for the management committee with the same rules applying, if there are more than three candidates, voting will take place to form a full committee.