Constitution

The Constitution of the UCD Staff Golf Society was adopted at an EGM in The Heath Golf Clubhouse on Saturday March 25th. 1995. This followed an original draft by the committee and subsequent modifications following consultation with the members.

The first amendment to the Constitution was passed at the AGM in the Killeen Golf Clubhouse on Saturday November 4th. 1995. The second amendment to the Constitution was passed at the AGM in Hollywood Lakes Golf Clubhouse on Saturday November 9th. 1996. Subsequent amendments to the constitution were passed at the AGM in Killeen Golf Club on Saturday November 1st. 1998 Further amendments were passed at the AGM in Killeen Golf Club on Sunday 7th November 1999. Further amendments were made at the 2002 , 2004  and 2005 AGMs.

The Constitution is divided into the following sections:

• Name of the Society
• Aims of the Society
• Affiliations of the Society
• Membership of the Society
• Fees
• Timesheet
• Committee
• Annual General Meeting
• Prizes
• Handicaps
• Player of the Year Award
• Inter Varsity Competition Name

Name

The Society shall be known as the University College Dublin Staff Golf Society (hereinafter referred to as the Society).

Aims

The aim of the Society is to promote and foster the game of golf amongst the staff at University College Dublin.

Affiliations

The Society shall be affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland and shall be bound by the rules of that Union.

Membership

Membership of the Society is open to:

1. Existing members of the Society.
2. All those employed directly or indirectly by University College Dublin and working in one of the University campuses. This includes those employed by UCD subsidiary companies or companies providing a service to the University (hereafter referred to as staff).
3. Spouses/Partners of members of University College Dublin Staff Golf Society.
4. Retired members of staff at University College Dublin.
5. Former members of staff at University College Dublin, provided their membership of the Society remains uninterrupted from when they joined.
6. The Captain of the Society has the option to introduce a maximum of 2 new members to the Society each year. Total membership shall be set by the committee.
7. New candidates for membership must be nominated by two existing members.

Fees

1. The Annual Membership Fee shall be set by committee subject to approval at  the AGM. Notice of intention to change the annual subscription must be sent to members in the notice convening the AGM.
2. The Competition Fee for outings will be notified to members in advance. A member will become liable for the competition fee once a timesheet place is requested, regardless of subsequent problems which cause unavailability. A member who can not fulfil a commitment should give earliest possible notice to the committee who will attempt to obtain a replacement.
3. A Competition Fee shall be charged to all Society members regardless of club affiliation. In the case where Society members are also members of the golf club where the outing is being staged (i.e. green fees are not required), a fee will be charged to that Society member for taking part in the outing. The Committee shall decide the amount of this fee.

Timesheet

1. A timesheet will be used for all Society outings. Half hourly draws will be made to ensure mixing of members.
2. Members must arrive at least 15 minutes before advised tee-off time and be on the first tee, ready to drive off, at appointed time.
3. It is essential that members play without any delay for at least the first 5 holes to ensure that no progressive backlog occurs on the first tee and delays the starting times of other members beyond the time booked.

Committee

The affairs of the Society shall be managed on its behalf by a Committee consisting of the following officers: Captain, Vice Captain, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer, PRO and a maximum of five ordinary members.

1. The office of Captain shall be held for a maximum period of one year.
2. On taking office the Captain shall nominate his/her Vice Captain who will hold the office of Society Captain the following year.
3. The Captain shall preside at all meetings of the Society. In the absence of the Captain, the Vice Captain shall preside at all meetings.
4. The Captain shall automatically have the right to serve on the Committee the year after holding office.
5. All other officers and members shall be elected at the annual general meeting.
6. The Hon. Secretary shall maintain proper records of the society and be responsible for arrangements for all meetings.
7. The Hon. Treasurer shall maintain proper accounts and furnish annual balance sheet to the annual general meeting.
8. The PRO shall act as a liaison officer and perform other duties as agreed by the Committee.
9. Committee members must be fully paid up members of the Society.
10. A Committee meeting requires 4 members to constitute a quorum.
11. Vacancies that arise during the year will be filled by co-option to the Committee.
12. The Committee may appoint sub-committees to deal with specific matters relating to the affairs of the Society. One member of the Committee must participate in each sub-committee’s deliberations.
13. Failure by an officer or member to attend meetings except for good and sufficient reasons will entail automatic loss of membership of the Committee.
14. The pro tem President of UCD is the President of the Society.

AGM

1. The Annual General Meeting shall be arranged at a time deemed suitable by the Society committee.
2. All members of the Society shall be sent in writing or by E-Mail notice of the a.g.m. not later than two weeks before the meeting.
3. Nominations and motions must be provided to the secretary in writing not later than one week before the a.g.m.
4. Where necessary an extraordinary general meeting may be called by the committee
   1. to amend the Constitution of the Society.
   2. if requested in writing by one-third of the membership of the Society.
      In the case of (2) the business to be brought forward at the meeting must be stated in writing to the Hon. Secretary.
5. Amendments to the constitution require agreement from two-thirds of those present and voting at the general meeting.

Prizes

1. The allocation of prizes shall be decided by the Committee.
2. Subject to timesheet constraints, all members are eligible to play on Captain’s Prize day but only those who have played in a minimum number of previous Society outings that year are eligible to win the Captain’s Prize itself. The minimum number will be set by the Committee each year.

Handicaps

The annually elected Committee shall appoint a Handicap Sub-Committee for the year. The rulings of this committee on handicaps will be final, but they shall have regard to the following:

1. Members of Golf Clubs shall use their current club playing handicap.
2. Non-club members shall be allocated handicaps, appropriate to their golfing experience and form, by the Handicap Sub-Committee. The initial maximum handicap for a new member shall not exceed 18 (men) and 24 (ladies).   Allocated handicaps shall be whole numbers.
3. The maximum allocated handicap shall be equivalent to that allowed by the GUI/ILGU.
4. In order to spread prizes around, in qualifying singles Stableford competitions a system of bonuses and deductions shall operate as follows:
   1. All cards will be scored using club or allocated  playing handicaps.  .  Under no circumstances will an adjustment be made to official GUI/ILGU handicaps.  The society will not take into account the fractional part of official actual handicaps
   2. As well as having a handicap, each player will have a score-adjustment  which may be positive, negative or zero and which will be a multiple of 0.5.   The adjustment shall reflect the recent performance of a player.  There is no lower value for an adjustment; nor is there a maximum value except that, when a member’s score-adjustment is added to his/her playing handicap the result shall not exceed 30.0 for men or 40.0 for ladies.
   3. In the determination of prize winners, players’ score-adjustments will be rounded down (e.g.  2.5 becomes 2 and –1.5 becomes –2) and then added to their points totals.   Apart from the exceptions described in paragraph 6, players shall be compared on the basis of their adjusted scores.
   4. If  two players are tied on the basis of their adjusted points total, they shall then be compared using their unadjusted 18 hole scores.  If there is still a draw they shall be compared in sequence on the basis of unadjusted back 9, back 6, back 3, back 2 and back 1 scores until a winner is found.  A 0.5 lost by rounding shall not be used to distinguish between players.
   5. 18 hole main-prize and class-prize winners will have their score-adjustments reduced as follows:
      1. Overall winner  –  reduced by 3
      2. First-in-class winners  and main-prize winners apart from overall winner  –  reduced by 2
      3. Class-prize winners apart from first-in-class winners  –  reduced by 1
      4. Other 18 hole prize winners, at Handicap Sub-Committee’s discretion  –  reduced by 1
   6. A member returning a card, including an incomplete card, but not winning an 18 hole main-prize, an 18 hole class-prize or a 9 hole prize shall have his/her score-adjustment increased by 0.5 provided:
      1. the card is returned before the prize winners are declared and
      2. he/she did not win an 18 hole main-prize or class-prize in the previous competition he/she played in the same year and
      3. the sum of the new score-adjustment and the member’s playing handicap is not greater than 30.0 for men, or 40.0 for ladies.
   7. At the start of a year, negative score-adjustments will normally be reset to zero and positive score-adjustments will normally be retained.
5. The Handicap Sub-Committee has the power to review and modify score-adjustments and society-allocated handicaps at its discretion.
6. The winner of the captain’s prize, the president’s trophy and any other prize nominated by the committee shall be determined on the basis of unadjusted scores.  All other prizes in qualifying competitions shall be determined using adjusted scores.
7. In events that are not qualifying singles Stableford competitions, the scheme for awarding prizes shall be as determined by the committee

Player of the Year Award

1. The Player of the Year award shall be calculated on the best aggregated points score, using the points from the scoring table below, achieved from a maximum of four qualifying singles outings in that year. Only unadjusted scores shall be used to determine a player’s ranking in any outing.
   
   

   Ranking	Points
   1	35
   2	32
   3	30
   4	28
   5	26
   6	25
   7	24
   8	23
   9	22
   10	21
   11	20
   12	19
   13	18
   14	17
   15	16
   16	15
   17	14
   18	13
   19	12
   20	11
   21	10
   22	9
   23	8
   24	7
   25	6
   26	5
   27	4
   28	3
   29	2
   30	1

2. In the event of two or more members tying with the same score the following rule will apply: The player with the best score from three cards and so on until a winner is declared. In the event of more than one player still tying, a 5th card will be included. If there is still a tie, scores on Captain’s Day will be used.  If players are still tied, the position will be shared equally.

Inter Varsity Competition

1. The Society shall enter this annual competition.
2. The Society shall be bound by the rules of the competition.
3. The selection of a team to represent the Society shall be partially based on the Player of the Year Award scores. 50% of the team complement will be automatically filled by the leading eligible and available UCD staff members. The remaining 50% will be selected by the team manager.
4. The Committee shall nominate a team manager.
5. The team manager shall be responsible for all matters relating to the team including the selection of substitute players where necessary.