Annual General Meeting Thursday 28th January 2016
Explanation of Proposed Rule Changes
CASC and Rule Changes 14, 15 & 16
The club has been a member of the Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) scheme since 2002, the scheme encourages sports clubs to provide sporting activities to the Community and provided the club adopts certain regulations, it is able to register with HMRC and claim a range of tax reliefs, specifically for us an 80% reduction in Business Rates.
Earlier this year the CASC rules were altered and as a result the club currently fails to meet the following 3 revised regulations:
· The maximum non member income (including visitors’ fees) is restricted to £100,000.
· Clubs with membership costs above £520 a year must make special provision for members who would find these costs a significant obstacle to enable them to fully participate in the sport for no more than £520 a year (equivalent to £10 a week).
· Applicants for membership should not have to be proposed by 2 existing members.
Any club failing to meet the revised rules by 1 April 2016 will be excluded from the scheme.
The benefit to the club of being in CASC in the last financial year was £28,000 in respect of business rates reduction, equivalent to a levy of £50 per member. The AGM reports confirm that the club no longer has a full membership and the committee therefore considers it is vital that CASC status is retained.
The committee’s proposals to meet the new regulations are:
In respect of the first regulation, the committee has commissioned a report from Armstrong Watson & Co Accountants on how the club can continue to meet this requirement.
Their recommendations are that:
1. Carlisle Golf Club should incorporate as a company limited by guarantee in order to facilitate a VAT group with a new trading subsidiary.
2. A new wholly owned trading subsidiary is formed which will run the bar and catering and could also contain green fee income from corporate bookings.
There will be costs associated with this, the committee estimates that the set up costs will be in the region of £3-4,000 and the ongoing additional annual administration and accountancy costs will be circa £4,000.
In respect of the second regulation, the committee intends to offer a new category of membership for the financially less well off at £495 per annum with no joining fee for people in receipt of:
Jobseekers Allowance
Pension Credit Guarantee
Income Support
This category would be a 5-day membership from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive which would require evidence of the receipt of the benefits at joining and at annual renewal.
The third regulation requires a simple change to the application form.
The changes to CASC coincide with the club facing a more uncertain financial future faced with potential falling membership and the committee considers that a restructure of the membership categories and entrance fees is necessary to enable the club to be pro-active in attempting to recruit new members. At present, these are part of the club’s rules and the committee is unable to vary these without the approval of the members at a General Meeting.
In order to protect the future of the club financially we are proposing rule changes in addition to those required for retaining our CASC status.
40% of golf clubs in England are proprietary owned and often promote pay and play rather than the traditional membership model.
Research shows that there are 2 million golfers in England who play golf at least once a month who are not affiliated to any club.
Membership clubs are under severe pressure to retain membership numbers.
Nationally membership numbers are declining by 10% year on year and for the first time ever Carlisle Golf Club has a shortfall of members and no waiting list.
Having membership categories, entrance fee charges etc incorporated in the club rules was appropriate when the club had a 7+ years waiting list but is not longer considered fit for purpose in today’s climate.
The age profile of our current membership, for example, and the fact that we have more members in the age bracket 70 to 75 than we have aged 40 and below highlights the longer term problems the club is facing.
The committee will in future have to be more innovative in its attempts to attract and retain new members and will need the tools to do so. The current rules are an obstacle rather than help to achieve that.
We are currently working with England Golf, the games governing body, to develop a long term strategy and improved structure that will enable us to recognise and react to change and make decisions quickly, with confidence and in the knowledge that they reflect best practices within the golfing community.
In order to meet the revised CASC regulations and to allow the committee to respond effectively to the quickly changing golf club market, the committee asks members to support the changes to Rules 14, 15 and 16 as set out in the notice of the AGM.
3) As Past Captains are not elected at the AGM the committee feel they should not therefore be considered officers of the club.
21) To gain a better overview from the maximum number of members possible, this has been requested numerous times in recent years by members who are unable to attend the AGM due to work commitments, holidays etc.
24) The committee feels that nominations for office holders should be submitted to the Secretary in accordance with any other proposals and not accepted on the night of the AGM.
25) The committee feels that a simple majority vote is more democratic and is sufficient in reflecting the wishes of the membership.
31) In order to make the club rules more accessible to members.
Tom Ogden (Treasurer), Neil Murray (Captain), Jo Kyle (Secretary / Clubhouse Manager)
2nd January 2016