Golfe Clube de Tavira began in the milllennium year when a small multinational group of golfers met at the newly opened Benamor Golf Course, on the Portuguese Algarve. Their passion for the game, companionship and competition lead to talks with the management of Benamor Golf. Those discussions resulted in the forming of Golfe Clube de Tavira: the inaugural meeting of the members being held on the 17th December 2000.
In those early days ten players would have been a regular good field in the monthly competition. Eight years on the membership and programme have expanded to consistently support sixty or more participants.
Today Golfe Clube de Tavira endeavours to maintain its original spirit and continues to welcome all.
The following is one of the English translations of the Portuguese Registered Constitution of Golfe Clube De Tavira. The Constitution was Registered on the 5th December 2000 and adopted at the first Meeting of the Founder Members on the 17th December 2000. The date of the translation or name of the translator(s) is not recorded.
The Translated Constitution reads:
1st Article – The Club shall have an emblem and a flag, to be approved during a Board of Directors Meeting
2nd Article – The emblem and flag cannot be used for commercial purposes without the Club’s prior authorization or consent, as holder of the insignia and logo, should they be a registered Trademark.
3rd Article – 1. Any individual person, or collective, may be a member of this club, as long as they meet the necessary requirements established in the Internal Regulation and are accepted by the Board of Directors.
2. There will be 3 member categories, the Founding members, the Honorary members and the Ordinary members.
a) Founding members are all those that signed the Constitutional Deed as well as all of those who expressed an interest in remaining a founding member before the first General Meeting.
b) The Honorary members can be lifelong or temporary: the lifelong members shall be those that have rendered important services to the Club or to Golf and deserve this distinction, once approved at the General Meeting, as proposed by the Directors. The temporary members shall be those that have rendered important services to the Club, and upon approval by the Board of Directors, who will define the duration of this distinction for each case, which may not exceed one year, and there may not exist more than 10 members with this distinction.
c) The Ordinary members are those that are admitted by means of a membership form, or in absence of this form, they may propose to the Board of Directors, who has the choice of admittance to the Club.
4th Article – The member titles are unique and non-transferable: a member is not permitted to have more than one title.
5th Article – 1. The fees will be set by the Board of Directors after having been approved at a General Meeting.
2. The Honorary Members will be exempt from the fees, but will not have the right to vote.
3. The Founding and Ordinary Members will be obligated to a punctual payment of their fees, this being a condition to exercise their rights.
6th Article – The Members’ rights are:
1. To frequent the Club’s accommodations as described in the General Internal Regulation, to be approved at a General Meeting.
2. Use the privileges presented by the Club in harmony with the statutes and the present Regulation
3. Participate at General Meetings
4. Elect the Committee Members and be elected
5. To request that a General Meeting be to be convoked within the terms of the present regulation
6. To request the resignation of a member, by providing a 30 day (thirty Day) written notice to the Board
7. Propose the admission of new members and appeal to the Board of Directors the right of deliberations should they reject these admissions or annul them.
7th Article – 1. The status of member can be lost, pending the Board of Director deliberation, for the following reasons:
a) For reason of the repeated lack of payment of the fees
b) For reason of the lack of payment of any costs occurred or caused by frequenting the accommodations or Club events, as well for the lack of payment of compulsory contributions within the set dates.
c) For the practice of offensive or dishonourable acts, that may damage the reputation or the sportive interests of the Club or its members.
2. The Board of Directors deliberation, as described in the previous number, becomes in effect as soon as it becomes affixed in the Club’s headquarters, and shall be communicated to the member in writing, by registered mail with a delivery notification.
3. The m embers that are expelled by the Board of Directors, with just cause, as described in point number 1 of this article, will not be permitted to frequent the Club’s accommodations.
4. For the application of the demission penalty, with just cause as described in clause c, point number 1, of this article, the appeal is to be made at a General Meeting, with motives to suspend effects; the appeal petition should be made in writing and signed by the interested person and 4 other members and should be presented within 15 days after the deliberation. In this case, the President of the General Meeting will
convoke an Extraordinary General Meeting within 20 days after the receipt of the petition.
8th Article – The Club’s committees are the following: The General Assembly, the Fiscal Committee and the Board of Directors
9th Article – 1. The general assembly is composed by the club’s members, who hold a voting and deliberation right in the first convocation, providing that the absolute majority of members, who hold voting rights are present
2. The Founding and Ordinary members also hold a voting right providing that they are older than 18 years, and all their obligations have been settled within the Club
3. Should the General Meeting not take place due to a lack of ‘quorum’ a second meeting shall be convoked with any number of members.
4. Exceptions will be made for General Meetings that have for objective the dissolution of the Club, the alteration of the Statutes, or the alteration of the present Internal Regulation, a minimum requirement of three quarters of the total number of members who hold voting rights must be present at a General Meeting.
10th Article – 1. The General Meetings may be Ordinary or Extraordinary. The Ordinary Meetings will be held until the 31st of March of each year in order to approve the Reports, Statements and Accounts and the Fiscal Accounts; The Extraordinary Meetings will be held by request of the Board of Directors or by the request of 10% of the members who hold voting rights or in resource to a deliberation appeal of a members demission.
2. The books and official documents will remain at the Club’s Headquarters for the member’s review, during the last 8 days prior to a General Meeting.
3. The social year will coincide with the civil or calendar year, which means that the accounts are closed on the 31st December of each year.
11th Article – 1. The General Assemblies Table is comprised of the President, the Vice President and
one vocal, elected in a General Meeting for a mandate of 2 Years.
2. It is the President’s duty to:
a) Convoke a General meeting, by publishing a Notice of Meeting in a local newspaper, apart from affixing a notice on the board of the Club’s Headquarters.
b) Manage the works at the General assembly meetings and sign the respective minutes.
c) To abide by the law, the statutes and of the Regulation.
d) To resolve the voting results at a General Meeting in case of a tie.
e) To proclaim the election of the Managing Board and provide them possession.
f) To abolish the Club’s Founding Commission.
12th Article – 1. The Fiscal Committee is comprised of one President, a Secretary and a Vocal, elected in at a General meeting for a mandate of 2 years.
2. It is the Fiscal Committee’s duty to:
a) Examine, on an annual basis or when deemed necessary, the accounting and respective books and documents.
b) To provide input about the Report, the Statements and Accounts of the Board of Directors.
13th Article – 1. The Board of Director is composed by seven members: President Vice President, Financial Director, Technical Director, General Secretary And 2 vocals elected at a General meeting, for a mandate of 2 years.
2. The Board of Directors will meet on a Quarterly basis or when ever the President deems it necessary, and minutes of each meeting are to be taken.
3. It is the Board of Directors duty to:
a) Abide by and make abide the statutes and the Internal Regulations
b) To establish support commissions for the Board of Directors.
c) Organize on an annual basis the upcoming year events and choose the teams that will represent the Club.
d) To promote a sportive exchange on a National and International basis.
e) To present on an annual basis at the General Meeting the Reports and Statements of Accounts relating to the previous year.
f) Organize on a monthly basis the Bookkeeping of the previous Month’s incomes and expenses in detail.
f) Ensure that agreements made between the Club and the owning or exploiting entities of the golf courses are fulfilled.
4. The Club will be legally obliged to and represented by the combined signatures of two of the members that are part of the Board of Directors, although the general expedient can be fulfilled by only one member.
14th Article – The elections for the different Committees are to be held every two years during the month of March.
15th Article – The applicants are to be presented to the President of the Board of the General Meeting within a period of 8 days prior to the election.
16th Article – Each candidature will present a list of applicants and will indicate the mandate, that is to be presented to the President of the General Meeting.
17th Article – Each list can be comprised with as many names as the effective places, and can be allowed to indicate for each committee a number of reserves equal to the number of effective candidates.
18th Article – The reserves shall sub statute the effectives in the case of renunciation, resignation or incapacity of these.
19th Article – Each member is only allowed to run for one list and one position.
20th Article – When the applicants are presented the President of the General Meeting a response will be given within 48 hours. The lists that aren’t rejected by the President of the Board will be considered regular.
21st Article – The President will reject any list that is missing an applicant for any of the Committees.
22nd Article – A list of the applicants will be affixed at the Club’s Headquarters or at any other location to be approved at the General Meeting. Letters will be given to the lists by order of receipt.
23rd Article – The Members will vote by Ballot, indicated with the applicant’s identification, by order of receipt.
24th Article – The applicants on the most voted list will be elected to the respective Committees.
25th Article – The vote is confidential and the elections will take place on the date and location indicated by the President in his/her convocation.
26th Article – The voting table will be open for at least 3 hours on the day of the elections.
27th Article – The members of the elected list will assume their duties in the presence of the President of the General Meeting during the month that follows the elections. The date will be set by the President.
28th Article – The current members will maintain their duties, even for longer than the period that they were elected, up until the time the newly elected members assume their new roles.
29th Article – All changes made to the current Internal Regulation will be incorporated in the ‘body’ of the present Article.
30th Article – The first Committees will be elected after the approval of the present Internal Regulation and through lists of candidates presented by the Founding Members at the General Meeting.
31st Article – The first Social Committees elected end their mandate exceptionally on the 31st March 2003.
32nd Article – The payment of fees will only be required in reference to the year 2001 and forward.
33rd Article – The following will be the value applicable to the annual fee for the year 2001:
1. Founding and Ordinary Members: 20.000$00 (twenty thousand escudos)
2. Collective members: 100.000$00 (one hundred thousand escudos)
34th Article – Should the Club not possess its own Sporting Facilities, the Board of Directors is authorised to sign with other entities that own or exploit Golf Courses in order to use the facilities.
35th Article – The club will be affiliated with the Portuguese Golf Federation, for hierarchical and sportive discipline reasons and will collaborate with the evolution of Golf in the region.
36th Article – In matters relating to discipline and in case of any omission, the legal dispositions will take effect.
“Golf is about how well you accept, respond to, and score with your misses much more so than it is a game of your perfect shots.”
Dr Bob Rotella