Club Rules & Policies

General Rules

• The name of the Club is Horley Oakwood Badminton Club.

• The Club is a non-profit organisation organised for the benefit of its members. All funds raised are used to cover costs, used to keep a small balance sufficient to manage cash flow variations or invested in the Club's assets.

• There will be an AGM once a year to elect the officers of the Club, update membership fees and decide leagues choices for the following season.

• The Club Officers will be a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Match Secretary and Team Captains.

• Club Nights will be from 7.30pm to 10.00pm on Fridays at Oakwood Sports Centre, Horley.

• League teams will be selected by a selection committee, comprising at least the Match Secretary and Team Captains, which will be elected at the AGM. Teams will normally compose of a core group and some substitutes.

• Games played during club nights and in the league matches shall use the '21-point 'Rally Point Scoring System''.

• Club Night games will be organised using the usual 'peg-board' system i.e. "choose any 4 from the next 7 players including yourself".

• All players shall be members of Badminton England, registered via the Club, or another club. If registered via another club, registration numbers must be provided to the Match Secretary.

Club Night Conduct

Members attending club nights should treat each other and visitors with courtesy and respect, whatever their standard of play, and respect the spirit of fair play in badminton. They should also uphold the principal values of the Club’s Code of Ethics and Behaviour, as set out below. Members should also help with weekly tasks such as putting up and taking down nets, and collecting up used shuttles.

Players should respect the peg board system used during club nights, in which a person picks a game from the next seven players including themselves. Players must move the 4 selected pegs to one of the court peg holders. When the game completes players must move their pegs back to the end of the waiting area of the peg board, with the winning pair placed first. Members should help visitors select their games. 

Players should not walk across any part of a badminton court while games are in progress and take all reasonable measures to ensure their safety and the safety of others. 

Policy For Visitors And New Members

• Visitors and potential new members will be welcomed to attend Club nights at any time during the season.

• But visitors must contact the Secretary (see Club Officers) to request to come to club nights.

• Normally two visitors maximum will be allowed on club nights. This is to ensure that members get adequate court time.

• If visitors turn up without prior arrangement they may be asked to leave if it is deemed that it is too busy.

• Visitors can attend for up to 3 club nights before applying to join the Club. 

• Any visitors fees paid will be deducted from subscription fee.

• New members will have to 'play in' before joining. The current Club ethos is that while we are not a club for beginners, we do invite people to join who may not quite meet our standards but have potential.

• New members joining mid-way through the season may pay a reduced pro rata membership fee, less any visitor fees already paid, arranged with the Club Treasurer.

Policy For Eligibility For League Matches

• All match players shall be Club members who have paid the annual subscription fee. Visitors are not eligible until they have joined the Club

• Players that would like to play matches for the Club but do not anticipate regular attendance at club nights may request to pay 50% of the normal annual subscription. This will entitle them to play in matches and also attend up to 5 free Club nights; after that full subs would be payable or pay on a per night basis, arranged with the Club Treasurer.

• All match players must be registered by the Match Secretary with the leagues in which they are playing (ESBA, Crawley, West Weald or Edenbridge and East Grinstead) in advance of playing.

• The Team Captains are responsible for selecting players for each match, selecting from the team of core and substitute players chosen by the selection committee at the start of the season. They are also responsible for organising transport to away matches and food for home matches, collecting match fees, as well as recording and submitting results.

Privacy Policy

Given the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which came into force in May 2018, we summarise below how the Club uses Personal Identifiable Information.

This policy will apply for as long as an individual is a Club member. When an individual leaves the Club, personal data will be deleted.

The Club collects the following information from members, which is held by the Club’s Secretary, Treasurer and Fixtures Secretary (information related to social events is held by the relevant event organiser):

• RELATED TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF CLUB MEMBERSHIP: name; address; date of birth; email address; contact telephone numbers; emergency contact number; Badminton England (“BE”) membership number; attendance at Club nights.

• RELATED TO PLAYING IN LEAGUE TEAMS/MATCHES and/or CLUB TOURNAMENTS: playing preferences.

• RELATED TO PARTICIPATION IN CLUB CHRISTMAS PARTY/SOCIAL EVENTS: partner name (if attending event); food preferences.

WHY WE HOLD THIS INFORMATION

The Club believes that it has legitimate interests, as set out in the GDPR, to hold the information. We require the information to:

• Administer the membership of the club, including: the collection of Club membership and BE fees; collection of match and visitor fees; payments to BE.

• Administer participation of the Club in leagues, including providing relevant information to league organisers for the effective administration of their leagues.

• Manage team selection and match fixtures, including: selection of teams; organising player attendance at matches; arranging substitutes where necessary; notifying of match cancellations, including at late notice.

• Organise club social events/tournaments.

SHARING WITH THIRD PARTIES

We will only share necessary information with third parties where it is required to perform the functions set out above. Principally this will be:

• BE and the organisers of badminton leagues in which the club participates.

• Team captains who need contact details of team members or substitutes to arrange teams for league matches.

• In exceptional circumstances, we will provide a team captain’s contact number to an opposition team where they need to make urgent contact regarding an impending match fixture.

• Where necessary, hosts of club social events (including club Christmas party).

CLUB WHATSAPP GROUPS

We maintain a password protected web page on this web-site for Member’s Only which contains a list of current members, with their name, phone number and email address. This is to help members contact each other to discuss match arrangements for example. Any members who wish to be removed from this list should contact the Club Secretary or Web-Site Maintenance.

We use WhatsApp groups for the communication of certain Club information, including:

• OAKWOOD BADMINTON CLUB: A social group for the Club as a whole, to communicate information relevant to the membership as a whole, or any other matter likely to be of interest to all Club members.

• SPECIFIC TEAM GROUPS: Groups for specific league teams to facilitate the efficient arrangement of match fixtures for those teams in the current season.

Any member within these WhatsApp groups may post messages. In the case of the OAKWOOD BADMINTON CLUB group, this means that mobile telephone numbers are available to all members of the club. Members who prefer to be excluded from this group, should contact the Club Secretary to request this.

For players who are under 18 years old, the following additional provisions apply:

• Unless it is otherwise not possible, we will seek to communicate with junior players via their parents or guardians. We will therefore hold contact details for parents/guardians of junior players.

• As directed by BE, we ask for details of relevant medical conditions that might affect the players while playing at the club.

• We will not include junior players in the OAKWOOD BADMINTON CLUB WhatsApp group.

Any members that have legitimate concerns about the handling of their personal data by the Club, as described in the policy above, should discuss additional restrictions with the Club’s Secretary.

Code of Ethics and Behaviour

The Club upholds the principal values of the Badminton England Code of Ethics and Behaviour, and believes that all its members should be able to enjoy badminton regardless of their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, background or circumstances, free from verbal or physical abuse, or threatening, intimidating, bullying or ridiculing behaviour.  Members who use repeated inappropriate, foul or discriminatory language, or ridiculing or bullying behaviour, may be asked to leave the club. 

Any concerns about inappropriate behaviour should be raised with the Club Secretary or other Committee members. The Club Committee will arbitrate about what is considered inappropriate or unacceptable and decide upon the necessary action.

Social Media Policy

The Club uses WhatsApp as explained above. The following guidelines apply:

• All adult members will be invited to join and may subsequently post to the WhatsApp groups.

• Only the individuals who set up the groups or the Club Committee will be made Administrators, able to add or remove people.

• Members are requested to only post messages directly relevant to the Club, or likely to be of general interest, and not to post too frequently.

• Members are requested not to use the Club’s Whatsapp group for sending messages to individuals.

• Members who post inappropriate messages to the WhatsApp groups will be removed from the groups.

Members who prefer to be excluded from WhatsApp groups, should contact the Club Secretary to request this.

Safeguarding Policy

The Club upholds the principal values of the Badminton England Safeguarding Policies and is committed to creating and maintaining a safe and positive environment for all young people and vulnerable adults to enjoy badminton. The Club will encourage parents to accompany their children at Club night and will not allow unaccompanied minors to play in any matches.

Policies, procedures and supporting information relating to Badminton England’s Policy are available on their website: www.badmintonengland.co.uk/safeguarding. Contact details by email or telephone are also available.

The Club does not currently have an appointed Welfare Officer. Any concerns about the safeguarding measures in place should be raised with the Club Secretary or other Committee members. Any suspected incidents or concern about a child should be raised with the Club Secretary, BE Safeguarding Team, NSPCC, Child Protection in Sport or the Ann Craft Trust.

Badminton England has a partnership with Shout to offer free and confidential mental health text support for anyone in our badminton community. The service can be used at any time by texting “BE” to 85258. 

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