COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

1. If a complaint is made to the Committee about the conduct of a member of the Club, the Committee may investigate the complaint, and shall do so if a written complaint is received and signed by at least three members of the Club.On investigating such a complaint, the Committee shall give the member about whose conduct the complaint has been made an opportunity to be heard.
2. If, on investigating such a complaint, the Committee considers that the member has behaved unacceptably, or so as to cause injury to the interests of the Club, they may reprimand the member, suspend the member from the privileges of membership of the Club for such a period as it may think fit, or expel the member from the Club.
3. The Committee shall forthwith notify the member of any decision made on investigating the complaint and may publicise by displaying a notice at the headquarters of the Club.
4. Any appeal against a decision to suspend or expel a member shall be made to a General Meeting of the Club
5. Notice of such an appeal must be in writing and delivered to the Hon. Secretary within two weeks of the notification to the member of the decision of the Committee.
6. If an appeal is made, the decision of the Committee shall not be implemented until the appeal has been determined.
7. On the appeal being heard, the General Meeting shall have the power to overrule the decision of the Committee, or uphold it, in which event the sanction imposed by the Committee may be confirmed or varied (to any sanction that the Committee is empowered to impose, or none).
8. Nothing in this Appendix precludes the Committee from referring a matter of conduct to the Conduct Committee of the Surrey County Bridge Association,  to the Laws and Ethics Committee of the EBU if it considers it appropriate to do so.

BABC October 2016