Become a member club - International Gay Rugby

BECOME AN
IGR MEMBER CLUB

For help with organising a club in your city, please contact your regional representative listed on the ‘IGR Trustees’ page. Our regional representatives can help you with guidance, support and resources to get your club started.

Once your club fulfills the requirements below, it can apply for one of the different types of membership below by contacting membership@igrugby.org

REQUIREMENTS

There are three different types of voting membership in IGR:

Associate Membership, Full Membership, Worldwide team membership and, one type of non-voting membership: Affiliate Membership.

Associate member clubs must:

• Be a primarily gay and / or lesbian identifying rugby club;
• Support the aims and objectives of IGR;
• Have played at least one rugby match in their current or most recent rugby season, refereed by their local union;
•Be entitled to one vote in any official IGR board resolution or decision.

Full member clubs must:

• Satisfy the requirements of Associate Membership;
• Have a formalised governance structure with constitution and elected officers and have statements related to tolerance and inclusion in their club mission statement;
•Be registered with their National and Local Rugby unions;
• Have played at least 3 15s rugby matches in their current or most recent rugby season.
•Be entitled to two votes in any official IGR board resolution or decision.

Worldwide member clubs must:

• Consist of individual members who support the aims and objectives of IGR who may not be able to reasonably participate with any other established IGR club.
• Be entitled to one vote for the first twenty-five listed members with a maximum of two votes after the documented membership reaches fifty members.
• Each worldwide team appoints their IGR board director annually. Nominations must be submitted to the IGR secretary by a proposer and with the approval of the nominee before 20 January each year. Both nominee and proposer must be paid up affiliated members of that worldwide team.
• In the event of more than one nomination being received there will be a ballot of that team’s members conducted by IGR’s secretary, held by post and email. Ballot papers must be sent no later than 1 February and the ballot papers counted no sooner than 28 February.
• If an officer resigns or is replaced by a club IGR’s board may appoint an immediate replacement. If a worldwide team director resigns the IGR Board of Directors may appoint a temporary replacement and a call for nominations circulated among that team’s members. In the event of more than one nomination there will be a ballot held.

Affiliate member clubs must:

• Be any established rugby club, regardless of orientation;
• Be registered with their National and Local Rugby unions; Support the aims and objectives of IGR through means such as statements related to tolerance and inclusion in their club mission statement and have a formalised governance structure with constitution and elected officers.

Society member organisations must:

• Be a primarily gay / lesbian identifying rugby organisation, such as but not limited to groups of coaches, referees, and/or administrators; Support the aims and objectives of IGR;
• Have a formalised governance structure with constitution and elected officers and have statements related to tolerance and inclusion in their club mission statement;
• Be registered with their National and Local Rugby unions if registration is possible. If registration is not possible, then the trustees have discretion to recommend membership to the board.
• Be entitled to one vote in any official IGR board resolution or decision.

REQUIREMENTS

IGR Board Members:

• May require applications for membership to be made in any reasonable way that they decide;

• Shall, if they approve an application for membership, notify the applicant of their decision within 21 days;

• May refuse an application for membership if they believe that it is in the best interests of IGR to do so;

• Shall, if they decide to refuse an application for membership, give the applicant club their reasons for doing so within 21 days of the decision being taken, and give the applicant the opportunity to appeal against the refusal; and,

• Shall give fair consideration to any such appeal, and shall inform the applicant of their decision, but any decision to confirm refusal of the application for membership shall be final.

BOARD MEMBERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

• The management of IGR will be effected by an executive committee of trustees, in accordance with the general and specific instructions of the IGR board.
• Each member club admitted into membership will appoint one representative towards the board at the club leadership’s discretion;
• Clubs can change their representative at any time by giving notice to the IGR secretary from the club’s chairman or president;
• Each worldwide team admitted into membership of IGR will appoint one director towards the board by annual ballot;
• Each representative can nominate alternates from their club membership to attend board meetings and vote on their behalf;
• IGR Trustees can permit non-voting observers to attend board meetings.

TRANSFER OF MEMBERSHIP

• Club Membership in IGR cannot be transferred to any other individual or corporate body representing an organization.

Duty of Member Clubs

• It is the duty of each Member Club of IGR to exercise their powers as a member of IGR in the way they decide in good faith would be most likely to further the purposes of IGR.

TERMINATION OF MEMBERSHIP

Membership in IGR comes to an end if:

• The member club ceases to exist (as determined by a simple majority vote of Member Clubs); or
• The member club sends a notice of resignation to the IGR trustees; or
• Any sum of money owed by the member club to IGR is not paid in full within six months of its falling due; or
• The IGR Board of Directors decides that it is in the best interests of IGR that the member club in question should be removed from membership, and pass a resolution to that effect by a 2/3 majority.

Before the IGR Board of Directors can take any action to remove a member club from the membership of IGR, they must:

• Inform the member club of the reasons why it is proposed to remove it from membership;
• Give the member club at least 21 clear days notice in which to make representations to the IGR board as to why it should not be removed from membership;
• At a duly constituted meeting of the charity trustees, consider whether or not the member club should be removed from membership;
• Consider at that meeting any representations which the member club makes as to why the member club should not be removed; and
• Allow the member club’s leadership and Board Director to make those representations in person at that meeting, if the member club so chooses. Membership fees
• IGR may require member clubs to pay reasonable membership fees for continued membership with a vote of 75% or more, similar to the requirement for a constitutional change.

NON-VOTING MEMBERSHIP

• IGR Trustees may create associate or other classes of non-voting membership, and may determine the rights and obligations of any such members, including payment of membership fees, and the conditions for admission to, and termination of membership of any such class of members.

• Other references in this constitution to “members”, “member clubs” or “membership” do not apply to non-voting members, and non-voting members do not qualify as members for any purpose under the Charities Acts, General Regulations or Dissolution Regulations.

INTERESTED IN APPLYING?

to submit an inquiry about the steps in applying for IGR club membership, click here.

BECOME ANIGR MEMBER CLUB

BECOME AN
IGR MEMBER CLUB