CLUB ETHOS OF PLAYCRICKET SUOMI
Once a person has applied for PCS membership, paid the membership fee and accepted as a member of the club, they agree to be bound by club rules and the following principles that govern the club and its activities.
1) Honouring the Spirit of Cricket
• Respect is central to the Spirit of Cricket.
• Respect your captain, team-mates, opponents and the authority of the umpires.
• Play hard but play fair.
• Always honour and accept the umpires’ decisions.
• Create a positive atmosphere through your own conduct, and encourage others to do likewise.
• Show self-discipline, even when things go against you.
• Congratulate the opposition on their successes, and enjoy those of your own team.
• Do your best to always offer encouraging – and not critical – support to players and teams. Cricket is “a team sport played by individuals”, so team ethics and individual personalities must always accommodate each other.
• Thank the officials and your opposition at the end of any match, whatever the result.
• Cricket is an exciting game that encourages leadership, friendship and teamwork, which brings together people from different nationalities, cultures and religions, especially when played within the Spirit of Cricket.
• Remember: you never stop learning and can always improve on any aspect of anything you do!
2) Members are encouraged to arrive on time for training sessions and events, use the calendar system agreed for letting the coaches know in advance who is attending the session and also inform the coaches if someone cannot attend for one reason or another.
3) Members are encouraged to use and look after all equipment provided by the club with care and to also take care of one’s personal club kit. Cricket equipment can be expensive so it’s important to make it last! And equipment in good condition helps a team look and feel good.
4) Honour the rules and regulations set by Suomen Krikettiliitto, Cricket Finland, for example those governing a tournament.
The rules of PlayCricket Suomi
1 § Name, domicile, date of establishment and language
The name of the association is PlayCricket Suomi ry (3068142-5). The domicile of the association is Helsinki. In these rules, the association will be referred to as the club.
2 § The purpose of the club
The purpose of the club is to promote physical exercise and sports and civic activity related thereto in the operating region of the club in a way that everyone has an opportunity to pursue and to participate in fitness training, health-enhancing physical activity, competitive sports and top-level sports and to participate in club activities related thereto according to their conditions and needs.
3 § Fulfilling the purpose
The club fulfils its purpose by:
1 ) offering:
– fitness and health-enhancing physical activities
– competitive sports
– day, club, guidance, training and coaching activities
– information services and public relations
– education.
2 ) influencing widely the physical exercise, sports and association matters.
3) practicing publishing activities.
To promote its activities the club may:
– receive financial support, donations and testaments, own movable and immovable property required for its operation and obtain funds by organizing entertainment and dance events, collections of goods, fund-raisings, raffles and bingo activities.
– conduct business directly related to the fulfilment of the club’s purpose or business that is of little economic value.
4 § Membership of the club in other associations
PlayCricket Suomi ry is member of Suomen Krikettiliitto ry, Finnish Cricket Association. The meeting of the association shall decide the memberships of the club in other associations.
The club and the members of the club shall commit to follow the rules of the associations the club is a member of.
5 § Members of the club
As a member of the club, the board, and/or the chair on behalf of the club, can accept a person who accepts to be bound by the rules and decisions of the club.
As a full member, the club can accept persons who are not less than 18 years of age. As a junior member, the club can accept persons who are less than 18 years of age.
As an honorary member, the club’s meeting can, by the board’s suggestion, invite a person, who has promoted the club’s activities in a very significant manner.
As an honorary chairperson, the club’s meeting can invite a person who has acted as the club’s chairperson in a meritorious manner.
As a supporting member, the club’s board can accept a person or an incorporated society supporting the club’s activities by paying an annual or a one-off supporting members’ membership fee.
Full, junior and supporting members are approved upon application or email with requested details by the board of the association and/or chair or secretary of the club.
When the member is accepted to the club, he or she needs to register to the club via SuomiSport system. The details are sent to the members with the member confirmation letter.
The club membership entitles the member to represent the club in match events, and in general to wear the club’s symbols (equipment) and to the specifically defined membership benefits. When representing the club or wearing its symbols, the person commits to act in such a way that their behaviour or actions do not cause harm to the club.
6 § Commitment to ethical principles and to the jurisdiction of the sports arbitration board and the ethical issues disciplinary board
The club and the members of the club commit to:
– the sustainability programme for the sports community and the fair play principles
– the jurisdiction of the sports arbitration board set by the Finnish Olympic Committee and the sports community’s joint ethical violations disciplinary board
– the disciplinary provisions of the sports sector pertaining to serious inappropriate behaviour and severe ethical violations
– follow the decisions of the above-mentioned sports arbitration board and the disciplinary board
7 § Resignation of club membership
Members have the right to resign from the club by giving a notice in writing to the board or its chairperson or by announcing the resignation at the club’s meeting in order to record the resignation in the minutes.
The resignation shall be deemed to have happened immediately after the notice has been given, but the resigning member shall be obliged to pay their membership fee up to the end of the current calendar year and to discharge their financial duties pertaining to the club’s activities according to the club’s principles of operation.
8 § Unpaid membership fees and deactivation of member rights
Payment of membership fees entitles members to attend the club’s training programmes, events and facilities. Non-payment of membership fees, as demanded by the invoices sent to the member, will lead to this entitlement being withdrawn until such time the outstanding fees are paid.
Members who do not pay membership fees for a period of six months will be considered to have resigned and membership details will be removed from the club’s records.
9 § Expulsion of members and other disciplinary measures
The member of the club accepts to be bound by:
– the club’s rules and other provisions and decisions adopted pursuant thereto
– the rules and other provisions and decisions adopted pursuant thereto of the organizations whose member the club is
– ethical principles for the sports society
– the latest international and national anti-doping legislation and the anti-doping legislation of the international sporting federation and the anti-doping legislation of the International Olympic Committee
– provisions pertaining to the prohibition of competition results and events manipulation
Members of the club or persons involved in the club’s activities and persons acceded to these rules are deemed as punishable.
Acts regarded as punishable are:
– behaving in a way that satisfies the criteria of grounds for dismissal specified in the law of associations
– actions against these rules and other provisions and decisions adopted pursuant thereto
– actions against the rules and other provisions and decisions adopted pursuant thereto of the organizations whose member the club is
– violation of anti-doping rules
– acting against the purpose of the club
– harming the reputation of the club in connection of the club’s activities or elsewhere
– violation of sports ethical principles
– committing a crime in connection of the club’s activities or elsewhere, if the offender has been given a suspended or non-suspended prison sentence
Violation of sports ethical principles include:
– using drugs and doping substances or promoting the use thereof
– inappropriate behaviour during competition and training
– violence, indecent language and inappropriate criticism
– cheating in sports, such as manipulation of the competition facilities or equipment
– manipulation of the competition results and events or the attempt thereof
– betting in one’s own competition either by themselves or through a representative
– illegal advertising
– sexual and gender-based harassment in all its forms, regardless of whether the act leads to a criminal penalty
– racist behaviour in the club or elsewhere
– bribery.
A warning, fine, temporary limitation of membership rights, suspension, prohibition of activities from the club or expulsion from the club may be imposed as penalty.
The board shall decide upon the expulsion and other disciplinary measures and the penalty imposed in connection thereof. The interested party shall be consulted before making the decision.
The meeting of the club can, by the board’s suggestion, decide to transfer the disciplinary power to a separate disciplinary body and to accept its own rules for this body.
The expulsion and the disciplinary decision shall enter into force right away and it is deemed to have reached the interested party five days after the decision has been sent to them as a registered letter. The decision can be notified evidentially by other means, which means that the decision has come to the interested party’s knowledge at the time when this was notified.
The dismissed person and the object of the disciplinary decision has no right to claim back payments made to the club.
Doping violations and the sanctions given to the member by the club are defined in the above-mentioned anti-doping legislation.
In case the rules and provisions of the sporting federation or another umbrella organization are suspected to have been breached, these organizations shall have the primary disciplinary power. If the issue is a matter of the sports community’s joint ethical violations disciplinary board, the disciplinary matter shall be handled in the disciplinary board in question. The club shall take the decisions made in the other body into account in their own disciplinary measures.
10 § Membership fees and other possible fees
The club’s Ordinary General Meeting shall decide annually the amount of the entrance and membership fees collected from full members and junior members and the amount of the supporting members’ fee. No fees shall be collected from the honorary members or the honorary chairperson.
Entrance and membership fees can vary between the member groups. The board can also present Ordinary General Meeting other fees such as season fees to meet the budget for the suggested annual action plan.
Members have no right to request the membership or other fees to be refunded after joining the club activities. Only in case of a member being significantly injured, he or she may request club payments to be waived by sending an email to the board. In such a case, the player must be able to provide a medical certificate upon request to confirm their absence.
11 § Ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the club
The Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) is to be held once a year on the date determined by the board by the end of April. The place and the exact time shall be given by the board. The meeting of the club can be held entirely without the meeting place as a remote meeting.
The invitation to the club’s ordinary and to the extraordinary meeting shall be published at least 14 days before the meeting on the club’s website or by sending out the invitation to the meeting to the members’ registered email address.
The prerequisite for participating in the ordinary and the extraordinary meeting is a registration to the meeting before the deadline mentioned in the invitation. If the member reports to participate in the meeting through telecommunications or by technological means, the member shall be bound by this way of participation after the deadline.
12 § The Ordinary General Meeting
Agenda for the ordinary general meeting
1. The meeting shall be opened
2. Electing the chairperson, secretary, two examiners of the minutes and, if needed, two tellers
3. Verifying the members present entitled to vote and stating the legality as well as the quorum of the meeting
4. Adopting the rules of procedure of the meeting
5. Presenting the financial statements, the annual report and the auditors’ opinion
6. Deciding on the approval of the financial statements and the discharge of the board and other accountable persons
7. Confirming the action plan, the statement of revenue and expenditure and the amounts of the membership and other fees presented by the board
8. Electing the number of members of the board and the members of the board
9. Electing an auditor or operations inspector and deputy auditor or inspector
10. Modification of the rules and dissolution of the association
11. Dealing with other matters mentioned in the invitation to the meeting
The matters the club’s members desire to have discussed in the spring meeting or in the autumn meeting shall be presented to the board in writing at least 14 days before the meeting.
13 § Extraordinary Meeting of the club
An extraordinary meeting of the club shall be held when the board considers it necessary, when the club’s meeting so decides or when at least one-tenth of the club’s members entitled to vote have for a specific matter made a presentation to the board in writing. In the invitation to the extraordinary meeting, the matter, for which the meeting has been convened, shall be mentioned.
The extraordinary meeting shall be held within two months from when the members have left a presentation in the above-mentioned manner.
14 § Minutes
Minutes shall be kept in the meetings of the club, its divisions and its committees. The minutes of the club’s and the board’s meetings shall be signed by the chairpersons and the secretaries of the meetings.
The minutes of the board, the divisions and the committees shall be audited immediately or in the next meeting.
15 § Vote
The decision of the meeting shall be the opinion which was endorsed by over half of the votes. In the elections, those endorsed by the most votes shall be elected (relative majority). However, if there is only one person in the elections, in order to be elected, over half of the votes shall be needed (absolute majority). In the event of a tie, on substantive issues, the chairperson’s position shall be decisive, and in the case of elections, lots shall be drawn. In every meeting, the vote shall be conducted as a secret ballot, provided this is required.
Every junior member at least 15 years of age who has paid their membership fee by the time of the meeting and every honorary member and the honorary chairperson shall have one vote.
A supporting member and every member who has reached the age of 12 by the date of the meeting has the right to attend and speak at the meetings of the association but they
shall not have the right to vote. Proxy voting shall not be allowed.
16 § The administration of the club
The activities and the economy of the club shall be conducted by the board, which consists of a chairperson elected for two years of activity and 3-6 members elected for 1 year of activity.
The board shall consist of people who represent the members in a diversified manner.
The board shall select a vice chairman among their members.
The board shall meet of the invitation of the chairperson, or when they are prevented from attending, of the invitation of the vice chairperson, when they consider it necessary or when half of the board members demand it in writing.
The quorum for the holding of the board meeting shall be constituted when at least half of the members, including the chairperson or vice chairperson, are present. In the event of a tie, the chairperson shall have the casting vote, and the election shall be by lot.
The board shall in particular
1) implement the decisions of the club’s meeting
2) conduct and develop the activities of the club
3) select the necessary divisions, committees and work groups and the chairpersons thereof
4) convene and prepare the club’s meeting
5) manage the club’s budget
6) keep a list of members
7) draw up the club’s financial statements and the annual report
8) draw up an action and a financial plan for the next year of activity
9) manage the communication actions
10) accept and dismiss members and to decide upon disciplinary measures concerning the members
11) select and to dismiss the hired functionaries and to decide upon their benefits
12) decide upon the admission of badges of merit and the proposal of other badges of honour
13) take other measures required by the interest of the club
14) hand over the accounts to the auditor or operations inspector for audit at least a month prior to the spring meeting
17 § Financial year and audit
The year of activity and the financial year of the club is the calendar year.
The financial statements with the necessary documents and the annual report of the board must be submitted to the auditor or operations inspector no later than one month before the Ordinary General Meeting. The auditor or operations inspector must give the written statement to the board no later than two weeks before the Ordinary General Meeting.
18 § Signatories
The chairperson of the board, the vice-chairperson of the board, the secretary or the treasurer are authorised to act on behalf of the association, each on their own right. The signatories must be at least 18 years old.
19 § Divisions and teams
The divisions and the teams of the club can decide upon their internal activities in a way that the board of the club shall verify their legal acts.
The financial administration of the club and its divisions or teams shall be decided upon by the board. The funds raised in the name of the association in connection to the activities of the division, the team and the club are primarily the association’s funds. The board shall decide upon the use of these funds.
20 § Amendments to the rules
Amendments to these rules shall be decided by the club’s meeting by at least a three-quarters majority of the votes. The invitation to the meeting shall include a statement of amending the rules.
21 § Dissolution of the club
The dissolution of the club shall be decided upon by the club’s meeting by at least a three-quarters majority of the votes. The invitation to the meeting shall include a statement of the dissolution of the club.
22 § Disposal of the club’s assets
If the dissolution of the club has been agreed on, the club’s funds shall be transferred to any purpose in the club’s operating region promoting physical education according to the dissolution decision made by the meeting. Persons selected by the meeting shall act as the administration of the estate.
The dissolution of the club shall be registered in the Register of Associations.
23 § Gained membership rights
The gained membership rights shall be preserved.
PlayCricketSuomi 