Should a club adopt the Model Rules?

This guide is for committee members weighing up their club's rules. What the Model Rules say is in The Model Rules explained. What the Act requires is in The Associations Incorporation Act.

How clubs do it

1. The committee agrees the wording of a special resolution to adopt the Model Rules, with or without extra club rules.
2. The secretary gives members at least 14 days written notice of the general meeting, stating the resolution (Model Rules r.35).
3. The resolution passes if three-quarters of the members present and entitled to vote support it (Act, schedule 2).
4. Within 3 months, the secretary lodges the change with the Office of Fair Trading on Form 8 (s.48). No statutory declaration is needed when the club adopts the Model Rules in full (s.48(7)).

These are the steps the Act and the Model Rules set for switching.

The three choices

Keep the club's own rules

A club may keep a constitution it wrote itself. Under s.46(3), an entry in the register does not validate or cure any defect in the rules, so rules the Office of Fair Trading has registered can still contain faults.

Adopt the Model Rules in full

The Model Rules are the Queensland Government's standard rules, in Schedule 4 of the Associations Incorporation Regulation 1999 (Qld). Under s.46, a club that adopts them has rules made up of its registered name, its objects and the Model Rules. No other document is needed.

Adopt the Model Rules and add club rules

A club can keep the Model Rules and add its own rules on top by special resolution (s.48). Clubs often add rules on matters such as life membership, playing rights for each membership class, or sub-committees.

What the Act says that bears on the choice

• Registration is not a check. Under s.46(3), registering a club's rules is not a finding that they are sound.
• Gap-filling has limits. Section 47 applies the Model Rules only where a club's rules do not deal with a matter. Where a club rule does, s.47 does not step in, even if that rule is unclear or faulty.
• Less paperwork for a full adoption. Under s.48(7), a club that adopts the Model Rules in full does not need the secretary's statutory declaration.

Other ClubHub guides on the committee quote Model Rule numbers. A club on its own constitution may number things differently.

Where this comes from

1. Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Qld), s.46 and s.46(3): rules on registration; registration does not cure defects
2. Act, s.47: Model Rules fill gaps
3. Act, s.48 and s.48(7): changing the rules; no statutory declaration for a full adoption
4. Act, schedule 2: definition of special resolution
5. Model Rules r.35 (Associations Incorporation Regulation 1999, sch. 4): notice of a general meeting
6. Office of Fair Trading, Incorporated associations forms and fees: Form 8