Sporting Dogs: Their Points and Management in Health and Disease

by Frank Townend Barton

INTERNATIONAL GUNDOG LEAGUE

The Sporting Spaniel Society

Constitutional Rules

1. The name of the Society shall be "The Sporting Spaniel Society," its objects being to encourage the working qualities of Spaniels in every possible way, the breeding of them upon working lines, and the judging of them at shows from a working standpoint. All varieties of Sporting Spaniels, English and Irish Water, Norfolk, Clumber, Sussex, Black Springer, and Cocker Spaniels, and any other varieties of Spaniels used with the gun, shall be fostered and encouraged by this Society. It shall, if possible, hold a series of working Trials.

2. The Society shall consist of an unlimited number of members, whose names and addresses shall be kept by the Secretary in a book, which book shall be kept open to the inspection of members at reasonable times. Any respectable person favourable to the objects of the Society is eligible for admission as a member. Each candidate for admission must be proposed by one member and seconded by another member. The election of members shall be vested solely in the Committee and shall be by ballot, three members to form a quorum, and two black balls to exclude.

3. The annual subscription for each member shall be one guinea, payable on 1st January in each year. Anyone failing to pay his subscription by 31st January shall have notice given him by the Secretary, and if his subscription be still unpaid on 31st March, his rights of membership shall cease until he has paid his subscription. By non-payment of his subscription, a member renders himself liable to be struck off the list of members. No new member shall be entitled to enjoy the privileges of members until he has paid his subscription. This rule will be strictly enforced. Life membership may be acquired upon payment in a lump sum of ten guineas. The payment of the first subscription of any member elected after the 30th June in any year will cover the period up to the 31st December next after the following 31st December.

4. The affairs of the Society shall be conducted by a President, Vice-President and a Committee consisting of twelve members. All officers of the Society shall be honorary, and no member may make the Society a means of private speculation, or trade in any way whatever, and if found to have done so, he is liable to expulsion.

5. That the property and management of the Society be vested in the Committee jointly, which shall have power to call meetings of the Society, to make necessary bye-laws, to arbitrate in disputed matters, to refuse the admission of any person deemed objectionable, and to expel any member guilty of dishonourable conduct; after such expulsion, the member so expelled to have no claim whatever against the Society, or to be entitled to recover any portion of his subscription. Any member of this Society, who has been declared by the Kennel Club Committee incapable of competing for, or winning a prize at a Show under Kennel Club Rules for any period shall cease to be a member of the Society. The Committee shall also have power to deal with any question not provided for by the Rules. The Committee shall decide upon the value and nature of the prizes to be offered during the year.

6. Meetings of the Society shall be held as occasion shall require for the transaction of business. A meeting may be specially convened by the Secretary on receipt of a written requisition signed by not less than six members, stating the time, place, and object of such meeting, to be lodged with the Secretary at least a fortnight previous to the date fixed for such meeting to take place. An Annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held in London, if possible in May or June, and at the said meeting the whole of the Committee in office shall retire, the retiring members being eligible for re-election. Any member not being able to attend this meeting, and wishing to vote at the election of officers, can do so by proxy. But the proxy paper, properly filled up, must be lodged with the Secretary at least forty-eight hours before the meeting, and no person can be nominated a proxy unless he be a member of the Society. The Committee shall have power to appoint sub-committees for any special object. The Committee and officers shall stand elected from one Annual General Meeting to another.

7. All the Officers shall be annually elected at the Annual General Meeting, and their duties shall be purely honorary.