How To Guides

Club Record Keeping

Version 1.0

Content
Club Record Keeping ..................................................................................1
Content ....................................................................................................2
How To Guides ..........................................................................................3
Introduction ..............................................................................................4
Club Records .............................................................................................5
Financial Records ....................................................................................5
Membership Records................................................................................5
Attendance Records .................................................................................6
Minutes of Meetings .................................................................................6
Retention of Club Records ...........................................................................8

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How To Guides
This document is part of the GCNs How To Guides collection. The documents
within the collection cover various aspects of running clubs. It must be
remembered that these are guides only and that no expectations are placed on a
club to follow any procedures outlined within them.
Every clubs situation is unique, but all clubs have a number of common issues
and problems to overcome. The guides provided by the GCN are written to help
overcome these issues by sharing the knowledge and experiences of those that
have dealt with them themselves.
The GCN recognises that all clubs are different and that these guides will not be
suitable for all the clubs in the GCN. If you have any feedback on this document
or would like to add to it in any way, please contact the secretary of the GCN
(the.seal@gcnm.org.uk).
The GCN cannot offer legal advice but we can share our experience and,
hopefully, this will be of some practical use.
All of the GCN How To Guides are available from the GCNs website
www.gcnm.org.uk.

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Introduction
There will be few gamers who will get a kick out of record keeping so the trick will
be to only keep those records which are necessary. What records are necessary
will depend very much upon the particular circumstances in your own club.
Hopefully, the following sections will give you some idea about what records your
club needs to keep.

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Club Records
Financial Records
Every club will need to keep a record of its finances. This is so the clubs
committee and its members can see how the club is raising and expending its
funds. Such records are also useful for planning future expenditure; e.g. in
determining whether the club has sufficient money to fund a show or event etc.
Normally, members have a right to inspect their clubs financial records though
very few actually ever request to do so as most are quite happy to let someone
else worry about the clubs finances.
Some governmental agencies like HM Revenue and Customs and the police have
statutory powers to investigate a clubs finances. It is highly unlikely that they will
ask to see your financial records but it could be very difficult for the clubs
officials if they do and none are available.
So what kind of financial records do you need to keep?
Most clubs do not require more than a simple listing of income and expenditure
because they are run on a receipts and payments basis. Larger clubs which have
more complicated financial activities involving a time delay between incurring
liabilities and settling them will need more sophisticated accounting systems like
daybooks to keep track of what monies are owed by and to the club; but these
will be very much in the minority.
Each transaction should show the exact amount involved and have sufficient
narrative to adequately explain what the income/expenditure was for. Dates are
necessary for all transactions so that the true financial position of the club could
in theory be drawn up at any day during the year.
It is important to record whether income was obtained from club members in the
form of subscriptions from outside sources.
Ideally all transactions should be backed up with and referenced to
invoices/receipts. Sometimes this may not be possible for little transactions but it
is definitely necessary for larger ones. This not merely good practise but
invoices/receipts will be essential in the event of any investigation into the clubs
finances.
If your club has a bank account you will need to record both cash and bank
transactions. Naturally, you will need to keep your bank statements. Periodically
you should cross check your listing of income and expenditure to these
statements and make necessary adjustments where required to agree them to
each other.
The club treasurer will need to ensure all the clubs financial records are up to
date and complete and all bank statements are present before he/she can
produce the clubs annual accounts which are required for the clubs annual
general meeting.

Membership Records
Your club will probably require a list of members. Those clubs with an annual
membership fee will probably all ready have one. These not only record who is a
fully paid up member of the club but also record who may be entitled to a share
of the assets of the club in the event of it folding. You may also find that your
clubs insurance only covers club members so a list of these is useful to comply
with your insurance requirements in the event of a claim. Some clubs are run in

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venues which require a membership list to comply with their own insurance
obligations or other requirements.
Membership records might include addresses, telephone numbers and email
addresses etc at the discretion of the club committee. Obviously, all such
information should be treated as strictly confidential and should only be divulged
to others with the express consent of the individual or on official instruction from
a statutory body with the legal power to demand access.
The information should be reviewed periodically to ensure it is up to date.

Attendance Records
Some clubs have a constitution which requires people to attend for a minimum
number of sessions each year to qualify for full membership. Naturally, these will
need to keep accurate attendance records.
Otherwise, the main reasons for keeping an attendance record is so in the event
of fire or emergency and the building needs to be cleared you can tell the
emergency services whether anyone is left inside or in the event of an insurance
claim you can show the insurers that the people involved in the claim were or
were not present at the club on the date in question.
One club I know uses their attendance record to run a monthly draw to encourage
regular club attendance and to make attendance record keeping a bit less of a
chore.

Minutes of Meetings
Most clubs will have an annual general meeting and possibly a number of
committee meetings through out the year.
It is usually the club secretarys job to ensure the proceeds of these meetings is
recorded in a written report usually known as Minutes. Every club member
generally has a right to a copy of the minutes but few actually want one as most
seldom play an active part in the administration of the club.
Typical minutes include the following:
a. Date and place of the meeting
b. Apologies for absence
c. Approval and/or correction of the minutes from the previous meeting
d. A record of discussions of items on the agenda. Typically this will include
reports from the senior club officials including the president, treasurer and
secretary.
e. A record of matters discussed under Any Other Business
f.

A note of the closure of the meeting and the date and venue of the next
meeting, if known.

If there is a vote taken the minutes should record the matter being voted on and
the result of the vote together with all information necessary to show the vote
was conducted in accordance with the clubs own constitution/rules; e.g. numbers
voting if a quorum is required or the names of those proposing and seconding
nominations etc.
It is important to know exactly who is/was an official of the club at all times. The
names of all club officials must be properly recorded in the minutes together with
the dates of their appointment or resignation.

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How detailed the minutes need to be is a very subjective matter. Some will be
lengthy records of equally long discussions while other minutes will be
exceedingly brief. There is no hard and fast rule other than the minutes should
provide a reasonably accurate and truthful account of the matters they record. It
is important that the minutes of the previous meeting are discussed [if necessary]
and approved to ensure that all parties are happy that this is so.
Reading out the minutes of the previous meeting can seriously prolong the time
each meeting takes so some clubs like to circulate written minutes beforehand
and to effect any corrections prior to the date of the next meeting so they can be
approved with the minimum of delay.

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Retention of Club Records

In most clubs it is the secretarys responsibility to ensure the clubs records are
kept for as long as is necessary to comply with the wishes of the clubs committee
and with legal requirements. As far as the latter is concerned, the clubs records
ought to be kept for 6 years to comply with the statute of limitations. For this
reason it is handy to keep the clubs records in annual batches so once a batch is
7 years old it can be disposed of unless the club committee requires some or all
to be held for longer.

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