Who owns our Club?
The simple answer is that all members own the Club and its assets jointly, which means that the identity
of the owners changes every time we gain or lose a member.
The Club has many assets including the property itself, machinery, fixtures and fittings,
cash-in-the-bank and so on.
For practical purposes this is obviously unworkable. Outside bodies need to be able to deal with named individuals or a group of members.
For this reason and, because the Club is not a limited company, for fiscal, legal and other purposes, we are an
unincorporated association with the title Winchmore Hill Bowling Club.
Therefore, for example, Enfield Council sends rate demands addressed to WHBC and not to individual members.
This informality works well enough for most situations. One exception is the bank, which has become
increasingly concerned to ensure that everyone abides by its rules for maintaining bank accounts.
This concerns our Constitution and who actually runs the Club, rather than who owns it.
Consequently, it is necessary for us to reassure the bank periodically that our principal officers
and bank account signatories are properly elected and operate in accordance with our rules.
Ownership of our land and buildings is by far the most significant asset and different rules apply.
Our title is registered at the Land Registry and under property law only four names can ever be
registered as the title owners of any land. Fortunately, this is a task we can happily delegate to our
Trustees under our Constitution and, when there is an occasional change in their identity,
it is relatively simple to update the Land Registry.
The inevitable question that arises is what would happen if the Club ceased to exist.
In such a case all debts and liabilities would have to be paid before arriving at a net surplus which would belong to the members.
A method of distributing this surplus between members was devised by the Club many years ago. The Club allocates ‘shares’ to all its members depending
on the duration and the kind of membership – social or bowling.
The formula for doing this is part of the Club's Constitution. To qualify for an individual share a member must have been a member for at least five full years.
After satisfying that condition every year of membership, dating from when the member joined the Club, a credit of three points for bowling membership and one point for social membership is awarded. The total of all the points would serve to calculate how much any individual member would receive.
For instance a bowling member of four years’ standing would still need one year to qualify, but a bowling member
of six years’ standing would be entitled to 18 points. The five year restriction is there to prevent members
joining purely to benefit from a possible dissolution of the Club. There are also rules preventing members of other bowling clubs from benefitting.
Rest assured there is little prospect that our Club would cease to exist in circumstances where it was
dissolved by the members.