Common Questions

There is no requirement under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 or the Systemwide Membership model that 'members' must have voting rights.

A club may have voting and non-voting members if specified in its constitution. The systemwide membership model is designed so that we include everyone who digitally connects to tennis into the database. From a club point of view, this would mean having a category of 'non voting' members for the likes of parents, casual court bookers etc. which would be separate from your usual paid, voting club members.

In relation to members, the Act requires the constitution to state how a person becomes (and ceases) to be a member and not to confer on any member any right or interest in any property of the society.

The constitution must also set out the voting procedures for general meetings (for example whether votes may be cast by post or electronic means) but the Act does not require all members to have a vote. This is left to the constitution of the club. The mere fact a person is a member of a society does not give them voting rights unless stated in the constitution.

Not to worry. For clubs who may have already re-registered, we will provide a cut down, clear and simple template that outlines the required clauses you will need to add in to ensure your club is aligned tot he wider tennis system.

Under the new Act, all Incorporated Societies are required to re-register with a compliant constitution. 

If your club were to decide to not re-register as an Incorporated Society you would put at risk the ability to apply for and get local and regional funding from gaming trusts and the likes. You may also put at risk your lease (if on council owned land). please seek advice and support from your Region, Council and Tennis NZ before making this decision. 

The new system requires cascading approach to implementation.

In order for your club to re-register, it must have a compliant and re-registered RTO/LTP to re-register under. So before your club can go ahead, your RTO/LTP needs to have completed their AGM/SGM adopting their constitution. 

The windows for each entity are as below:
Tennis NZ - AGM scheduled for Nov 30, 2024 to adopt new constitution
RTO/LTP will then have from Dec 1 2024 to March 30th 2025 to adopt  and re-register their new constitution

Clubs will have from April 1st 2025-April 5th 2026 to adopt and re-register

TNZ (in consultation with the current Regions) has worked hard to strike a balance between preserving club autonomy and making sure that the key change principles flow through the structure. One challenge is that the new Act is much more prescriptive than the current one - and that has significantly affected the length and content of all the constitutions - including that of the Clubs. 

We are constantly working to ensure Clubs have the ability to adapt and tweak the template to suit their needs without compromising the alignment and connection to the wider system and Tennis as a whole. The guidance document makes clear the mandatory clauses clubs must have.

We know that clubs do everything they can to ensure their courts are the best they can be and one of the principles reflected in the various constitutions is that entities across the system have a collective interest in the quality of experience that tennis participants have. Having reasonable quality facilities is consistent with that. We want to work with clubs and RTOs on ways to keep the quality of our facility network high. 

We understand that some of the things outlined in the Constitutions - such as around National Programmes require clubs to use 'all reasonable efforts' - but what does this mean?

'all reasonable efforts' means that Clubs need to use practical and sensible approaches to achieving the outcomes. So, for example, in terms of using 'all reasonable efforts' to use National Programmes - this would mean attempts such as having the contract with your coach state the use of the programmes as required, supporting and working with coaching providers to ensure they can deliver national programmes (qualified, registered etc). Where a club may not have a coach or coaching provider, this could be as simple as having your volunteers go through the Tennis NZ Community Play course. 

We know that from Day 1 the system will have ongoing evolution.

• Casuals accessing courts outside of a digital booking system
• Non-member participants of coaching programmes at clubs
• College Sports participants playing tennis at clubs and venues within the system

As the system develops and we have the capability and systems set up to connect these groups we will look to bring them into the system. 

Do you need a template/example of communicating constitutional changes to club members? 

You can find one here.  Feel free to use as is or adapt as needed.