The Camanachd Association has issued a paper detailing proposed Byelaw amendments that the Board are considering in advance of the 2016 playing season.
Clubs have been asked for feedback on the proposals below:
The following proposed new Bye Laws / Bye Law revisions have been drafted in response to general feedback received from Member Clubs at the area meetings held in August 2015 and further supported by specific representation from individual clubs who are referenced below.
These drafts will remain open for further comment or representation by any Member Club or Associate until the end of December 2015. Thereafter, the final form will be presented to the CA Board in January for approval and adoption for 2016. Member Clubs and Associates will receive approved final copies of these new or revised Bye Laws at least two weeks prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Should you wish to discuss or comment on these draft Bye Laws then please contact Astie Cameron at the CA in the first instance.
- Proposal from Caberfeidh Shinty Club regarding the insertion of new unambiguous clause in relation to which league a club is to participate in.
In the event of any league restructuring required by the CA Board or Member Clubs, the Teams playing in the newly formed leagues shall be determined by their league positions at the end of the playing season immediately prior to the new leagues coming into force. The exception to this would be if the restructuring involves leagues based on geographical locations to minimise travel or similar. In which case grouping by geography will be the first consideration followed by league standings as the second.
- On receiving a request from a Club/Team to drop down a league, the CA shall be minded to refuse such a request unless the team has finished bottom of the higher league at the end of a playing season.
- In exceptional circumstances, on submission of evidence of mitigation, the CA may consider allowing a club to drop down a league for the purposes of rebuilding or similar with the imposition of specific conditions. These shall include but may not be limited to:
- The team dropping down will forfeit 20 % of available points (rounded up to the nearest whole number) for the league in question and will therefore start the season with a negative points balance.
- The team dropping down may have certain players cited as being unavailable in their case of mitigation who will therefore be refused registration for the Club in question during the season of transition.
- Restrictions may be applied to the cups associated with the lower league which the team dropping down will be allowed to enter.
Proposed Byelaw Amendments
- Proposal from Glenurquhart Shinty Club regarding the scheduling of fixtures.
- The Camanachd Association shall each year produce a fixtures Calendar for all competitions as outlined in Bye Law 3. This fixtures calendar shall be completed and made public to all members by the 31st of January each year.
- The Chief Operating Officer (COO), or other person delegated authority by him or her, reserves the right in all circumstances to amend or change a fixture in the calendar by giving the affected teams 7 days’ notice. A fixture may also be changed or amended with shorter notice with the mutual consent of affected Clubs.
- In exceptional circumstances, such as bereavements, unplayable pitches, abandoned or drawn cup games it will be necessary to cancel and rearrange fixtures with less than the 7 day notice period and without mutual consent. For example, as outlined in Byelaw 3.2.6 and the associated published protocol, league fixtures may be reversed due to unplayable pitches with only a few hours’ notice.
- In normal circumstances as far as is reasonably practicable the CA will undertake to provide Clubs 14 days’ notice if a rearranged fixture is to be allocated to a gap week for that Club in the current fixtures Calendar. Similarly the CA will provide 14 days’ notice if a home fixture is to be rescheduled as an away fixture.
- For the purpose of clarity, it is not considered currently practical to give 14 days’ notice of a change of opponent nor a change in the start time of an individual game as that flexibility remains necessary to ensure that the CA can fulfil a primary responsibility which is to complete the competition programme within the designated playing season.