The club shall appoint a Chairman of the Clubs Discipline Committee who shall be responsible for the proper and appropriate management of all discipline matters which from time to time arise within the club.

1 (i). - Conduct of the club discipline committee.
Shall be in general in accordance with the RFC regulations that apply to CB discipline panels but the club discipline committee shall consist of the following of the Discipline Chairman, the Club Secretary, the Club Captain and the Club Teams Secretary but with powers to add appropriate members and which shall be convened to hear, investigate and determine all matters of discipline within the club. A hearing that involves a player of a team other than the club first fifteen shall be attended by the Team Secretary / Team Manager and Captain of the team of the player involved. A member / player shall have the right to object to any member of the club discipline panel whom he believes has an interest in the hearing which may be prejudicial to the case to be decided or a personal interest in the matter to be discussed This objection must be registered before the case is opened and the member so identified if the committee upon retiring to consider the objection upholds the objection must leave the room and take no part in the proceedings either in the discipline committee nor at any subsequent appeal hearing by the club committee. If at a later date the appellant appeals to the club committee the fact that an objection was not lodged at the outset will not be grounds for such an appeal. In the case of a player sent off in a match that player will be afforded the right to be accompanied at the discipline committee by another person(s) of his choice. Non playing members shall be afforded the same rights as players when appearing before the club discipline committee.

1 (ii). - Yellow Cards.
Playing members who amass a number of yellow cards in a season will be asked to appear before the club discipline committee to explain their actions and the club discipline committee may apply any sanctions that they from time to time believe to be appropriate. Team Managers and Coaches shall inform the Discipline Chairman within 48 hours of a game if any Wessex player has received a yellow card describing the incident and the effect that this had upon the game and the result. All Yellow card records will be retained by the chairman of the discipline committee and when any player or team has gathered three yellows the discipline committee shall convene to investigate these incidents further.

1 (iii). - Non playing or off the field discipline matters.
Will be investigated and decided by the club discipline committee who shall have the right to suspend an offender from any club activity or privileges for a period that is thought appropriate to the case presented.

2 - APPEAL process.
An appellant may enter an appeal, in writing, stating the grounds / reasons for the appeal to the Club Secretary within 7days of the discipline committee hearing. That appeal will be referred to the club committee for determination at their next meeting such an appeal shall be heard by three members of the club committee who were not a part of the discipline committee that determined the case initially. The Club Secretary shall be enabled to attend this appeal hearing in order to record the decision of the appeal hearing, but shall not be afforded a vote on its outcome. The club committee may increase, reduce, or approve sanctions applied by the discipline committee or annul the findings of the discipline committee at their discretion on appeal.

3 - COSTS.
Where a club member or a player is summoned to appear before a Devon Disciplinary Panel to answer charges in relation to a playing offence or a matter that is the a club responsibility the club shall pay whatever administration charge is levied by the RFU or Devon RFU. Subject to the terms of the membership protocol, including any appeal that is made to the RFU providing that the club discipline committee has agreed to support such
an appeal as a part of their discipline process at the time that they hear the case. This will only apply to members and players who are not in arrears with either their annual subscriptions of their weekly match fee. Any such member or player will be required to pay their own charges. Failure to do so will result in that member or player being suspended from taking part in any rugby activities by the RFU or Devon RFU until the costs have been paid in addition to any sanctions that may apply upon determination of the case by the Devon Discipline Panel.

4 - On the field offences not seen by the match officials.
Should be reported to the Club Secretary without delay so that appropriate action, can be considered. This is essential as the time scale allowed to report such offences is very short and detailed statements have to be obtained.

5 - Off the field conduct.
That is liable to bring the club or rugby football into disrepute must be reported immediately to either the Club Secretary or the Club Chairman of Discipline so that an investigation may be conducted to ascertain the facts and an action point identified. Such may be referred to as conduct liable to bring the club into disrepute or devalue the good name and standing of the club (or the game itself)

6 - Abuse.
Will not be tolerated on any account, be it physical, racial or gender related. Abuse will be dealt with severely, any and all referee abuse may result in an immediate suspension of member privileges, whilst retaining the right for a member to appeal against any such removal of privileges in writing addressed to the Club Secretary as described in section 2, above

7 - Limitations.
Whilst the club discipline panel has the authority to suspend a member privileges in including the right to play in matches there is no right to rescind a club membership, although they will have the right to make recommendations to the committee who will then take the deciding vote.

8 - Executive powers.
The Chairman of the Club Discipline Committee shall have the right to act after consulting with the Club Secretary to suspend any member for misconduct on or off the field or take other appropriate action that may from time to time be applicable if such action is in the best interests of the club and its members. Any such suspension shall be effective until the next time the discipline committee meets or until the accused member attends a club discipline committee meeting.

9 - Racial abuse or abuse of a minor.
By any member or members will be punished by an automatic ban from all club activities and a recommendation to the club committee that their membership is rescinded together with an automatic referral to the police as the law requires.

Wessex RFC Discipline Committee 2015 / 2016 Season
Chairman - Simon Farmer, Club Secretary – Jamie Walker, Teams Secretary - Phil Langford, 1st XV Captain – Dan Maher, Fixture Secretary - Phil Spearey, 2nd XV (Wyverns) Captain – TBN.

Effective from 01 / JUN / 2015.