To form a new club, you need to have a minimum of FIVE members and then, having selected a suitable name, apply to the Department of Fair Trading (DFT) to incorporate.
This involves the group authorising someone 18 years or over to apply first for the name to be reserved. This form may be lodged with (at the same time) as an Application for Incorporation and the person who lodges it will in the first instance be the Public Officer. This person becomes the first point of contact for the club and the one responsible for submitting an Annual Return to the DFT.
Incorporation is recommended as it allows the club to:
(1) create a legal entity, separate from individual members
(2) provide a certain amount of limited liability for members
(3) continue regardless of changes to members or officers, and
(3) sue (or be sued).
With incorporation, each club must have a Constitution. The DFT provides MOdel Constutution that can be used or adapted to suit. Click here for Model Constitution. If the Model Constitution is adopted, then there will need to have office bearers plus three additional members on the committee. Committee members may hold more than one position.
The Department of Fair Trading has information and forms that provide further information and these should be obtained and read as the guidelines above are only intended as a guide. Forms can be found here.
- Reservation of name
- Application for incorporation
- Setting up an association
- Running an association
- Advice of change of Public Officer
- Annual Return form
After incorporating with the DFT, your club should then affiliate with Equestrian NSW, providing a copy of your Rules and a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation provided by DFT. At the same time, a Risk Management Plan is required to show you have considered risks involved in running a club and the strategies in place for minimising these.Affiliation allows you to take advantage of Equestrian Australia's insurance plan and if you do not join this, you will need to provide alternative insurance cover and submit proof of currency when affiliating with ENSW, click here for forms.
- Application for affiliation with EA
- EA insurance plan
- Scale of fees
- Risk Management information
- Sample Risk Management plan
Affiliation automatically affiliates you with Eventing NSW. This means that you can run events using accredited officials and advertise these in the Eventing NSW magazine, The Eventer.
Before you can run a competition, however, your course will need to have been designed/constructed and/or approved by a Technical Delegate and delegate from the Rider Safety Committee. For more information on running events, see the Clubs section on this site.
