FOREWORD

During the almost 50 years of existence of the Nomads Golf Club of South Africa there have been several reprints (according to the Archives, at least, 5) of our governing documents which are primarily the Constitution and Rules of Play. In addition there are the Minutes of 44 National Council Meetings and 106 National Management Meetings* recorded by 14 National Secretaries with varying degrees of literary merit.

* Whilst it is the current norm to hold 2 Management Meetings per annum, in earlier days it was commonplace to hold less formal Meetings more frequently. Regrettably a large number (15) of the early National Management Meeting Minutes up to number 31 covering the period from 1965-71 are missing.

From the above items two additional documents emerged for convenience and ease of use as a ready reference, namely, a DECISIONS REGISTER and a POLICY MANUAL. The former was added to regularly and the latter, of which there are at least 5 versions, resulted in some creative additions to previous editions.

The line between Policy and Decisions had, in many cases, become increasingly blurred and some items which have been promoted as guidance had become policy by virtue of their usage over the years.

Additionally there is another booklet in existence named the GUIDELINES FOR RUNNING AND ESTABLISHING NEW CLUBS. This has been kept up to date on an annual basis by Past National Chairman and Honorary Life Member, Joss Hamilton.

At the 98^th National Management Meeting held in February 2005 a decision was taken to overhaul and combine the contents of the current Decision Register and the Policy Manual into one document.

This would be updated and amended by the addition of items unearthed which had been omitted by previous authors.

This has come to be referred to as the REFWORK.

Its content, in several Chapters, Sections and Parts, is as covered per the index, namely –

Covering the "one-offs" or where there are just a few decisions on any subject

Sections relating to the larger issues on which there are multiple decisions, namely,

ANDREW MENTIS ENDOWMENT FUND – covering the conduct of AMEF fund-raising

CONSTITUTIONAL - changes since last reprint in 2003

FINANCIAL items – Guidelines – Document re the Financial requirements of Clubs -

GOLFORAMA

GUIDELINES FOR RUNNING AND ESTABLISHING NEW CLUBS ***

(*** The quality of the sketches in some sections is not satisfactory. This will be corrected in due course).

NATIONAL PRO

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT MANUAL

The background procedures for the setting up and running of an event.

RULES OF PLAY - changes since last reprint in 2003

(** NOTE: The numbers in the left hand column of the above two Chapters are for the benefit of future reviewers only and have no relevance to the text in any way).

CHAPTER 3 - OFFICE BEARERS

(per Club and Nationally since Inauguration)

PAST NATIONAL CHAIRMEN

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT COORDINATORS/VENUES

NATIONAL COUNCIL

NATIONAL MANAGEMENT MEETINGS

The contents of Chapter 4, which comprises 2 pdf files containing the Minutes of all our National Meetings (38MB Council and 77MB Management Meetings), has been omitted from this document due to their combined size. (They are available on request by any interested party).

All these Chapters are in pdf format and can be "zoomed" to suit the computer equipment available.

There is a minimal amount of overlap between the contents of this REFWORK and that of other sections of the Website. This overlap occurs mainly in respect of Chapter 3 items.

Behind the scenes to the above is a master document containing the references to all the subjects raised at National level. The information contained in this document is the result of sifting through all the comments/suggestions/proposals/directives etc made over the years and sorting the information to get to the last reference point on any subject.

As for the resulting REFWORK it is not exactly a compelling read and many Nomads will not even open its "cover" but for future National Secretaries, those individuals who are charged with knowing where to find the information relating to whatever subject may be under the spotlight, the document now contains the latest version relating to the subjects.

The information contained therein may conflict with many persons memories of the relevant/latest decision on any subject but, like it or not, these are the most up-to-date decisions on the matter.

Many of the decisions are of a long standing nature but are still in use today. Others maybe too antiquated to cater adequately for current circumstances but nevertheless they remain in place, their existence probably having been forgotten about, but as they have not been formally dispensed with they remain until a future review may see fit to have them officially removed.

Each item contained herein has a verified reference relating to the latest decision taken on this matter. Whenever subjects have been referred to piecemeal over a number of occasions and where bits have been added to any previous decision there are multiple references underneath the wording showing that these "bits" have been amalgamated leading to a composite decision.

Where no definitive reference has been found but that decision has been in use as such over the years the word RefComm will be found in the reference. This means that clarity was sought on the issues by a sub-Committee authorised and set up to do so.

In some cases the problem of validation has come about because of a perennial issue which has occurred with Secretaries over the years and that is that they state that "a report etc is appended to the Minutes" whereas it is not actually appended to the records. Consequently some of the unproven points may well have been be in those reports but goodness knows where they are now. Hopefully it is not too significant a problem but it accounted for some of the discrepancies which were not immediately validated.

Some decisions effectively expired due to efflux of time etc. These have been removed.

Many points refer to the original Policy Manual and these items do not have definitive references. Nevertheless the content of this document is taken as being the intent of our founders, those originally charged with setting out our operating parameters, and where such items have not been formally superseded to date, the points are treated as "gospel". A remarkable number of these original points remain unchanged to this day and we still work to their sage advice

In the case of all other versions of the Policy Manual the information recorded therein has been subjected to the same rigorous verification process.

There has been no major reconstructive surgery performed on any of the items from any of the documents but some minor cosmetic surgery has been performed to put some items into a more intelligible form.

Acknowledgement is made to the input of Past National Chairman and Honorary Life Member Mick Sugden. In addition, the then National Chairman elect Glen Dalton and the, then, Immediate Past National Chairman Gary Bray for their contributions to the sub-Committee which reviewed the contents during the course of its production and helped clarify the boundary between Policy and Decision on the few items which were outside the remit of the original Committee to decide upon in isolation.

This document has been amended in terms of all decisions taken and amendments made up to and including those taken in 2009 at the 44th National Council Meeting.
It does not replace either the Constitution or the Rules of Play as published and amended from time-to-time. These are still the governing documents for the Nomads Golf Club. However it can serve as a ready reference for Clubs.