STACK (Sport Team and Competitive Kiting) shall promote, organise, oversee and encourage the sport of kite flying. It shall be run democratically and ensure that all events are run fairly, safely and to a high standard. It should enable kite flyers throughout the world to inter-act together.
A member of STACK is defined as a member of a STACK approved national kiteflyers organisation or an International member.
The officials of STACK shall be:
Together they will form the STACK International Executive Committee (SIEC). The SIEC shall administer and control STACK in line with the mission statement.
In addition the SIEC will appoint the STACK International Head Judge (IHJ) for a period of 2 years. They will be a non-executive member of the SIEC.
Every country in which STACK operates shall have a STACK National Director (ND). If the national STACK organisation wish they may have a national STACK committee.
( list of addresses of officials )
The Chairperson is the figurehead of the organisation. They shall liaise with any and all outside parties. In additions they shall be responsible for ensuring that all ND's are working within and towards the STACK mission statement. They will chair STACK International meetings and produce on an annual basis a report to all members detailing the organisation's performance.
The Event Co-ordinator shall be responsible for liaison with event organisations throughout Europe to try to avoid clashes of events. They shall be responsible for the production of a list of forthcoming events that shall be included in the STACK official newsletter. They shall obtain the results of all STACK sanctioned events. They shall obtain the method of determining National Rankings from all ND's. They shall propose to the SIEC the method used to select the participants in the European Cup, World Cup Sport Kite Championships and other events which either STACK is organising or has been asked to nominate the participants.
They shall solicit proposals for the European Cup that shall be put to the SIEC. Furthermore once the SIEC has decided the location of the European Cup they shall be responsible for liaising with the event co-ordinator to ensure that the event is run within the agreed guidelines. They shall be responsible for the sanctioning of events as agreed from time to time by the SIEC.
The Secretary shall be responsible for taking minutes of physical meetings. They shall be responsible for collating all reports for paper meetings. They should circulate the reports of all meetings to all members of the SIEC, all ND's and other relevant parties. Furthermore they shall be responsible for circulation and other relevant information to the SIEC and ND's. The Secretary shall keep all the files of the SIEC.
The Treasurer shall be responsible for keeping the STACK books and producing STACK accounts annually. They will hold the STACK cheque book.
The Member at Large shall assist the other members of the committee and shall take on additional responsibilities as the SIEC shall from time to time decide.
The SIEC may increase or amend the responsibilities of any official from time to time as they feel fit.
The role of the IHJ shall be defined by the SIEC from time to time.
No SIEC member can hold the position of International Head Judge, National Director or National Head Judge.
Given the likely geographical spread of the members of the SIEC it will be impractical for all members to be physically present at all meetings. Therefore most meetings will be carried out by letter or another mode of communication. Such meetings will be known as 'paper meetings'. If the SIEC do meet face to face then such meetings will be known as physical meetings.
The SIEC will hold meetings at least once every 3 months.
The modus operandi of meetings is set out in Schedule 1.
The quorum of any physical meeting shall be three persons.
All members of the SIEC shall be signatories on the STACK bank account. Any cheque shall require two signatures.
Motions are passed by a simple majority of the elected officials (except where stated otherwise).
The SIEC can appoint non-executive officials as they see fit.
The SIEC can vote to terminate the appointment of a non-executive official.
The SIEC can, with the IHJ, vote to terminate the appointment of a National Head Judge. Such a vote shall require a two-thirds majority.
The SIEC can vote to terminate the appointment of the IHJ. Such a vote must be unanimous.
The SIEC shall appoint an Editor who shall be responsible for producing a communication to members at least once every three months. At least one publication each year should be sent to the members directly. The other publications shall either be sent to the members directly or sent to the National Directors for distribution.
The Editor shall produce for the SIEC a budge of anticipated costs. The Editor shall also be responsible for soliciting advertising and for determining the advertising tariffs. Any profits from the communication to members shall resort to STACK International.
The editor shall produce accounts on an annual basis which should be submitted to the Treasurer of the SIEC.
If a country has a national STACK committee then, for the purposes of this charter, that committee shall be considered as if it was the National Director. The head of that committee shall be the formal contact between the SIEC and that country.
The National Director is the organiser of STACK in their country. They shall promote the sport of kite flying and STACK . They shall encourage membership.
If a national organisation has a charter (or its equivalent) then that charter should encompass the mission statement of the STACK Charter and must not conflict, in any manner, with the rest of the STACK Charter. A copy of the national charter must be sent to the Chairperson of the SIEC.
Where possible they should ensure that competitions and/or leagues take place within their country. If there are sufficient competitive flyers then a National Championship shall be held in order to determine who are the National Champions. The details of such a Championship are left to the ND to determined but they must be approved, prior to the competition starting, by the SIEC.
A 'country' is defined within this charter as an individual country or, if the SIEC so decides, a group of countries.
It is essential that all ND's communicate with the SIEC. They are expected to send a report (in a format approved from time to time by the SIEC) to the quarterly meetings within the time scale set out in Schedule 1. If they fail to send reports to two successive meetings they will be deemed to have resigned. All ND's must send to the SIEC details of their membership as set out in Schedule II. If they fail to do so they they will be deemed to have resigned. All ND's shall keep their members up to date with information by way of at least a quarterly communication.
Where possible and applicable the ND will provide the STACK International Head Judge with three nominations for the National Head Judge. The STACK International Head Judge will then appoint the National Head Judge. If the STACK International Head Judge does not feel that any of the nominations has sufficient experience and ability to be National Head Judge then the STACK International Head Judge will nominate an alternative to the SIEC. The SIEC will liaise with the ND and the STACK International Head Judge to appoint a National Head Judge. The role of the National Head Judge shall be defined by the SIEC from time to time.
All ND's should submit a set of accounts to the SIEC Treasurer on an annual basis. These should also be sent to all members in that country. This set of accounts should include details of income and expenditure.
The minimum membership of a national organisation shall be defined by the SIEC from time to time. If the membership falls below the minimum then the organisation will no longer be recognised.
The ND may not be the National Head Judge.
The cost of being a STACK member is set by the ND for each particular country. This enables them to take into account the local conditions. However a fee is payable to STACK International based on the number of members for a particular country. The method of calculation and payment is set out in Schedule III. The method of approval of expenses of the SIEC shall be decided by the SIEC from time to time.
STACK requires that officials shall be accountable to members and thus fair and democratic elections must be carried out. All elections shall be conducted under a simple (highest number of votes) system.
All nominations for an election must be received by the Returning Officer at least 6 weeks prior to the agreed election date. All nominations have to be proposed and seconded by STACK members who themselves would be eligible for the appropriate post. All nominees must signify their consent to the nomination.
The members of the SIEC shall be elected every two years. Any member shall be entitled to stand for any post with the SIEC.
The Returning Officer shall be appointed by the SIEC. The Returning Officer shall be responsible for arranging the elections and counting the votes. All members of STACK shall be entitled to vote.
The ND's shall be elected every two years in the intervening year. All members of the national STACK organisation shall be entitled to stand and vote for the ND. The incumbent ND shall appoint the Returning Officer but this appointment must be approved by the Chairperson of the SIEC.
Elections shall be carried out three months before the end of the term of the outgoing official. This shall not apply if the election has risen a s a result of a motion of no confidence (see Section 1). In the event of a tie then the present official shall have the casting vote.
In the event that any officials (which includes the SIEC members, ND's, Head Judges (National and STACK) and the SNACK editor) resign then the SIEC will appoint a temporary replacement. Elections will be instigated as soon as practically possible for a permanent replacement.
Any outgoing official will pass over all relevant paperwork, records and other material relating to STACK to the incoming official.
If 25% of the members of a National STACK sign a motion of no confidence in their ND then that ND will be deemed to have resigned. At least nine months must pass from the date of election of the ND before any such motion of no confidence may be submitted. The resigning ND will be eligible for re-election. Any motion of no confidence must be sent to the STACK International Treasurer with a copy to the ND.
If 25% of all STACK members of 75% of all ND's sign a motion of no confidence in any member of the SIEC then that member will be deemed to have resigned. At least six months must pass from the date of election of the member of the SIEC before any such motion of no confidence may be submitted. The resigning official will be eligible for re-election. Any motion of no confidence must be sent to the STACK International Treasurer unless it concerns the Treasurer in which case it should be sent to the Chairperson.
Any event organiser who wishes to run a STACK sanctioned event must complete the current STACK sanction form and agree to run the event in line with the STACK Rules and Regulations. If they do not comply with the rules then sanctioning shall be withdrawn. STACK sanctioned events will not be open to anyone who is not a member of STACK or a member of an organisation that the SIEC have recognised. All judges shall be members of STACK or an organisation that STACK has recognised.
The SIEC will define the season.
National rankings can only be determined at STACK sanctioned events.
The SIEC will, from time to time, set up sub-committees to assist them. The SIEC will appoint a chairperson of such a committee and provide the sub-committee with aims, objectives and time scales. It is the responsibility of the chairperson of the sub-committee to provide regular reports to the SIEC as to progress. Furthermore they should, if necessary, provide a budget of estimated costs that must be approved by the SIEC prior to any expenditure. The SIEC can vote to terminate a committee or to remove the chairperson at any time. All information produced by a sub-committee is confidential to that sub-committee and the SIEC until it is approved by the SIEC. The copyright of any material produced by a sub-committee belongs to STACK .
The Charter may only be changed by agreement of all members of the SIEC and a simple majority of the ND's. The Schedules to the Charter may be changed by the SIEC.
If anybody approaches the SIEC from a country in which STACK does not have a National Organisation then the SIEC, at its discretion, may appoint that person National Director for one year. That person takes all the responsibilities of a ND.
That should aim to:
If they have not achieved this then they will be disaffiliated from STACK . In this event any member (of the disaffiliated organisation) will be allowed to become an International Member.
Anybody wishing to be a STACK member may, at the discretion of the SIEC, join as an International Member. They will receive the STACK quarterly communications directly and enjoy most of the benefits of being a STACK member. The cost for such membership will be set by the SIEC.
The copyright of all relevant literature, papers and other materials produced by STACK , the SIEC and SIEC appointed committees (as opposed to any material produced by a National STACK ) rests with the SIEC. They may not be reproduced, electronically or otherwise, without the SIEC's written permission. They may not be stored on any storage system without the SIEC's approval.
The SIEC will provide Rules and Regulations for competitive sport kite flying.
The designated international language of STACK shall be English.
SIEC Modus Operandi for Quarterly Meetings
All ND's must send to the SIEC details of their membership on 30th March and 30th September each year. This information must be received by the STACK Treasurer within one month.
Ideally at least the following information should be given for each member:
Ideally this information should be sent on a computer disk (DOS or Apple). If the information is in a spreadsheet then each column should correspond to one category of information and each line to one member. A database should have each category as a separate field.
Please see page with membershipform
The rates operate on a sliding scale. The more members an organisation has the lower the pro-rate charge.
The actual rates are as follows:
As an example a country with 30 members would pay a fee to STACK International of £140.00
(20 x £5.00 plus 10 x £4.00).
A country with 100 members would pay £370.00
(20 x £5.00 plus 30 x £4.00 plus 50 x £3.00).
As set out in Schedule II National Directors are expected to submit a list of members on 30 March and 30 September each year. In addition they must inform the Treasurer of how many members have joined in the last 6 months. This information will be used to calculate the fee due. The number of members joining per year will be calculated by adding the number joining in the 6 months to 30 March to the number joining in the subsequent 6 months to 30 September. Payment should preferably be made in the form of a direct payment to the STACK bank account the details of which are:
Bank Barclays Bank PLC,
Alperton Branch,
220 Ealing Road, Wembley,
Middlesex HA0 4QH, UK
A/C Name S.T.A.C.K.
A/C no. 50847267
Sort code 20-01-89
Details of any payment should be sent to the Treasurer. Any other method of payment should be discussed with the Treasurer beforehand.