CLUB RULES

The Sorority is an exclusive club for inspiring professional women.

The Sorority Club

2. "THE SORORITY" is a UK registered trademark (the Trade Mark) and "The Sorority Wisdom" is the trade name of the Club magazine (the Magazine). The Proprietor has the exclusive right to use the Trade Mark and all trade names and all intellectual property of the Club.
3. The Proprietor has a website at www.thesorority.org (the Website). The Proprietor owns all copyrights and other intellectual property rights in the Website and its databases and the Magazine and in content posted by the Club on the Website.

Club Objectives

4. The Proprietor has established the Club as a private club for women who agree to join and be subject to these rules (the Rules) who shall be members.
5. The objectives of the Club are to develop, maintain and provide services and privileges to its members.

Club Management

6. The Proprietor shall be responsible for all actions and management of the Club and may delegate the management or any aspect thereof to its servants and agents as it deems fit, including powers and rights exercisable by the Club and its Committee under these Rules. Only the Proprietor and its director, servants and agents may bind the Club but they may not make any pledge on behalf of members.
7. The Proprietor may terminate any delegation, in whole or in part, at any time and assume direct responsibility for any Club or Committee function or determination and its decisions shall be final.

The Committee

8. The Committee shall comprise Club mangers appointed by the Proprietor and Club members invited to join by the Proprietor from time to time.
9. The Proprietor delegates to the Committee and the Committee shall deal with; the activities of the Club, promoting the Club's mission and objectives, Club membership and other business arising from the Club's activities. The Committee cannot bind the Club or the Proprietor to third parties nor enter contracts or pledge their credit.
10. The Chair of the Committee will be appointed by the Proprietor.
11. The Committee may establish sub-committees as required to deal with matters such as discipline and membership and any other matters, and shall determine their terms of reference. Sub-committees may appoint their own Chair. References below to Committee meetings shall include sub-committee meetings.
12. If a Committee Member misses three consecutive meetings she will forfeit her place on the Committee.
13. The quorum for all Committee meetings shall be 4 Committee Members.
14. In determining attendance at Committee meetings, it is immaterial whether any two or more Committee Members attending are in the same place provided they are able to speak and vote.
15. Committee meetings will be held at such intervals as the Committee may decide. Meetings shall be called on 14 days written notice to Committee Members, however shorter periods of notice can be given if required. The notice shall give the date and time and the general nature of the business.
16. A resolution put to the vote of a meeting must be decided on a show of hands by Committee Members if attending in the same place or by the Chair calling the names of those present and making a record of their vote if not in the same place. Resolutions shall be passed by 50% of the Committee Members at the meeting. The Chair shall have a casting vote, in addition to her ordinary vote.
17. The Committee shall take minutes of their meetings however all matters dealing with membership are to be kept confidential by the Committee and the Club.
18. Non Members of a Committee may attend and speak at Committee meetings by invitation.

Applications for Membership

19. Eligibility for membership of the Club will be dependent on the prospective member being able to demonstrate a unique achievement as a business woman, entrepreneur, leader or pioneer together with a desire to promote the Club's mission and objectives.
20. Prospective members must be eighteen years or older.
21. Club members in good standing may propose new members to the Club. Prospective members who have been proposed will then be invited to complete an application form.
22. Independent applications must be made by submitting a completed application form.
23. Upon receipt of a completed application form, an applicant will be added to the waiting list and their application will be considered at the next Committee meeting.
24. The Committee may request further information or a face to face meeting in order to determine an application.
25. Admission to membership shall be at the sole discretion of the Committee. In exercising its discretion, the Committee shall have regard to the furtherance of the good name and reputation of the Club.
26. No reason shall be given for refusal of any application at any stage and all information relating to an application shall be treated in strictest confidence by the Club and the Committee.
27. New members will receive a Club Membership Card, Club Broach and Membership Pack.

Membership

28. There are three classes of membership of the Club: Honorary members, Founding members and general members. Admission to a class of membership is entirely at the discretion of the Committee and no reasons shall be given.
29. Every member binds herself to abide by the Rules. Members shall be entitled to the rights, privileges and benefits of the relevant class of Club membership. Members have no liability to any third parties in connection with the Club or its activities. Members have no proprietary or other rights in the Club, Club assets and property and no authority to contract on its behalf.
30. All Club activities, events and information are private and confidential to members.
31. The benefits of general membership include:

a.Invitations to and admission to exclusive Club events (subject to event fees as determined from time to time).
b.Exclusive opportunities to participate in Club Projects.
c.Membership privileges with selected Club Partners (subject to Club or partner fees) on such terms as the Club may from time to time have agreed; such agreements being subject to termination or modification from time to time.
d.A personal profile for each member on the Website.
e.A personal feature on each member in The Sorority Wisdom, the Magazine, and ongoing opportunities to contribute to The Sorority Wisdom and to profile member work and projects.
f.Members may communicate and receive information on the Website and send messages to other members subject to individual privacy settings and preferences.

32. Additional benefits for Honorary and Founding members, if any, shall be as advised to such members from time to time and shall be subject to amendment on notice from time to time at the Club's discretion.
33. The duties of members are to pay Membership Fees and comply with the Rules, including the Code of Conduct. Members must also inform the Club of any change of address and contact information including fax, telephone and email. It shall be the responsibility of members to keep their contact information current. Any notices required by the Rules to be given to members shall be given to the address furnished to the Club.
34. The duration of Club membership shall be annual and run from the first day of the month of receipt of the Membership Fee and shall expire 12 calendar months from that day (a Membership Year).
35. A formal register of members will be maintained by the Club at the registered office of the Proprietor.
36. Any member wishing to resign her membership may do so at any time by giving written notice to the Club. Refunds will be at the discretion of the Committee.

Membership Fees

37. In consideration for the privileges and benefits of membership, the Club shall charge members an annual subscription membership fee (Membership Fee) for the Membership Year and it is an entire fee and shall be due and owing in full at the commencement of the Membership Year.
38. The Club in its sole discretion reserves the right to amend or waive all or part of any Membership Fee due from any member.
39. The amount of the Membership Fee will be determined annually by the Club.
40. The current Membership Fee is £1000.00 plus VAT per annum payable on notification of membership acceptance. Payments may be made by transfer, cheque or credit/debit card to the Sorority Ltd.
41. Membership is personal and non-transferable and members must not share their personal subscription with another person either by sharing the membership benefits, Card or Website access information.

Code of Conduct

42. Club activities, events and information are private and confidential to members and members must maintain this confidence. The communication of information concerning the Club, its affairs, and its members to the media is strictly prohibited.
43. Unless agreed otherwise, information on members or members' guests, matters raised in conversation between members (both where the parties are physically in the same place or at a distance communicating electronically) are strictly private and not to be used for journalistic purposes.
44. No member may use the Club's intellectual property rights or the Trade Mark without the express permission of the Club. In particular, no member shall make any representation of endorsement by the Club without the express permission of the Club.
45. Members shall deal with other members with respect and courtesy in all encounters and conversations, including when communicating electronically. Members must respect the privacy of others and refrain from repeating unsolicited approaches to members, where approaches are unreciprocated.
46. Abusive or inappropriate content and/or conduct will not be tolerated by the Club.
47. Members must comply with UK law in their Website use and contributions, including member to member communications. Such use and content must not be defamatory of any person, be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age. It must not infringe any intellectual property rights of any other person. It must not threaten, abuse or invade another´s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety or be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person. It must not be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent any identity or affiliation.
48. Members must not extract data from the Website for inappropriate commercial uses (by harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) or knowingly introduce viruses, trojans, worms or other material which are malicious or technologically harmful.

Sanctions

49. Any member who behaves in a manner which falls below the Code of Conduct may be asked to furnish an explanation to the Club.
50. Members may be warned, suspended or expelled from the Club, an event or activity, including access to the Website, for failure to pay Membership Fees, a breach of the letter and/or spirit of these Rules, including the Code of Conduct, or if the Club considers in its absolute discretion that the conduct of a member is contrary to the interests of the Club or the Club considers they are unfit to remain a member. The Club is not obliged to provide reasons for sanctions decisions, including expulsion, and any deliberations and other information on the same shall be in strict confidence.
51. Any member expelled, for whatsoever reason, shall forfeit all privileges and benefits of membership and all rights against the Club and shall not be entitled to a refund of any subscription monies paid prior to expulsion.

Complaints Procedure

52. Member's complaints shall be made in writing to the Committee and the resolution of the complaint shall be at the sole discretion of the Club. There shall be a right of appeal to the Proprietor against either the finding or the sanction and the decision of the Proprietor shall be final and binding.

Website

53. By posting data on the Website or consenting to the same, members grant the Club a non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to publish it as posted subject to their privacy settings and the right of any member at any time to request the Club cease to publish the same. This license ends when members delete their content or their membership subject to retention (but not further publication) for regulatory purposes as below.

54. The Club is not responsible for the actions, content, information, or data of members or third parties and does not moderate the Website but will immediately remove content on receipt of an Abuse Report and any Website content in breach of the Code of Conduct should be reported immediately to the Club by email to AbuseReport@thesorority.org. The Club tries to keep the Website operational secure, bug-free, and safe, but members use it at their own risk and it is provided "as is" without any express or implied warranties including warranties of performance, quality merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Third Party software or applications, if any, are provided strictly on third party terms.

55. The Website may collect information about member computers, including IP addresses, operating systems and browser types, for system administration and performance maximization. The Club may obtain information about member Website use by a cookie file which is stored on the computer hard drives to help improve the Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service. They enable the Club to store information about member preferences, and allow it to customize the Website according to member's interests and speed up searches.

Privacy and Data Protection

56. The Club Data Controller is The Proprietor of Gresham House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom. The Proprietor's nominated representative is Lisa Tse.

57. The Club collects member data in order to process member applications, for payment of Membership Fees, dealing with resignations or terminations and general club business in relation to members. This data is also used for Club activities; arranging events and inviting members, providing members with information on the Club and members and member offers and privileges and also to manage services to members and comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

58. Member data will be stored in the Club's hard copy files and on its secure servers in accordance with strict procedures and security features and accepted industry standards of security and protection. The data will not be transferred to or stored outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). Transmission of information via the internet and storage at locations accessible from it can never be completely secure and the Club cannot absolutely guarantee the security of data transmitted to the Website which is at member's risk.

59. The Club will not share your personal data and information with third parties except: if we sell the business or its assets of the Club, in which case personal data will be one of the transferred assets; or if the Club is placed under a legal duty by a court order or arbitral order or by regulatory or professional requirements to professional bodies, authorized by statute to demand them or otherwise if required by law.
60. The Club will gather and process data only for the purposes stated. For legal and regulatory reasons, the Proprietor will retain a copy of data provided to it for one year, including data submitted to the Website. Following termination of membership, membership data will be retained for one year following termination. Any request to terminate consent can be sent to the Lisa Tse for the Proprietor at Gresham House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom. Email at info@thesorority.org.
61. Members have a right to access their information held by the Club by requesting the right of access in writing by post or email to info@thesorority.org.

Liability

62. The Proprietor, its servants and/or agents, shall not be liable to any member or guest of a member for any loss, damage or injury suffered by them or their property howsoever caused save in respect of death or personal injury to a member or guest caused by the gross negligence of the Proprietor, its servants and/or agents. Any liability of the Club for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage of whatsoever nature suffered or incurred by any member of the Club is expressly excluded.

Amendments and Interpretation

63. The Rules shall be amended by displaying notification of the change for seven days on the Website. Any issues arising as to the interpretation of the Rules shall be referred to the Committee. These Rules are governed by English law and the English Courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, under or in connection with the same.
Questions, comments, concerns and requests regarding these rules are welcomed and should be addressed to The Sorority Ltd of Gresham House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom. Telephone +44 (0) 207 248 9 248, Fax: +44 (0) 207 990 9 248 or email at info@thesorority.org