RSSSF Charter

1.Name

The official name of the organization is the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, abbreviated as RSSSF. It was founded in December 1994.

2.Goal

The goal of the RSSSF is to build an archive (hereafter referred to as RSSSF Archive) of association football ("soccer") statistics, as extensive as possible, and to make this available on the so-called "World Wide Web" (WWW). Access to all data collected in the archive shall be free for anyone with access to the WWW. It is not the goal of the RSSSF to make a profit out of its activities. The data made available on the WWW in the RSSSF Archive are subject to copyright.

3.Membership

In principle, membership is open to all natural persons. The decision whether a person can become a member is to be taken unanimously by the Board of the RSSSF. Condition for membership is the ability and willingness to provide data for the RSSSF Archive which are not yet covered in a sufficient measure, subject to judgement by the Board. Applications for membership should be directed to the responsible Board member.

4.Rights of Members

Members of RSSSF are entitled to subscription to the RSSSF mailing list, to be listed as member at the relevant page of the RSSSF Archive, and to participation in so-called Working Groups dealing with matters concerning the Archive. They also may instigate discussions on any matter related to the Archive and the organization on the mailing list, and to vote on matters on which the Board instigates a vote.

5.Duties of Members

All members should contribute to the archive according to their possibilities and the promises they made at the time of their admission. They also have to take all possible measures to ensure that the data they contribute are correct and complete. Further information on content and structure of the data will be specified in the RSSSF Policies.

6.End of Membership

Membership is ended on

a) request of the member;

b) death of the member.

Membership can also be revoked by a unanimous decision by the Board in case

c) the member suffers unannounced and prolonged loss of e-mail access;

d) the member fails to contribute the promised contributions without proper excuse;

e) the member has damaged the organization in any way.

7.The Board

The Board of the RSSSF should consists of at least 3 and at most 5 persons, all members of the RSSSF. It is the sole organ of the RSSSF to have the ability to take decisions, but it may leave decisions to the members (by a vote). Such a vote among members is won by simple majority, unless it is on a question changing this Charter, in which case 2/3 majority is necessary. A vote only is valid if at least 1/2 of the Members has participated.

Any decision of the Board has to be taken unanimously.

The Board has the following tasks, which have to be distributed among its members, such that for every task there is a unique contact person among the Board:

a) maintenance of the Archive, including contents and layout;

b) matters concerning the physical location of the Archive, including matters of sponsorship, mirroring, and any related financial matters;

c) admission of new members and possible revocation of membership;

d) installation of new working groups as well as supervision of working groups in operation;

e) organization of so-called In Real Life Meetings.

Every Board member should be responsible for at least one and at most two of these tasks. The corresponding nomenclature for the Board members is subject to its own decision.

8.Membership of the Board

The original Board consisted of its three founder members, in alphabetical order: Lars Aarhus, Kent Hedlundh and Karel Stokkermans, later joined by Bernd Timmermann and Søren Florin Elbech. Any Board member has the right to withdrew his or her membership, upon which occasion the Board has the right to propose a successor among the current members of the RSSSF. Board membership is also lost automatically in case RSSSF membership is ended.

In principle, the Board constitutes itself, subject to its mandate as specified in this Charter under section 7. Any member wishing to become a member of the Board and take over one of the tasks a)-e) as listed in section 7 can apply to the Board expressing his wish. If his or her offer is declined, the Member can instigate a vote among all RSSSF Members, in which he has to obtain the votes of at least 50% of all then Members (as listed publicly on the Introduction Page of the RSSSF in the Archive) in order to obtain Board membership at the cost of the Board member responsible for the task(s) to be taken over.

9.Changing this Charter

Changes to this Charter can be proposed at any time by any Member. The Board is then called upon to decide upon the change within two months. After a positive verdict by the Board, a vote is to be held among all Members, in which the change has to obtain a 2/3 majority.

10.Termination of the RSSSF

If for whatever reason the Board and the Members of the RSSSF decide that continuation of the RSSSF along the lines set out in this Charter is no longer possible, they will undertake all reasonable action to ensure the availability of the RSSSF Archive as is.

About this document

Many thanks to RISC-Linz for making resources available for this archive in the past.

Prepared and maintained by the RSSSF for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: RSSSF (karel.rsssf@gmail.com)
Last updated: 11 Jul 2022