Policy
It is recognised that Club or community members may raise concerns /
complaints that need to be resolved in the interest of maintaining good
relationships.

The Club Committee believes that:
 People have the right to have their grievances receive careful
consideration through established processes that are timely and based
on the principles of fairness and natural justice;
 All parties will be treated with dignity and respect, and underpinned by
our values.
 Where a formal complaint is received by the Committee it will be
considered in a timely and sensitive manner to achieve an outcome.

What is a ‘complaint’?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made to the Club Committee,
related to its services or personnel where a response or resolution is
expected.
Complaints must be lodged in writing, addressed to the Secretary within 7
days of the incident and may be received by letter or email. The Committee
may, at its discretion, extend this time period if it considers that exceptional
circumstances exist.
These policies and procedures apply to all complaints (other than complaints
made under the Tennis Australia Member Protection Policy) received by the
Committee.
The following will not be considered as a complaint, and as such will not be
actioned:
● If it is made anonymously,
● If it is a matter of disagreeing with one of the Heatherdale Tennis Club’s
policies,
● If it is a matter of disagreeing with wider government policy,
● If a report is made more than 7 days after the incident.
Complaints made under the Tennis Australia Member Protection Policy
Complaints made under the Tennis Australia Member Protection Policy will be
handled in accordance with that policy.
Procedure

Once a formal complaint is received it will be entered into the Complaints
Register and listed for consideration at the next scheduled Committee
meeting.
Complaints will be investigated by a Sub-Committee made up of the President
(or his/her Delegate) and two other Committee members. This Sub-
Committee may seek any advice or support as it deems necessary to ensure
a fair and reasonable outcome.
All complaints must be submitted in writing and lodged with the Secretary
within 7 days of the alleged incident.
In conducting its investigation, Complaints Sub-Committee is empowered to
undertake the enquiry as it deems necessary. This includes conducting
interviews with any witnesses, players, members or complainants concerned
but shall be under no obligation to do so.
The Sub-Committee shall invite a response from any person who is the
subject of the complaint. Such explanations concerning alleged breaches of
conduct must be requested in writing by the Sub-Committee and any reply or
explanation must be lodged in writing with the Secretary within seven (7) days
of such a request to be taken into consideration.
The Complaints Sub-Committee shall, after conducting its investigation,
determine the veracity of the complaint. This will include whether any person
has breached the Heatherdale Code of Conduct or been guilty of misconduct
general.
.
Upon making a determination of a complaint, the findings shall be reported to
the Committee. Where a person is found to have breached the Heatherdale
Code of Conduct the Committee will determine the disciplinary action.
Unreasonable complaints
Unreasonable complaints are those that, because of the nature of the contact
or frequency with which the complaint is pursued, hinder the Committee’s
ability to properly consider the matters at hand or place unwarranted demands
on Committee members’ time.
Some examples of the actions and behaviours that may lead the Committee to
deem a complaint unreasonable:
● Refusing to specify the grounds of a complaint,

● Refusing to cooperate with the complaints procedure while still wishing
the complaint to be resolved,
● Refusing to accept that some issues are not within the remit of our
complaints procedure despite having been provided with the
information,
● Changing the basis of the complaint while the procedure is in process,
● Introducing trivial or irrelevant new information or raising large numbers
of detailed but unimportant questions and insisting they are all fully
answered,
● Adopting a 'scattergun approach’: repeatedly contacting different
members of Committee with different information and/or questions, or
pursuing a complaint simultaneously with several different public bodies