Legal documents for opening your own Dagga Private Club?

[William]

This is one of our most Frequently Asked Questions and you can read our Dagga Private Clubs document here.
But let’s accept it that opening a Dagga Private Club is not without some risk. What we are doing is leading by example and creating these solutions together.

This is your chance to be heard. So please tell us, what legal documents do you need for your Dagga Private club?

[Jacques du Toit]

Hi Guys!!

This is a work in progress.

The idea of a Private Growers Club working withing the law seems a little daunting! Yes some people have done it…Those with deep pockets! My aim is for us to create sort of like a “business in a box” type of thing. Download the info and or documents and get rolling!!

A couple of documents needs to be drafted for this to work and I am by no means a Law guru!! So please feel free to correct me as well as lend an ear! The more we are working on this, together, the faster we can get going!!

1. Lease Contract – This is where you, who owns the grow op, setup a contract with a member to lease space in your Private grow room.
2. Power of attorney – Giving me “the grower” legal access to your space in the grow room as well as the right to grow, cure and dry your plant!
3. Power of attorney – For private transport of your private goods within Private vehicle. Unless courier is used(which I think we need to contact them?? I don’t know).
4. Record Keeping. As per DPC initiative, we need to keep diligent records of EVERYTHING!! Proof of owner of seed(the member), Lease contract, power of attorney contracts, growers journals…the lot!!!

This is the basic gist of what I think is needed for a growers club to operate within the law! More documents are needed as per the initiative, here I would like to focus on the “business” side of things legal docs etc. SOP’s(Standard Operating Procedures) etc can be discussed at a later stage or left to the owner of the club to setup his own SOP for day to day activities!

Stay safe peeps and lets go go go!!!

[Joanne Parry]

Jacques du Toit wrote:

Hi Guys!!

This is a work in progress.

The idea of a Private Growers Club working withing the law seems a little daunting! Yes some people have done it…Those with deep pockets! My aim is for us to create sort of like a “business in a box” type of thing. Download the info and or documents and get rolling!!

Quote

Ja I must say I’ve had a few requests for the ‘template’ to start a Dagga Club. It would be a really handy thing to be able to help people get going as quickly as possible.

[Turtle House]

Any chance I can contact you? Some of the aspects listed there is a bit confusing to me. Just need to make sure we go about doing this right.

[Charl Henning]

Pieter there is a group chat on the Telegram app. You can discuss issues there if you like. Add me @FieldsofgreenforallHelp

[Joanne Parry]

Step 1: Register at CIPC as a non profit company. http://www.cipc.co.za/index.php/register-your-business/companies/register-non-profit-company/

[Jacques du Toit]

Hi Pieter

 

You are more than welcome to contact me via the Telegram group! I have sort of like lost focus on this topic as I am studying and trying to find a job at the same time while doing odd jobs for income.

 

Please do contact me, as I would like to have as much input on this as possible!

 

Thanks.

[littigator]

Hi Guys

I’ve been meaning to add to this conversation for quite a while and have finally found some time.  On the documents side of things I think there are some basics that are required whatever the legal framework of the club is and then some specific docs needed if you go the route of an NPO.  From my reading it is not mandatory that you register an NPO, a PTY is also acceptable, but I think an NPO goes a long way to dispel concerns about dealing/selling/profit-making from growing cannabis, so I think it is best practice.

So first the docs needed to establish a club or association, whether it’s legally registered with CIPC or not, but simply to give it an operating structure –

1. A Constitution – this is the basic framework of the club and sets out how it operates and by whom, e.g. Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, annual meetings and reports and what the aims and purposes of the club are – growing, educating, etc etc.
2. The Club Rules – these are a set of rules governing how members must behave, what their responsibilities are and what the consequences of breach are
3. Membership Agreement – this is the legal agreement between an individual member and the club and covers what each parties obligations are and what they must pay for their membership.
4. Cession/Ceding Agreement – this is the legal document by which a member signs over his or her constitutional rights to cultivate cannabis to the collective of the Club.
5. Register of Members – a complete list of members together with copies of their signed Membership Agreements, Ceding Agreements, signed Constitutions and Club Rules and copy IDs should also be kept on the growing premises.

Then from a cursory reading of the CIPC requirements it indicates the following is required to register an NPO –

1. 2 x copies of the Constitution, Deed of Trust or Memorandum and Articles of Association together with the application form.  The process takes 2 months.

If the organisation wants to apply for grant or donor-funding then it also needs to register with the Dept of Social Development, see http://www.gov.za

Has anyone actually applied for an NPO registration for a DPC yet and if so what form of docs did they use?

I have drafted items 1-4 but need to trim and tailor them a bit more.  When time allows and I have fine-tuned them I will post them here for comment.  I would also like to go ahead and apply for NPO registration based on the documents I have drafted once I am happy with them and have got some feedback from some of you, but like I said, if someone else has already successfully done it then please share what you used.

@jacques du toit, I note what you say about a lease agreement and power of attorney etc.  So far as I am aware DPCs in other countries do not run like this where a member is granted an exclusive space and right to grow within a larger grow space and then grants power of attorney of that space back to the club.  I was of the impression that it is enough for members to assign their constitutional right to grow to the collective club with an indication of their intended consumption and then the club simply grows a collective amount based on all members proposed levels of consumption (within the objectively determined levels of ‘personal use’).  I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected though.

 

[Turtle House]

Any chance you have a draft of A Constitution of an NPO dor the DPC? Even if it is an incomplete one at this stage.

And can one document/contract cover Club rules, Membership agreement, and Cession/Ceding agreement? Out of courtesy I have attached my 2-4 point document. However this is still a draft and I will post the final document within the following 3 days with all corrected legal paragraphs as marked in red in the document.

We are in the process of receiving our NPC registration. NPO takes 2 months where NPC takes 7days and is not nearly as annoying. You need 3 different directors for a NPO, who are not directly involved in the organization (meaning not working there or have any hand in it). For a NPC, anybody (be it friends/family) are able to become directors.

[Turtle House]

UPDATE:

New Membership Contract.

Any input on this one? What do you think I should add/exclude or change?

[Joanne Parry]

Hi All.

There have been a few requests for the MOI paperwork.  I’ve found 2 templates (one from CIPC) and a guideline which I’ll be adding to the media folder of this group.  I’ll also send the documents to the Telegram group.

I hope this helps.

[littigator]

Hi guys

I have finally had some time to make my draft docs a little clearer and better formatted.  I have put them into the documents folder in PDF version, please note they are copyright however I am happy for any Fields of Green for All members to use them for the establishment of their own DPC if they find them helpful and I am happy to assist in tailoring docs for people within reason.

I still need to cross-reference Jo’s MOI documents @Jo, thank you for sharing these.  Any changes needed to my docs I will update and repost them, but for now I didn’t want to delay any further.

@Pieter – what’s an NPC rather than an NPO?  Have you received your registration now and if so what documents did you use to submit your application?

Thanks for sharing your membership agreement, if think it relates more to a members club where members share their own products, rather than a classic termed DPC where members assign their grow rights to a collective.  Is this your intent?

Docs I have posted are as follows –

1. DPC Draft Constitution
2. DPC Draft Membership Agreement (which includes the ceding agreement)
3. DPC Draft Code of Conduct

Also note the docs refer to 3 Registers to be kept, simple spreadsheets would suffice – they are a Register of Members, Register of Production and Register of Allocation.

My structure assumes the class style DPC where members assign their own right to a collective and cannabis or related products are centrally produced and distributed to members.  I have assumed a basic monthly fee and minimum monthly allocation.  If people want a flexible no monthly fee but simply a right to come and withdraw allocation on a regular basis paying on withdrawal then some key changes would need to be made and this could cause legal issues with justifying levels of production and law enforcement arguments that the Club is simply ‘selling’ cannabis.

 

[littigator]

Oh, the last thing I wanted to mention is does anyone here have links with the Cannabis Expo as I would be very interested in giving or participating in a presentation/workshop/panel discussion about DPCs, their legal position and the correct framework to establish one.

[Joanne Parry]

You can contact Clarissa Strachan <clarissa@thecannabisexpo.co.za>

[littigator]

Thanks Jo, that’s awesome.

[Nasheef Kamaldien]

Hi is there anyway the documents could be emailed to me at sunblazesession@gmail.com

 

Thanks in advance

[Charl Henning]

Nasheef. The reason we made the documents available here is so that we do not have to email them to people. They are too big for email attachments. However you are welcome to download the documents from here and use them to guide you to set up your club.

[Nasheef Kamaldien]

Hi

 

Thanks have managed to download it from here

 

Thanks so much

[Author]

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