Club Bylaws

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Boston Area Toy Collectors Club (BATCC) Bylaws voted on by club members and passed at the club meeting on October 07, 2018.


Club Mission:


​The BATCC is a social club for collectors of any type of toy, new or vintage.

It is specifically for the sharing of information about and the appreciation of toys, including (but not limited to): die cast, action figures, lego, statues, vinyl figures, and games.

From its inception the BATCC has functioned as a not-for-profit in spirit, thereby requiring all its leadership positions to be volunteer in nature. No party in the BATCC derives any salary for their volunteer efforts.


Club Dues:


  • Every member of the BATCC must pay club dues (currently $30.00 per year), raised at the discretion of the club executive director.


  • Club dues are paid to the club treasurer.


  • Club dues are paid annually (either at the January meeting or at the anniversary of the member joining).​


  • Club dues must be paid the month they are due (with two months grace period). 


  • If you are unable to be at the meeting when your dues are to be paid, we encourage you to pay the treasurer outside the meeting. If this is not possible, full dues are to be paid at the meeting when you return.


  • Any member not current on their dues (or within the grace period) is not welcome at the monthly meeting.


​Club Structure:


  • ​Executive Director: is the executive officer of the club and the head chairperson, runs the monthly meeting, appoints club officers-social media administrators-and chair people, can remove club officers-social media administrators-and chair people, and has all powers outlined in these bylaws.  Current executive director-for-life is our founder Stephen Lanzilla.​


  • Treasurer: collects dues, maintains club treasury, and reports at meetings when requested.


  • Secretary: records the monthly meeting.


  • Sergeant-at-arms: keeps order in the monthly meeting.​​


  • Chair people: responsible for presenting on their subject at every meeting they attend. Executive director can create new chair-subject at their discretion.

        ​​Current chair people are:

        Head Chair: Stephen Lanzilla

        Chair of Diecast: Jim Patterson

        Co-chair of Action Figures: Moose Hannon

        Co-chair of Action Figures: Greg Sullivan

        Chair of Lego: Andrew Bucca

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  • ​​Administrators of BATCC Facebook pages/groups: approve Facebook members to be added as BATCC group members, enforce BATCC Facebook Forum rules (see below), delete posts, and remove posting privileges as necessary.

​       Current BATCC Facebook Administrators are:
       Ty Lightner,
       Jim Patterson,
      Michael Hannon


  • ​Social Media Mogul: administer and post official club items on the BATCC Twitter and Instagram accounts. Block any hostile or spam Twitter or Instagram accounts.

       Current Social Media Mogul is:
       Tim Estiloz

       Current Junior Social Media Mogul is:
       Greg Sullivan


  • ​BATCC Webmaster: keep the BATCC website up-to-date and visually appealing.

​​       Current BATCC Webmasters are:
       Jim Patterson,
      Greg Sullivan


  • Additional Volunteers: perform responsibilities as they arise at the discretion of the executive director.

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Club Meeting:


  • ​Attendance at the monthly meeting is not mandatory but is encouraged.


  • Scheduling and structure of the monthly meeting is at the discretion of the executive director.

  • Any member may make a presentation at the meeting by arrangement with the chairpersons or the executive director.

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  • Guest presentations by non-club-members are scheduled at the discretion of the executive director.

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  • Club members are required to pay courteous attention to (or at least remain quiet during) all presentations.

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  • Disruptions during presentations are prohibited.

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  • Side conversations during presentations are to be kept to a minimum and should be held in whispers.

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  • If you are unwilling to share the price and place-of-purchase of any item, do not include it in your presentation.

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  • Presenters should make a good faith effort to display their items as soon as possible before the meeting and for five minutes after the meeting has adjourned, so members who wish to may have a better opportunity to see them.

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  • The length of any presentation is determined by the executive director alone.  If the executive director feels that a presentation is going on too long, they will request that the presenter wrap it up, or request that the sergeant-at-arms do so.

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  • Complaints by members about the length of a presentation during the presentation are prohibited.

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  • Selling and trading between members is not to take place until the meeting is adjourned.

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  • Any club member may make a proposal at any meeting. It is voted on by the club members attending that meeting.  If a majority of the attendees votes “yes”, the proposal is adopted.

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  • If the executive director, with the counsel of the other chair people, deems any proposal to be of a size or nature that requires the vote of the full club membership, then the rules governing changes to BATCC bylaws are followed. (See below.)


​​Selling and Trading:


  • ​Any exchange of money or goods between club members is the full responsibility of the individual members and is not the responsibility of the BATCC or its officers.

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  • If an agreement is reached between members to exchange goods with payment at a later date, it is recommended that the agreed upon price be written down and witnessed.

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  • Any member who reneges on an agreed upon price more than once (as determined by the executive director, with the counsel of the other chair people) will be removed from the club.

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  • Raffles and toy sales are scheduled at the discretion of the executive director.​​


​​Enforcement of Meeting Rules:


  • Some individuals view it as their job in life to see how close they can get to breaking rules, as long as they feel they can argue they didn’t technically break the rules.  This is NOT your job.  Anyone determined to repeatedly be acting against the spirit of the rules (as decided by the executive director, with the counsel of the other chair people) will be removed from the club.


​​BATCC Facebook Forum Rules:


  • ​All Facebook members are welcome to join the BATCC Forum with the approval of any of the BATCC group administrators.

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  • Topics of conversation are limited to toy related subjects and pop culture. Any topic outside of that as determined by the BATCC group administrators (e.g. politics) will result in deletion of post, picture, or comment.

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  • There is no selling or trading permitted in the club forum. All words or pictures on that subject will be deleted.

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  • Forum members are expected to be courteous and cordial to all other members in forum posts.

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  • Posts and comments should be respectful of people's collections, purchases, and interests.

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  • To avoid alienation of Forum members or potential club members, sarcastic and snarky comments are NOT acceptable and will be deleted.

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  • Posts on toy discoveries should include price and location of purchase. This information must be provided upon request. Failure to provide information requested could result in deletion of said post, as determined by any forum admin.

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  • Repeated infractions of Forum rules could result in removal of member from this forum, as determined by the BATCC executive director, with the counsel of the BATCC group administrators and the chair people.

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  • Any BATCC group administrator who repeatedly breaks (or does not enforce) forum  rules, as determined by the BATCC executive director, with the counsel of the other BATCC group administrators and the chair people, will be removed as a group administrator and will lose posting privileges on the BATCC forum.


​Changes to the BATCC Bylaws:


  • ​If a majority of attendees of the monthly meeting, or the BATCC executive director, feel a change is needed in the club bylaws, the proposed change is circulated to all club members in written form and voted on at a pre-scheduled club meeting. Any club member unable to attend the pre-scheduled meeting, may send their vote to the BATCC executive director, or the director’s appointed designee, before the pre-scheduled meeting.

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  • Any member who does not attend the pre-scheduled meeting and does not inform the executive director, or designee, of their vote in writing (email, US mail, or handwritten note), will be viewed as abstaining.

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  • Once the votes are tallied, if the change is supported, the bylaws are updated and the date of adoption of the change is recorded in the footer of the bylaws file.

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  • The NOTE sections of the bylaws are informational only and may be revised without a vote.


​​END OF BYLAWS