Committee Meeting

Tuesday 8th April, 19:00 Kingswood School

Minutes

Present: Tim Graham (TG), Dudley Bartlett (DB), Pat Ost (PO), Sean Sutton (SS), , Mark Blackham (MB), Gordon Opie, (GO), Yeng Ping-Ng (YPN), Tim Sparkes (TS), Freddie Van Gerwen (FVG), Penny Bromley (PB). John Lippiat (JL), Alanna Rice (AR), Andy Higgs (AH), Kelly Nolan (KN).

Apologies: Phil Edmonds (PE), Melanie Carosi (MC), Jon Kirby (JK), Shelley Pike (SP) Michelle Hares (MHa), Jon Kirby (JK), Matthew Keeling (MK), Mike Horton (MHo), Trevor Prentice (TP).

1. Introduction From Chairman

The Chairman opened the meeting at 19:00.

2. Minutes Of Last Meeting

The minutes of the meeting on 7/3/03 were accepted as a true record

3. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

4. Finance

Treasurer's update

FVG informed that he had not received an invoice from KWD for pitch hire. GO stated that the school had sent the invoice and were awaiting payment. GO said that he would request KWD resend the invoice to FVG. <ACTION GO>

FVG informed the Committee that as it stands the Club will break even or make a small profit. This was despite having to pay out almost £500 to support the EHA (HEL), which was unbudgeted for. This also did not include the majority of funds raised by social events that is held in a separate account.

In addition PE and JL still have some money to come in from the last few debtors and from the last few games of the season. <ACTION PE AND JL>

The Treasurer also told the Committee that it had been difficult to tie up the accounts since Captains had banked money without the match slips being returned to him.

Funding Proposal

The principle of the proposal outlined by the Chairman was to relieve the Captains of the burden of cash transactions on Saturday's. All members present admitted that the idea was good in principle with the following comments being noted:-

PB thought that there should be a reduced payment for part time or unemployed members. The Chairman said that the Treasurer would consider individual cases on merit.

PB and MB thought that the level of the subscription was too low. It was decided that as long as the books could be balanced in this first year that the level could always be adjusted later.

GO added to this saying that he thought that this represented very good value hockey.

JL asked how drivers would be reimbursed. It was decided that it would probably be most practical for drivers to invoice the Treasurer for a re-imbursement and an advance could be made to drivers if an extremely long journey was expected e.g. Plymouth.

PB also voiced concern for players in the lower teams that were not guaranteed a match each week. TG said that these players could be offered a refund of subscriptions pro rata.

TS asked if the reduction in subscription for early payment could be the same level as the payment over 7 months. After lengthy discussion it was decided that this was not practical as the Club needed to improve cash flow before December due to the large expenditure that was always necessary in this month.

Several members present brought up the problem of casual membership and it was decided that they should pay £10 per match, for a maximum of 5 matches, without any membership fee. After completing 5 games, if the player wishes to continue then they will be required to pay a full subscription less the amount already paid.

A letter from TG will be mailed in the AGM letter to members to inform them of the new scheme proposed. <ACTION MB AND TG>

5. Umpiring

Despite many requests from TP, no volunteers had come forward wishing to become an umpire. PB said that Annette Pettit was interested. TS put himself forward along with Chris Gibbs and Mahendra Patel. AR also said that she would possibly be interested. TG to pass the names onto TP. <ACTION TG>

6. Coaching

TG informed the Committee that the training lights would be in place at KWD by September and that coaching would move to this venue next season.

GO is to hold a meeting with Glen Wright, SP, Richard Westgarth, DB and MB to discuss the format of the new coaching sessions. The slots available would be from 6.30pm until 9.30pm and the probable days would be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday or extended sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

GO would enter into negotiations with Jane Vines of KWD regarding the fees. <ACTION GO>

7. Social Events

TG thanked KN, MH, YPN and GW for their efforts on Saturday and said that it was an enjoyable and well-organised event. The profit from the event was estimated to be in the region of £250.

KN told the Committee that the events had worked well this season with proper pre-planning and advertising. She also noted that it was not just the usual faces attending the events, which was important to future development of the Club.

The next event is the Summer Party on 21st June at LTC. Some tickets have been sold but it was expected that Summer League Captains would sell tickets as soon as possible.

8. Development

MB gave a brief appraisal of development activities over the last month. Firstly MB had commissioned the printing of raffle tickets for a grand draw and had already started to distribute them to members. The summer party would be the vehicle for the raffle draw.

MB had met with Jane Vines of KWD to discuss the development of KWD upper fields. She had told him that the clubhouse had been refurbished and a bar manager had been recruited to run the bar and kitchen. She said that she would be very happy for City of Bath HC to move their post match activities to this venue as soon as possible. There would be no membership fees involved since profits would be made from the bar and kitchen. Since use of the LTC required the Club to pay £31 per head for membership this move would offer the Club a very good annual saving towards development. Initially City of Bath HC would be the only Club using the facility and this would put us in a good position for future involvement in the scheme.

There will be a party held at the clubhouse on 7th May to introduce all the founder members of the scheme to the third party developer and to sound out the requirements of all the founding clubs. It was probable that numbers would be limited to approximately four.

9. Summer League

TS had attended the Bristol League AGM and entered 4 men's teams, free of charge.

The 1st team had been relegated because the Captain had not phoned in all of the results. The Captain would telephone the League Secretary to discuss and hopefully overturn the decision.

All Captains agreed to continue in post. Men's 1sts - Hugh Salter, men's 2nds - Rob Prentice, men's 3rds - Freddie Van Gerwen and TS wished to be men's 4th Captain.

10. Officers for Next Season

All officers wished to remain in place with the following exceptions:-

JK resigned as Publicity Officer due to illness. DB wished to take up this position.

DB is unable to attend selection on Monday evenings but wished to continue in post. His responsibilities for Mondays would be spread to other members of the selection Committee.

Stuart Hares was undecided whether he wished to continue as men's 3rd XI Captain; perhaps Matthew Rice would either deputise or assist Stuart.

JL said that he wished to continue as Men's 1st XI Captain but two other members had expressed an interest in taking over. GO would discuss the matter with all parties.

The newly reformed 6th XI would initially be without a Captain but it is thought that Mahendra Patel is interested depending upon his employment circumstances. It was also undecided whether to run this team in the league. It was most likely the team would play fortnightly friendlies. Numbers would be assessed from the 4th summer league team.

All Ladies Captains wished to stand again, however, Jackie Cole also wished to stand for the 2nd XI Captaincy. There would have to be an election at the AGM by secret ballot. Votes would only be accepted on the night or by written proxy in advance of the AGM.

MB had decided to step down as Webmaster to concentrate on the Secretary and Development Committee roles. Alan Curnow had volunteered to step in with the assistance of Glen Wright.

11. Any other business

AH asked the Committee for assistance in the funding of the veterans tour to Alkmaar. The tour was in celebration of the 90th anniversary of Alkmaar HC and the Club would be representing the city.

TG suggested that the Club could afford to offer £150 towards the entry fee as this matched the fee paid for entry of the Exeter tour that the Club had paid for. The offer was put to the vote and members voted in majority to pass this motion. A second motion was voted upon as to where the funds would come from. It was passed that the funding would come from the 100 Club. AH will approach the 100 Club Committee for approval. <ACTION AH>

TG suggested that the Club should budget for tours in the future with a cap of £150 for any serious tour.

12. Date of AGM

The date of the AGM was set as Thursday 15th May at the Sulis Club. MB to arrange the venue with BT.

The meeting was closed at 21:00