MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE ERHA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE HELD ON

WEDNESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2005 AT 7 PM AT THE HILTON HOTEL, STANSTED

PRESENT:

ERHA              Ros Marsh, President                                   [RM]               

Management  Bill Felton, Deputy President                       [BF]    

Margaret McCall, Treasurer                                    [MM]

Catherine Lymer, Secretary                                    [CL]

John Helliwell, PR & Appeals                        [JHelliwell]

Russell Nutter, League                                 [RN]

Sheila George, Umpires & Norfolk              [SG]

Fiona Wheeler, Youth Competition              [FW]

John Hendy, Youth Performance                [JH]

Charlie Farrow, England Hockey RDM        [CF]

Counties         Nigel Brookes, Beds   [NB]               Liz Pelling, Essex        [LP]

Davie Burt, Cambs      [DB]               Jill Warwick, Lincs   [JW]

Simon Fairhall, Cambs [SF]              Richard West, Herts [RW] 

Ken Green, Suffolk     [KG]              Jill Wood, Herts       [JW]

Robert Oakley, Beds  [RO]

England           David Faulkner, Performance Director                  [DF]

Hockey           Sally Munday, Chief Development Officer                        [SM]

1      APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Loraine Bant, Youth Competitions, Mike Trett, Umpires and Sally Tippen (Cambs).

2      MINUTES OF THE MANAGEMENT MEETING HELD ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2005

Agreed as an accurate record.

3      MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

[a]       CF reported that Cath Arter was developing a manual for clubs and associations on child protection which will be launched in March 06.  Also a Club Mark for counties will be launched in the New Year.

[b]       Norfolk HA were congratulated on being the first County in the Region with a child protection policy, which can be found on their website.  JHelliwell suggested there was a need to find out whether other Counties in the Region have such policies.  Agreed to wait for the publication of the manual on Child Protection before ascertaining the position of each County on this matter.

[c]       RM asked that any ideas for distribution of the East Handbook be brought to the next meeting on 22 March 06.

[d]       RM reported the success [albeit after only the first weekend] of the Indoor Hockey tournaments.  The venue had proved successful but it had been disappointing that one of the men’s teams had withdrawn on the first day of the tournament.  The women had the full number of teams [7].  The Men’s team that withdrew will be fined.  Vouchers had been given to the top 2 teams in each competition by John Hurst.

[e]       It was reported that the Youth Competitions minutes for September and November were missing from the website.  Performance minutes were also missing, as too was the update of their webpage.

4      ATTENDANCE OF AN EAST OFFICIAL AT THE ENGLAND AGM, 9 APRIL 2006, CANNOCK

BF had offered to go in RM’s place.

5      EAST CONSTITUTION (WORKING PARTY)

A Working Party of MM, JHelliwell and RM was agreed by the meeting and each Chairman was asked to look at their particular section and bring it up-to-date by the next meeting.

6      COMMITTEE REPORTS

[a]    Finance   Report attached.  MM asked County reps from Beds, Cambs, Lincs and Norfolk to chase up their Treasurers to send their unpaid East affiliation fees.  There were also 3 East clubs who had not paid their England Hockey fees.  JHelliwell asked Herts to chase Bishop Stortford as they were continually late paying EH fees.

[b]    Competitions  Report attached.  LP stated that the U21 men’s tournament did not have a TD.  LP agreed to make the presentations on behalf of the ERHA at this U21 tournament for men and women and this was gratefully accepted.

[c]    Performance   Report attached.  JH reported that Haileybury may not be used next year due to the poor condition of the pitch.  Bishop Stortford College and Felsted School are being investigated.

[d]    League   Report attached.  It was reported by RN that next season all leagues

games must have qualified Level 1 umpires.  There was some concern expressed that

Essex umpires would not umpire games that started after 3 pm and under

floodlights.  This, however, only applied to the neutral pool umpires from this

county.  BF expressed the hope that some pressure be put on the county to sort out

this situation.  RN thought this position was not viable, as the League rules stated

that game could be played between 11 am to 4 pm.            

[e]    Umpires    Report attached.  Concern expressed at the severe shortage of neutral pool umpires.  JHelliwell felt that the amount of travelling was a contributory factor.  RO suggested that neutral pool umpires only umpire down to Div 2 and this suggestion could be then taken back to the players, clubs and umpires.  RM felt that the League and Umpiring Committees needed to tackle this matter and reach an understanding.  RN report that Rule 5.1 needed to be actioned by the County Umpiring Associations and the Regional Umpiring Association.  SG reported the following awards:

Membership: Paul Gallop, Paul Bellehewe (men), Vince Hagedorn (women)

Level 3 candidates indoor: David Rose (men), Alan Baker & Debbie Garner (women)

Level 3 outdoor and NPUA membership: Ann Hopkins (women)

NPUA Panel promotions: David Rose & Barry Smith to Panel A Development

International appointments: Emma Davey to Girls U16s 4 nations tournament in Holland, 13-18 April and U16s European Nations Cup in Spain, 10-16 July, Andrew Kennedy to European Indoor Trophy, Eindhoven.

[f]    England Hockey RDM   Report attached.  CF reported that the National Indoor Finals would be televised and sponsored.  RM reported that Clubs who had their own sponsorship deals and may be involved in the national finals had been told that they were unable to wear that kit.  SM said that this was in discussion and EH are aware of the problem for some teams.  However, in order to get the sponsorship and tv everyone had to wear the same kit and that it was too good an opportunity to miss.  If the teams wanted to speak to SM she would help all she could.

[g]    Regions Consultative Committee   No report attached.  JHelliwell reported that there was a lot of work being carried out to eliminate any duplication in insurance between the National Governing body, the Regions and the Counties.

[h]    PR and Sponsorship    JHelliwell had nothing to report.

7      OFFICER ATTENDANCE AT EAST EVENTS

  8 January     U18 Indoor Girls, Culford                                        LB

15 January     U16 Indoor Girls, Culford                                        LB

  5 March        U15 League Finals Girls, Holcombe                         RM

  5 March        U17 League Finals Girls, UEA Norwich                   MM

12 March        U14, U16, U18 Schools Finals Boys, Felsted           RM

19 March        U11 Minis Boys & Girls, Bedford                              JH

19 March        U13 Minis Boys & Girls , Redbridge                         MM

26 March        U13, U14 League Finals Girls, Redbridge                BF

 2 April           East Women’s Vets, Holcombe                                BF

23 April          U13 Boys’ Festival, Bedford                                     BF       

8      ANY OTHER BUSINESS

RM thanked Mike Pullen for keeping very good disciplinary records so far this season.  JW reported that Lincolnshire had a child protection policy.

The meeting closed at 8.10 pm

President .........................................           Date .....................

THE MEETING RECONVENED AT 8.20 PM TO HEAR AN ADDRESS ENTITLED DELIVERING CHANGE FOR SUCCESS” FROM DAVID FAULKNER, WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM SALLY MUNDAY

Questions that followed the presentation

RM                   Why do all players believe they have to join a premier league side to get into England?  Clubs will never be on a level playing field when premier clubs can pay for their players to play and travel.

DF                   Players should not have to travel for further than an hour to play for a quality club.

JH                   The emphasis is getting the players to the right level for themselves, as well as coaches, the difficulty is getting managers.  How do you train managers?

SM                  One of the components of the new Leadership Award is management.

JHelliwell       Coach pathways are equally important.  It’s very disappointing the depth of coaching and something needs to be done from the performance end.  Domestic competitions have different agendas from clubs to schools, how do we get clubs to buy in?

RM                   The hockey community is very keen to add more competitions but hates taking them away.

SM                  That’s what LTAD is going to determine, it is not always going to be a popular decision but we are doing it for the players not the competition organisers.

What does the East Region want, together with England Hockey

JHelliwell       A clear link between player pathway and the England player pathway with integrated competitions that all support each other.

NB                   Create something that links U17 to seniors.

MM                  A better way of promoting hockey when its on tv and in general.

MM                  Also sort out the congestion of the hockey programme.

RM                   Better communications between regions, the share of good practice.

SM                  Website is the best way of reaching everyone.

RM                   To lead by consent where possible.

LP                    The regions/counties need to accept that the power base is now with the clubs.

DB                   Better pathways for umpires, especially the development between Level 1 and Level 2.

JH                   If we could get everyone to own the vision of “our job is to provide players of an international standard” then everyone’s ownership and self-interest would disappear.

The presentation and questions ended at 10.15 pm with a vote of thanks to David and Sally.