MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE ERHA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE HELD ON
WEDNESDAY, 22 MARCH 2006 AT 7 PM AT THE HILTON HOTEL, STANSTED
PRESENT:
ERHA Management
Ros Marsh, President [RM] Russell Nutter [RN]
Bill Felton, Deputy President [BF] Sheila George, Umpires & Norfolk [SG]
Margaret McCall, Treasurer [MM] Loraine Bant, Youth Competition [LB]
Catherine Lymer, Secretary [CL] John Hendy, Youth Performance [JH]
John Helliwell, PR & Appeals [JHelliwell]
Counties Nicky Unwin, Essex [NU] Jill Warrick, Lincs [JW]
1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Mike Trett, Umpires, Charlie Farrow [CF], England Hockey. Robert Oakley, Bedfordshire.
2 MINUTES OF THE MANAGEMENT MEETING HELD ON 14 DECEMBER 2005
Agreed as an accurate record.
3 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
[a] Welfare and Child Protection Pack will be issued before the new season starts. Once available CF to circulate to all Counties, East Performance and Competitions and then meet with these groups to ensure effective steps taken where required.
b] Regional Indoor Hockey is going to be 16/17 December 2006, the Indoor Working Group are meeting on 3 April to decide venues, this will then be advertised on the East Website. National Indoor League is to be played on 6/7 and 13/14 January 2007, followed by the National Finals at the NIA on Sunday 21 January with the U16 and U18 competitions on Friday-Sunday 19/21 January. After next season there should be a definite improvement in the spacing of Indoor Hockey.
[c] President expressed some concern over the update of minutes on the website.
[d] Loraine Bant to take Bill Felton's place at the Women's Vets.
4 HANDBOOK CONTENT AND DISTRIBUTION
• LB & RM to get contact addresses for Katie Smith ( Kent Messenger) and John Chaplin (East Daily News) and pass onto CL.
• Each county secretary will receive 4 copies, each committee chair will get a box to distribute to their committee and others which the secretary will bring to the Management Meeting. 1 copy will be sent to each regional secretary.
• MM- Build up a database of non affiliated east clubs.
• RM Draft a letter to send to Trevor Williams to see if Vice Presidents would like a copy of the Handbook also find out who has the addresses.
• Some handbooks contain the contact details of the non affiliated clubs.
• CL to liaise with JHelliwell.
5 EAST CONSTITUTION (WORKING PARTY) PROGRESSION
The party have looked at the constitution, have done a draft of another one, various sections needs to be looked at by the Committee heads. Propose 3 key changes, 1) clarify who the Officers of the Association are, 2) voting rights of the Management Committee need to be changed to include Counties, 3) recognising the changes we have already put in place. League Committee have already had a look at their section.
Jhelliwell - draft by end of April. Circulate to heads of Committee's for thoughts. To be approved by next meeting on 10 May.
6 COMMITTEE REPORTS
[a] Finance
• Affiliation fees Cambs. - two clubs still to pay confused East League fees with East affiliation fees. Essex still awaiting list of affiliated clubs. Compared number of teams affiliated by each club to EH and East - 12 clubs affiliate 1 or 2 fewer teams to East than to EH, and 3 clubs affiliated 1 more team to East than EH. Overall 16 more teams affiliated to EH than to East. Differences likely to be due to when affiliation is paid or junior teams. Counties must inform clubs that they must affiliate to the East all senior teams that play regular fixtures and not just those that play in the East Leagues.
• Indoor entry fee and fine received from Wisbech. Ipswich still owes £100 for ladies team. Wisbech fine money used to refund men's clubs - refunds sent out to all clubs but Ipswich . Event broke even without subsidy from East umpires claims far less than estimated and organisers waived expense claims.
• Handbook & Website advertisers being invoiced.
• Haileybury camps net income this year approximately £3200. Accumulating excess income from previous camps gives a balance in account over £8000, includes nearly £700 interest. To be used for coach education, equipment and auditing camps. Have received initial budget for this year's camps.
• Squads 2005/6 all were within their budgets. Need budgets for 2006/7 (C & Y Perf)
• Junior competitions still to invoice Counties for U21 Inter County and girls' Indoor. Awaiting outstanding umpires' claims.
• League fines thanks to the League for agreeing that £140 of fines may be used to subsidise young umpires training in Herts.
• Claims for 2005/6 please may I have all these by end of April if possible and by mid-May at the latest. Mike Trett please put a message on the ERHUA Website.
• Budget for 2006/7 will be brought to May management meeting for approval.
• Comments regarding indoor 2 JHelliwell - all teams should pay when they enter tournaments. MM- All Div 1 teams paid an umpire fee, but then not all teams have had an umpire appointed. Also finding it hard to manage paying all the Umpires Subs, might change the system so they pay it themselves.
[b] Competitions
• As can be seen from the minutes on the website of our March meeting we have spent a long time with the first draft of our competitions for 2006-7 season. There are errors as indicated and the England programme is still in draft form but I would value comments to take back to the group before the next meeting (after Easter) when we will finalise the programme. As you can see I have no dates from Performance yet but we have left the England dates for most age groups blank. I need to also put in the East Indoor weekend event and the East Women Vets. We thank management for their support over the recent finals events.
• Under 7.1 of the East constitution - our role will diminish in the next few years as the new England programme rolls out. It is impossible to submit to the Treasurer by 1 March in the present year the budget for the following season and in many cases Counties/clubs are billed after the event when all costs are realised. Unfortunately there is no consultation with the other youth groups except through reports at the management meeting something County reps on this group would like to see in place. We meet five times during the season Sept April.
• Comments - LB big debate over fixture list, schools want activity. Finding too much competition is tailored around Public schools. RM- Public schools will carry on regardless. Get rid of school tournaments completely and have hockey competitions which schools and clubs can enter. JH - East should be leading light and ban school competitions, have integrated hockey tournaments.
• LB- U11 minis almost cancelled as not enough umpires due to another event on the same day. Due to Mandy Brookes it ran. Would it be better to have the minis on different dates or same venues?
[c] Performance
• Meeting cancelled 03/03/06 moved to 22/04/06 , established pre-mngmnt mtg.
• Coaches and Managers appointed 2006. Missed parental PR opportunity and sight of players at 15/17 girls tournament. It was and is our intention to attend these tournaments. We were between appointments. Individual Development Programme can run without this hit and miss on the day' selection for performance group of 25/30. U21 competition attended.
• Coaches and managers appointments 07 draft encouraged for succession to be put in place.
• D Faulkner Regional Training Dates edict of March 06 and our calendar 2006/7 (draft) passed to Comps Cttee
• Budgets In hand with coaches/managers to be finalised 22/04/06 .
• LTAD meeting in Cambridge . Imperative that everyone reads and understands document. Massively important items that effect Hockey at all levels in this presentation and the path that our national body is now committed to. Competitions set to change, East league will feel effects as young players are withdrawn, Satellite training system might polarise young players to larger/nat league clubs. some competitions will be abandoned. U21s will become more important as path for very late developers.
• Kit Website and Squad only listings, commission to be discussed in more depth with Treasurer.
• CPD coaching 8 nominations L3, all vrq transfers made. 10 for L2 2 for L1 No L2 in East 2006. Performance group working on this. Need minimum qualifications in place pre Haileybury 2006.
• Haileybury booked possible pitch difficulties, invitations out mid April, dates published, treasurer has draft budget.
• U21 boys/girls underway, budget with MM, all docs submitted, hotels booked, self funding.
• U13/U14 boys and girls programmes running, U13/U14 girls covered next weekend at Redbridge.
• Individual development programme for players now underway Jan 1 onwards. U14 handout Staff Roles/Tournament Routines/Principles of Play.
• U15 girls and boys programmes running, U17 boys and girls dormant, as exam period in progress.
• Comments Kit will be available to buy off the website at a 5% commission. Kit will be available to all apart from the 1 st cap shirts which will only be available to those applicable.
[d] League
• Ros Marsh was welcomed and took a full part in the meeting.
• Chris Kime has retired from League Management after 11 years sterling service and we already have a volunteer to take over the North West of the Region.
League Structure:
a) Agreed that in small leagues, 3 up 3 down may be too much. Rule 6 will be redrafted to give the League authority to reduce numbers when relevant.
b) Noted that if Indoor Hockey grows so that there are excessive postponements in the Premier League, those divisions would not have East League fixtures on key indoor dates. Not an immediate issue.
c) Agreed that to progress to 12 team leagues, promotions and relegations at the end of 2006/07 should be amended.
2006/07 preliminaries:
a) League dates For Men 23 Sep 9 Dec, 20 Jan 24 Mar.
- For Women 23 Sep 9 Dec, 13 Jan 27 Jan, 17 Feb 31 March
b) Website info on start times and venues to stay mandatory for all pool covered games, and advisory for lower leagues.
c) Request from Sudbury to play in North East of the region, which will lead to extra promotions and relegations in some divisions.
d) St Ives will decline a promotion to avoid 3 teams from the same club in one division.
Finance:
• Fines so far about £1500, most already collected. Herts was given some support for Young Umpire Initiative, which is an ideal use of the fines.
• There is a large increase in late results/teamsheets since the introduction to the Men's Leagues of fines for this. This is not a Women's League problem. The AGM will be asked to revert to point deductions as before.
• League's share of the cost of 05/06 East Handbook has increased by 50% to £1500
Playing Issues:
• A typing error in the rule about goalkeepers doubling up caused some confusion, whilst it is clear in the 2004/05 rules. Doubled-up goalkeepers do NOT preclude use of a field player.
• The current suspension of EHL for the Commonwealth Games means starred players are not getting any hockey, and non-starred ones are significantly strengthening teams in the East Leagues. Trevor was to raise this at the next EH Competitions meeting.
• Complaint from Romford rejected seem more interested in points than playing the games.
• Some clubs are agreeing postponements among themselves. Only League Managers can agree postponements.
Umpiring and Umpires:
• An E-mailable complaints form for umpire is to be drafted by Steve Mayhew to include comments on attitude, hospitality, pitch etc. This to be e-mailed to Steve to co-ordinate and raise with League Managers. Teamsheets for next season will be amended accordingly (ie remove the hospitality Y/N box).
• Herts and Beds reported the probable demise of their pool following the final retirement of the Pool Secretary as well as Chairman and Secretary. League rules can manage most of the outcomes of this, and ERHUA should consider any issues.
• ERHUA is surveying developments necessary to support Level 1 rule change.
• CARDS: so far this season 18 RED, 650 YELLOW in EML (a slight reduction on last year), and 1 RED and 44 YELLOW in EWL.
Rule Change proposals for 2006/07:
• Agreed to ask AGM for a change in start times for matches in top 5 Men's Leagues and Prem and Div 1 in Women's Leagues to 11am to 3pm to ensure minimal use of floodlights in pool umpired matches.
• Completion of the rule change to rule 5.2 for 2006/07 agreed in 2005 is dependant on the review by ERHUA.
• Because so many clubs were fined for not providing a fixture card this season the requirement was fully discussed, and confirmed. The rule will be re-drafted for clarity so that provision in whatever form will be a RULE, and content will be a GUIDELINE.
• Presentation Day and AGM 2006 : It will be at Ford Sports on Sunday 4 June, all welcome. Usual arrangements of venue/catering/pennants (Pritpal), Certificates (Trevor), VIP invitations (Sarah), Collection of trophies Men David, Women Sarah, Engraving (Russell), AGM agenda and papers (Trevor), Anything else (Russell & Trevor).
• East Management: Following the success of the East Indoor Tournament, some growth in East indoor can be expected, but League dates for next season do not clash with East indoor. Clashes with National indoor will be covered as usual. Wisbech failed to turn up on the day and were given a fine which they had not paid despite several reminders. They would have been suspended from League competition had they mot paid after a formal notice.
• Richard Munns will be away on last weekend of the league and slip date. Premier and Div 1 results to Robert those weekends, and Trevor will input the results to the website.
• A lively meeting with a lot of work got through as usual.
• Comments - BF, RM and JH going to the League AGM on Sunday, 4 June.
[e] Umpires
• No panel promotions were made at the last meeting, but Tim Gregson and Jon Bigham have since completed their assessments and achieved level 2 status in the Men's programme.
• At national level the following promotions have been achieved since the last meeting: Level 3 (indoor): Alan Baker and Debbie Garner (Women); David Rose (men).
• Andrew Kennedy has been appointed to the European Indoor Hockey Trophy at Eindhoven , to the EuroHockey Club Champions Cup at Reading and to the Celtic Cup.
• Barry Anderson as Tournament Director to the 4 Nations Tournament at Hamburg in August.
• Annette Harvey to Women's 4 Nations Tournament in Durban .
• Dawn Henning to the National Indoor Finals and to the European Hockey Trophy in Prague .
• A programme of Umpire Exchanges is being arranged. Steve Graham has been the driving force behind this programme. The first is due to take place on 1 April to Barcelona when Barry Smith and David Rose will represent ERHUA as Umpires and Allan Holliwell as President.
• Beds and Herts Umpiring Committee have no umpires for the neutral pool. NGB need to be made aware of the problems with the neutral pool. Essex HUA won the Umpiring Committee of the year.
[f] England Hockey RDM
1. Funding Application to the Community Investment Fund
I have recently submitted an application to the East Regional Sports Board/Sport England East for funding to support the continuation of the work we are carrying out in each county/County Sports Partnership. This application is a culmination of months of work in preparing each county to be in a position to work with us to deliver our strategy locally and to enable them to write a county plan and employ a local Hockey Development Officer. The application is for funds in the region of £350K with partnership funding secured locally to the value of over £150K, and covers a period up to April 2009, and reflects delivery across 6 East counties. A further application has to be made to the East Midlands for Lincolnshire . We hope for a successful outcome of course but nevertheless with support from most of the new County Sports Partnership directors we expect to secure funding to continue all HDO posts until at least April 07, a big step forward.
2. Suffolk HDO Moves on
Martin Fields our HDO in Suffolk has recently left us and we are now seeking a new member of the team in Suffolk . I have been working very closely with the Suffolk community on a number of projects in recent months and I will continue to do so until a replacement for Martin is found.
3. HDO's in Norfolk and Hertfordshire making a real impact
At the December meeting I reported that we had recruited excellent new Hockey Development Officers with Connie Bedingfield and Peter Simmons starting work, in Norfolk and Herts respectively. Both Connie and Peter have both achieved a huge amount in their first four months in post and are both working closely with their county HA and Hockey Development Groups.
4. Clubs 1st Success
I am delighted to confirm that Luton Town HC have recently been awarded the Clubs 1st Award. The club has worked really hard in developing an excellent junior programme and deserve much credit. I am also delighted that we have recently been able to grant them in the region of £40K in a facility improvement grant under the Community Club Development programme. This grant is being used to replace the fencing around their Lea Manor home pitch and to create some storage compounds to protect their recently recarpeted pitch surface and new goals.
There are three other clubs who have recently submitted their portfolios for assessment for Clubs 1st and we expect that all will receive the award in the near future.
5. England Hockey Roadshow
78 people attended the Roadshow in Cambridge last month, to find out more about the proposed Single System Clearly there is much to take in and we are now receiving feedback from a number of quarters.
The overall impression is that people are supportive of change, but there also some concerns particularly in respect to the proposed restrictions on young players participating in adult competition.
I am currently arranging a follow up event in all East counties to further explain the model and to explain some of details whilst listening to and discussing some of concerns that are being expressed.
Dates arranged -
Hertfordshire held on Monday 6th March (Hertfordshire Hockey Development Group meeting)
Suffolk Arranged for Tuesday 18th March (Suffolk HA meeting Rushmere Sports Club Ipswich, all clubs and hockey schools being invited)
Norfolk Arranged for Monday 15th March ( Norfolk HA/AGM - Pinebanks Norwich)
Events in Essex, Cambridgeshire Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire TBA.
I have also recently been to meet with members of Harleston Magpies to discuss some of the issues under the single system, after the club representative expressed some frustrations at the February meeting.
6. Coach Education
The programme of level one courses has made a slightly frustrating start, with one course cancelled due to a lack of numbers and another hit by the weather. However we expect over 200 people to attend courses in the region this spring/summer and autumn.
All courses are being widely promoted by the HDO's to all clubs/schools etc and can all be found on the England Hockey website.
Details of the forthcoming Level Two course and the England Hockey Coaching Workshops will appear in our spring Newsletter, out soon.
7. Young Umpire Programme/Regional Young Umpire Action Group
The Regional Young Umpire Action Group formed in 2004 was effectively relaunched last month, with a special meeting held in Cambridge . Representatives from all East counties attended and a draft action plan was written. The aims of the group are broadly as follows:
- To set up and support a pathway for young umpires.
- Regional Young Umpire Action Group form the key link between county, regional and national young umpire activity.
- RYUAG strategically guides young umpiring in the region.
- They appoint or control the appointment of young umpires of Level 1standard and above to suitable opportunities within the region.
- They support the development of young umpires beyond the Level 1 Award.
- The East Action Draft Action Plan is attached and I expect that over the next few months we will create a more coordinated and supportive environment for Young Umpires in the region. Part of this in to try to formalise links with the ERHUA and I have written to Mike Trett in this respect this week.
- Each county is running at least one Young Umpire and one Foundation Umpire Award this year, following the success of last year's ERHA sponsored programme.
8. Welfare/Child Protection
The new England Hockey Welfare pack for Clubs and Associations is still being completed but I will ensure this is circulated to all counties and East performance and competitions once complete and as appropriate I will meet with these groups to ensure effective steps are taken where required.
9. Communications
Our next regional Newsletter will be out in a couple of weeks.
• Comments NU believe the aims are right concerning LTAD but what about quality coaches?
• RM - If anyone has any comments about LTAD write back as an individual, there is no formal East response.
• RM - Concerned that this was the first the Committee had heard about the RYUAG .
[g] Regions Consultative Committee
- Simon Mason and Jan Baker will be announced at EH AGM at Cannock HC on 9 April 06 as Vice Presidents (male & female).
- Increase affiliation fees from £165 per team to £170, a 3% rise to cover inflation (if approved at EH AGM). Also at AGM Umpire Associations can affiliate (if resolution approved)
- When EH host the European Championships from 18-26 August 07 at Belle Vue, Manchester the top 3 men & women's teams will automatically go to the Olympic Games. (Used to be only the winning nation and then an Olympic qualifying tournament for the other places.)
- New regulations coming from FIH re use of face masks.
- South Region announced that they had given £5K to EH to be used to support County Sports Partnerships (CSPs).
- EH trying to get funding for CSPs from Regional Sport England centres.
- Insurance brochures sent to County and Regional Treasurers.
- Regarding London Term Athlete Development (LTAD) the deadline for comments is 31 May 06 and then the detailed plan of implementation and costings go to the EH Board at their 18 July meeting.
- Did we have any details about a Regional tournament to be held at Cannock on 1-2 July 06 regarding a veterans Over 40 tournament for women. There is now a sub-group of the EH Competitions Committee called the Veterans Steering Group - I recognised 2 names from the East - David Gill and Gerald Wilkinson. At our meeting it was said that Regional Secretaries got details of this. Is that right Catherine?
= Concern expressed by the South re the formation of a Youth Umpire Action Group from EH via the RDMs. South said that such initiatives should be taken to the Regions first. What do we know about this in the East?
• Comments If anyone interested in the veterans tournament please contact RM about it.
• Technical Official Development EH are looking for each region to find an extra seat on its management committee concerning this. RM- SG is already doing this would she be willing to carry on.
• SG- Not willing to do it anymore as been told by EH your too old. Is putting a list together.
• RM- EH seem to be pushing for younger officials, so we need to find a regional technical officiating leader to help in this process.
[h] PR and Sponsorship JHelliwell had nothing to report.
8 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
• CL- Rob Oakley of Bedfordshire HA has asked if St Neots Ladies can reaffiliate to the East via Cambridgeshire? Also if they remain as members of the Five Counties Premier Division, can the St Neots ladies 1 st XI gain promotion to the East Women's League if they win that division or are the highest placed East affiliated Club within the premiership of the 5 Counties?
• RM + RN - Yes they can disaffiliate from the Midlands and Beds to join Cambridgeshire in 06-07. If they win the league next season they can go up to East.
• RM- Draft AGM agenda to be presented at our 10 May management meeting.
• SG- Finished as President in Norfolk had 4 great years, but its time for Peter Wright to become President.
• CL- Can't make next meeting, CF will do the minutes.
• MM- East Women's Golf Day on 6 October at Newmarket starts at 11.00 am anyone is welcome that has been connected to East.
President ....................................... .. Date ................... ...