EAST REGION HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the 11th ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING
Thursday 8th July 2010
Holiday Inn, Impington, Cambridge at
7.30pm
Refreshments were available prior to the commencement
of the meeting.
Present:
1 Apologies for Absence:
Loraine Bant (Youth
Competitions), John Helliwell (Discipline/Communications), Mick Pullen (Essex
CDO), Neil Donald (Blueharts), Alan Middleditch (Blueharts), Basildon HC, Tim
Aldous(Norwich Exiles), Ian McAuslan (Wapping), Samatha Menear (Essex, East
League), Shivaun Tijou (Colchester),
As there were only 19
members present, this did not satisfy Rule 16.5 of the constitution regarding a
quorum, but it was agreed by those present to be in the best interest to
continue with the business.
Welcome address by Sheila
George. Main emphasis placed on volunteers without whom hockey would not
survive, and thanks to all officers who had helped her over the season. Sheila also welcomed the Bedfordshire Girls
[the women remain in the Midlands] into the East.
This was followed by a short
silence to remember Peggy Nisbet, Jeff Eynon, David Vinson and Audrey
Collins. All had died during the past
year and over the years had contributed greatly to hockey within the East.
2 Items to be covered under any other business:
None notified in
advance. However Bill Felton had raised
the issue of minutes on the website under separate correspondence with Annette
Thorpe, and it had been explained that this was due to an oversight on her part.
3 Appointment of Tellers
It was not felt necessary to
appoint tellers
4 Minutes of the 10th Annual General Meeting held on
the 9th July 2009.
Agreed by those in
attendance as being a true record.
5 Presentation and adoption of unaudited accounts for
the period 1st June 2009 to 31st May 2010.
Copies of the reports
circulated ahead of the meeting.
Margaret pointed out that
she had moved the JRPC figures towards the bottom of the accounts. The JRPC had
bought in £6,798 however since the accounts had been closed, another £1,300 bill
for kit had appeared so reduced this figure.
Margaret explained that she
wanted to look at the excess funds and to consider how these may be reduced to
best benefit.
Margaret also explained her
concern that historically funds had been invested in Barclays and Standard
Life. Now that Barclays had bought
Standard Life, we were in danger of having investments in excess of the £50K
threshold which attracted government protection.
Bill Felton asked how
reliant we were on
Sheila expressed thanks to
Margaret for all her hard work.
Adoption of accounts was
proposed by Bill Felton and seconded by Dan Hayden.
6 To approve Affiliation Fees
The meeting accepted the
recommendation of the management that fees would be £15 per team for the season
2010/2011 with schools not paying an affiliation fee.
Proposed by Catherine Lymer,
Seconded by Russell Nutter
Ros Marsh asked that if we
were no longer levying an affiliation fee on schools, how did we keep details
of which schools are participating in hockey. Discussions held around this
subject within the room.
7 Reports
The following reports had been made available on
line, with copies also available at the meeting.
Youth Competitions Committee: (report submitted by
Sheila asked for thanks to
be recorded for Loraine and her team of volunteers who regularly did such a
fantastic job in running the competitions.
Youth Performance Committee (Martin Williams). Report
in appendices
Martin Williams was warmly
welcomed by
Martin wanted thanks
recorded for the help provided by Charlie Farrow and Jo Beresford.
Ros Marsh asked how the
roles on the JRPC Management Team were filled, Sheila advised that they were
all widely advertised and interviews had taken place for the candidates short
listed. This had proved very successful.
Development Committee (John Hendy)
No report provided. Short verbal update given to indicate that
very little had happened over the last year in this area but was currently looking at the criteria for appointment of
Vice Presidents.
League Committee (Russell Nutter) report in appendices
Russell gave a brief
overview of the key events of the league season. He outlined the challenges associated with
some of the teams within the East and made specific reference to reinforcing
the fact that there is an obligation on all clubs to notify their opposition,
the league, and the umpires when making changes to fixtures, to accommodate
indoor commitments.
Russell also commended
Market Deeping for the efforts they went to, to mitigate inconvenience to other
teams and rearrange fixtures, when their pitch was condemned.
Russell outlined that both he and
Sheila thanked Russell and
his committee for all of their hard work.
Umpires (
Mike gave a brief summary of
activities within the ERHUA over the past season. He indicated that a number of umpires had
progressed to attain their Level 2 qualification.
He also mentioned that there
appeared to be a problem in getting umpires to commit to the Ladies Neutral pool.
Focus being given to this across the region to try and improve the situation.
Chris Hatch asked a question
regarding the implementation of the 3 matches to remain active rule and its
interpretation across the region. Mike
confirmed that this indeed needed to happen to remain active with England
Hockey, but its interpretation locally was very much a county issue.
Sheila thanks Mike for his
contribution to the region over the past season.
Appeals (John Helliwell), report in appendices.
Report circulated ahead of
the meeting. As he was not there to
discuss it was accepted as submitted. SG thanked John along with all the people
who had assisted on Appeals Panels.
Publicity and Sponsorship (John Helliwell) no report
submitted.
Indoor (Ros Marsh) report in appendices.
Ros outlined that the East
had run both women’s and men’s indoor leagues. However with only 5 women’s
teams it was not commercially viable to continue running the women’s league
unless there was a significant uptake in teams participating. Venues reserve the right to charge for
cancellations and although Ros had successfully managed to get some refunds,
this was not always going to be the case.
Ros also expressed her
delight at influx of ‘new blood’ into the Indoor Committee. The committee had increased to 7 people with
willing volunteers.
Technical Officiating (
Sheila spoke about the very
successful Technical Officiating course which had been run at the Plum
Tournament last year. Sheila also
expressed her thanks to Ros for the significant contribution made to making it
such a
success.
All of the above reports
were adopted en-bloc by the attendees of the meeting.
8
Charlie covered off the
progress made with the JAC’s and JDC’s outlining the high number of candidates
which had gone through the system.
Charlie also congratulated
Liz Pelling on the RYUAG programme.
RCC (
The last RCC meeting was in
June. Sally Munday had spoken about the
roadshows. EHB had delivered 7 across
the country with an average of around 30/40 attendees. A key area for discussion was the age breaks
for junior categories – January or September, It is the intention of EHB to ask
the views of the clubs.
Ros congratulated Sheila on
the detail provided in the RCC submission.
9 Election of Officers
It was proposed and agreed
to elect the following officers for the 2010/2011 Season.
It was noted with regret
that John Adams had to stand down after one year. In accordance with the
Constitution, Management elected a replacement for the remainder of the term.
Both John and Annette were thanked for their contribution over the past year.
10 Vice Presidents of East Region Hockey Association
Management committee had
nominated three new Vice Presidents.
All nominations were warmly
accepted and welcomed.
Bill and Margaret who were
present expressed their personal thanks.
11 Appointment of Auditors
Mrs Diane Baker was willing
to continue as auditor.
Proposed by Ken Green
Seconded by Ros Marsh
12 Date of next Annual General Meeting – as previously advised in agenda Thursday 7th
July 2011. Venue TBA. Sheila asked the
audience their views on the new venue used, it was complemented favourably.
13 Constitution Amendments:
Suggested constitutional
amendments had been circulated ahead of the meeting both individually and via
the East Web site. It was explained that
the constitution needed some amendments to take into account the inclusion of
the JRPC Management Team and the presence of the Performance Director on the
Management Board.
The suggested amendments
were discussed at length. There were a few minor spelling anomalies which would
be corrected ahead of publication as well as further amendments as outlined
below:
All reference to East Region
Umpire Association to be replaced with East Region Umpiring Association.
All references to Regional
Development Manager to be replaced with Regional Manager.
Section 18.3 replace
Chairman with Director to achieve consistency.
Subject to the above changes
being made, it was proposed that the revised constitution is adopted.
Proposed Hazel Medler
Seconded Bill Felton
14 Any Other Business
As there was not Any Other
Business submitted the meeting closed at 9.30pm.