MINUTES
of the Annual General Meeting of the
CHINNOR SHORTMAT BOWLS CLUB
held at 7.30 pm on Monday 18th July 2011
in the Chinnor Village Hall.
Present were – Eric Bromwich, Pauline Fearne, June Fox, Ann & Bob Hine, George Hunter, Judith & Tony Lee, Margaret & John Robertson, Gill Beechey, Dorothy & Keith Rogers, Barry Somers, Sharon Drake, John MacDonald, Jackie Pritchard & Eric Stone.
1. Apologies for absence were received from – David Beechey and Jackie Hunter
2. The Minutes of the last AGM held on Monday 19th July 2010 were accepted as a correct record of the meeting.
3. Chairman’s Report
The Chairman, Keith Rogers gave an update on the areas in which he had represented the Club during the year –
He first welcomed our five new members:-
Outdoor Bowls facility: Unfortunately, it transpired that we would only be able to apply for a small grant from S.O.D.C. This meant that there was really no prospect of us raising sufficient funds and we have therefore had to abandon our plans for an outdoor bowls facility.
The Playing Fields Management Committee are still including an outdoor bowls area in their plans as they have to involve as many sports as possible so as to enhance their chances of obtaining grants. In the current economic climate it will be some considerable time before they will be able to proceed with any of their plans.
Chinnor Village Hall: It will still probably be another two years or more before the planned alterations to the main hall will be viable, but there is a possibility that some alterations will be made to the front entrance area to convert the existing toilets into storage space. There is also a possibility that the wall at the rear of the stage will be removed (leaving the stage as an “island” unit) so as to improve the access from the new entrance foyer into the main hall. Both of these ideas are under discussion at present. Ann asked if we would then be able to access the kitchen area directly and Keith confirmed that we would be able to.
General Matters: Once again, despite not having held any committee meetings during the year, the club has ticked along quite smoothly and this is due to all the membership.
He went on to thank:
Bob and Ann for all their work involving matches and organising the Christmas evening
and, of course, the fund-
Pauline for stepping in at short notice to take over as treasurer and for keeping the accounts up to date.
Sharon, who volunteered to take on the Secretary's post and for taking the minutes for the first time at this meeting.
Jackie Pritchard for taking over the production of the “Sub's list” and “score cards”
Tony and Barry who have sometimes acted as “Match Captain” when Bob has not been playing in various matches
All of those members who have helped in various ways such as opening the hall, manning the kitchen and all of the other things that happen on club nights and everyone for their continued membership and support.
5. Treasurer’s Report.
The Treasurer, Pauline Fearn announced that over the past year we have made a small loss mainly due to the increased Hall Hire costs. The Village Hall hire cost had gone up in April this year but will not go up again until May 2012 and Mill Lane School Hall cost had also gone up as well. She suggested that maybe we could increase fees to cover the shortfall but Bob said the shortfall of approximately £300.00 was not too large and that he was sure revenue would pick up again. John MacDonald and George Hunter also expressed their concerns over the Hall Hire Costs. (As a point for later discussions over both Hall costs also become relevant in AOB – Mill Lane School.
6. Secretary’s Report.
It was decided that as Bob has dealt with all the correspondence relating to the two leagues that we play in and Keith has done likewise regarding the Village Hall and Parish Council and Whites Fields, there was no need for a separate secretary's report. The minutes of the meeting were recorded by Sharon.
7. Match Captain’s Report.
Bob Hine reported that we had finished 8th out of 11 in the Two Mat League and 4th
out of 7 in the Single Mat League in the previous Winter season. However, we had
also entered three competitions and had won two of them, the John Robinson Shield
and the Triples Knock-
The Single Mat league would be starting in September and the league would be divided
into two divisions -
He then updated the meeting on some County matters including the Bucks Gala Day to be held on 8th October 2011 in which we have two teams entered, the Team Challenge to be held on 25th September 2011 and the Bucks 3 wood pairs competition to be held in November.
8. Election of Officers.
The meeting was informed that Keith Rogers would like to step down from his role of Chairman this year but after discussion it was decided he would remain as Chairman for another year.
Nominations or volunteers for the positions of Chairman, Match Captain , Secretary and Treasurer were invited.
Pauline agreed to remain as Treasurer. Sharon agreed to remain as Secretary. Keith and Bob both agreed to remain in their positions. Following positions were proposed and seconded.
Chairman Keith Rogers
Secretary Sharon Drake
Vice Chairman Ann Hine
Treasurer Pauline Fearn
Team Captain and Match Secretary Bob Hine
Deputy Captain and Match Secretary Tony Lee
9. Any Other Business.
New members:
A discussion followed on how to get more new members and to raise more club funds. It was suggested that posters could be displayed around the village and also local surrounding areas and adverts taken out in the Parish Pump and Church magazines. Gill also mentioned that she can arrange to advertise in the Aston Rowant, Crowell and Kingston Blount Parish magazine, It was agreed that these options would be seriously considered and possible costs would be investigated.
Mill Lane School Hall:
Plans had been obtained for dramatic structural changes to Mill Lane School Hall.
Three points to consider are:-
1) When building work starts what happens to our mats and equipment.
2) When building work is completed where is our equipment going to be stored/kept.
3) What impact is it going to have on our bowls club while the work takes place.
We need to try and obtain a decision from the school as quickly as possible as to when and if work is going to start. Bob agreed to chase them up for an update at the end of July as we need to make decisions if the school hall is not going to be available and then we need to book the village hall quickly once a decision has been made.
As a safety measure Bob had arranged for us to play all of our first half winter
league 2-
There is an option to book the Village Hall, but we would need to make a block booking of 6 months, on either a Tuesday or a Friday night as both are available at present. We will need to act quite soon, as it could get booked up. George Hunter proposed that we use the village hall and this was seconded by Tony Lee and Jackie Pritchard.
Dorothy queried about storage of the Mill Lane mats and John MacDonald said he was quite prepared to store our 2 mats at his house should we find the need to move them.
Centenary Flower Show -
We have again been invited to put up a stall at the above. We have agreed to run a Short Mat Bowls competition. This could consist of setting up an actual short mat (maybe 2, one on top of another) with fenders and block and ropes either side and having sweet prizes for children and cash prizes for adults. Several people agreed to help out on the day. This event would double as both a fund raising and publicity exercise.
We as a club have done very well at fundraising over the past year with the Street Fair at Kingston Blount which raised £160.00 and also at the Centenary Flower Show
The provisional date for the next AGM was set as 16/07/2012
There being no further issues raised the Chairman thanked those members present for attending the meeting and all of the membership for their support throughout the year.
The meeting closed at 9.10 p.m.
