BISHOPS STORTFORD BADMINTON CLUB
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING; 20TH MAY 2009

Bishops Stortford Tennis Club,
Cricket Field Lane, Bishops Stortford

Present:
Phil Barton, Joyce Barton, Brett Brocklehurst,Carol Brocklehurst, Tim Woods,
Diane Brown, Ian Lloyd, Barbara Jacobs, Craig Jacobs, Jeff Stringer, Richard Sambridge, Carl NG, Ian Walters, Ewan Fleet, Shaun Ogley, Sue Hunt, Adam Beer, Mark Whitworth, Duncan Christmas, Dave Ruff.

Apologies:
Alison Cosadinos, Duncan Easley, Bryan Evans.

1.Minutes of the 2008 AGM
Accepted as an accurate record and signed.

2.Matters Arising
Barbara asked if Alan (the caretaker) had been given a Christmas present. It was confirmed that he had.

2.Club Night
The proposal put forward by Joyce,and sent to all club members via email before the AGM in regard to having club nights and match nights on both a Monday and Wednesday,and splitting the court time between both days was discussed at great length. Finally a vote was taken the outcome of which was:-
Votes in favour    2
Votes Against     15
Abstentions           2
Therefore club night Monday 8-10pm. Match night Wednesday will remain the same as last year.
A minor change was made to Match night,it was agreed to book just 2 of the courts to go on until 10.30pm,as Mark said the County Mixed had always run over time. This is only on 2 courts the other 2 must finish at 10pm.
It was also suggested that we get Alan to speak with the karate club about clearing the court space on time,so that we can set up,as their instructor appears to hang about talking to parents on the courts, and this could be done in the foyer.

4.Fixtures Secretary Report
This year we entered nine senior teams in three different leagues and two junior teams into the Herts league. The juniors played well winning around 50% but no tables have been produced yet for the league. It was difficult to get junior teams out,especially with exams and work commitments so it has been decided to review the entries for the next year.
The ladies played in the Herts area league and had several really tough games, they rfinished third having won 50% of their matches and will remain in the premier division next season.
The county teams had both been promoted and the men held their own in division 2 and finished 4th out of 6 with a 40% win rate.
The mixed team had some very close games but despite winning 3 out of 12 games they will be relegated as they finished 7 out of 7. No matches were conceded in either division and strong teams were fielded so the relegation in the mixed probably reflects the true position of play within the club….close to the top county players but not quite there yet!!
In the Braintree league both the mixed 6 and mixed 4 teams made it to the final of the knock-out competition,both winning the final matches only to be beaten on handicap. Cries of “we were robbed” can still be heard!! The medley 6 knock out team conceded in the first round of the competition and this was the only match we didn’t play.
We had two winning teams this year,the ladies 4 which were undefeated and will get promoted and the mixed 6,again undefeated gain promotion. The mens 6 finished 2nd out of 7 teams,both mens 4 teams and the medley all finished mid table.Several fixtures were lost with the snow but we mamaged to play most of them just before the end of the season. The Braintree league also produce tables for how individuals play and Sue was our shining star in these tables with 100% in her ladies games. All four ladies finished with over 80% and the mixed pairs were all over 83%.

In the tournament we again fielded a good selection of pairs and although heavily handicapped we did have winners. Carol and I have attended the Braintree AGM and we didn’t have any major mistakes on the score cards and all had been returned but not always promptly. The league again keep tables for when the score cards are received….could we please have a major effort next year to all post them on our way home from the match. I will put stamps on them all again this year!! So no excuses.
Next year I would suggest we leave the teams as thet are with perhaps making the medley 4 into a mixed 6. Depending on the junior sections thoughts we could let them enter the medley 4 for their under 15 team and also a mens 4. They would play our mens 4 which would make a couple of matches easier for them. Braintree entries can be done en mass again in October and we will try and make the Colchester tournament available to everyone. Any other suggestions or complaints about how teams are entered?.
At this point in proceedings we presented the trophies as follows:-
Ladies 4 Division 2, Captain – Claire
Mixed 6, Captain – Phil
TOURNAMENT
Mens singles plate – Tim
Ladies singles Runner up – Alison
Ladies singles Winner – Claire
Ladies veteran doubles Runner up – Joyce & Sue
Mens doubles Runner up – Mark & Tim
Mens Super veterans Winners – Steve & Phil
Mixed doubles veterans Runners up – Phil & Barbara

Barbara thanked Joyce for all her hard work organizing all the match fixtures.

5.Treasures Report
Phil reported that it would seem we had pretty much got the team selection right this year.
A little complaint from Carl,that he was originally partnered with Ian Walters,and then swapped without being told. Duncan Christmas (team captain) apologized for the lack of communication on this score,although Brett did point out that it was the team captain’s  prerogative to change the team around if they felt it necessary.

6.Treasures Report
Duncan (Treasurer) was not available to attend the meeting. A detailed copy of the accounts was handed out to members present.A copy of which is now on file. Our chairperson Barbara read through the accounts and Duncans statement in which he said the club is doing well making a total net income of £953.57 this year,when other years we have not made a profit.Therefore he suggested our fee’s remain the same at £120 per season, and match fee’s remain at £5.
Quite a lengthy discussion took place as to what to do with the excess money we have now in the club account.So many suggestions were put forward on investing it, I think I lost track,some were bonds for 12 months,premium bonds,Phil & Barbara not paying any subs as they run the junior club for free. Christmas outing, All England badminton outing for all etc etc..Sue called for caution as she said if we look back over the years we do not always make a profit. Also Mark pointed out that we are not a profit making club. Duncan had also pointed out that if we lost some members or did not field so many teams,we would start using the spare money rapidly.
It was therefore decided to keep subs and match fee’s the same this year as Duncan had suggested, and to postpone any decision in regard to the surplus money in the account until next years AGM.

7.Club Captains Report
Phil stated how important our web site is to the club as it is so informative for people looking to join a badminton club. Many of our new members have come initially via the web site.
We are a competitive and friendly club,doing very well. We need to keep our standard of play as high as possible so vetoing new members is important and came under some fire,as some members felt we the committee have let a few people join who may be struggling a bit. To clarifiy the rule on new members we allow them to attend club for three visits, the first free the following two paying a visitors fee of £5,on the third visit three committee members have to agree that the applicant is of the right standard.Sometimes  three committee members are not always present,also sometimes you expect the person to improve over time and then they dont. Phil said if we feel that a member is not improving, and it is becoming a worry for safety reasons he will deal with it as club captain
Committee and club members should make a point of  observing new members, the latter giving their feedback to committee would be helpful.

8.Junior Club
Phil said the junior club is run in a disciplined and profitable way. He has received good feed back from parents verbally and by email complimenting the juniors club on it’s standard of play and how it is run.
Phil still has a waiting list of juniors wanting to join. This says it all really. Thanks go to Phil and Barbara for a sterling job.

9.Summer Club
Diane has taken on the summer club this year, and said that it had only been going a couple of weeks but so far attendance has not been brilliant, and asked if we could drop to three courts to save losing money.Phil pointed out that this is not possible we have to book either two courts or the four. It was agreed to stay with the four at the moment and drop to two for the month of August.
Ewan commented on the fact that the summer club fee had gone up to £5 and he had not been told, Tim said that he had sent an email out to all club members with this info on. It was also pointed out that the summer club always seems to run at a loss it costs £80 for the courts and there are rarely enough people there to cover the cost.
Phil suggested that a limited selected number of juniors could come down to summer club and pay perhaps £2 which would help with court costs and hopefully help the juniors.

10.Shuttles
Richard Sambridge requested please could we use the same make of shuttles for matches and club nights, as some members seem to think this affects the play in matches. Brett pointed out that we have to use other shuttles when we play away. It was agreed to use just one make this year. Some members thought the Head shuttles were not very good they seem to break very quickly, but Mark said that we cannot get Yonex or Carlton in bulk as the manufactures cannot supply enough. So we will stay with the Head shuttles as they are a reasonable price.
Mark will supply all team captains with enough shuttles for their matches at the start of the season.
Carl asked for some shuttles to be left in the box at club as we did have a couple of occasions when our shuttle monitor (Mark) did not turn up and the club had no shuttles. I seem to remember us using some of Diane’s!!.
Jeff also said would members please remember to knock up with the old shuttles, not just get one out of the tube.
Brett suggested that members when sitting off court to sometimes check the knock up box and throw out any really unusable shuttles. Also if towards the end of the evening you come off court with no one else going on…drop the nets and put posts away, don’t just leave it to the few all the time.
Also remember to put your peg on the board when you first arrive. It all helps.

11.Election of Officers
Duncan our treasurer is sadly leaving the club due to commitments at the moment. Therefore he is relinquishing the post. We thank him for his sterling work for the club.
Ian Lloyd had offered to take over this position with a little help from Simon Playfair.This was agreed by the committee as there were no other candidates willing to stand for this post. As Ian is already on the committee we were a member down. Two people were interested in standing for election, Diane Brown and Ewan Fleet. Voting slips were handed out to members the votes were counted and in a very tight result Diane Brown was voted onto the committee.

12.Any Other Business
The subject of payment of subs came in for quite a discussion. Ian said he would prefere members to pay the full £120 at the first payment,or if any members had a problem the second half with the first but with a post dated cheque. Some members felt this would not be a good idea because by the time the post dated cheque was paid in,in Sept,people could have forgotten and not accounted for it in their expenditure. A vote was taken on this and it was decided to leave the two payments as they are with one exception, the first payment must be received by 31st July with no exceptions. This is to eleviate two major problems we have. The first is that we have to pay everyone’s affiliation fee to the BAof E before we start the season otherwise we are not insured as a club., and at approx £10 per member it is quite a large amount of money going out. Also last year club members were affiliated and then did not join, which was a complete waste of money.
The second issue is we do not want to put people into teams who do not then join (this happened last year as well). Once paid we know who is joining and how many teams we can run. Therefore if you have not paid by 31st July the committee will assume you are not joining and you will not be placed in a team.

Club Clothing:
Mark has organized sponsorship by Mercedes Hertfordshire for T shirts, he has asked Joyce to cost up the price of one t shirt for everyone in the club including juniors and get back to him,then it will be decided if they are to be free or a token charge made.
A couple of the men would like Joyce to see if any shorts are available. Joyce said there are hoodies if anyone is interested in purchasing any.

Nets: Some members are not very happy with the nets we purchased 2yrs ago, so it was agreed that the committee would look into the option of trying to get some better one’s.

Meeting Closed 9.40pm