BISHOPS STORTFORD BADMINTON CLUB
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING; 11TH JULY 2008

United Reform Church Hall, Water Lane, Bishops Stortford

Present:
Phil Barton,Joyce Barton,John Bell,Duncan Easley, Brett Brocklehurst, 
Carol Brocklehurst, Tim Woods, Diane Brown, Alison Cosadinos, Ian Lloyd,
Barbara Jacobs, Claire Mainwaring.

Apologies:
Ian Walters,Sue Hunt,Mark Whitworth,Ewan Fleet,Adam Beer, Ian Bell,
Frankie Bell,Simon Playfair,Dave Ruff,Jeff Stringer,Sara Green,Steve Green.

1.Minutes of the 2007 AGM
Accepted as an accurate record and signed.

2.Matters Arising
The subject of BSBC’s Web site again was raised. Carl was supposed to be taking this over from Tim last year. As this has failed to happen, it was assumed that Carl was not keen to do so. Therefore the website will remain in Tim’s hands,and he will keep it as up to date as possible, work permitting. The juniors now have a page on the website. Any suggestions or material (appertaining to badminton!) will be welcome, just contact Tim. There is now also a link to a facebook page, where news re club can be seen.
The other oversite brought up,was that Jeff and Dave Turner were not informed that they were now honorary members. It was felt it was now to late to tell Dave Turner,
But Phil will inform Jeff.. Duncan said that Jeffs cheque for his fee’s last year had not
been cashed.

3.Sportshall
The club has settled very well at our new venue on a Monday evening, everyone seems to be happy and enjoying club nights, which have been very well attended with everyone getting plenty of games in.
A vote taken by all club members in favour of us playing our home matches at Birchwood instead of Stansted, has been put into action.We now have four courts on a Wednesday evening 8pm – 10pm for this purpose. This will ensure that no matches are played on a Monday, taking club night courts,which caused some problems last season, with members. It is a more expensive venue than Stansted, but is thought to be a much superior venue.And it also takes away the problem of playing our home games on away courts, a great disadvantage.
Phil has worked hard negotiating reduced fee’s as we now book it three nights a week.
Thanks were given to Phil for his continued sterling work in all matters appertaining to the sportshall.
Joyce said they had asked Alan (the caretaker) if it was possible for us to have a notice board and trophy cabinate in reception. As yet we have not had an answer.

4.Teams
Joyce informed the meeting that in view of our increased membership,in both senior and junior level,that we could field a couple of extra teams, one of which would be for our juniors, to benefit their play. Also we must try to make sure that everyone who wants to play matches gets a game.
It was agreed by all at the meeting to have the following teams:-
2 Mens 6’s    1 in Herts County & 1 in Braintree League
2 Mens 4’s     Both in Braintree League
2 Mixed        1 in Herts County & 1 in Braintree League
2Ladies 4’s    1 in Herts League & 1 in Braintree League
1 Medley       In Braintree League

It was also thought that the ladies Braintree League is stronger than the Herts League,so therefore our top ladies will now play in the Braintree League.
Phil’s juniors will play in the Herts Schools Badminton Ass.

5.Fixtures Sec Report

This year the club expanded its horizons and entered several teams into the Braintree league as well as two into the Herts county league and left one in the Herts area league.  The new faces and venues in the Braintree league were both challenging and refreshing.  We entered a mens 4 team directly into the top division and they won it. The mixed 6 finished 2nd by one point with the final match of the season deciding the winners and the mens 6 and ladies 4 finished mid table.  This league also keeps statistics on how pairings and individual players perform so it was good to see some Stortford names appearing in these. Ian and Barbara had an 85.7% success rate with Alison and Phil on 83.3 and Diane and Ian W on 77.7. and again in the Mens 4 Ian W had a 66.6% win average and Ian L a 61.1%.

In the Herts leagues the Ladies 4 finished second to Hertford A by one point! We won 46 games while Hertford won 47 and in the county league the mens 6 finished mid table.  The mixed 6 won most games in their division but due to the way the league calculates points we finished 2nd in the table.  This could still be enough to get us promoted....we have to wait until the fixtures meeting in September to find out!!

Several pairs also entered the Braintree and District handicapped tournaments. Anyone knocked out in the first round entered automatically into the plate so everyone was guaranteed two games. Phil and Steve won the Mens Senior Veterans tournament while Sue and Joyce won the Ladies Veterans.  Tim and Mark won the mens doubles with Joyce and Duncan the mixed doubles plate so all in all a very good performance. Many of the pairs made it to the semi-final and it was only holiday commitments that prevented an all BSBC final.

Next year I would recommend adding a second mens 4 in the Braintree league and also a medley team.  A second ladies 4 might be needed in a couple of years so it may be worth entering the stronger ladies 4 in the Braintree league and trying to get it promoted so we could have teams in different divisions.
Carol mentioned that when Joyce and herself attended the Braintree AGM,our club came in for a bit of flack due to some of the score sheets being returned with ridiculous scores on them, i.e.9-12 which is not possible,and it was a mens 4 game.
So please all team captains make sure the score sheets are correct and returned as swiftly as possible, because Braintree post the results immediately,and are not best pleased when held up by late returned score sheets. Also please make sure the second copy is returned to Joyce as soon as possible. This is important if there are any disputes in regard to scores.

6.Treasures Report
Duncan reported that we had a fairly healthy year and had ended with a £1,000 profit. This year our costs will increase due to us playing our matches at Birchwood on a Wednesday. So he suggested that we keep our club fees the same as last year, £120 payable in two halves, but to increase the match fee’s from £4 to £5, which means the people playing more badminton will pay extra, which would seem very fair.
The junior match fee’s will be £3, and Braintree Tournament match fee’s will be £2.50 each.

7.Club Captains Report
Phil reported that the move to Birchwood had been good,along with the expansion into the Braintree League for the senior club.
We need to keep our membership up so it is up to us all to promote the club when ever we can to bring people in. We have great facilities,use feathers, have a reasonable standard across the board, and are a friendly bunch. We are also the biggest club in the East Herts area.
The junior section now has 32 members and a waiting list, and for the club is a mega money spinner. It is £40 per term which equals £1.50 per hour,which is good value.
Phil try’s to keep a fairly even balance of boys and girls. It is of good standard now and also very social. John said it helps the juniors to develop as people,and they also tell their friends about the club.
Two boys and three girls will be coming up to senior club this autumn,and it is most important that all seniors must help the new juniors to intergrate into the club,and give as much help and patience as possible. This includes chatting to them off court as well,as it helps them grow and makes them feel included.
Phil pointed out that he does focus on getting girls to senior club, as we are still short of ladies.
Tim suggested that some of the juniors and their parents might like to go to the All England, as some of our seniors always go.
Brett said that if Phil needed help with the junior club at any time to just ask.
Phil said he wanted to say a mega thank you to John Bell and Barbara for all the help they give him with the junior club,without them he would be hard pushed to manage.
John said it was the best report in regard to the junior club,we have had,which is great news,and gave a huge thanks to Phil for all his hard work.

8.Summer Club
Tim reported this to be doing nicely,and so far has been well attended.We will be at Stansted for Aug due to the sports hall at Birchwood being closed whilst they finish work on the main school building during the holidays.
Tim thanked Joyce and Carol for work done in connection with the summer club. Big thanks were given to Tim for running it again this year.

9.Shuttles
Always a heated subject. We have over the summer tried out several different makes of shuttles.We have as yet to find one that suits everybody, but Hey Ho we keep trying!. Joyce recently brought back some Pro Keenex from Hong Kong, which seem to be pretty good and much cheaper than the Asherways, which have shot up in price. She is going to bring in some more on her next few trips there. (but we don’t want her getting arrested). If we are all happy with them we will use them for club and matches
Claire remarked on her preference for the Hong Kong shuttles as they are more exotic
(whatever turns you on Claire!!!).The Asherways we have left will be used for the County matches. Please remember to knock up with the shuttles in the plastic box. The more careful we are in the care of shuttles, will help to keep our fee’s from rocketing.
Brett and Carol have retired from shuttle duty, and this has now been taken over by MarkWhitworth, so any problems, he’s your man.

10.Election of Officers
It was with great sadness that we received the news our chairman John Bell was resigning and leaving the club, as he is going to work abroad. He has been a wonderful chairman,very helpful, diplomatic and totally approachable, and he will be sorely missed. We wish him good luck.
Carol proposed that Barbara take over as chairperson,this proposal was seconded by Phil and carried unanimously.

11.Any Other Business
Barbara reported that the net cords are a pain, they slip off the posts and one came completely out. Joyce said she would see if they have any different cords in Hong Kong.
Ian Lloyd will collect our badminton equiptment from Stansted when we finish up there at the end of August,
It was suggested by Diane that a note be put on the door of the hall to ask people to put the court down if they are the last one’s using it before they go home, instead of leaving it to the last people there to put all the courts down.
Also suggested that the club buy Alan (caretaker) a bottle of something at Christmas.
Brett thanked Ian Lloyd (our social sec) for organizing our Christmas bowling do,which was a great success. Ian in return thanked Brett for organizing the buffet in Chicargo’s afterwards.
Tim is producing the little booklet again with all the match information etc, which everyone finds so useful. Thank you Tim.
Tim has also agreed to have a word with the newspaper people in regard to including our club on the sports page,on how we are doing,as this might generate some new members. So we had all better do well this season.

Meeting closed 10.15p.m.