AGM Minutes

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Minutes of the Eighth Annual General Meeting of

Matchpoint Badminton Club

Held at Totton Recreation Centre on

Monday 18th July 2005

Members Present were:

Pete Burgess (Chairman), Craig Paget (Treasurer), Ian Bland (Club Secretary), Kim Marsh (Joint Match Secretary), John Hepworth (Joint Match Secretary), Mike Newton Woof (Social Secretary), Paul Hoff (Junior Representative), Jacky Barron (Committee), Matt Pascoe (Committee), Pete Gurd (Committee), Gladys Appleby (Committee), Sonia Doublet (Committee), Ian Newcombe (Committee), Doug Dawson, Colin Markham, Chrissie Bynam, Chris Pitchers, Jo Francis, Denise Doublet, Jenny Dawkins, Richard Maiden, Andy Leonard

1 Chairman's Welcome

Firstly, thank you for all taking the time this evening to attend this AGM

 

I encourage you all to take an active part here and throughout the year; without the support of its members, the club simply cannot function. If you have any comments to make, please speak up at the appropriate moment; if you want to take an active role in the club’s continued existence, we’ll be looking for committee members later.

Right then, let the AGM begin.

2 Apologies for non attendance

Dan Amy (Committee), Tony Carter (Committee), Fran Harrison, Matt Chapman

3 Minutes of the previous AGM

These were distributed, read and adopted as a true record.

Proposed by Gladys Appleby and Seconded by Mike Newton Woof

4 Matters Arising

None

5 Chairman's Report

Firstly, on behalf of the club, I would like to convey my thanks to you all for an excellent job, well done, this season.

As you all know, we’ve had a difficult year due to the problems we had with the floor; special thanks has to go to Kim who worked very hard to make sure that matches could be played and to Ian Newcombe for liasing with Totton Rec on our behalf to ensure the quickest solution.

Thanks also go to team captains and individual team players for supporting Kim in that difficult task and despite venue and date changes have still given us another excellent Team MatchPoint year.

Some of you may be interested to know how the problem with the floor has affected the club, I would say the most noticeable difference is unfortunately even greater club-night apathy.

To say that club-nights are poorly supported would be an understatement; we’ve not needed three courts for the last couple of months and sometimes I think we could get by with one! I know we all have other commitments, get home late from work, like to sometimes say more than two words to our partners. It’s easy to sit at home with your feet up watching TV; it’s often quite hard to get up, go out and play badminton. The only problem is, it’s killing the club.

It hardly seems to be a Chairman’s Report without thanking Jo Francis. Although not even a committee member now, Jo’s continued help and support has been vital to the club again this year. Thanks Jo.

I thank you all again for coming along tonight, I’ll thank you even more if you support your club and come along to club nights.

 

6 Treasurer's Report

The year started with the Club at a crisis point financially for the first time in 4 years. Cash flow was at an all time low and we had recorded a very significant deficit for the year (£1013.20).

 

It was resolved to take action to recover this deficit sensibly over a 3 year period rather than in one go. This would hopefully continue to make the Club financially viable whilst remaining affordable to its members.

 

The fee structure of the club was changed to the new Gold, Silver and Bronze format thus reducing the Club’s dependence financially on Club Night turnout. This was the first major increase in membership fees in over 5 years. As you will note on the attached Balance Sheet, this explains the significant change in both these areas for the financial year.

 

Match fees were also changed for the Winchester league teams to reflect the costs associated with staging the relevant home fixtures. This ensured that no match would be run at a loss unless an inordinate number of shuttles were used. Overall match fees are down this year due to a reduced number of teams and fixtures.

 

With income increased, we also had to ensure that expenditure was also closely monitored. Significant saving were achieved in the areas of Court Fees and Shuttles.

The reduction in court fees can be attributed to a couple of factors. Firstly, it was resolved to reduce our regular booking for Club Nights to 2 courts from 3 or 4 as standard and to purchase additional court time as required. This meant that we were not paying for any unused courts as Club Night attendances had been in decline.

 

We also suffered the well documented issues with the playing surface at Totton Rec. We therefore had no club night expenditure for a period of time. However this was partially offset by the increase in expense by hiring alternative venues to stage our home match commitments.  Fewer teams and fixtures would have had a small impact on this saving also.

 

Shuttle expense was lower due to a healthy stock carried forward from the previous season, plus the continued benefit of favourable terms from our chosen supplier. It was resolved at the last AGM that the use of Plastic shuttles would be reintroduced to Club Nights periodically to help facilitate further savings, especially as we already have an unused stock of these shuttles. However it would appear that this was not actioned. I would recommend that this is enforced for the coming year as it makes very sound financial sense.

 

Based on all of the above, we were able to make inroads to the deficit from last year. We recovered approximately half which surpassed my initial expectation. However this does mean that caution must be continued for at least 2 more seasons to ensure that we do not slip back.

 

I am therefore recommending that there be no increase in Membership fees for the forthcoming season. It looks like we had things about right and another strong season should see us making further recovery. Match fees should remain the same for Winchester teams, but the fees for Waterside teams will need to be increased to the same amount (£4) to reflect the change in format of that league for the coming season.

 

You will also note, from the Balance Sheet, that there remain several uncollected Match Fees and Membership fees from this financial year. Whilst it is a key responsibility of the Committee to ensure that all fees are collected, it is also the responsibility of every member to ensure that all payments due to the Club are made in a timely manner.

 

Our financial decisions are based upon what income we know (or think) we are going to receive for any given year offset against all anticipated expenses. We are a small financial concern and do not have large surpluses to draw upon. We receive good discounts on court fees and shuttles on the basis that we will settle our accounts promptly. Failure to remit membership or match fees on a timely basis means we have insufficient funds available, so this could result in the Club losing these benefits and thus increasing our expenditure greatly.

 

With this in mind I have drawn up a Standing Order form for those wishing to pay their membership fees in two parts. This will make it simpler to pay as you will know how much is coming out of your account and when it will be taken. Captains of teams will need to ensure they continue to treat payment of match fees with a great importance. Our ability to manage our cash flow is critical to the future financial security of the club.

Financially, the Junior Club account had no activity during the year and remains at £539.60.

 

I would like to thank all those who have made my job this year as easy as possible. Special thanks to Ian Bland for his collection of monies owed (and subsequent banking thereof) that enabled us to keep afloat.

 

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has helped me during my 8 year stint as Treasurer. Changes in personal circumstances have meant that I have not able to dedicate as much time to my role over the last couple of seasons. I feel that the time is now right for someone else to bring a fresh perspective to the financial concerns of our club. I hope that I leave this role with the Club continuing to move forward and in good stead for many years to come.

7 Match Secretary's Report

Kim thanked John for all his assistance in the fixture arranging at the beginning of the season when she was unable to attend due to illness. Also thanks to Atherley school for allowing us the use of their courts while the Recreation Centre was out of action due to the state of the floor.

It was a reasonable season for the teams in the various leagues:-

Winchester Mixed 1 Division 1          3^rd =
Winchester Mixed 2 Division 3A       2^nd
Winchester Mixed 3 Division 4          5^th
Winchester Mens 1 Division 1            1^st
Winchester Mens 2 Division 2            3^rd
Winchester Ladies Division 1             2^nd

Waterside Mixed A Division 1           1^st
Waterside Mixed B Division 2           1^st
Waterside Mixed C Division 3           3^rd

Southampton Mixed Premier Div       6^th

Next season the format for the Waterside League will be changed and will that currently used for the Waterside Cup.

We will also be starting our Wednesday night home matches at 8pm from the start of next season.

Forms for selection were available and will be handed out after the meeting.

The Club Championships were held over three Thursdays in June and the Winners and Runners-up are as follows:-

	Winner	Runner Up
Ladies Singles	Kim Marsh	Jacky Barron
Men’s Singles	John Hepworth	Paul Hoff
Ladies Doubles	Jacky Barron Jo Francis	Sonia Doublet Julie Price
Men’s Doubles	John Hepworth Ian Newcombe	Matt Chapman Richard Maiden
Mixed Doubles	Sonia Doublet Ian Newcombe	Jacky Barron Paul Hoff

 

8 Social Secretary's Reports

Mike thanked his wife, Kim, for all her help in organising the majority of the social functions that were held during the last 12 months.

The presentation evening will be held on Saturday 20^th August at the Jolly Sailor at Ashlett Creek near Fawley.

The Christmas Party has been booked for Saturday 17^th December at the Novotel. Cost is £32 per person with £10 deposit required by end of July.

Looking into organising a race night to raise funds for the club. Will look to see if can work with one or two other clubs to hold this event, sharing the proceeds accordingly. Looking into dates in either October or November.

Also working with Ian Newcombe to see if a Ten Pin Bowling evening can be arranged at Megabowl.

9 Junior Representatives Report

Unfortunately we have had no activity with the junior club this season, although we do get 4 or 5 juniors regularly attending on Monday evenings.

Hope to get something going next season at Redbridge School

10 Election of Officers and Committee for 2005 / 2006

The following were elected:

Position	Name	Proposed	Seconded
Chairman	Pete Burgess	Paul Hoff	Mike Newton Woof
Treasurer	Sonia Doublet	Pete Burgess	Mike Newton Woof
Club Secretary	Ian Newcombe	Sonia Doublet	Gladys Appleby
Match Secretary	Kim Marsh	Ian Bland	Mike Newton Woof
Social Secretary	Mike Newton Woof	Paul Hoff	Pete Burgess
Junior Representative	Paul Hoff	Kim Marsh	Mike Newton Woof

Committee Dan Amy, Gladys Appleby, Peter Gurd, Jacky Barron, Matt Pascoe, Craig Paget, John Hepworth were all re-elected unopposed.

Richard Maiden and Chris Pitchers were newly elected to the Committee

Proposed Mike Newton Woof, seconded Paul Hoff

12 Any Other Business

Jo asked that the winners and runner-ups up from this years club championships were put on the web site

The meeting closed at 8:30pm.

Following the meeting the new Committee met briefly and the Selection sub Committee was elected as follows:

Pete Burgess, Paul Hoff, Kim Marsh, Sonia Doublet and Mike Newton-Woof