HAYLING ISLAND BOWLS CLUB MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD THURSDAY 22 nd SEPTEMBER 2016 IN THE CLUBHOUSE PRESENT: Graham Appleyard, Geoff Belding, Neil Blacklin, Jan Brindley, Robert Cupit, June Dick, John Dodgson, Judith Edwards, Iris Gore, John Gore, Sue Hall, Andrew Hall, Leslie Hewitt, Martin Hopper, Ray Hoskins, Timothy Hunt, Barrie Kirkham, Jenny Kendall, Daniel Peters, Brian Pullan, John Stokes, Malcolm Tipton, Yvonne Tipton, Eileen Walker, Steve Walker, Thomas Walsh, Rosemary West, Gordon West, Marie Whitworth, Roy Whitworth, Dorothy Williams, Owen Williams, Mike Wooding. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Anita Belding, Colin Browne, Geoff Hollis, Anne Hollis, David Johns, Pauline Johns, Joan Lilley, Gill Long, Russell McKerracher, Betty Page, Bob Randall, Richard Sachs, Jean Shaw, Kath Tregaskis, Nigel Whiteman, Barbara Whiteman, Margaret Wooding. OBITUARIES: Alan Dancer MINUTES OF THE AGM HELD 24 th SEPTEMBER 2015: Acceptance of the minutes was proposed by Martin Hopper and seconded by Geoff Belding. The minutes were accepted on a unanimous vote. MATTERS ARISING: There were no further matters arising. INSPECTORS OF ACCOUNTS (Martin Hopper): Pauline Johns and myself have audited and verified the Club accounts. TREASURER S REPORT (Geoff Belding): The accounts cover the period 1 st September 2015 to 31st August 2016. The Ladies accounts are produced separately. Our subs, which have not changed since I joined the club in 2011, again accounted for over half our income (59%), but are 300 SHORT of what we have to pay the council. We spent MORE than we raised by 2,000. We have bought 20 new stackable chairs, the new photo frames for our lists of past winners, a new gazebo, and racking for the clubs woods. We bought paint and oil for the benches and shirts for the men who play in the P&D leagues. We spent 1,256 cleaning the clubhouse, but more ( 1,270) in fees to P&D and Bowls Hampshire. Large payments have yet to be made from our funds: 5,380 to Havant Borough Council on Sept 30 th and again, plus a little, on April 1st 2016. Charity Donations - Last September we donated 750 to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance charity. Last month at Families and Friends Day we donated 1,250 to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute charity. A further 175 has been sent from profits on the F+F day. The April Coffee Morning, the Walking Group, the Skittle Night and the Cribbage group raised over two thirds of this. Thanks to everyone for their donations. The consumption of tea, coffee and biscuits has raised over 1,100 this year. Thanks to everyone on the Social Committee and beyond for their hard work and raising funds for the club and the charities. Membership - We currently have: 1 Life, 93 Full, 16 Social members. Total 110 one more than last year. We welcomed the following new members to the club: Graham Appleyard, Alan Bridle, Yvonne Dearing, Ron Durkin, Les Hewitt, Peggy Jackson, Colin Monkhouse (welcome back), Danny Peters, Jean Shaw, Mary West. Lastly, may I say that it has been an honour to serve as your treasurer for four years, but am not seeking reelection tonight.. Mike thanked Geoff and asked attendees to join him in a show of thanks and appreciation. MEMBERSHIP FEES 2017: The Committee proposed 2017 membership fees to be: 120 for playing members (an increase of 10) and 10 for social members (a decrease of 5). These were accepted on a unanimous vote. SECRETARY S REPORT (Mike Wooding): The bowls green has been a credit again this year. A number of bare patches have started over the last month this is red thread disease. The green keepers are just waiting for us to finish and will then commence remedial action. It should recover. They have reported an increase in the number of divots caused by woods being bowled from too high. Don t forget the stretching exercises over the off-season!! This year we replaced the 2 open days that we have run in the past with a number of Have-A-Go Sessions on different days and times throughout the season. These have been successful - a number of people have attended these and gone on to become members. We are planning to do this Page 1 of 5
again next year. Russell s Club Events teams of 4, fixed & mixed triples, Australian Pairs and singles have again been popular. We are planning to run these again next year. The rinks event was cancelled due to lack of support we are not planning to run this next year. This was the first year for the Singles Ladder this has been popular and we are planning to run this again next year. Judith Edwards beat David Johns by 2 sets to 1 in the play-off final. The Candlelight bowls was cancelled due to lack of support. This was a shame as it is normally a fun evening. We will include this in the fixture list next year. The Alpha Trophy for people who haven t won a club singles event will return to being a knockout tournament next year. June will tell you later that organising all the friendlies, her president s day and F&F day have been a struggle getting members to turn out. There have been 17 friendlies this year. We have 2 mixed friendlies where we play home and away each season we are planning to change this to alternate home / away on a yearly basis. Roll-Ups have been well supported. June and Geoff have done an excellent job week in and week out organising these. Club Tournaments and the Mens Tuesday morning triples have also been well supported. Ray & Beryl will tell you how we have done in the leagues and competitions. This year we combined the trophy presentation with the Ladies versus Gents match and had an american supper afterwards. This was very well supported. All in all a successful playing season. If members want any changes to the fixture list, then please let David / myself have them over the next few weeks. We have had a request for long sleeve match shirts to be available. The men s supplier Shotbowl can provide these for 25. Please see Martin Hopper if you are interested he has both ladies and mens size charts. Ideally we need minimum orders of 8. We had a visit from Havant Borough in July. A resident s group on the Island had written asking to be allowed to use the bowls green. We showed them round and they seemed impressed with what we were doing. They left saying that they would recommend to the group that they should approach us with a view to joining the club, they didn t want to licence another club and even questioned the need for a public rink. In an email to me last week, Havant said that they were still in discussions with the group. Next year is our 40 th anniversary. We are looking for ideas of what to do. Please let us know what you would like to do. We haven t set a budget and are inclined to say that events should be self-funding. Ideas already put forward include: a banner / noticeboard at the front of the centre, a start of season lunch, inviting local organisations to join us in a fun day of events, inviting other clubs to join us in 3 days of versions of Russell s club events in September, a day-trip to the IOW to play a club there, an end of season dinner and dance, invite the Chelsea pensioners, invite top players to give a demonstration. We are hoping to have a plan in time for the Enrolment meeting. If any of you haven t been receiving newsletters and other correspondence by email from me, let me have your email address if you want to receive these. Finally, I would like to give Sue Hall and Geoff Holland a big thanks for their work on the newsletter and the website. LADIES CLUB CAPTAIN S REPORT (Beryl Blacklin): As you will know this year's league teams have done brilliantly the B being promoted to A, and the D finishing a very good fourth out of eight, considering this was our first season it was better than expected, Also the Havant League went out on a high by winning the last game of the season, our thanks go to Eileen for tea making at these home games. Next season we will be entering the Thornberry Mixed Top Club, Havant League,and both P&D Leagues. The Inter club Triples didn't have any support this year but maybe next year. Now a special mention to the ladies who have been willing reserves. A huge thank you we couldn't have done it without you so a big thank you from us all. Thanks to Jenny, Gill and. Maggie for organizing the D league and transport to venues, also all of our drivers we appreciate our rides. I would now like to say to all of our ladies who have played in the leagues I am very proud of you all, the way that you conduct yourselves and your friendliness on the green (without too much talking). It is a pleasure to be your captain. Now for our amazing brilliant fantastic news: Judith and Joan WON the COUNTY GOLDEN GIRLS at Southampton, but not only that. Dorothy reached the semi finals of the County 2 wood, Dorothy and Beryl reached the semi final of County Pairs, Joan Gill and Judith reached P&D triples finals at Fareham, Dorothy will be playing her P&D 2 wood final at Fareham. Four ladies have been invited to play in the Dolly Gore Comp played at Southampton. So all in all it has been a very successful season and I am looking forward to playing together next season. MENS CLUB CAPTAIN S REPORT (Ray Hoskins):.This season started very poorly with our teams finding it difficult to get going and win matches. When we were halfway through the season we were propping up the other teams in the Combination League and not much better in the P&D league. Fortunately we managed to pick up our games with some Page 2 of 5
good wins over teams that were above us in the league. The P&D and Combination Teams both finished in mid position in the league tables and so continue as they were next season. The afternoon triples played well and finished second. The mens Tuesday morning league was once again played with great sportsmanship and a hotly contested first prize went to Russell McKerracher s team. This year s wooden spoon goes to Martin Hopper. Sunday 18 th September saw the Ladies versus Men challenge trophy played for. The weather was very warm and sunny and 48 players took part in the match. I am pleased to say that the men triumphed again over the ladies. The game was played in a very good hearted spirit and was a credit to all who took part. The presentation of trophies followed and was a great success. We have many new players and so our club continues to draw in new people to learn, compete and enjoy the game of bowls. Thank you for your support over the last year. Without you our club could not continue. May we prosper and continue to improve over the coming years. MENS CLUB CAPTAIN S REPORT (Tom Walsh): 15 men & 15 ladies signed up for the Reflex League. Iris Gore and Mike Wooding did stand in when we were short. We finished 2 nd with 135 points Waterlooville won with 149 points and Bedhampton were 3 rd with 97 points (both teams play on carpet). It is felt that the carpet teams have an unfair advantage over the grass teams such that with home advantage they will always be top of the league. The overall result is a big improvement on the last couple of years. SOCIAL COMMITTEE REPORT (Martin Hopper): As usual the Club enjoyed a full programme of social events throughout the year. During the winter months we held 4 social events - quiz, darts, reindeer drive, games evening all of which were well attended and I think enjoyed by all. In addition we held a Xmas Fair and coffee morning in the URC Hall. Malcolm organised a charity skittles event at the British Legion and together with Harry arranged our bi-weekly walks. Rosemary and Jenny organised the luncheon club which took us to various hostelries. June organised weekend cycling trips to various locations around Hayling. Together these social activities contributed over 5000 to revenue and after costs produced a net profit towards the operation of the club of just over 3200. Thanks to Joan, Gill, Maggie, Tim, Pauline and Beryl for their help in contributing to all these events. RETIRING PRESIDENTS ADDRESS (June Dick): It has been a delight and a privilege to have been your President for this year. It has been a busy time for me personally and I think looking back that the Club has had a good year. I want to recap what has happened this year, some good things and some could be better things. At the end of last season we were aware that we had rotten wood on top of the ditch in a couple of places, and some of the paving slabs were uneven and also the south boundary fence was in a bad state. We advised the Council last Autumn of these things and they agreed to put them right. The fence was done in March but unfortunately the job of replacing the rotten wood and rectifying the uneven paving stones was not started until the day before the Club opened. This was not a fault of ours as I don t know how many times Mike had contacted the Council. Regretfully the Club opened and we had to live with situation for some 3 weeks. But eventually the job was finished and I know the job is not really perfect. The Friendly matches are almost like having another league except that you don t know who is going to play. We have had a lot this year 16 in total. I did put up notices well in advance but on many of them I had trouble getting a full team and many had no reserves and that is nail biting. I did have to cancel an away match to Pagham because I couldn t get enough bowlers. It has also been difficult to get members to take a turn in making tea for the friendly home matches. Please bear this in mind when the lists go up next year. It makes it so much easier if you know this is taken care of. My charity day - renamed Family & Friends Day was not well supported by our members. Only 35 members attended out of a membership of just over 100 with a couple of relatives, two with children and a toddler. If the RNLI had not sent 10 of their members it would have been a very poor turn out. Perhaps it was my fault for slipping it to August, but I did want to separate it from President s Day in July. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely bbq following, just a shame that it was not supported. Nevertheless the Club has contributed 1425 in total to the RNLI Hayling Charity, so I thank you. You will recall that at the last AGM I said it was vital we attracted new members to our Club and I set myself a target to try and get 10 new members. We held our 2 full Open Days in April & May and during the summer we have held 5 new come and have-a-go sessions. We had new leaflets printed publicising the Club and these sessions and they were Page 3 of 5
distributed throughout Hayling. I am pleased to report that we have attracted 10 fully paid up members with another 4 promising to join next April. We must keep the momentum up next year with our Open Days and Have-A-Go sessions. I wanted to reintroduce our monthly newsletter which Chris Lapthorn started. I managed to persuade Sue Hall to do this and I think she has done a fantastic job. I hope you have read each one and these are also on our website if you haven t as well as a copy in our clubhouse. So it is my thanks to Sue and, of course, to Geoff Holland for continuing to update our website. Again this year we have had fun with Russell s competitions, these have proved popular. Once we got our heads round the formula and knew what we were doing it was a doddle. Russell certainly tested our stamina, 36 ends no problem. Russell has suggested that once the League matches have finished next year we can run some of these competitions during the week. So I will leave that to our match secretary and Russell to sort out. But it has been good to see the green in full use at the weekends. Thanks you Russell. I want to say a thank you to Tom & Sandy for the excellent Reflex result. And a thank you to Joan for running the Ladies Evening League. We have also introduced a Ladder competition which has proved popular. Thank you to Mike for organising and updating it and I am sure that we will run this again next year. The winner of this competition is Judith Edwards. One thing that went down well this year was a marking session which the ladies had instigated and we invited the whole Club to. We asked Julie Greenwood from Milton Park who is a registered marker to run this and she spent over 2 hours on the green advising us what we should and should not do and what to be aware of. We had 20 members turn up for the session and all agreed it was very informative and worthwhile. Jan tells me that at the start of the season she mostly coached our new bowlers, some in small groups, but other new members had an individual hour which included setting up the green, putting the mat down and delivering the jack. She was also asked for a 10 minute watch and correct session by some established bowlers. So please do use Jan s experience and advice if you have a problem. Thank you Jan. My thanks also go to Malcolm Tipton and Colin Browne for trying to keep our garden under control. Its an ongoing job but I will be back helping next year. Thanks to Pauline Johns for her jams, chutneys and cakes which she makes and donating all the profits to the Club funds and who will forget her lifeboat cake she made for my charity day, and also Richard Sacks our Club photographer. Now I come to my Committee. I would like to thank all of them for all their help and the smooth running of the Club. Mike has settled into his post very well as your Secretary, but there is a change. Geoff is resigning as Treasurer and Martin Hopper will take his place. Geoff stepped in and took over from Charlotte and has done a very good job. Another person on the Committee I particularly want to thank is Neil. He does so much work for the Club that members may be unaware of. He is the Men s secretary organising the Men s competitions and runs the Tuesday league. He produces certificates for our club competitions and our honours board, produces our social calendar, telephone lists and membership cards, organises the Alpha Trophy competition and the Finals weekend. I am sure I have not covered everything. And of course my thanks to our 2 captains and David Johns our match secretary. Please join me in a show of thanks and appreciation. I now come to my final task of handing my chain of office over to you Brian and I know I will be leaving the Club in safe hands. Brian I wish you all the best for your term of office and I know our members will give you their full support. INCOMING PRESIDENT S ADDRESS (Brian Pullan): I congratulate June on her year as President. I would like to thank Neil for all the certificates and Kathy for the engraving of the trophies. I would like to remind members of the grey / white dress code and to make sure they check the fixture list for dress code on these events. Standards have dropped. It would also be nice to see members in full regalia at special events. My charity will be HASAG. 21 st July is the date for the HASAG versus bowls club charity day. I would like to see the Chelsea Pensioners come to the Club next season as part of our 40 th anniversary celebrations if dates and costs are achievable. ELECTION OF OFFICERS: The form asking for volunteers had been exhibited in the clubhouse prior to the AGM and those applying for election had obtained proposers and seconders. Officers Elected at the AGM: Page 4 of 5
Hon General Secretary Hon Treasurer Match Secretary Account Inspectors Mike Wooding Martin Hopper David Johns Pauline Johns and Geoff Belding All were voted into their respective positions by a unanimous vote. COMMUNITY CENTRE NEWS (Marie Whitworth): The centre is expecting to sign contracts for the extension this month for work to commence in October. The centre is going to produce a calendar and wants to include pictures of all the groups that use the centre. All profits from the police concert will be given to the centre towards the extension. The centre evacuation procedure has been updated to enable exit via the greenkeepers maintenance gate there is a box on the wall with the key inside secured by a glass front which is to be broken if needed. ANY OTHER BUSINESS: Club Enrolment evening is Thursday 23 rd February 2017, the last day for paying annual subscriptions is Thursday 23 rd March 2016. June presented the Singles Ladder winner certificate to Judith Edwards. The padlock combination has remained the same for a number of years can we change it? Brian Pullan asked for helpers on Friday morning 30 th September to assist with clearing the Clubhouse. There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8:06 pm. Page 5 of 5