Amersham & Chalfont Hockey Club Minutes for meeting held on the 25th February 2004

Those attending :
Warren Scott (WS) Drew Downing (AD) Peter Colwill (PC) Jo Peters (JP)
Emma Hewitt (EH)
1] Apologies from: Caroline Chipperfield (CC) , Andy Watts (AW) , Sarah Watts (SW)

2] the minutes of the last meeting (14th January 2004) were accepted
AD was asked to resend out the analysis of the £10 match fee (forecast and actual) – DONE – see point 6 re treasurer’s attachment, the analysis excludes juniors / fixtures card / mixed tournament
AD to advertise names of contributors to astro fund – DONE see attachment on point 14]
EH to ask Jane Hunt and Mike Snell to umpire ladies game on Presidents day
AD to mention to CPSA board to not have “Ball” in the description of the September 04 big social event – DONE, agreed
AW to be asked to take team photos of all adult teams to then put in clubhouse (SW to ask ?)

3] Juniors - that the junior’s presentations will be handed out at the last training session – WHEN ?
- AW to be asked to take team photos of all juniors teams
- stick skills session on 28th March – need to promote this to teams / members to get volounteers – I believe that EH mentioned Nathalie Durkin’s name as a possible helper ?!

4] Ladies - 1sts starting to pick up , one league game left
- 2nds 4th in league , have done well, enjoyable season but not unfortunately gained promotion
- 3rds top – have now gained promotion so well done to all concerned
- 4th’s safely mid table
- 5th’s have played a number of games more than last season which is good as it provides members with more hockey
- still averaging just under 30 players per Tuesday , being assisted on occasion by Giles, Steve Jack, Warren Scott and James Heath – thanks to them. Still need assistance though
- playing committee – briefly discussed Harlow ladies , benefits etc
- umpiring course being arranged for March
- training – importance of attendance and then putting in effort on night (Guy Ross has expressed an interest in being umpire co-ordinator next season – but not re organising on a week by week basis but in terms of co-ordinating existing ones , maintaining qualifications , promoting new ones)
- GK training to be held on 23/03 with John Spicer
- teas – very happy with
- need to look at unfilled roles re upcoming 04/05 season
- need captains to properly communicate with players re movement of players up / down teams, reasons for dropping and how player can regain place.
- to arrange team end of season “socials”
- to agree on award recipients for season – teams player of the season , most improved , overall player of season

5] Men - to arrange team end of season “do’s”
- to agree on award recipients for season – teams player of the season , most improved , overall player of season
- selection issue : the section is bottom heavy re numbers of players, need more 1st and 2nd team standard players in the section to enable progress to be made / gain promotion
- selection issue : the section has also not been very good at keeping new joiners from the beginning of the season
- 1sts were 5th , 2nds now slipping towards bottom of table , 3rds doing very well as always (3rd) , 4ths now champions , 5ths third from bottom and have come up against problem of other clubs playing unusual teams / players (ringers) to try and avoid relegation – we have complained to the league but unless these offending individuals play in more than one league game on the Saturday, we can’t do anything
- the men’s 1st are doing very well in the national vase – winning their quarter final on 21st March – well done to all concerned. Next match is on 18th april away.
- thanks to John Spicer for running an excellent GK session with our younger GK’s on 9th February – feedback from participants was all re benefit gained

6] finance - basically the finances are on target , we’d transferred £2,400 to CPSA re the “astro fund” (£4,515 by end of March). There are a few estimates re astro costs in March & April and March & April teas. Collection of match fees was going well, thanks to Jo Peters and Warren Scott – AD to continue sending out the summary on a regular basis to the captains.
- AD to provide evidence of cash at bank position by photocopying bank statement – IN POST TO JP
- AD to chase DD re providing info to CC of prior months requests for teas (numbers) - DONE

7] Business - quite a number of events / hirings to report of the facilities which is bringing in very useful revenue
- our planning application was turned down for advertising hoardings around the cricket ground – by golf club mainly who had someone on the local committee and didn’t disclose his interests in the matter !!!!!!
- AD to ask if CPSA prices / costs can be broken down re exclusive use , bar costs etc

8] Social - the Race night was a good success, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone – made a profit although the numbers attending was disappointing
- a suggestion was made to try and avoid holding events over half terms as this was a reason given by a few people who weren’t able to attend
- Irish night has had to be cancelled due to lack of time by the overworked helpers , all of whom are already doing other roles in the club and are now concentrating on the Club Supper

9] Astro - still trundling along , desperately looking for finance basically

10] CPSA board - minutes of last meetings were circulated prior to this meeting to the hockey committee
- we had a brief discussion of how CPSA could lessen costs – one way was to pay off the loans early so as to reduce interest burden which the board agreed would be very helpful and thanked the hockey section for it’s assistance.
- AD to mention at next board meeting of how smokey it can get even in the designated non-smoking area at the bar (carpeted area) – DONE, discussed briefly at board – not many options unless open more windows (temperature) or install some sort of ventilation (cost)

11] Easter tour - that over 30 members had expressed an interest / paid a deposit, still needed a few more to ensure full turnout in the men’s , mixed and ladies sides – usually a few people do turn up just for a day out
- that there needed to be a good level of supervision of the younger members
otherwise, many thanks to Sara and Fay for organising

12a] President’s Day - men’s umpires to be appointed – AD to organise – IN PROGRESS, JUST NEED FEEDBACK FROM THEM
- AD to speak to match co-ordinators to ensure all going to plan – DOING TODAY

12b] Club Supper - need names of winners of main trophies
- AD to recover last year’s trophies
- suggestion that the club purchases : 6 small trophies which are to be handed to recipients of 6 main trophies to keep, engraved
- suggestion that the club purchases : 12 small trophies which are to be handed to the individual winners of the team player of year awards (6 * men , 5 * ladies , 1 * mixed)
- if agreed, AD to purchase this Saturday (27th)
- AD and SW to discuss Club person of year
- SW’s mother has kindly been volounteered (by SW) to handle the engraving of the 6 main awards
- will AW be event photographer ?
- AD to organise list of previous winners on place settings / menus or even publish on entrance way to Marquee / clubhouse !!??
- EH volounteered to help , need to speak to current organisers and check that MC (who did last year’s event) has been utilised re hints / tips. What guests were invited in 03 – board have decided to invite far fewer than in previous years. The question was raised to see whether only circular tables are available
- re younger members who play on Saturdays, to naturally be invited but we need to be aware re behaviour / alcohol consumption – also to use discretion in case of issue re ticket price – captains , ticket sellers to be aware of this.

13] Harlow Ladies - a brief summary of events was given by AD, the committee decided that it would now be best to leave them to contact us if they needed any further info etc

14] AOB - we agreed that if at all possible, we should; try and arrange home start times much more towards mid day, early afternoon to encourage more players to return to the clubhouse – difficult as don’t have good slots at our secondary astro’s in Beaconsfield and at Brunel.
- WS and EH to discuss match fees for special cases
- WS, that we produce a club manual which contains rules , procedures etc and is to be used as a reference manual
- WS , that we should review the training arrangements as the men’s section would like to revert to having the top two squads from each section training on their home pitch at Newlands on Tuesday nights – EH and WS to start the discussions going and to involve all coaches to thrash out a solution
- JP – ladies summer leagues (Ashford , Henley) were suggested as options
- it was also discussed that the club needed to arrange a suitable number of friendly games for the Vintages and mixed over the summer – PC to see re Vints as NW has stated that he is not going to be able to handle fixtures for Vints and mixed but would stay on as men’s secretary , ?? re mixed ??
- softball had started which is being promoted amoungst the membership
- AD to transfer over the money held in the building society a/c into the Barclays current a/c


next meeting at 7:30 at JP’s on Wednesday 24th March 2004