CHALFONT PARK SPORTS ASSOCIATION  MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING HELD ON 7TH JANUARY 2004

Those Attending

Alison Spicer (ACS) Dave Banner (DB) Peter Banner (PB) Chris Blamey (CJB), Caroline Chipperfield (CDC) Bob Hance (BH) Dave Peters (DP) Zoë Scott (ZAS), Andy Watts (ASJW)

Also Attending

Neil Turner (NT)

1. Apologies

Drew Downing (DND) Simon Seabrook (SS)

2. Minutes of Meeting held on 4th December 2003

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

3. Outstanding Actions Update

The following actions were completed, all outstanding actions remain on action sheet:

ZAS - look into applying for permanent extension to liquor licence; with demise of Bogarts the Board decided not to progress this. (ZAS and CDC need to sit down and look at which events will need extensions).
PB - Ask DB to cut football pitch grass and provide maintenance quote; not applicable as DB no longer Groundsman.
PB - implement fire and rescue changes.
DND - pass radio contact information to CDC.
ZAS - check Club constitution wording is correct.
DP - chase Sue Shrimpton for payment.
DND - chase Warren Scott for outstanding entry fee money from Mixed Tournament.
CDC - pass list of keys for collection to CJB.
BH - Liaise with Rory Staunton re football pitch hire and subs monies; on 24.12.03 paid subs and pitch fees, all at £60 so top up required. 7 people still outstanding, but more players than originally thought, £780 paid and £900 outstanding, however football have paid £150 for flags so top up not required.
ASJW - check cricket website.
ASJW - liaise with Neil Turner re CPSA newsletter; done, but NT asks that Mike Snell keep a separate page on his database for ex-members as only having current members e-mail addresses has lost a lot of contact for the Club (ZAS to speak to Mike Snell). The Board thanked Neil for all his work on the newsletter and for his continued commitment to producing it.
CJB - liaise with PB, Taylormade and Mrs. Birger for inventory of work required; CDC has passed on a quote from Peter of about £100. PB has spoken to Peter and said he should go ahead with small jobs and we will reimburse costs, if jobs are large / more expensive he needs to give us a quote before commencing any work.
CJB - liaise with BT re Clubhouse telephone messages; cannot get through to BT to find out if it is possible (NT offered to look on the internet for a copy of the manual).
CDC - show Christmas card list to DB; done and 50 cards sent out.


4. Softball Team

NT and MC joined the meeting to outline plans for starting up a mixed softball team at the Club. They have put feelers out around the Club and there is enough interest to run a team. The team would join the Windsor & Maidenhead League, which runs from April to August on Thursday nights and is made up of 14 games plus cup games. Affiliation fees to the British Federation are £65 and to the League £40. Umpires are allocated by the League at a cost of £10 per match. We already have equipment, which was supplied by Doug MacColl before he left the Club, although shirts will probably be required (a possible sponsorship opportunity?). The field would need to be marked up in a diamond, preferably starting at the nets so the play would be towards the cricket square, although either of our pitches would be ok to play on.

There are 16 players on a team, with 12 players on the pitch at a time, a minimum of 4 ladies per team. Matches last 2 – 3 hours and generally start at 7.00 pm. The match fee charged will be £5.

With matches being played on a Thursday we need to take into account the Cricket Colts but games are played home and away and if there is good liaison with cricket it may be possible to change the day of the Colts games or ensure the home / away mix is good.

The Board agreed it was a good idea and approved NT and MC to start up the softball team.

Action – NT to approach league and organise team.

5. Finance (PB/DP)

DP reported that the current balance is £850 overdrawn. With reimbursement for November teas from DND awaited. No astro money has been received from DND either. Monies not yet showing on the balance are £1,819 ACS paid in from social fundraising, £420 of football money (to be paid in) and £275 of outstanding social money (handed to DP by ZAS).

Ted Payne has queried his bill, he feels it is £900 more, DP will back check the payments made and revert back to the Board.

Regarding the UNIQ invoice DP asked whether the corporate membership should be added to the invoice as per the contract and the Board agreed it should be.

DP also stated that the annual accounts are nearly complete.

PB stated that there is a VAT inspection coming up, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Peter Glen has set up a direct debit for the container hire in line with the contract.

PB is also putting together a profit and loss account on a quarterly basis and the first one should be available soon. He is also looking into registering with the Inland Revenue which could lead to a 5% discount off our rates.

6. Hockey (DND)

ZAS read out a short report provided by DND as he could not attend the meeting, which stated that not much had taken place due to Christmas break and lack of league games. Ladies enjoyed some success in the South Indoor Finals given team illness and their comparative lack of experience.

DND expressed his intention to step down as Chairman at the Hockey AGM, but will continue as Treasurer if voted in. He has noted that the new Hockey Committee positions need to be ratified and finally that an Easter tour needs to be organised as soon as possible so he is looking for volunteers.

ASJW stated Hockey will also need to find someone to run the Junior Section as Sarah Watts will be stepping down next season. The Board agreed that a brainstorming session to identify volunteers for the vacant positions is urgently required.

7. Cricket (DB)

DB stated that the AGM will be held on 6th February 2004, apart from that there is nothing else to report.

8. Commercial (CDC)

CDC stated that she had bought Christmas presents for Mrs. Birger, Taylormade and Sandra and the Christmas cards had been sent in good time.

CDC reported that she has now costed out the boards for the fence at £250 + VAT for them to supply the sign, however if we are to provide the sign she needs to go back to the sign people for a costing. We have planning permission for 24 boards in total and CDC is working with Catherine Watson to put together a list and letter of local businesses to approach. H2O Solutions are having the first board complimentary as they have not charged us for work they have done for us.

Plans for the nursery are not going well as there are 2 new nurseries opening soon. They are going to monitor the situation and requirement for a third nursery once these 2 are open and it may progress if there is demand.

Bucks Council want to hire the Club for 15 days at £150 per day and are thinking of making the Club their venue of choice. Sandra has quoted for the catering and will be there for the opening up etc at no cost to us. The 15 days do include 2 Saturdays in the winter and this will need to be sorted out.

The Entertainment Licence has been extended for 2004 and Budgens are still hiring regularly. Generally there are a lot of bookings for the coming year and all of these are on a calendar on the website.

There has been a request for a wedding on 21st August 2004, which will include 2 marquees and involve up to 400 people. CDC has quoted £2,500 purely for hire and if extra work is needed the price will go up to reflect this. CDC will meet with the wedding party to discuss requirements / plans.

9. Astro (ASJW)

ASJW stated that it was disappointing news regarding the nursery as there is no guaranteed income for a bank loan for the astro project.

On the marketing front there was a planned double-sided flyer, to be distributed door to door to raise the profile of the Club, with the nursery on one side and the community aspect of the astro on the other, however he would now need to rethink this.

ASJW is currently on the Youth Action Committee who are developing, short, medium and long term plans for the community. He is also on the Village Steering Group where there are long term plans for developing the Mill Meadow site. Challoners Boys School want to build an astro and want us to be involved as part of the community aspect. The farmer down the road has put in a planning application to put permanent buildings up.

PB stated that he has still not heard back from Tesco and is continuing to chase up.

ASJW finished by stating that he is still looking at ways to raise funds for the astro and the flyer will definitely help.

10. Operations (CJB)

DB stated he has bought a new lamp for the floodlight which needs to be sorted out. Also, he is supplying the white liner for the football pitch markings at roughly £20 a time and Dan Webb has been doing the actual marking up.

ACS reiterated the need to get the grounds issues moving, regarding the cricket square we need to know exactly what needs to be done so outside quotes must be obtained. The football pitch needs cutting, marking and the mole problem sorted out. This months priority is to focus on the grounds and get costs in so that decisions can be made at next months meeting. The urgent things for this week must be done so the Board approved the fixing of the water pump for the tractor.

Action - ASJW to see if Charlie Wooler can fix the water pump.
- DB to mark football pitch for Saturday
- BH to e-mail Rory Staunton to let him know grass cannot be cut but it will be marked this week.

11. Social (ACS)

ACS reported that the Christmas money had been paid in, with £240 catering money to be paid to Taylormade plus the cost of the Barcelona trip, would leave a profit of £1,200.

The next event is Quiz Night in January, BH will be the MC. The plan is to have 18 teams, with 6 per team. The cost will be £8 per head, with £3 per head on food, which ZAS has arranged with Taylormade. BH stated that he would definitely need a microphone with that many people.

ZAS stated that Taylormade had given us £100 on the basis that it goes towards a social event. The Board expressed their thanks for the donation and agreed it should go towards social.

ACS stated that we need to start organising Club Supper. CDC is happy to help organise but does not want to be involved in selling tickets this year. We should limit the “VIP” tables to just one this year.

We also need to look at organising an end of season do for the Juniors, both hockey and cricket. As we have the marquee for Saturday 17th April for Club Supper perhaps the Friday night beforehand. We would need to do a letter to parents explaining, and would need about 10 adults to help out. Chris Neve was suggested as a possible DJ for the Junior event.

12. Any Other Business

12.1 DS stated that Artisans of GX Golf Club have asked to put a camera up on the side of the building as they are getting a lot of car theft. DB has said yes and the Board agreed it was a good idea.

12.2 DND raised the issue of whether we should renew Sky as members are not staying down the Club and using it and it is a cost that could be spent better elsewhere. This prompted discussion as to how we can encourage members to use the Club, such as keeping board games at the Club, a darts night, showing hockey DVDs and a monthly draw to win £50 worth of bar vouchers once a month the draw being made up of people buying tickets throughout the day and only those still there at a given time (9.30 pm suggested) are able to win.

CDC stated that we are getting a lot of enquiries for hiring the Club out on a Saturday night so we

need to think about maybe taking up those enquiries and let the Club out once or twice as it is not being used. We need to put something in the newsletter stating this is a possibility.

Action - ZAS to look for board games.
- ASJW to buy some hockey DVDs.
- ACS to speak to Sandra Taylor re monthly draw.

12.3 DND stated that he is hiring the Club on Saturday 13th November for his wedding celebrations and wondered whether the Club would like it on the Friday night for a social / fundraising event. This was generally discussed in line with Curry & Fireworks and needs to be looked at at a later date.

12.4 DND put his views forward regarding the role of social secretary at Board level, but this was not discussed further.

12.5 ZAS stated that she had received a letter from the Police requesting an update on the licence and the Board confirmed they were happy for her to deal with.

Action - ZAS sort out licence letter with Police.

12.6 ZAS asked whether a new mission statement needed to be looked into as the current one runs to 2003. The Board asked that ZAS copy the current statement into these minutes for review at the February meeting:

“To develop and maintain high quality facilities that will enhance the sports and social activities of the membership and the local community, and to ensure that they are properly funded.”

12.7 DB reiterated that it is imperative we get the mole problem sorted out as soon as possible. The Golf Club will supply pellets and the machine for around £80 and the Board approved this cost.

Action - DB to deal with mole problem on the pitch.

12.8 DB stated that he is slightly worried about the Dan Webb and football / cricket connection. He is worried that if we are heavy handed with Dan’s football team Dan will leave and in effect take the Sunday 2s cricket team with him. ZAS expressed surprise at DB’s concern as Dan attended a Board meeting in September where a meeting to discuss fees was suggested and he was fine with this. ACS stated that she just needs to have a meeting with Dan regarding the costs and it is unfortunate that it hasn’t happened yet.

Action - ACS to meet with Dan Webb re football costs.

13. Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 4th February 2004 at 8.00 pm.

DB stated that Matt Stevenson will be attending as Cricket Representative on the Board.