CHALFONT PARK SPORTS ASSOCIATION MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING HELD ON 3RD MARCH 2004

Those Attending

Alison Spicer (ACS) Peter Banner (PB) Chris Blamey (CJB) Caroline Chipperfield (CDC), Drew Downing (DND) Dave Peters (DP) Zoë Scott (ZAS) Chris Yoxall (CY)


1. Apologies

Bob Hance (BH) Simon Seabrook (SS) Andy Watts (ASJW)

2. Minutes of Meeting held on 4th February 2004

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

3. Outstanding Actions Update

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

DW / PB / ACS - Discuss Sunday football payments; £60 per game played has been paid for pitch hire, with a 10% discount as they have been marking the pitch themselves. All members are to join socially as they don’t use the Clubhouse at all so no use of facilities, even though they have the option, so social membership seemed to be fairer. This should be 13 memberships. Wilson Bowden have inspected the area and are very impressed with the improvements made. The cost of pitch hire will remain the same for next season.
CJB - Liaise with Paul Haythornthwaite re car park lighting and CCTV; see report under Operations section.
DND - Identify and approach people to assist at Junior level; this will be ongoing over the Summer but he is hoping to get help from parents.
PB / DB - Assess property and formalise what belongs to Club; a list has been compiled and agreement reached.
DB - Obtain garage keys from Mr. Hales for CJB.
DB / CJB - Meet to discuss operational knowledge.
ZAS - Speak to Mike Snell re ex-members details; Mike hasn’t deleted anybody, but his list does start from the merged club. Neil Turner suggested there should be an overall list which includes Simon Gooch’s old contacts. ZAS will arrange a meeting to discuss what should be set up under whose control.
ZAS - Look for board games; Question of Sport and 3D noughts and crosses have been purchased from a local charity shop for £4.75 and are now behind the bar.
ACS - Speak to Sandra re monthly draw; Sandra doesn’t think this is a goer as it won’t appeal. Need to rethink the whole social aspect of the club.
ZAS - Apply for bar extensions for 3 events; 10.04.04 already granted as covered in Bank Holiday granting, the other 2 have been applied for.
PB - Obtain 2 quotes for pitch maintenance from companies suggested by Rory Staunton; see report under Cricket section.
PB - Ask Chenies Landscapes to do one off pitch cutting; done for £45 plus VAT.
DB / CJB - Source parts for roller and tractor; machinery in garage to be serviced which should be done this week.
PB - Terminate Sky contract; will cease as of 15.03.04.
DND - Meet with Heidi James and Emma Hewitt re Harlow Ladies; Spoken to Maggie at Harlow Ladies, initial contact made, they have some options and he will leave it to them to make contact with us.


PB - Sort out appeal re advertising boards; Arguments are in hand, we need to look at whether planning permission is required if boards are up for matches only, ongoing for next couple of months. Will report in full when appeal made.
ACS - Follow up Village Hall sponsorship with Martin Cartledge; see report under Commercial section.
ZAS - Give list of social “work” to DND; done.
ACS/ZAS - Sort out lost property sale for Irish night; not applicable as no Irish night event.

4. Finance (PB/DP)

DP stated that we are roughly £500 overdrawn, CDC asked whether this included £330 from Budgens which they have told her has been paid by BACS transfer and DP said it did not. Regarding outstanding issues, SS is still to write to Ted Payne and Dan Webb is to speak to UNIQ.

The VAT visit went well and PB is looking into a technicality which may result in getting some money back and he will update the Board if it happens.

There are still about 6 or 7 annual subs outstanding from the Men’s section.

Race night made a profit of roughly £160, with bar take of about £500.

PB stated that he has been in touch with the bank regarding the interest rate on the astro money. The best rate they can offer is 1.25%. The Halifax can offer 4 or 5%, but that is on an individual person account rather than a business account so that is a non-starter.

DND stated that the Hockey Committee have been discussing the matter also and have suggested that as the Hockey Section won’t need the money for a few years the best way to earn interest on it would be to transfer it to the CPSA account to pay off the club loans earlier. This would then save 9.5% interest on those loans. PB stated that we are able to pay off the loans early and we also have the proviso that any early paid off loans can be reinstated as long as we are up to date on all other payments, which will be good if the Hockey Section need the money urgently for some reason. We need to work out which loan would be best paid off. The Board acknowledged and thanked the Hockey Committee for the offer.

PB stated that he is looking into us getting a VAT reduction of 5%, for this he will need the memorandum and articles, which ZAS should have. ZAS stated that unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to find these as everything was still in boxes from moving house. ACS stated that she may have a copy at home and will have a look for them.

Action - DND to chase up outstanding annual subs
DND, PB and DP to meet and work out which loan would be best to pay off
ACS to look for copy of memorandum and articles and pass to PB

5. Hockey (DND)

DND gave an overview of the season for both Men’s and Ladies Sections, regarding league placements and promotion. He stated that the mixed team is through to the next round of the cup, which is expected to be a tough game, but they are in danger of having to cancel the fixture due to a lack of goalkeeper.

The plans for the Easter Tour to Folkestone are progressing.

The Committee are sorting out the awards for club supper.

The Committee have one person that they would like to nominate for Honorary Life Membership. The Board agreed to the person and this will be ratified by the members at the CPSA AGM.


6. Cricket (CY)

PB stated that he had not obtained the quotes from the 2 companies that Rory mentioned as he has not been able to get in touch with Rory to get contact details. However, he has had quotes from Peter Broome, Chenies Landscapes and Paul Gethin (outfield) and Shabs (square). The Cricket Committee have decided that they would like to go with Paul Gethin and Shabs as they have experience with our pitch and the quotes are good. None of the quotes obtained included maintenance of machinery and this is something that needs to be looked at. The Board agreed to go with the supplier that the Cricket Committee prefer but reiterated the fact that a formal contract must be drawn up. ACS offered to help with drawing up contracts if needed.

DP stated that the Cricket Section has 2 people they would like to propose to go from Vice Presidents to Honorary Life Members. The Board agreed to these 2 people and this will be ratified by the members at the CPSA AGM.

ACS said that she understood that the Cricket Section have an open mind regarding teas, but are still looking to Sandra for some leniency regarding games cancelled due to weather, which she would like CDC to raise with Sandra at their review. ACS said that Taylormade have become a fantastic asset for the Club and the Board endorse how much good they have done for us. CDC stated that the review is booked for 28 March 2004 and she asked for any comments to her by then.

PB stated that there is still kit in the men’s changing room and DP said he will sort that out. PB also stated that we have received the insurance money for the sight screens and the cricketers need to recreate the third screen, as agreed with the insurance company.

Action - CJB to meet with Cricket Section to formalise pitch maintenance and consider maintenance of machinery
DP to sort out cricket kit
CY to organise rebuilding of third sight screen

7. Commercial (CDC)

CDC asked whether the £500 invoice had gone off to Budgens, DP said it had not, and she said it needs to go urgently as they had used it once again and have one more week.

CDC has created an estimated income spreadsheet for 2004 which she handed round. This is slightly incorrect as it takes into account the advertising boards. However, as we have nothing to “sell” CDC and ASJW are putting together a leaflet to be mailed out to about 10,000 homes to promote the Club and she is looking into getting a local firm to sponsor it, which should cover the costs of printing and delivery. It is hoped that this could be delivered by Easter. There is the possibility of having a big event in the summer, which we could get the local community involved in, which may be publicised in the leaflet.

Regarding bookings and events, these are now on the CPSA website, which ASJW updates on a weekly basis so everyone can see when the Club is booked. The question was asked as to whether CDC and ASJW have thought about selling advertising on the website. CDC said they hadn’t discussed it and she will talk to ASJW about it.

CDC has been following up the initial contact made with the Village Hall by Martin Cartledge. They are interested in getting involved in the local community and the Club. They have put together a letter, offering us £500 in the first year which will increase over years 2 and 3, they will put a noticeboard up in the pub where we can advertise for new players, results etc. They will also probably have a regular slot in the newsletter. In return they would like us to be their preferred venue, with a maximum of 2 events held at their pub a year for a maximum of 80 people. They would keep any bar take and the Club would have the profit on the food.

The Board discussed the options, and agreed that we should be promoting the Club as a venue for end of season events for teams with Sandra doing the catering, but if teams didn’t want to use the Club or if it is already booked we should ask Captains to have the Village Hall as their second choice. We do need to encourage teams to think of the Club as we need to bear in mind the bar take / brewery debt. After discussion the Board agreed that CDC should sign up to the deal with the Village Hall.

Action - CDC and ASJW to look at viability of selling advertising on the website
CDC to finalise deal with the Village Hall

8. Astro (ASJW)

No report available as ASJW did not attend.

9. Operations (CJB)

Paul Haythornthwaite joined the meeting to discuss the requirement for lighting in the car park. He went through the various options and types of lighting available, prices and the type of concerns the Local Authority would have in relation to the granting of planning permission. Paul has contacted 2 contractors for quotes for installing the lighting and the quotes are very similar. Together with the cost of the actual lighting a rough estimate would be £2,500 - £3,000. He will need to get the exact car park measurements to draw a proper plan, to show the exact specification and planning permission requirements.

PB stated that as we are looking at doing this properly and the potential cost involved, we should contact the Insurers to find out if there is a minimum lighting level requirement which we need to adhere to to protect ourselves against any claims.

PB stated that the scaffolding for the footballers is still at the side of the pitch and this needs to be secured. CJB will speak with Dan Webb about this.

PB stated that the Golf Club had been working on their barrier, which set the alarms off. Unfortunately they had not notified us that they were doing the work so we couldn’t turn the alarm off in advance and we incurred a call out cost of £110. The Board agreed that ACS should write to the Golf Club and bring it to their attention.

ACS commented that the state of the car park is now very bad and that needs to be looked at as a major priority. She has asked Peter Broome to have a look and provide a quote for the cost of getting it fixed. Looking at CDC’s income forecast we should have the money available to pay for repairs. DP stated that we cannot tarmac the car park due to the Council regulations on it being an “over flow” car park. This is something we will need to discuss with planners and look at when the quote from Peter Broome comes in.

Action - PB to contact Insurers re car park lighting levels
CJB contact Dan Webb re football scaffolding
ACS to write to Golf Club re notification of planned work
PB to establish car park repair planning options

10. Social (ACS)

ACS stated that race night was a very enjoyable night, which had a very disappointing turn out and despite this it was good to see that a small profit had been made.

The planned event for March is Irish Night. Support for someone to assist in organising has been asked for and none has been forthcoming, so unfortunately it is going to have to be cancelled, as ZAS, ACS and Catherine Watson are focussing on organising Club Supper.

ZAS gave an overview of the budget, plans and costs for Club Supper. Catherine Watson is organising the raffle, looking into the possibility of getting tickets printed as before and is sorting the prizes. Any costs of prizes she is clearing with ACS.

Regarding the social aspect ACS feels that we should be more orientated towards “food” nights, perhaps having an annual quiz night and the fireworks night as separate events with 10 food orientated nights as we’re just not getting people coming down to “drinking” events, as the turn out at race night proved. We should set a budget, to make a small profit and the bar take. We need to get dates in the diary as soon as possible to free up the diary for private functions.

Action - ACS / ZAS organise dates for 2004/05 social events

11. Any Other Business

11.1 ACS stated that there has still been no meeting to get the football issues and outstanding money sorted out, she will continue to chase this up.

11.2 DND asked whether the astro money should be ratified at Hockey AGM level by the members. The Board agreed it should be put to members on the night and the reasoning behind the decision for them to vote on.

11.3 DND had been asked to raise the fact that the Margaret Cornish side of the bar gets very smoky sometimes. The Board noted the fact, but felt there is not a lot that can be done about it, due to the nature of the events that we hold.

11.4 PB stated that he thinks some of our safety certificates may be out of date. He will sort out getting them up to date and logging the frequency of tests required. Once this is done he will pass everything over to CJB.

11.5 ACS wanted to reiterate that if anyone was intending to step down she would like to know as soon as possible so that any vacancies can be advertised well in advance.

12. Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 7th April 2004 at 7.30 pm.