CHALFONT PARK SPORTS ASSOCIATION

Minutes of a Board Meeting held on Thursday 28th February 2002

Present; Simon Seabrook (SS), Chairman
David Peters (DP)
Bob Hance (BH)
David Banner (DB)
Peter Banner (PB)
Giles Payne (GP)
Ken Mander (KM) (by invitation)

Previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting had been approved and put up on the website. In future, they will be also posted on the clubhouse notice board.

Board
GP had agreed to become Sports Director, leaving PB to concentrate on Finance. SS was still hoping to secure an Operations Director to leave DB to concentrate on Fundraising. BH was working on securing a Legal Director.

Fund raising
BH reported that 13 Life Memberships had been taken up over weekend 23/24 February, with two probables and one possible to come. He had designed and printed Life Membership Certificates and it was agreed that the club would still acknowledge these Life Members publicly (unless anonymity was requested).

Loans and donations received to date amounted to £12k which was a commendable response by members; GP reported that he had received a further £1k in donations/loans in the past few days.

To date, some 30 members have responded in one way or another out of a total membership of about 150. It was agreed that every member should be approached to support CPSA financially and a spreadsheet to capture this would be prepared (BH).

The target funds for raising in the coming weekend 2/3 March was £5k. A minimum of £18k was required by the end of March, over and above the expected £2k trading income.
DB would email a summary of the financial position and targets for fundraising in March and April to all members as a spur (DB).

BH would recast the loan/draw scheme once all participants have paid up, to ensure that the scheme would unroll evenly over the five year duration (BH).

Financial position
Barclays had agreed to extend the deadline for repayment of the (£4k) overdraft by three weeks (to 20th March), largely because of the financial support being given to the club by the members.

DP expressed concern that some members were taking cash from the till to pay sundry CPSA bills. It was agreed that this practice should cease forthwith and to this end, the recording and locking facility on the till would be activated (DP). All claims for payments out should be directed to DP. Three members (DP, SG and DB) only would have access to till cash and second safe combination for the purpose of transferring cash from one to the other. The first safe would be used only for match fees (GP).

DP reported that the club needed more Vatable income to avoid having to pay Vat back to Customs & Excise. He would consider whether it would be worth treating donations as very long term loans. He reminded the Board that internal functions were not Vatable, external functions were Vatable and so Vat needed to be included in any quotations.

GP was asked to chase up outstanding hockey subscriptions as a matter of urgency, and to speed up the reporting and deposit of match fees. He would call a meeting to this end on 2nd March.

DP had accepted Simon Gooch's offer to handle all bar outgoings and takings and to reconcile these monthly.

Greater financial discipline would enable the Board to monitor performance against budget and take appropriate action.

Creditors
DP reported that BP Collins had accepted post-dated cheques (April and May) to complete payment of their invoices.

It was agreed to make a payment of £1k on account to Ted Payne and to defer consideration of the balance of his claim until his return from holiday.

A meeting with Tony Eves prior to the Board meeting had been inconclusive. A further meeting had been arranged for 4th March; in the meantime, KM would speak to him suggesting how a solution might be arrived at.

BH reported a first legal opinion on the validity of Andrew Petherick's claim; it was agreed that our legal representative would check our proposed response to AP's latest letter detailing CPSA's concerns with his invoices, to reach him by 7th March.

AGM
PB reported that the AGM had to be held before 30th June, so that the Annual Accounts could be approved and received by the Registrar of Companies by that date.

There would be several opportunities to report financial progress to members in the next few months and so it was agreed to plan for an AGM in early June.
Constitution & Rules

A draft of these was now with SS for review (SS)

200 Account
Peter Colwill had calculated the balance standing in this account and would be arranging final draws to disburse the balance (DP).

Sponsorship
Andy Watts was working up proposals for external sponsorships and should be able to table these by 9th March (BH).

Next meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting would be held at 8.30pm on 14th March at the clubhouse.

Simon Seabrook
Chairman