MINUTES of AGM held on Monday 28th May 2012
at the Hoddesdon Club Venue, Station Road, Broxbourne at 8pm.
PRESENT: Jo Swain (Chair) Rita Rowe (Secretary) Colin Bullworthy (Match & Cup Secretary) Jose Torres (Treasurer) Colin Fell (Website & Printer). Bryon Gates, Ray Blakes, Paul Butler, Frank Culora (Hoddesdon), Tony Maniam , Roger Slater (Allenbury’s) James Pugh, Alex Moreale Terry Burroughs, Derek Miles (Cheshunt) Ken Grethe, Dave Miller (County Hall), Mike Collins, Malcolm Norris, Dennis Shaw (Grundy Park), Chris Day (Pramastars), Faith Frankel (Hertford Regional College)
Apologies: Nigel Gray (Hoddesdon) Committee member.
The Minutes of last year’s AGM (2011) were read and approved by Ken Grethe and seconded by Tony Maniam.
Matters Arising: Ken Grethe reported that the Premium Bonds that were held for Years in the funds have now been bought by Ken as they were in his name so now there are none left in the league funds.
Chair Report: Jo thanked everyone for attending the meeting and thanked all the committee members for all their hard work throughout the year. Thanks also to Colin Fell for keeping the website up to date and for printing our handbooks. Jo also thanked Faith for her help with refreshments at the tournaments. It was noted that people had brought back the Cups they had in their possession and for this Jo was very grateful. Our celebration of 75 years held in November 2011 went really well and was very well attended by past members who are no longer well enough to play the game but keep up with our news. They chatted over many happy years of playing and remembered those no longer with us. Ken gave a wonderful speech and the committee gave every member a pen and badge to remember the occasion. Badges and pens were also given to all current registered players. Some pens are left over so please let us know if anybody would like one.
Match Secretary Report: It has been a good season with no problems arising and score cards coming in on time. Colin gave a congratulations report to those who won the divisions and the runners up . and this will be in the Newsletter and on the website. One of the games was one of the longest ever recorded in a match and went to a total of 134 points being played. The Handicap Tournament was held in January and ran over one night and was well attended. The Closed Championships were held over two nights in May and the 3 finals matches will be played on Thursday 31st May at Cheshunt Club. It was very good to resurrect the Junior event this year both in singles and doubles and it is good to encourage our youngsters. There was a question as to why the Doubles is a Drawn event and not a chosen partner event but Colin explained that this is because there are not enough ladies to go around the men involved. The only fair way of doing this event is to draw names out of a hat. Colin Thanked Jo for organising and keeping the tournaments going. We also find more people enter now it is held over evenings than when we had a Saturday or Sunday event. The cost of hiring halls is dear at weekends and not all venues are available or suitable.
The committee will meet to format the new league when we know how many teams have entered next season. Allenbury’s may put another team in which would help the league. Jo thanked Colin for all his hard work and for making it an enjoyable season.
Registrations to ETTA should be made by all members and will be contacted by the ETTA to remind them of when to register. We are not sure if the fees will remain the same. It is up to every individual player to make sure they are registered.
Change to Rules: This year a rule change had been made in the handbook but it was never brought to an AGM for agreement. Ken Grethe had asked why it had been changed and who had made this decision. Jo explained that the committee had made the decision because a lot of teams were struggling to fulfil matches. We realise a lot of teams could also abuse this rule but Colin is keeping a close eye on the teams. Joe thought he remembered it being discussed at an AGM about 3 years ago but we cannot find a record of this anywhere. The rule change in question is under 13 c on page 3 of the handbook. This reads: A player may not play for any team, lower than that for which he is registered, but may play for any team above his registered team.
The following words use to follow these: However, if a player plays three times other than for his registered team he will no longer be eligible to play for his registered team and must re-register for a higher team. The player will then be permitted to play for no other team in that season.
During a discussion about this it came up that if teams do abuse this rule they must be penalised and the team members should be registered in Ability order and not just names. The committee are keeping a record of players and checking who is doing what.
The committee proposed the rule stay the same as is now written in the handbook and Ken requested the wording go back to what it was. Derek Miles proposed to keep the rule as it is now written and Roger Slater seconded this. A vote was then taken and 8 votes were for and 2 against. Therefore the rule will stay as it is now written.
A member of the meeting asked if under “Creasey Cup Tournament Rules” on page 5 of the handbook No.2 could include the words “Round Robin” . The meeting agreed. This will be added next season.
Officers of the League were happy to stand for another year but would love someone else to join the committee to share our meetings. Dave Miller proposed that the committee be elected en bloc and Tony Manian seconded this. The meeting all voted and agreed.
Treasurer’s report. Joe gave everyone a sheet of balance of accounts and explained why we had a loss of £749 last year. This was mainly due to our celebration for our 75th Anniversary as the funds paid for all the refreshments, pens and badges that were given out to everyone in commemoration. Everyone was pleased and happy to receive these momento’s. We also had “Special Handbooks” printed for the occasion which also added to expenses. The hire of the hall at Cheshunt Club has to be paid for our tournaments but is cheaper than Sunday’s which we can no longer have anyway. We have found more people turn up for evening events anyway so they work much better now.
A £20 donation was given in memory of Glen Smith who played in the league for a number of years and sadly died unexpectedly earlier this year.
The income from league fees went up slightly this year as we had an extra team join us.
Mike Collins asked a question about Insurance. Joe responded by explaining that we no longer have to pay Insurance as it is all included in our fees to the ETTA. We are not sure what the fees will be next year but ETTA should contact members directly to remind them to pay and inform them of any changes. Our league fees will stay at £35 per team, the same as this year. We have stopped giving out prizes for individuals as people prefer to have Cups for competitions and this is nice to keep as part of history of the league.
Please let Colin Fell have any news for the website as he keeps the links between ETTA information and league news.
The Pine Trophy is to go to Terry Burroughs this year for all his outstanding work for Cheshunt Club and the league events. Terry is moving to Hertford and was worried about keeping in touch but people have offered lifts to him so he can still be involved. He is very pleased about this and thanks those involved in the help.
A.O.B. Faith was telling us about the Open Day to be held at Bishops College, Cheshunt by the Borough of Broxbourne between 2pm and 5pm. Malcolm Norris and Faith are setting a table up and offering people the chance to try out the game. They would really like people to join them to help give people a knock.......please contact one of them if you can help, Contact Details are in the handbook.
Roger Slater has spoken to the Manager at Allenbury’s and he has agreed we can have free facilities for meetings if we wish. There are comfy seats and a BAR at this venue which we can think about for next year.
A comment was made from someone regarding space around the Table when matches are being played. Unfortunately a lot of our venues have the same problem and it is difficult to call “let’s” all the time as we would never get the game finished. We suggest each team sits away from the ends of the table so people can reach for “Wide” balls. Also some venues have problems with lighting but we cannot change this so we all have to adjust to the venue we are at and play according to the space and conditions we have. The general attitude to the game of Table Tennis is that everyone is trying their best to provide good premises and the best they can. Some people wont go to certain venues but don’t know they have improved over a number of years. Please remember the rule of Etiquette and we should all enjoy our matches.
How are the Handicaps worked out? The committee work from the results of the previous year and the standard of the player. If a new player comes in then it is up to the Captain of that team to let the committee know their standard. These handicaps will be looked at and reviewed this year.
Ken Grethe asked if the page 10 of the handbook could be printed sideways to help when looking at the league table. Colin Fell agreed to do this when printing the handbooks.
The meeting closed at 9.20 pm
Colin Bullworthy will send out registration forms with the last newsletter of the season and ask for them to be returned by 15th July 2012.