Wantage Lawn Tennis Club

Wantage Lawn Tennis Club Minutes of the Annual General Meeting Held on Wednesday 4th November 2015 Venue: Ham Mill

1 Attendance and Apologies Received The chairman requested that the vice chairman Mark Rowe chaired the meeting, as he was tired from recent travels.

26 out of 73 adult members were present representing 36% of the adult membership (see Attachment 1). The quorum is 19 (≥ 25% of the adult membership).

Apologies were received from 28 people.

2 2014 AGM The minutes of the previous AGM were unanimously accepted and the action items from the previous meeting were reviewed:  There had been no volunteers to run the tournaments at the AGM; however Chris Gray had gone ahead and organised them, introducing a Heat Style Format. This is discussed further under item 6.  Chris Gray and Simon Burge had considered running some tournaments in the winter on Saturday or Sunday mornings but decided not to.  Chris Gray was asked to include links to the club website in future communications to members. This has happened, although it means he has to put more new items on the website to link to!  Chris Gray organised two Real Tennis Sessions at Radley College over the past year. If there is continuing demand he will organise another session in March.  Noel Brathwaite had taken on the role of Social Secretary for the year, organising a concert with John Smythe, who had very kindly agreed not to charge their normal fee. He had also looked at other events including a Hog Roast, Wine Tasting (difficult to find a venue) and taking over the cinema at the Wildwood Restaurant. Because of the need for payment up front, it was difficult to establish which events would be popular. The chairman thanked Noel for the excellent work he put in to seeking out and organising events.

3 Treasurers Report and Membership Proposals. The Treasurer, Stephen Day, presented the Treasurer’s Report, which had been checked by the auditor (see Attachment 2).

Income from subscriptions had decreased slightly. All the summer match fees had been paid. He noted that the water bill was much reduced. He asked anyone who saw a tap on to turn it off and report any leaks. He asked for thanks to be passed on to Douglas & Gribben for their sponsorship of Finals Day. The secretary will write a letter of thanks on behalf of the club.

The accounts were unanimously agreed by the club. The vice-chairman thanked Stephen for his report.

The Treasurer noted that a further £3000 had been spent on the move since the accounts were drawn up. He was not expecting to see much further money to be spent on the move, as we will have money coming in from the developer.

The committee proposed that apart from the changes to the Adult 70+ membership fee agreed at the previous AGM, membership fees should be held constant. At some point, once the date at which the club will move into the new facilities becomes known, an EGM will be held to discuss the appropriate level of fees.

The 2016/2017 membership fees will therefore be as follows:

Group Membership Fee Adult £100 Adult >70 £70 Adults at same address £180 Family £200 Weekday £75 Country £25 Mature Student £40 Trial £10 (1 month only) Intermediate £40 Junior £27 Mini junior £13

The above fees were proposed by Sue Cronin and seconded by Paul Homersham. The vice-chairman, with the support of the entire meeting thanked the Treasurer for his good work over the year and in drawing up the annual accounts.

A proposal had been put forward that in order to encourage people to be captains that match fees should be raised to £2.50 with captains not being charged. However it was agreed that the £2 match fees and the £1 charge for balls in the floodlit leagues would not be altered.

4 Team Captains and Match Secretary’s reports Paul Homersham & Dawn Fairchild reported on the teams (for a fuller account see the newsletter). They thanked the captains for the very hard work that they put in.

The club has started playing in a daytime veterans (55+) league with 14 matches. Anyone interested contact Steve Thompson. Dawn Fairchild thanked Anne Jones for running the Friendlies.

Judi Wilde had received an email to say that Paul Neighbour is retiring. He has been running the leagues for 40 years and we have been involved since the third or fourth year. JW said what a great job he has done. He has been very ill recently which is why he is stepping down. The OLTA has suggested that every club make a donation and attend an event to note his service – probably February or March. It was agreed that the committee would agree suitable donation. No one has stepped forward to replace him yet. 2 The mood of the meeting was that the committee should make a suitable donation on behalf of the club.

5 Junior and Coaching Report The head coach, Andy Aitken, reported on the coaching and junior activities at the club over the past year.

Juniors After last year’s AGM they had run the Winter Program in King Alfred’s dome. A new coach Stephen Prew had been introduced and taken over the majority of the winter programme. The programme had continued until mid-march with numbers remaining steady. The summer term had seen an increase in numbers with up to 40 juniors over the summer. There had been considerable work at a number of schools - Stockham, Wantage C of E and Hanney, and they would also like to go into Charlton School. The climax of the year was the Schools festival which involved 450 children. The summer camps followed on from the festival. Numbers were lower than hoped for but this did result in a good coach to pupil ratio which improved the quality of the teaching, and is something worth retaining. With the earlier evenings the coaching is now at Hanney on Monday and the Dome on Friday. The change in times has not worked for everyone, resulting in a 30% drop in numbers.

Adults Over the summer, six Wednesday sessions were run for the men’s teams and a further six for the mixed. Additionally, another of Andy’s coaches, Tom Gibbons, ran a Tennis Xpress course consisting of six one and half hour sessions on Friday nights. Siobhan Sheehan and Daniella de Florio had attended and reported that they really enjoyed the sessions. However it had proven difficult to keep the group together when the coaching had finished.

The vice chairman thanked Andy for his report and the good work he had put in over the year He said how pleased he was with the number of kids being contacted, and what he had seen of the coaching.

6 Club Competitions Chris Gray reviewed the 2015 tournament. After taking it on because no volunteers had come forward, he had attempted to use the same format as previous years, however there were insufficient entrants for the men’s doubles, ladies doubles and singles competitions. In an attempt to revitalise the competitions he had organised four evening heats of mixed play covering singles and doubles. These competitions were effective in determining finalists, and coped well with the situation that one player dropped out. He had received generally positive feedback about the heat competitions.

Finals Day was held in July again and generally enjoyed. The Barbecue, salads and drinks all helped make it a good day. However there were too few ladies for all the competitions (only four ladies covering all four finals). This meant that all

3 the ladies had to play two or three matches. The incorporation of the Juniors into the Final, also made the day rather longer than ideal.

The meeting agreed that the Heats format had worked well, despite the fact that many people participated without understanding how it worked. It was felt that the same format should be used this year, so that it is more readily understood. July was thought to be a good time for Finals Day simply because the weather is so much better.

Graham Howell reported that several parents of juniors had said that they felt ignored, and that the club members were cliquey. Members who were at Finals Day were surprised to hear this, but resolved to make sure a full welcome was offered next year. Very few members watched the junior finals and it was thought that more interaction should be encouraged e.g. by adult members acting as ball boys/girls.. Lindsay Jones suggested running an Adult-Junior Handicap tournament to encourage more interaction.

The question of how to avoid Finals Day going on too long was discussed. It was decided that we should keep it as a single day and keep all the competitions both adult and juniors, but we should consider shortening the standard “Best of three sets” format.

Davide Carnovale and Daniella Deflorio volunteered to run the competition next year.

7 Chairman’s Report ST thanked all the committee for helping him throughout the year and everyone for coming tonight.

Currently the relocation project is stuck in red tape. He is meeting with the developers next Tuesday and he should have a much better idea then about what will happen. It was noted that all the legal agreements are in place.

8 Election of 2015-16 Committee

The existing committee stood for re-election with Gary Lambourne replacing Graham Howell. Mark Rowe thanked Graham for all his work over the years and expressed the hope that he would see him back on the committee sooner rather than later.

Lin Bazeley proposed and Mike Cochran seconded that these be re-elected. This was agreed unanimously. The new committee is shown below

Accordingly, the following were unanimously elected en-bloc as shown below:

Steve Thompson Chairman Chris Gray Secretary Paul Homersham Mens Club Captain Dawn Fairchild Ladies Club Captain Stephen Day Treasurer Mark Rowe Vice Chairman Judi Wilde Maureen Burgess

4 Bernie Kurzik Anne Jones Mike Palmer Sue Cronin Dee Jones Gary Lambourne

9 Vacant Roles in the club organisation Maureen Burgess, Lindsay Jones and Judi Wilde all expressed interest in helping with the juniors

Maureen Burgess, Dawn Fairchild and Anne Jones all expressed interest in forming a social events committee.

Ollie Tabor offered to help improve the club’s on-line presence. Chris Gray said that this would be very useful and offered to provide some help.

The role for Publicity/Press Officer was not filled.

10 Future Social Events Chris Gray reviewed the social calendar for the previous year. March: Club Meal March & October: Real Tennis (semi-social!) June: Concert with John Smythe’s band The Connection.

Noel had found that it was very difficult to get positive feedback on whether an event would work. He had found it difficult to get much response without phoning people. Chris Gray felt that it needed a social committee to work together to understand what sort of events would work and encourage people to come.

A number of ideas were reviewed. There was a lot of support for having a quiz evening, because the previous one worked so well. Dawn will ask our quiz master, to see if he can do one for us.

The wine tasting, hog roast, Wildwood Cinema and Theatre trip all received minimal interest.

Maureen Burgess said that she had a barn which had been used for barn dancing previously and offered it for an event. This suggestion was enthusiastically received.

In addition to the above the idea of having a club dinner was suggested. There was also some enthusiasm for separate Ladies Teams and Mens Teams meals.

Dave Martin suggested that instead (or as well as) presenting prizes on Finals Day, that we have a formal prize giving annual dinner.

11 Any Other Business Number of games between changes at social evenings: There were a variety of thoughts on this with some members preferring to play sets and others being happy to swap out regularly if people were waiting. It was noted that very often there is no one waiting in which case the position is that we 5 do play sets.

Stephen Day suggested playing for a fixed time limit like the Jennaways had employed at the indoor tennis courts at Abingdon. It was thought this could be difficult due to the need to have a time keeper.

Mark Rowe suggested that we play an odd number of games, so as to make sure there is a winner. This was supported by the meeting.

A vote was taken between playing either 5 or 7 games before swapping. There was a majority in favour of playing 5 games.

Indoor Tennis at Abingdon. Maureen Burgess reported that insufficient people have signed up so far. Letcombe Tennis Club have organised an evening session. People were encouraged to talk to Maureen afterwards if they were interested.

Online Membership Chris Gray reported that our membership lists are going on-line and that members will have the opportunity to pay on-line from next year.

Clubhouse Maureen reported that last Sunday morning they had found a dreadful mess with bottles left around and the ladies toilet was full of toilet paper. It was not clear who the culprits were! She asked that people leave the clubhouse as they find it and use the recycle bins properly. Everyone thanked Maureen for doing a great job in looking after the club house.

David Martin noted that he had no acknowledgement that he had joined the club. It was accepted that the club has no formal process for inducting new members. The committee will look at developing a Welcome Programme.

Wooden Rackets competition It was suggested we might have a wooden rackets competition – probably on a Sunday morning. It was not thought that rustling up enough wooden rackets would be a problem. If anyone is interested in running the tournament, please contact Chris Gray.

Judi Wilde thanked the vice-chairman Mark Rowe for stepping in to run the meeting.

Summary of Actions Chris Gray to write a formal letter of thanks to Douglas Gribben for their support of the tournament.

Committee to make an appropriate donation to Paul Neighbour’s leaving gift.

Committee to work with tournament organisers (Davide & Daniella) to give all visitors a good welcome at Finals Day. Also consider whether to have formal prize giving annual dinner.

Chris Gray to get Ollie Tabor up to speed on website matters.

6 Dawn Fairchild to check availability of Quiz master.

Social Committee to plan for a Barn Dance, at Maureen’s barn, in the late Spring to Summer period.

Committee to develop a Welcome Programme.

Everyone to:  adhere strictly to the agreed 5 game turn around at social evenings  leave the clubhouse as you find it  turn off water and report any leaks

Chris Gray (Secretary)

7 Attachment 1: Attendee List

8 Attachment 2: Treasurer’s Report Page 1/2

9 Attachment 2: Treasurer’s Report Page 2/2