There Were No Amendments Or Questions from the Floor

Club AGM 2014 29th March

Chair Richard Evans

Apologies

Geoff Venables, Sam Chapman, Dave Newman, Debbie & Christina, Pete Clewes , Graham Stewart, Paul North, Carl Lee, Chris Moulson

Minutes from last AGM - Proposed by Daf Jones and seconded by Steve Hyden.

There were no amendments or questions from the floor

Chairman’s Report

The Chair praised the enthusiasm and commitment of the captains and players in the Men’s and Ladies’ sections especially commenting on the captains’ motivational impact on the players whether teams were encountering adversity or enjoying success. He observed that the success enjoyed by many was built on commitment and hard work in training and during a game situation. Players who made themselves regularly available certainly made the captains’ jobs much easier during the course of a long season.

All the coaches were thanked for their hard work and inspirational leadership: Paddy, Steve & Brett had displayed enthusiasm, discipline and rigour in their work which had proved beneficial to all those participating in the coaching.

Thanks were also made to Dave and Pat Wells’ involvement in the club as well as Keith Roper in their respective roles.

Paul Williams’ was particularly thanked for his total involvement in the busy co-ordination of the Youth section and deployment of a number of dedicated assistant coaches. In a large team Jo, Jules, Dallas, Gill, Daf, Julia, Bob & Rhiannon, received special mention – with apologies for anyone who was omitted!!

One of the priorities for next season was to increase the level of sponsorship that the club received from outside sources. There had been some considerable success this season with Paul Williams encouraging some kit sponsorship from parents and a successful bid for £1000 being made to the MBNA Community Fund which will be used on shirts and kit for the Junior section. However, little else in terms of sponsorship had been received. The Chair asked for volunteers to form a sub committee whose sole remit was to focus on sponsorship and to advise the club committee of potential courses of action. Bob Pugh & Julian Bills volunteered to start this process. The Chair confirmed that they could work independently of the main committee and to report back when appropriate on potential ideas or even successes in obtaining offers of sponsorship. Thanks were also made to all the members who supported the club in so many ways from umpiring games, to running sides and co-ordinating various club activities. In particular Ian Boothroyd’s work in planning and co-ordinating the successful festival and the large team of helpers who regularly gave up their time in so many ways. Thanks to Fran, Claire and the team that has organised the Dinner Dance so efficiently this year. The Chair urged all members to support the club again next year in whatever way they could from playing to being involved in helping to co-ordinate the wide range of activities at the club or assisting and attending some of the entertaining social events that the new committee has organised. He also urged all members to try their best to attract new members or to encourage previous ones to commit to playing more regularly next season.

Men’s Club Captain

Congratulations to the Men’s first team for a successful season in North Premier league first division where they finished in a creditable 6th place. Steve Edmonds had left as coach in November and the club was fortunate that Brett, the overseas player, was prepared to take over the coaching role for the rest of the season. A number of young players gained places in the 1st team including Tom Bell and Duncan in particular. The 2nd team finished 2nd and will probably be promoted which is a tremendous achievement. Congratulations to Lewes Done’s inspired captaincy and the players who supported him so ably. The 3rd had a mixed season finishing 4th from bottom and depending on other promotion/relegation issues may be relegated. The 4th team lacked a captain for most of the season with a number of people helping out until Sam Chapman took over as captain on the pitch in January. Special thanks to Jon Feeney who gave up a great deal of his time organising players for the 4th team while captaining the 5ths. The 5th team finished 7th enjoying a very good season in a highly competitive league. The 6th team were unfortunate to be in a league which had already been reduced to 10 teams lost a further 2 at the start of the season. This is an unsatisfactory situation and the League will be asked if this situation can be addressed in time for next season. The Over 50s enjoyed a tremendous run in the National Cup reaching the quarter finals when they were narrowly beaten by Harleston Magpies in the last minutes of the game. Currently a new coach is being sought for the Men’s 1st team.

Ladies’ Club Captain tbc

Youth Section – Paul Williams

This is the 3rd year of Willow’s tenure. He reported that Sunday mornings currently have over 80 Young people on roll with 70 regularly attending. He passed thanks to all those coaches and young leaders involved. He commented about the excellent links between coaches and parents with the Willow schmooze being a primary method of gaining support, backed up by some excellent administration and communications.

This year has seen the further development of the age group hockey.

U18 + U16 girls North indoor (Thanks to Pat Wells, Keith , Rhiannon and Dallas )

Future developments 1. Further development links to be made for young players to provide clear pathways into Snr hockey in particular with the development of a Badgers & Beavers side playing competitively on a Saturday.

2. Website links (Sundays clear to develop links with local clubs)

3. Further development of age group hockey

4. Looking to further develop indoor hockey through Christleton High school who are looking to get goals and a re-laid pitch.

5. Looking at intermediate players who are already developing through club with specific sessions, - several good goalkeepers being developed with lots of players coming through .

The Chair passed thanks to Willow and Netty for all their efforts.

Finance

This season’s accounts show a deficit of approximately £7000. This is partly due to £3,500 being spent on providing food for the ‘home’ teams and to a decrease in the number of full adult members. To partially address this issue the ‘home’ food for club members will not be taking place next season. Membership fees will also be increased slightly [see below] which will help to address the shortfall and should enable us to break even next season. Measures will also be taken to ensure that players who opt to be ‘casual’ members realise that after 5 games they will now fall into a full members’ category and will be able to request a refund at the end of the season by applying to the Club Captains explaining their circumstances.

Electronic copy from Nia

Chairman

Website: Tom Fairburn reported that the website was developing very successfully and that all members should apply to join as a member so that they could receive information and regular news updates. He is planning to introduce a monthly newsletter that members will be invited to contribute to.

ClubsFirst: Daf is working his way through this lengthy process with some help from others. He commented that a full membership pack will be produced that will go out to all members. This will include a membership profile that is required by EH.

Selection Policy: Bob Pugh asked whether the club had a selection policy and is so where was it. Rhiannon Bowles replied by assuring him that there was such a policy and it was followed by both sections. This was agreed by Simon Jones. Tom Fairburn commented that there were still existing policies that needed to be transferred to the new website and this work was in progress.

Keith Roper will be holding an Level 1 Umpire course on which there are 6 places reserved for Chester HC members.

Kit: Simon Jones ‘modelled’ the new kit by holding it up! Members will have until the end of next season to purchase the new kit. New members will be expected to purchase it on joining. Player numbers will be allocated to each team during the ordering process.

Chairman thanked all for attendance and continuing support.

He explained that funding was being sought from England Hockey £98,000, the Hockey Foundation £70,000 and the Inspired Facilities Fund £50,000 in order to replace the existing astro surfaces. A bid had just been submitted to EH with a small group from the hockey section and the Sports Club completing information that was relevant to the hockey section and the Sports Club. He thanked Paul, Daf & Keith for their work with him on this project. Funding isn’t guaranteed and each of the above organisations decide whether they will contribute and how much they will offer. The figures above are the maximum amounts that they can offer if they choose to. The Sports Club will also contribute to the cost.

The bid is for after April 2016 mainly due to the fact that the astro pitch report prepared by Notts Sports indicated that there were at least 3 years life left in the existing surfaces.

The Sports Club has committed to spending between £15 -£20,000 this summer to bring the surfaces up to standard, repairing all parts and resanding them. This work will be carried out by Notts Sports who are EH’s nominated provider of surfaces.

Date of next meeting: June 2nd 7.30pm in the Pavilion