MALVERN RFC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Friday 5th July 2014

20 Members present

1) Introduction (the President)

2) Apologies for Absence: M Calvert; D Irish

3) Minutes of the 2014 AGM were accepted

4) Chairman’s Report (A Evans) Attached as Appendix 1

5) Treasurers Report (J Taverner) attached as Appendix 2 The treasurer then answered queries based on the accounts.

6) Appointment of Auditors Proposed M Kenway, seconded B Flanagan ‘This meeting resolves that a full audit is not required” CARRIED

7) Appointment of Recording Accountants Proposed John Taverner, seconded P Woods “That K Morris of Bromsgrove be appointed “ Passed unanimously

8) Subscriptions for 2013/20014 John Taverner reported that the Executive Committee recommended that the Student rate be £25 and all other Subscription rates to remain unchanged. D Flanagan informed the meeting that Hereford & Worcester RFU were keen to encourage student members, so they were urging Clubs to make Student rates as cheap as possible. NOTED

Proposed John Taverner, seconded D Flanagan ‘That the Meeting accepts the Committee recommendation’

CARRIED 9) Amendments to the Club Rules NONE

10) Election of Officers The following officers were elected: - President D Robins Chairman A Evans

Secretary W Pomeroy Treasurer J Taverner

The following were appointed to sit in the Executive Committee in a voting capacity: Clubhouse Committee M Calvert Director of Rugby D Irish Youth Chair (elected by Youth Meeting) TBA

10) Election of Senior Vice-Presidents The Executive proposed that M Kenway be elected as a Senior VP CARRIED All other current Senior Vice Presidents were elected ‘en bloc’.

11) Audit of RFU accreditation The audit element reviewed the significant deficiencies identified in the previous review 1. The management of the club finances: recent losses turned round 2. The recruitment of players: A significant number of players recruited 3. The recruitment and training of referees: no progress 4. The recruitment and training of volunteers: proving to be a difficult item 5. Lack of Ladies teams playing contact rugby: no progress 6. Succession planning for Executive posts: the aim is to produce a younger Committee, progress very slow 7. Inadequate playing facilities to meet the needs of all sections of the club: potential relocation sites identified, but significant problems encountered with MHDC. 8. Increase non playing membership: membership drive unsuccessful.

12) Any Other Business

1) Date of AGM and Annual Dinner In view of the poor attendance at AGM meetings it was agreed that the date of these functions be moved to early May. Hopefully members would not yet have dispersed for summer. J Taverner commented that with the financial year ending on 30th April any accounts presented at such a meeting would be in rough draft form. Another official meeting would be needed to formally accept the accounts in due course. D Flanagan stated that in his discussions with H&W clubs and North Mids president on this subject, he found that this system was quite common. It was also pointed out that the Club could change its Financial Year to obviate the problem. The Committee agreed to look at this possibility, with the proviso that such an action may run into RFU resistance. 2) Cost of match day entry As a result of the Clubs relegation to MW2 the Committee have decided to reduce the cost of match day entry to £3. The season ticket scheme would still be active. Appendix 1

Chairman’s Report

Last year I promised that the Executive would ensure sound financial governance of the Club; I am pleased to say that we have lived up to that promise, as John will detail in his Treasurers report. The efforts made by all, while worthy and greatly valued by me, are not a vaunting issue; they are only what our membership should expect - this year and through the coming years. What is a major disappointment is that the 1st XV team was relegated for the second year in a row. For long periods in most games Malvern lead and were the better team; indeed, if a rugby match lasted 70 minutes we would have not been relegated. Many opposition teams said to us that we were too good a team to be relegated; however, at the end of the season the league table does not lie. We lost too many games in the last 15 minutes, not because we were disorganised or unfit, but because we had exploitable weaknesses. All who played in or watched those games will know that when opposition realised that we could not compete in the tight they capitalised on that area. Our lack of specialist prop forwards hurt us throughout the season. However, what the scrum lacked in technique was made up by courage and effort. We redeployed back-row forwards to the front row and they gave us everything that they had. No one should or could criticise the commitment of our pressed front row; it takes a brave and dedicated man to keep putting his head into the dark areas of the tight when he is being stuffed by a technically better unit. Without such heroics we would have forfeited games and finished bottom of the league. My thanks go to our makeshift prop- forwards who gave their all to the cause. 1 Last year we knew that Malvern was a 2 /2 team club and we needed to recruit additional players if we were to regularly field a Development and 3rd team. While we successfully recruited some 20 or more players during the pre-season and early season, we lost as many to long term injury, work relocation, departure to University and other unavailability. In sum, although a great deal effort was put in by the rugby staff to overcome the inadequate number of 1 players last season, we remained a 2 /2 team club throughout the season. Consequently, we fielded not more than 2 teams each week for the majority of the season; a 1st XV and a team to fulfil either the Development or 3rd XV fixtures. Both the Development and 3rd XV played in the West Midlands Reserve leagues, divisions 2 and 3 respectively. When both the Development and 3rd XV had fixtures league regulations required us to fulfil the higher division fixture in preference to the lower. However, opposition team call-offs and weather cancellations meant that the 2nd team in the club played a mixture of Development and 3rd XV fixtures. In fact the team played 9 Development fixtures losing all, and 10 3rd XV fixtures winning 5 and losing 5. By contrast the junior section of the club had a very successful season. The youth membership increased by over 25% last season and Sundays saw some excellent performances by the mini and junior teams. All the teams, coaches and helpers deserve our praise for their efforts, but I would like to pick a few representative examples to illustrate the fine performance of the M&J volunteers and their teams of youngsters. In the minis, the U7’s won the Luctonians Mini Festival, and the U8’s won the Plate at the Worcester Festival, and were unbeaten winners at the Luctonians Anglo-Welsh and Stourbridge Festivals. In the juniors the U15’s and U16’s showed a lot of talent and had very successful seasons and cup runs. The Malvern debut season in the U17’s league produced an outstanding league triumph from 8 wins and only 1 loss. Mark’s U16’s had a successful post-season tour to Antwerp, and Spanker’s U17’s were similarly successful on their Dutch tour. Last night, the U17’s won the MHDC Team of the Year award.

The future of Malvern Rugby Club is in good hands; well done to Mel and her team.

Off the field we had a year of mixed feelings. There was such an impact to lose our laconic Welshman; Malcolm will be missed by all. The service at St Georges showed just how much Malcolm was loved and respected. The club lost more than £4000 in sponsorship during the season; the sum was from sponsors who could not honour their promises and games that could not be played because of the weather/pitch conditions. Other sponsors were brilliant in rearranging their sponsored game twice as matches were called off. Nevertheless we lost sponsorship for 1st XV games and bar take when we had no home games – for example throughout January. To counter that the revenue from clubhouse letting was much higher than last year; we must thank Mike, Jayne and the clubhouse team for their efforts. Personally, I would like to thank Debs for the hard work she put in to the Half-Time Raffle; this made money throughout the season. The Club was once again awarded the RFU Club Accreditation; this accolade reflects our efforts to meet standards required by the RFU and makes us eligible for financial support from sport/rugby support organisations. I will address the Club audit at the later part of the Agenda. Looking to next season we have at last filled the post of Director of Rugby. David Irish has agreed to lead our team to bring success back to Malvern; this will not be easy, or instant, but I know we are back on an upward trajectory. Thankfully Nick Tisdale has agreed to support David in turning round our fortunes. We have been so lucky over the past 2 seasons to be supported by other outstanding coaches. Rob Cook has given sterling service as an inspirational backs coach and Peter Walton has brought fresh ideas to our forwards. These top men have given wonderful support to our teams over the past 2 seasons. However, their talent has rightly been rewarded and we must applaud their success. Rob has a full contract with Gloucester and is required to give his time to their nominated clubs, and Peter has been recognised for his commitment to the age-group sides. While both want to keep an association with Malvern Rugby Club, neither can commit to their previous undertaking. It is with regret that we will see much less of these two stalwarts but they hope to support us when they can. David Irish has been quick to supplement the backs/defence coaching; Billy McGinty will join the team for the pre-season and hopefully beyond. For the coming season the 1st XV will be playing in the (South) league, which is a 12 team league; this means we will play 4 fewer league games and importantly 2 fewer home games for sponsorship and gate. However, the 1st XV will play in 2 knockout competitions – the Intermediate Cup and the N.Mids. Shield. With luck we could recover the lost home games in these competitions. The Development XV will continue to play in the West Midland Reserve league but in Division 3. The 3rd XV will revert to the Worcester & Hereford Merit league Division 2. Another change will see the teams travelling to most away games by car, although both the 1st XV and Development will each have 2 coach trips for their longer distant journeys – i.e., those close to 70 miles each way; the 3rd team will travel their typical 30 mile journeys by car. All teams will have the opportunity to claim petrol expenses for the designated drivers transporting players and kit to away games. In order to part fund this expense the club plan to re- introduce a small match fee for all teams. We hope to bring Worcester University rugby back to Spring Lane for next season. They were very unhappy with the treatment they received from Wanderers last season and they have asked to discuss terms to return to Malvern. Ern and I are in discussions with the University to bring them back; a great advantage being that we would expect to enhance our playing resources and so put out 3 teams each week. Finally, I need to make a few points on the budget for the coming year. If last year was difficult, the coming year will be much harder to balance the budget; but that is what we plan to do. We anticipate that the gate revenue will be considerably down due to a reduced gate charge, fewer fixtures and fewer away supporters – a penalty of playing at level 7. We will be buying a new playing jersey for the 1st XV to reflect the changes in the Club Sponsors for this season. We anticipate an increase in maintenance expenditure for both the changing block and the clubhouse. Consequently, we will have to maintain a very tight hold on all discretionary expenditure lines. Our objectives are to provide good rugby for all our players and finish near the top of the league. We need to be in a strong position ahead of the league structure re-organisation in 2 years time. We intend to do this while retaining strong fiscal governance to return a small profit on the year – it will be a major challenge for all parts of the Club.

Thank you.

Alan Evans

Appendix 2

Report of the Treasurer for the year ended 30 April 2014.

The financial statements of the Club for the year ended 30 April 2014 have as usual been placed on the website for the benefit of all the members. In addition a copy has been displayed on the notice board in the clubhouse. I offer thanks to the Independent Examiners who have issued their report on the financial statements to the members of the Committee. The surplus for the year amounts to £8,310 which represents the difference between income and expenditure. This is the first year for some three years that a surplus has been earned and fulfils the commitment made at last year’s AGM by the Chairman to the members of the Club. The financial state of the finances of the Club as at 30 April 2014 is satisfactory and the budget for the next year ending 30 April 2015 has been prepared on an achievable basis. I thank the Chairman and the members of the Committee and their teams for their support over the past year. Also thanks to the members of the sponsorship committee who have met frequently throughout the year in achieving income targets in extremely difficult times.

JOHN TAVERNER July 4 2014