Minutes of the LADIES STANDING COMMITTEE meeting held on Tuesday 8th April 2014, at Ellersly House Hotel, 4 Ellersly Road, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, EH12 6HZ at 1:15pm Present Fiona Hardie (President), Mary Anne McWilliam (Vice-President), Marion Fraser (Junior Vice- President), Gail Munro (Treasurer). Marion Malcolm (Aberdeen), Liz Boswell (Ayr), Glynnice Lauder (Border), Elaine Semple (Braehead), Maureen Woods (Dumfries), Carolyn Nicoll (Forfar), Jan Howard (Greenacres), Elaine Telfer (Greenacres), Kate Adamson (Inverness), Jane Drysdale (Kinross), Helen Gordon (Kirkcaldy), Jackie Craig (Lanarkshire), Helen Hally (Lockerbie), Jean Gorrie (Murrayfield), Shelagh Fulton (Perth), Jeannette Kerr (Stirling), Maureen Parker (Stranraer), Shirley Morton (Waterfront), Suzy Wakefield (RCCC), Ruth Addinall (Minutes). 1. Welcome Action President Fiona welcomed everyone to the meeting, saying it was nice to see such a big turnout. 2. Apologies received from Wendy Henderson (Border), Annette Bennie (Kinross), Linda Imrie (Lockerbie). 3. Minutes of the meeting held on 4th February 2014 The meeting had been chaired by JVP Marion as President Fiona and Vice- President Mary Anne were in Flims for the World Junior Championship. The following corrections were made to the minutes: Page 2, item 7, para 3, Scottish Senior Ladies – Hannon should be Hannen Page 3, item 10, para 2, Resignation – Crosby should be Crosbee. Carolyn Nicoll (Forfar) had sent her apologies but they had not been reported. Maureen Woods (Dumfries) had also sent apologies which were not reported. Her replacement had also been unable to attend as her car had broken down. After these corrections were made, the minutes were proposed by Shelagh Fulton (Perth), seconded by Liz Boswell (Ayr) and signed off by President Fiona. 4. Matters arising The Morton Trophy link on the Ladies Branch website page had now been done and could be found in Related Pages in the same way as the Henderson Bishop. 5. Treasurer’s Report A formal report was not available as Gail had been busy and the end of year had now been moved to the end of April, so she would concentrate on preparing for that. An order had been placed for small brass curling stones but they had not yet been received. Gail asked Suzy Wakefield if the Royal Club could organize purchase of the Scottish Championship brooches for the winners of the Women’s Royal competition so that these could be presented at the Ladies Branch AGM, and the Club bill be sent to her for payment. 6. Correspondence None had been received. 7. Competitions World Juniors – President Fiona had attended this on behalf of the Royal Club. Gina Aitken, Naomi Brown, Rowena Kerr and Rachel Hannen, with Mhairi Baird as 5th played well but struggled to finish, losing 3 games after an extra end, and 3 more by just 1 shot. They did win their last game 1 against Italy so have filled the last automatic qualification place for next years World Juniors, escaping the European Challenge playoff. The Canadian girls won gold with the Koreans winning silver. In the boys games, Team Kyle Smith won silver medals, presented by Royal Club President Alan Durno, losing to the host Swiss team. Morton Trophy Final – 11th March at Kirkcaldy. All teams arrived in good time with the umpires talk at 10am and on the ice at 10:15. Lanarkshire won all their games against Aberdeen, and Ayr all theirs against Kinross. In the final, Ayr won 2 of the 3 games against Lanarkshire, and so the Ayr ladies were presented with the trophy, their badges and certificates. Royal Club President Alan Durno and Vice-President David Henderson joined everyone for lunch and watched the finals stages of the games after their ASC meeting which was being held at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink. Jane Drysdale (Kinross) raised the issue that there had been no food available for purchase at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink and that supporters had had to go to a garden centre etc in order to eat. It was pointed out that it had been discussed at previous meetings that an open catering facility was not available but food could be ordered in advance if required. Scottish Mixed Championship – 7th-9th March at Aberdeen. The winners were Kyle Smith, Hannah Fleming, Billy Morton and Alice Spence and they would be representing Scotland in Tarnby, Denmark at the European Mixed Championship in September. Scottish Pairs – 21st-23rd March at Stranraer. This was won by Lee and Judith McCleary which is only the 3rd time in 33 years that a female has been in the winning pair, the last time being 2011 when Gail played with her brother Hammy McMillan. Vice-President Mary Anne did the presentation. National Masters Championship – 6th-9th March at Greenacres. President Fiona presented the trophy to the winners Janette Wilson, Norma Brown, Christine Cheape and Liz Reid. Scottish Wheelchair Championships – 5th-7th March at Stirling. President Fiona presented the trophy to the winners lead and skip Neil Hogg with Daniel Cowan, Maria Duncan and Leslie Barr. She did wonder why there were no medals presented and asked if anyone knew why and whether everyone else got a medal for being a Scottish Champion? Gail would bring this up at the Competitions Committee. th rd World Women’s Championship – 15 -23 March, New Brunswick, Canada. President Fiona had attended this but missed the first game due to flight delays. The Scottish Ladies team, Kerry Barr, Rachael, Simms, Rhiann Macleod, Barbara McPake and Hannah Fleming, played well, but found themselves unable to finish off and struggled a bit with the ice. They had a great experience and were great ambassadors for the sport. They were well received by the Canadians and one of the local pubs organised a Scottish night with the girls as guests of honour. President Fiona explained that the Frances Brodie award for sportsmanship at the WWCC, first presented in 1989 and presented by Frances herself until she was unable to travel and until her death in 2006 she nominated a member of the Ladies’ Branch to represent her, normally the Lady President. However, Fiona was informed that the World Curling Federation had decided that it should now be presented by the Chief Umpire, to match the corresponding men’s Colin Campbell award. Rhona Martin and Eve Muirhead had both been presented with it. Gail found the details of the FH award on the website and read out the details given, and this reinforced the feeling that a letter should be sent to the World Curling Federation to ask that this be changed back to fit in with Frances’ obvious wishes. President Fiona indicated her intention to do this. This year the Canadian second, Alison Kreviazuk, won the award. th th Paralympic Winter Games – 7 -16 March at Sochi, Russia. Congratulations to Aileen Neilson, Gregor Ewan, Jim Gault, Angie Malone, 2 Bob McPherson and Tony Zummack (Coach) for their bronze medal win. Newcomers Trophy – 6th April at Greenacres. JVP Marion had attended this to support her grandson who was playing, and she thought it was the most fantastic event for youngsters aged 8 to 18, who turned up individually and were then drawn into teams. 9. Ladies Branch Business Centres had been asked to report back if they would like a Morton Secretaries meeting. It was suggested that one should be held on Tuesday 3rd June after the LSC meeting (which should be short) and that it would be a good idea for the Centre reps to attend as well. The Morton Secretaries could attend the LSC meeting beforehand, allowing sharing of travel. Morton Trophy website – there should be a note that states that shots are counted before ends, which is different to how other competitions work, and how the website is setup to display results. Jeanette Kerr (Stirling) had been asked to check that the penalty (2 points, 5 ends and 6 shots) that they had invoked for an accidental infringement of the rules was the standard penalty. She was assured that it was. Overs & Unders – a discussion had already taken place to ascertain that there was not enough interest to continue this in its current format. A training weekend/day had been discussed with a competition at the end. However it turned out that quite a lot of Centres already did training sessions with Royal Club coaches for a cost of around £20 a head and it had also been discussed by the Coaches Committee. The Royal Club also run adult weekend training camps. A lot of discussion followed with centres sharing experiences. A newcomers trophy was suggested but a Virtual Club bonspiel already exists. A competition for individual entry was suggested. Some Centres already did this locally but it was felt a reasonable idea to have a Ladies Branch Bonspiel for individual entry that was open to all lady members. October/November would be a good time; it would have to be a weekend to include all lady curlers, although mid-week ice would be easier to find. Shelagh Fulton (Perth) also reminded the meeting of the “Super League” idea of combining results from all open competitions. It was decided to put together a small sub-committee to take this forward consisting of President Fiona, Carolyn Nicoll (Forfar), Helen Hally (Lockerbie), Shelagh Fulton (Perth) and Liz Boswell (Ayr). Ladies Branch AGM Tuesday, 13th May 2014. The pre-meeting will be held at 10:30 in the Duncan Rooms, Easterbrook Hall where retiring representatives are asked to introduce the incoming representatives to the committee. President Fiona invited all the existing committee plus the incoming representatives to an informal supper party at her house but a formal invitation would also be issued as well as an invoice for the pre- AGM lunch.