Isca Ladies Hockey Club

/ Devon Hockey Umpires’ Association
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting Held on 18 September 2011

PRESENT:

Mason / Stephen
Beamon / Martin
Porter / Paddy
Bell / Andrew
Taghdissian / James
Spencer / Tom
Triscott / Roger
Walker / Colin
Woolcock / Graham
Whittell / Bob
Watson / Andy
Harvey / Mike
Wollington / John
Rowe / Andy
Tallowin / Sam
Whitby / Pete
Daniel / Mike
Dingle / Keith
Dutton / Mike
Filewod / Peter
Hammond / Peter
Stoneman / Martin
Chipperfield / Tim
Eggleton / David
Johnston / Steve
Hodge / Peter
Jones / Richard
McMahon / Denise
Harvey / Andy
Harvey / Martyn

APOLOGIES:

Gill / Julia
Pearce / Steve
1. / The President, Paddy Porter, welcomed everyone to the AGM and apologised for the lateness of the AGM and the lack of minutes from the previous AGM. / Proposer/Seconder
2. / MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
None
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5 /

REPORT – Treasurer – Steve Pearce

First to wrap up the last two year’s accounts, I note that whilst we issued a draft accounts summary for 2009/10 last year, they were not formally audited and certified afterwards. We have now rectified this situation & due to the somewhat delayed date of this year’s AGM have now managed to get up to date in that we have now both seasons 2009/10 & 2010/11signed off by our auditor Mr Peter Hodge. He has issued a statement that the accounts as of 30th April 2011 gave a true and fair view of the association’s affairs. The auditor’s report and summary statement have been posted to the web site for members’ perusal.
This year has again seen the continued financial growth of DHUA with turnover again growing from £15k in 2009/10 to £20k in 2010/11.
We have continued to implement the appointment fees charging system in line with individual Club status for the winter season but still maintain the £5 flat rate for the Exeter and Plymouth summer leagues & P&D League (these are classed as Development Leagues).
All substantial outstanding expense claims were settled at the end of financial year and further payments have just been made for summer appointments. Some of you have may have ended up overpaying subs and for those affected I have repaid such sums within expenses claims.
I have attached a summary of the audited income and expenditure statement for the year end to 30th April 2011. Summarising the financial position for the year, I note:

• We have a healthy bank balance and have not needed to rely on any sponsorship.
• Income from clubs via appointment fees of £13,800 was offset against travel expenses for umpires & coaches of £13,200.
• Membership receipts of £4,300 covered the admin, insurance, web costs and general operation of the association. We have pitched individual charges for Level 1 courses so that it covers the cost of arranging & holding them, so these break even.
• The deposit account, which holds the underlying balance of our funds minus an operating float in the current account - currently stands at just over £4,950. This account is currently generating almost no interest so we should consider other ways we could invest this money
• The net worth of the association stands at £11,800 to year end April 2010, with a net income of £500 for year.
• Average winter league appointment costs are running at approx £8-9 per appointment.
• Beyond the standard expenditure for appointment expenses, the following activities have had substantial figures invested in them:
• £1,800 in development costs- for coaching, mentoring & supporting of members.
• £1,500 in web site costs (Module to appoint club umpires, improving functionality plus annual support and costs of league collaboration).
• £1,900 in running Level 1 courses (EH packs, room hire, tutor costs).
• The running of the association (bar web site) £1700 representing travel, room hires, admin & postal costs, new rule books & insurance.
• Proposals for next year’s fees, charges and expense rates will be tabled.

Nearly all invoices for the season have been fully paid and I commend all of these clubs who have paid up promptly and as of today only 2 significant accounts are outstanding and one of these has been agreed with the club concerned.
Consideration of the timing of next year’s AGM should be held as by delaying until Sept we are able to produce audited accounts rather than retrospectively doing this.
Lastly, I note that due to our success in increasing umpire numbers our accounts grow inexorably each year. I am conscious that I am unable to devote the time I should to fulfilling the role competently and ask that consideration is made to someone else fulfilling the role that can devote the time necessary.
Steve Pearce was unable to attend. Peter Hodge reported that all accounts were now up-to-date and the association is in a good financial position. President thanked Peter Hodge

REPORT – Membership Secretary – Denise McMahon

Facts & Figures –
2009/10 / 2010/11
Vice Presidents / 4 / 3
Devon Umpires (L1 qualified & above incl young umps) / 261 / 264
Members / 169 (including 1 x L3 & 4 x L2) / 192 (including 1 x L3 & 4 x L2)
Neutral Pool / 51 (inc.1 National Badge, 14 x Level 2’s) / 50 (inc.1 National Badge, 14 x Level 2’s)
Registration Only - Level One / 6 / 3
Dormant/Resigned/Retired / 4 / 13
Inactive & Unpaid Level One / 4 / In progress (see below)
Non Member (Aspiring Umpire) / 73 / 75
Level One Candidates (Part Qual) / 62 / 78
Transferred / Out 2; In L1’s - 9 L2’s - 2 / Out 7; In L1’s - 7 L2’s - 1
Non Member (Subs Unpaid) / 5 / In progress (see below)
Level 1 Qualified (Visitor) / 1 / 2
Foundation Umpire (Adult) / 6
Young Umpire (Foundation Award) / 23 / 37
Young Umpire (Level 1 Candidate) / 53 / 70
Young Umpire (Level 1 Qualified) / 35 / 19
Young Umpire (Unqualified) / 13 / 13
Unpaid Membership fees
There are still around 25 unpaid memberships for last season. I will chase these when dealing with this year’s renewals.
New Umpires:
I can now send an email form to EH when registering a newly qualified umpire. However, the old posted forms are still acceptable.
The Registration Pack sent out by EH must have been hit by the spending cuts as all a new umpire gets now is a letter of congrats from EH with a laminated push out card bearing their registration number to confirm qualification. (The certificate and badge are no more!!)
New Umpires = 22 (Summer Leagues = 6); (Young Umpires =2)
Rulebooks: The printed 2011 books were ordered and received and I have posted/given them out during the season. If anyone here who has not received one and would like one please ask me after this meeting.
Activity Status: Will be doing the sweep for last season soon.
Level One Candidate Expiry (over 2 years) = 28
Contacted these and advised that their qualifying period was due to expire and advised them that their candidate status would expire and they would be unable to umpire lower league matches. As a result - 4 have had extensions to their qualifying period, 1 has resigned and 4 are no longer in Devon. I will do this sweep soon.
Transfers
In = 8 Out = 7 There will be movement on these figures once the Universities have returned and get to grips with organising their umpires.
Male/Female Numbers
Qualified (excl Young Umps) = Male 178; Female 67 Young umps (U21&U18) = Male 15; Female 4
Candidates = Male 47; Female 30
President thanked Denise McMahon

REPORT – Appointments Secretary – Graham Woolcock

Well this year has been a really good year, with a remarkable total of 1505 appointments being made (this was before the summer leagues in Exeter and Plymouth started) including the chance for a few to Umpire the Swedish National team!! It is also a year which has seen the christening of Captain Scarlet (thank you Mr Harvey Senior)! Also on my travels I have had the pleasure in seeing the following:- Paddy having a Paddy!, Andy Harvey on crowd duty, Martyn Harvey buying a hairdressers car, Steve Pearce doing a jib on cards, Pete Hammond becoming an expert on sprouts in curry (thanks Exeter Hornets!!) and Keith pretending to be a flower pot man (can we please buy Keith a new sun hat?).
I would also like to congratulate Teign Ladies on making it so far in the National Competition. It was pleasing to be able to appoint Devon umpires all the way through to the semi-finals and I hope we managed your expectations.
What has been disappointing is the number of red cards being shown in the second half of the season, this was spoken about at recent committee meetings and will be managed by the committee for the start of the new season to try and remedy the situation.
It was also encouraging to see some new umpires making an impact and pleasing to see how the umpire coaching has enabled some umpires perform solidly week in, week out.
I would like to thank those of you who use the website early and if you do have to change your availability the earlier the better for me please.
Let’s hope for another successful year of hockey umpiring in Devon.
Andy Harvey asked if more notice could be given with more prompting from the website. Graham replied that the West appointments hampered this but it was improving. President thanked Graham Woolcock.
REPORT – Chief Coach – Andy Rowe
This has been my fifth and final year as Chief Coach and although I have had to take a back seat due to work and home commitments, others have seen that the progress made over previous years has not been curtailed. The commitment to coach as many umpires as possible has been met and there is now the ability to assess all the pool umpires regularly which will lead to even more successful matching of umpires to games. The unprecedented number of qualified coaches we have in Devon means that we now have a group of committed umpires and coaches that are determined to raise the standard of umpiring in the county and the West region. There were not the number of opportunities to meet that we would have liked this year but this did not stop the week on week appointments and reports taking place.
Umpiring in the county has coped well with the changes that the self pass rules have brought to the game and our umpires continue to make progress up the ladder. However we need to continue to listen to our regular pool umpires if we are to cover games. We did this by realising that appointing umpires singly may cover more games but appointing in pairs is better to ensure more enjoyment and consistency.
The meetings that took place were called to help ensure that the increased number of coachings and subsequent reports had a level of consistency in their tenor and advice. It is difficult to achieve this with the differing approaches and personalities involved but we hope that the message that umpires are given is the same no matter who is carrying out the coaching. Julia Gill led the discussion at the latest meeting and it is clear that her experience will ensure that coaching continues to develop in the future. The changes that will filter down from the way in which green cards are to be used at National League level will need some monitoring. Although the need for a bench to administer the penalties means that it is unlikely to be matched at regional level and below, more personal green cards will be seen. The second visit of ExeterUniversity to the premier division also gives us the opportunity to arrange events and discuss issues.
On the level 1 area, we have clarified the procedure in which candidates are passed and we continue to increase the number of qualified umpires. We hope that some of them will be encouraged to join the pool.
So I look to the future with great optimism and I would like to thank all those who have helped me over the past years. I am still available if any umpires would like to contact me for advice.
President thanked Andy Rowe
REPORT – Young Umpire Co-Ordinator – Julia Gill
No report
4. /

Proposal for 2011/2012

Martin Stoneman suggested Summer League fees should be scrapped. This was not supported by the meeting.
Proposals voted on and passed with 1 abstention / Peter Filewood
Tom Spencer
5. /

DHUA Auditor

April end of year for the accounts means that it is not possible to prepare them for May AGM
Proposed that AGM take place at the end of June. Unanimously passed. EGM to implement.
Peter Hodge to continue and received Honorarium. Unanimously passed / Andy Harvey Roger Triscott
John Wollington
Martyn Harvey
6. /

President’s Address

Reinvigorating Devon Umpiring (RDU) has been going for 6 years and DHUA is still striving to improve umpiring at all levels within Devon.
In the last 3 years the number of qualified Level 1 Umpires has increased by over 25% from 198 to 248 and the ratio of fully qualified umpires per league team is now just above 2. However, there is a great disparity between clubs with United Services having 6 umpires per league team to Torbay Ladies having 0.5 per league team. Of the 33 Clubs in Devon, 12 ‘A’ Clubs (2.5 or more umpires per league team) have benefited from the lowest DHUA appointment fee of £8.00, which has remained constant over the last few seasons. However, 16 clubs (that’s 50% of Devon Clubs) are classed as ‘C’ Clubs, either due to their low umpire ratio or they refuse to engage with DHUA.
Last season DHUA introduced a ‘Club Umpire Appointing’ system via the Devon Hockey Website. ‘A’ & ‘B’ Clubs and those ‘C’ Clubs in higher divisions are now asked to contribute affiliated club umpires to the neutral pool in return for DHUA appointing to their higher teams. This has proved successful in increasing the number of DHUA umpire appointments and in conjunction with the 10 new qualified Level 1 Umpire Coaches we are able to offer free umpire coaching and this in turn has allowed DHUA to offer effective Level 1 Umpire Award assessment during the normal hockey season for the first time.
One subject that we had hoped was long forgotten was the issue of dissent. This has reared its ugly head once more and DHUA are going to hold a forum before the start of next season on ‘Player Management’ in order to remind and equip umpires with the tools necessary to deal with issues as they arise within the game and hopefully prevent some Red Cards. However, the role of the Team Captain needs to be addressed by clubs as some Captains do not seem to understand their responsibilities on and off the pitch; it is more than choosing ends!
The number of Level 1 Candidates is dropping and they do not seem to be using the opportunities available to get coached and assessed. Also the numbers taking Level 1 Umpire Award course is also falling. Finally, whilst investing in young umpire development is a key RDU target the opportunity to coach and progress young umpires currently appears limited. This is not helped by clubs appointing their own umpires to under 18 England Hockey competitions and not involving the Devon Young Umpire Action Group. DHUA will be arranging a meeting with Club UDO’s before the start of next season to address this and to see how we can work together to improve the situation.
Thank you to those clubs, Club UDO’s and individuals who have supported DHUA over the last 6 years and for your help in making RDU and Devon Hockey the success it is and continues to be. / Mark Gott
7. /

ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

President (Selection)Alan (Paddy) Porter
SecretaryAndy Rowe
TreasurerSteve Pearce
The following committee members were elected en mass:
Appointments Secretary (Selection)Graham Woolcock
Asst Appointments Secretary Paul Earnshaw
Membership SecretaryDenise McMahon
Chief Coach (Selection)Julia Gill
Asst Chief Coach (Selection) Andy Harvey
Umpire Course CoordinatorGraham Doney
Young Umpire CoordinatorPeter Hammond
DHA RepresentativeAlan (Paddy) Porter
Chair of Selectors (Selection)Keith Dingle
Members RepresentativeRoger Triscott
Standing down Sam Tallowin and Sandy Richards
Unanimously passed
Welfare Officer post to be discussed. Sam Tallowin DHA welfare officer / Sam Tallowin
James Taghdissian
8. /

ELECTION OF VICE PRESIDENTS

Kevin Hughes has passed away
Roger Reffell (Re Elected)
Keith Dingle (Re Elected)
Jane Nockolds (Re Elected)
Nominated:Keith Dingle proposed Andy Harvey
Unanimously passed / Seconded Mike Harvey
9. /

AWARDS

Martin Beaman on NPUA panel. President congratulated Martin
Awards to follow at EGM

AOB

Sam Tallowin confirmed that there was a new Red Card Report Form but that the old one would be accepted at present. There had been requests to increase the penalties for swearing at umpires and Sam had had increased some by two matches. Comments are needed from all and umpires should ensure it is directed at the umpire. Reed cards are increasing and umpire may avoid them by earlier intervention.

President thanked all those present at the Annual General Meeting

Meeting closed 12 noon

APPENDIX ONE – DRAFT INCOME AND EXPENDITURE