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MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF REPTON SQUASH CLUB LTD HELD AT 19.30 TUESDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 2008
Minutes of meeting
Date of meeting: 23 September 2008 Venue: Repton Squash Club Start time: 19.30 hrs
Purpose of meeting: Annual General Meeting
Attendees: S Evans Apologies : I Rodgers Distribution: Attendees
M Allen Notice Boards
J Boyden
A Oldbury
W Hibbert
D Wood
L Watson
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1.0 Minutes of Last Meeting
1.1 The minutes of the last AGM held on the 18th September 2007 were approved as an accurate record.
2.0 Consideration of the Accounts
2.1 The Accounts for year ending 31st March 2008 were discussed.
2.2 SE gave a brief summary of the main points in the absence of the Treasurer (IR). This is detailed in Appendix 1. Due to the anomalies in the accounts at this stage an EGM was proposed to be held on the 5th January 2009.
The current bank balances for the Club were reported as:-
Close Bros. - £10,231.76
Nat West - £487.22
2.3 Directors’ Reports
2.4 Chairman – see Appendix 2
2.5 Facilities & Website – see Appendix 2
2.6 Club and Team Squash – see Appendix 3
2.7 Coaching and Development (inc Juniors) – see Appendix 4
2.8 Ladies – see Appendix 5
2.9 New Members – see Appendix 6
3.0 Election of Directors
3.1 The existing Committee were re-elected en-bloc, with the exception of George Whitehurst, who was forced to resign from the Committee earlier in the year due to ill health.
3.1.1 A new Club Captain is required, with Simon Evans taking on the job in the interim period.
3.2 Retiring Directors Not Seeking Re-election:
Mr George Whitehurst
3.3 Any Other Business
The outgoing Committee member received a vote of thanks from the new Committee.
3.4 The meeting closed at 20.25 hrs.
4.0 Date of Next Committee Meeting and EGM
Monday 5th January 2009
Signed:
Chairman……………………………………. Secretary……………………………………..
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APPENDIX 1
Treasurer’s Report – Profit & Loss Account
- On Bar Equipment & Sales the numbers are down 8% on the previous year
- Court Fee’s are also down, reflecting the situation regarding low numbers of playing members at that time which we will touch upon later. However in January we put up the court prices by 20% so even if we stand still on the number of courts booked this current year, this figure will be considerably better in the next set of accounts.
- On Expenditure there are two items which are incorrect and have been reported to the Accountant’s however they have not been altered in time for this meeting. They are –
- Expenditure – Association Fee’s, currently reflecting Zero – This is the fee to England Squash and it will have been paid – Therefore another £600 approx to add to Expenditure
- Expenditure – Sundry Expenses, this is considerably more than last year and is primarily down to just over £1k being paid out to the VAT after they carried out an inspection at the Accountants and found that the VAT payments for 2005, 2006 & 2007 were incorrect. The £1k is the adjustments required to reconcile these years.
- School Contribution – There is also a query regarding the School Contribution figure
- All in all it looks likely that when the adjustments have been made there will be a loss for the year of between £6,500 & £7,000.
- Account Balances as of today are
Close Bros £10,231.76
Nat West £487.22
APPENDIX 2
Chairman’s Report
The past 12 months have once again proved difficult. However, it is my belief that the combination of hard work, determination and enthusiasm have helped us stem the tide and with these same attributes continuing I believe that Repton can begin to move forward in a more positive manner.
The main ‘undocumented’ objectives for the year were
To increase the number of members playing at the club
This has, to a certain extent been achieved. The number of members throughout the year has increased from a low of just over 80 in October 2007 up to it’s current level pre-subscription of 107. To date, just under 50 have already renewed - We must ensure everything possible is done to renew as many of these people during the next few weeks and then push on and attempt to get the number of playing members back up towards the 120 mark – The level of 2 years ago.
To increase the playing participation of members
Again, to a certain extent this has been achieved. We have provided a number of initiatives throughout the year for members to join in – Club Night’s & Repton Cup Night’s. These are supported by members but we could do with a more diverse participation and not just the same members each time. We need to work on this. The first Repton Cup Night proved this is possible with men, women and juniors all participating – It was a great night and we should be striving for more of these evenings.
In fact The Repton Cup Night’s were played as racketball and not squash. A number of members have since continued playing racketball including myself, Simon Price, Adey, Ian Coulton & Richard kent who seem to be playing every Tuesday at the moment and also some of the lady members – Jenna, Emma, Jane & Lynne. Not only should we be pushing the participation of members playing at our Club but also we should be encouraging them to play racketball as well as squash.
To carry out major Facilities based works required
This has been achieved.
We have replaced all of the court fans during the summer, which was essential if we are to continue to provide good quality playing conditions
We have also worked on the men’s showers and they all perform adequately
Many thanks to Will Hibbert for organising these works.
In general the members of the current Committee have provided stability over the past year and an ability to ‘get jobs done’ – I am sure this will continue for the forthcoming 12 months and I thank them for their efforts so far.
One note of sadness over the last year was George Whitehurst’s illness which forced him to stop playing squash and also terminate his commitment to the committee which of course was totally understandable. However George came down to the club recently looking very well and there is the possibility that he could be on court again soon which is great news.
The Juniors and Ladies members at the club (especially the Ladies) seem to be flourishing – I’ll come on to specifics in a moment about them but again we need to give them encouragement and the tools to move forward.
Web Site – The web site has again proved to be an important portal for the club and continues to be one of the best sites in Derbyshire. More of the same for next year and our thanks to Dave Wood for helping keep the site up-to-date.
A positive item which has been achieved in the past year is the club’s attainment of the England Squash Club Charter Bronze Award. This award as I’m sure we are all now aware will allow us the ability to piggy-back on the Mini Squash courses that England Squash are able to run in local schools and also it gives us the opportunity to apply for funding. We have already secured limited funding for Lee Watson to provide coaching to the Ladies and in addition we will be applying for funds in April 2009 to allow us to opportunity of providing cosmetic alterations to the club’s facilities.
In conclusion, we’ve been through another tough year but the signs/prospects are more positive and with more determination and enthusiasm from us all I am sure we can move the club forward in a positive manner.
The objectives set down by our predecessors are those that we are moving forward with –
- attract new Members
- improve facilities
- improve revenue
- to maintain RSC as a viable concern
We are trying, and will continue to carry on trying to achieve these goals.
APPENDIX 3
Teams
The level of Men’s Teams has remained static over the past 12 months and once again for the forthcoming season we have been able to submit 3 Teams to the DSRA leagues. We also have approx the same number of members willing to be considered for Team squash as at this time last year – 20.
Next Summer, we will be looking to put forward at least 1 team, if not 2 and in addition if we can keep some momentum going on the racketball side then maybe we could consider entering a Summer Racketball Team.
APPENDIX 4
Juniors
Lee Watson took over the coaching of the Juniors in October last year and the number of Juniors participating in his sessions has risen to 22, with an average attendance of between 10 & 15.
The main objective for the coming year is to improve on this number and hopefully with the England Squash Mini Squash program and continued word of mouth and press advertising this will be achieved.
We will also be considering approaching other local clubs to ask if their Juniors would like to participate in friendly matches with our Juniors which is another progressive step forward and should provided a competitive edge for the older Juniors and give them the encouragement to play more and not just on a Friday evening.
APPENDIX 5
Ladies
The number of ladies playing at the club has increased to 17 over the past year and they are a group that are comfortable together. They recently went out for a meal in Repton and a great night was had by all.
The ladies are playing both squash and racketball and get together for Ladies Evenings at least once a month.
There was some deliberation recently about re-submitting a Ladies Team to the DSRA leagues, however after much discussion it has been decided instead to put in place the following –
1 – Regular coaching from Lee Watson. The program for this has yet to be finalised but in principal Lee will work with the ladies on their squash skills and marking skills. Funding has been sourced from England Squash which will help with this, however there will still be a requirement for the ladies to pay a contribution themselves.
2 – Friendly Matches with other clubs. I am currently trying to put in place 2 x friendly matches (Home and Away) for the ladies to play over the coming months. Not only will this give them the encouragement to better their own abilities but it will put into place the guidance that Lee will be giving them.
It will also provide the ladies with an insight into Team Squash and that will stand them in good stead if they decide to put a Team together for the 2009/2010 season.
APPENDIX 6
New Members
We have attempted to make improvements this year in the way that we attract and retain new members to the club.
We have, over the course of the year, placed adverts in the local press and these have directly resulted in approximately 10 new members. We have also found that some of these new members have also brought along their friends to join.
In an attempt to retain these new members, we have tried a number of different mechanisms to help integrate them into the club and to meet people to arrange games with.
- Club Nights – once a month over the summer for informal games
- Internal ladder – has been reinstated with complete list of names and addresses
- Handicapped competitions – making it easier for new members to get involved
- Finding new members games – I have provided names of existing members that may be similar standard to new members and made personal introductions where possible. This approach has been described on the website and in letters and emails to everyone. Email communication has been very good this year and is helping to keep people informed and involved.
- The Repton Cup social events were a great success and the next event ‘The Wooden Rackets competition’ is the next informal opportunity to get involved.
The rejuvenation of the Ladies section has been very pleasing and has probably benefited the most from the new members that have joined.
In order to attract new members for the next year we intend to introduce a ‘Member get member’ scheme with financial reward for the introducing member, and also to target some local big companies e.g. Toyota to discuss ‘Corporate membership’. We will continue to advertise and hope to reinvigorate the ladder and competitions to be more inclusive for everyone.
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