Minutes of officers’ meeting on 30 April 2007

Officers of the National Stoolball Association (NSA) met at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on Monday 30 April 2007 at 7.30pm.

Present

• John Price (Chairman)
• Shirley Reed (Vice-Chairman)
• Kay Price (Secretary)
• Peter Cheesman (Treasurer)
• Richard Emsley
• Michael Ledwich
• Kevin Hilliard
• John and Barbara Fitzpatrick

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies: Shirley Reed had apologised that she would be a little late for the meeting because Steep were involved in the first leg of a knock-out cup game.

Minutes of the last Officers’ meeting on 26 February

The minutes were signed and approved as a true record. The minutes of the General Committee held on 25 March at Cowfold Sports Pavilion were also discussed and signed as a true record.

Matters arising from the last meeting

Low attendance at Cowfold

The Chairman expressed his concern that only four people (other than committee members) were able to attend the General Meeting at Cowfold. These bi-annual meetings had been specifically changed to a Sunday morning to achieve optimum attendance, but it was agreed that 25 March date had not been a good choice on this occasion because of other commitments by league representatives.

Officers were asked to publicise the dates of our general meetings throughout leagues and associations in order to achieve a better turnout in future. The Chairman said that it was important that we had views and comments from all sectors of the game and without adequate representation, this could not happen.

Wave Leisure, Seaford open day

The Chairman reported that the open day for families on August Bank Holiday Monday was proceeding at the Lewes Leisure Centre.  Wave Leisure contact, Diane Farmer, is keen to pursue the idea of a stoolball competition and has been put in touch with Rick Mason and the local mixed team at Plumpton College.

Club email addresses

The Chairman reported that following the distribution of the latest edition of the newsletter, future copies would be distributed electronically to those clubs who had filled in their email addresses on the club registration forms. The meeting agreed that this decision made good sense.

NSA at league tournaments

Following a suggestion by Vic Laker (Chanctonbury League) at the General Committee Meeting in March, it was agreed that, wherever possible, the NSA would endeavour to have a presence at league tournaments with a display of equipment available.

Rubber endorsing stamps with NSA logo

The Chairman reported that 10 rubber stamps bearing the NSA Logo had been purchased from Rymans for use by NSA officers and local sales agents on invoices and correspondence etc.  It was agreed that these stamps represented good value and would help to transmit the NSA image and logo in a positive way.

Tour de France

Good luck to Chiddingstone Causeway Stoolball Club was published on the website. As previously reported, this club from Kent will be playing two games during their early May bank holiday trip to France. They have promised to take plenty of pictures and tell us all about their experience on their return.

Correspondence:

• Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR): daily newsletters covering sporting activities lifted from the newspapers
• Copy of the Association for Physical Education Members’ Yearbook 2006/7 received. The NSA took a full page in this booklet to advertise the “Let’s Play Stoolball” DVD and the new “Drills and Skills” DVDs
• Letter received from Ifield Explorer Scout Unit who are borrowing some NSA stoolball equipment to use for a game they are playing on 14 June 2007
• Personalized labels have been ordered and received which will be used to put on equipment on loan. The labels have “National Stoolball Association”, the secretary’s telephone number and the NSA website address.  The labels have already been put on equipment recently taken to Hurst Green School in East Sussex who are learning stoolball this summer.
• Rick Mason sent an email to the BBC Test Match Special team to see if he could get a mention about stoolball during their commentary. Unfortunately, it coincided with Brian Lara’s last game at international level, so it did not stand a chance.
• Rick also sent an email suggesting that we try and get in touch with the cricket club called Lashings. They sometimes play at East Grinstead and he asked several of their celebrities to sign a stoolball bat after a match he attended there last summer. They asked about stoolball and Rick suggests that maybe they would be interested in playing an unusual game like ours prior to a cricket match. He suggested that we go to their website and contact them. Barbara Fitzpatrick will follow this up.

Financial Report

The Treasurer, Peter Cheesman, presented the latest statement of accounts which showed a healthy situation following good sales of equipment. It was also confirmed that we have finally received an invoice for the outstanding personal accident insurance premium, so that our accounts now show a more accurate picture of our financial state.

Club Registration 2007 – latest position

Once again, the Chairman stressed the need for all clubs and leagues to provide the NSA with an email address which will simplify communication. Current position with club registrations:

• Chanctonbury League:Â All completed (9 teams)
• Coastal League:Â 3 out of 5 completed
• East Sussex County Council League:Â Completed (11 teams)
• East Sussex Friendly Teams: 4 out of 20 completed
• Eastbourne Red Triangle:Â One completed out of 39 teams
• Hailsham Stoolball League:Â 2 completed out of 10 teams
• Mix Sussex Stoolball League: 5 completed out of 6/7 teams
• Surrey Ladies Stoolball Association:Â All teams completed (16)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association, Central: 9 completed (10 teams)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association, East: All completed (7)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association, Mid: 8 completed (9 teams)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association, North:Â All completed (10 teams)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association, West:Â All completed (10 teams)
• West Kent Ladies Stoolball League:Â All completed (13 teams)
• Wessex Friendly Group: 12 completed (13 teams)

Total:Â 120 out of 189

In addition to persuading those clubs who have not yet completed their club registration forms for 2007, we are also looking to complete the lists of those teams competing in the winter indoor leagues at Claverham, Midhurst and Arun League, Felpham.

Action: All clubs who have not yet submitted a completed form. These are available on the NSA website or direct from Kay Price (01403 252419).

Child Welfare Officer

Since the last meeting, Aldingbourne and Oakwood Hill have appointed club welfare officers who are Justine Sayer and Kay Price respectively. The Chairman reminded the meeting that all leagues and clubs are required to supply the NSA with these names as soon as possible to meet the requirement of our public liability (civil liability) insurance cover.

Insurance Officer’s report

Richard Emsley reported that to date 80 clubs had taken our cover for public liability insurance and 44 clubs had paid for personal accident insurance cover. These policies had produced payments of £5,681 which have been passed to the treasurer.

Richard also reported that our brokers, Perkins Slade in Birmingham, had now made available top-up cover for public liability which would take the insured level from £5,000,000 to £10,000,000 at a reasonably small additional cost.

In line with the NSA aims, Richard was pleased to report that nearly half of all renewal notices for insurance cover had been sent by email. This was most encouraging.

The Chairman said that to meet the requirements of the civil liability element of our insurance, the NSA were required to confirm that all member clubs were aware and cognisant of the NSA Child Protection Policy and that clubs and leagues were all progressing towards the appointment of child welfare officers.

Website/publicity

Barbara Fitzpatrick reported that a most useful meeting had taken place in Lindfield with Rick Mason, Kay Price and herself which had helped to eliminate some of the inaccurate information from our website.

At the last officers’ meeting, it was suggested that we would like to be able to track the number of hits being made on our website. Since then, Rick Mason has signed up to Google Analytics, and Barbara circulated the figures for just one week which were most impressive.  Out of a total of 393 visits, 332 were from the UK, 32 from the US, 6 from South Africa, 3 each from Australia, Canada and Sweden, 2 from New Zealand, and 1 each from Denmark, Togo, Poland, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Bahamas, Netherlands, China, Barbados, Ireland and Italy.  It is also possible to pin point what part of the country visits were made from.

We must encourage leagues and divisions to put all their fixtures on the website and then put the results on as well. A league table can then be generated and reports sent to the appropriate papers. The meeting was advised that Rick Mason would welcome up-to-date photos of stoolball matches, teams and personalities to help bring more life to the website.

Kay Price has arranged for Peter Carter of Coaching Solutions, who produced our “Let’s Play Stoolball” DVD, to provide a small clip to put on the website so that newcomers to the game can get an idea of what stoolball looks like.

Marketing report

Barbara Fitzpatrick reported that whilst no new ideas had been forthcoming for a revised/improved NSA logo, she did confirm that she felt there was a very real need to incorporate the stoolball bat into the image as well as a ball. Michael Ledwich agreed that from an educational standpoint, it was important that the logo portrayed that stoolball is a “striking and fielding” game and hence the importance of having a bat in view. Kevin Hilliard agreed and said the importance of a good, meaningful logo was paramount.

The Chairman reminded the meeting that whilst we now have a number of different logos in use (website, scorebooks, rule books, rubber stamps, county badges etc), we should not rush our decision making, but ensure our final choice was up-to-date and sent out the right message to all sectors of the market place. The use of a creative agency was also suggested.

Richard Emsley mentioned that the “Wey and Arun Canal Company” had recently produced an 8 foot long banner, the likes of which could be used by the NSA to advertise the game. Richard offered to pursue this and produce samples/costings.

Barbara suggested that the NSA produce a laminated list of all the equipment and marketing aids held and produced by the NSA. These would act as an aide memoire for clubs and could be attached to club bat bags. This list would also be produced on the NSA website as an additional reminder. Barbara will explore further and come up with costings/examples for our next meeting.

New coaching DVDs

Kay reported that letters had been sent out to all schools who had previously purchased the “Let’s Play Stoolball” video/DVD, enclosing a £2 voucher to be deducted from the cost of the new Coaching DVDs. There was a response from three of the schools within the first week.

The meeting recorded its thanks to Melissa Mantle and Coaching Solutions for all their hard work and initiative in producing such excellent material. Written thanks had also been sent to the Principal and students at University College, Chichester.

Equipment and local agents

The Chairman reported that an initial supply of stoolball bats from Hunts of Cambridge had just been received and commented on their excellent “buffed and waxed” finish which gave an appearance similar to that seen on bats from the 1930s. They are an attractive buy at £32 (the sale price agreed by the meeting).

With increased printing costs from those last ordered 4 years ago, it was agreed that the latest scorebooks should be priced at £2 for tournament scorebooks and £4 for large scorebooks. These prices compared very favourably with cricket scorebooks. The meeting also discussed the scorebooks used by the Hailsham Mixed Stoolball League. They are produced with ring binding, which means that the book can always be folded flat, and it also includes the “Rules of stoolball” and the Hailsham management rules. It was a very impressive scorebook, but it was felt that for the longer matches, the amount of space allowed for any batsman scoring a large number of runs was limited. Thanks from the meeting were recorded to Sally Morris for sending the scorebook for the NSA to look at.

The meeting was also shown a sample of a “promotional/presentation stoolball” which can be supplied in any colour and inscribed with any message eg “Play your stoolball with the _____ club” or “Most wickets 2007″.  These balls look every bit the part and can be mounted on a plinth if required. We are awaiting notification pf prices but clearly, the more that are ordered, the lower the price.

Over the years the NSA have been donated several sets of wickets, in addition to the three sets which are owned by the NSA and used for national events. This winter, it was decided to refurbish all these wickets (amounting to 12 sets in all) so that they can be loaned out or even purchased when necessary.  Keith Younger from East Grinstead Stoolball Club offered to undertake the task and has done a magnificent job for us.

Club Mark Accreditation Scheme

Kevin Hilliard presented his first draft of a very well written document laying out the requirements for clubs to measure up to an NSA Accreditation Scheme. This paper was based on the guidelines laid down by the various county “Sports Partnerships” but tailored to meet the realities of stoolball.

Whilst all present had reservations about the need to measure the capabilities of clubs, it was recognised that if stoolball is to be taken seriously and eventually be recognised as a sport by Sport England, then this is a route we must follow. Kevin asked that everybody read the paper with a critical but understanding eye and bring recommendations to the next meeting.  He said that before launching the scheme, it would perhaps be appropriate to run a test market with 3 or 4 clubs across the counties.  A possible launch date could be at next year’s NSA Convention in March 2008.

The Chairman thanked Kevin for his excellently produced documents.

American Baseball League visit to Sussex

The Chairman confirmed that plans for a party of 6 people from the American Baseball Leagues in New York would be visiting Sussex on Tuesday 19 June (rounders and junior baseball) and Wednesday 20 June (stoolball) to watch and film these games.

A demonstration game of Rounders will be played at Millais School for Girls in Horsham on Tuesday, whilst the friendly stoolball game between Tillington (West Sussex) and Steep (Hampshire) will be played at Petworth Park on Wednesday. If, for any reason, this game cannot take place the party will move on for the game between Wisborough Green and Stedham which is being played at Stedham.

Apart from a cameraman and an audio engineer, Sam Marchiano and her assistant, there will be an author (David Block) and his wife who are researching baseball from a literary viewpoint.

Umpires’ Forum update

John Fitzpatrick reported that support for the Umpires’ Forum at Wivelsfield Green on Sunday 13 May was not overly encouraging, but that further efforts would be made to improve the numbers attending.  An announcement would be put on the website and officers present were asked to remind clubs, leagues and county associations that this forum is open to everybody with an umpiring interest, whether a tried and tested performer or a newcomer to the game.

Sponsors

Barclays Bank: the Chairman reported his disappointment that despite leaving four messages with his local branch, no response had been forthcoming. He appreciated that the manager was new in her appointment and that the blending of the Woolwich Building Society into their organisation, plus talk of a merger with Belgian/Dutch banks probably did not help matters.

Tesco: A letter has now been sent to Tesco’s head office enquiring if they would consider financial support for an NSA Stoolball Development Officer. With the number of enquiries now being received to provide coaching in schools and clubs, it is a particularly relevant area for the NSA to develop.

The Chairman again asked officers to look carefully at all their contacts for possible financial support for our game. He was confident that we would make a breakthrough soon.

Press coverage

The Chairman reminded everybody of the need to get stoolball news into as many newspapers, radio and TV stations as possible. In the perfect world, we need a person from every league/county to cover this important area of publicity. It is interesting and pleasing to note that for the first time in 2 years, the Sussex based Evening Argus printed this week’s fixtures for Central and Mid Division of SCSA.

Barbara Fitzpatrick commended Meridian TV as a very good vehicle for promoting the visit of our baseball friends from New York. This lead will be followed up.

Any other business

Michael Ledwich raised the question of the legality of wearing helmets for players suffering from a medical condition to the head when batting. Whilst few conditions could easily be called to mind, it was agreed that so long as a player was able to produce written medical evidence in support, then the wearing of such protective headgear would be acceptable.

John Fitzpatrick asked that an out-of-date set of umpire’s guidelines which were published on the website be removed. It was agreed that he should arrange for this to be done directly through Rick Mason.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting closed at 10.40pm.

Date of next meeting: Officers’ meeting at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on Monday 21 May 2007 commencing at 7.30am.

Kay Price, 8 May 2007

Tags: meetings