Minutes of officers’ meeting on 30 July 2007

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

Present

• John Price (Chairman)
• Shirley Reed (Vice-Chairman)
• Kay Price (Secretary)
• Peter Cheesman (Treasurer)
• Michael Ledwich (Rules)
• Kevin Hilliard (Club Accreditation)

The Chairman, John Price, welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave an account of the funeral of Rosemary Hobbs (President) who had died suddenly in the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.  A tribute to Rosemary had been posted on the NSA website and a letter of condolence had been sent to Michael and Angela, her son and daughter. At the gathering after the funeral, John had spoken to Michael asking that he forward any stoolball memorabilia which the family did not want to keep.

Apologies:

• Richard Emsley (Insurance)
• John Fitzpatrick (Umpires)
• Barbara Fitzpatrick (Marketing)
• Rick Mason (website)

Minutes of the last officers’ meeting on 25 June 2007

The minutes were signed and approved as a true record.

Matters arising

It was decided that there were no matters arising which would not be covered later in the agenda.

Correspondence

• Highfields School, Penn, near Wolverhampton – the PE teacher (Theresa Lee) reported on a very successful introduction to stoolball via the Junior Sports Leadership course they were running and the NSA were gratefully thanked for loaning wickets to the school. She also reported that her Year 7 students were very enthusiastic about the game and she hoped to include it in their curriculum next year after the Technology and Design group had made some new wickets for her.  A set of indoor rules has also been sent to her.
• Larry McCray – during his visit to England he visited the Lord’s cricket library and found some references to stoolball there. He is going to send us copies in case we do not already have them plus some other articles which may be of interest.
• David Block – John Price has been sent a copy of David Block’s most recent baseball research book called ‘Baseball before we knew it’ and it includes 23 references to stoolball plus nine pages entirely on stoolball which includes a poem called ‘Stool-ball, or the Easter diversion’.
• Alan Fergus – email of thanks from the National Rounders Association for organizing a rounders match for the American film crew
• Beacon Community College, Crowborough – a PE teacher recently visited Thailand to introduce stoolball at a school they are twinned with. On her return she has promised to post a report of her visit on our website.  We look forward to reading about her trip.
• Professor Margaret Talbot – a letter has been sent to her requesting her help and advice on the future of stoolball. To date there has been no reply.
• Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) daily bulletins – provide some very interesting bits of information
• An email request from two female players (who have played stoolball and would like to play again) for information about the stoolball being played in the Eastbourne area
• Request via email to find out if there are any training sessions being run at the Claverham Community School.

Financial report

Peter Cheesman reported that the finances were in a very healthy state with a surplus of £2,830. Equipment sales have reached £7,180 for the period and although we currently have quite high stock levels, it should not be necessary to purchase more equipment before the beginning of next season. Peter also noted that with only two more months of the financial year to go, it was important that any outstanding monies should be collected and banked.

Club Accreditation Scheme update

Kevin Hilliard reported that he had forwarded details of the NSA Club Accreditation scheme to Emma Forward for comment at the Sussex County Sports Partnership at Falmer.

Subsequently, he was contacted by Shelley Meyern, Emma’s replacement in the role of Sports Development Officer, and she has proposed a meeting on Friday 10 August to discuss our scheme. She said there were no major issues, Kevin had made a excellent start, and she only a few minor comments to make and a few helpful suggestions.

We were also told that we could not use the name “Club Mark” for our scheme because it was a Sport England trademark, therefore it was decided that it should be renamed “NSA Club Charter” Accreditation Scheme.

NSA website

Clip of stoolball

The small clip from the video ‘Let’s Play Stoolball’ needs to have some mixed stoolball, perhaps a change of music is possible and some publicity material added to the end of the clip which is currently blank.  It was also suggested that we pursue finding out if stoolball.org or net is still available and register them in our name. Also find out if NSA plus the four usual endings are still available (co.uk; com; org and net).

Action:Â Michael/Kay

Photos of stoolball

Request for some more photos, old and new, for the website.

Action:Â all clubs

Equipment for sale or on loan

We are still encouraging clubs to look through their bat bags and pass on any they no longer want or use.  Early in July, through Barbara Fitzpatrick, we were lucky enough to purchase a quantity of bats advertised in a newspaper local to Haywards Heath. These have since been refurbished by Keith Younger and have been added to our loan equipment.

During this summer we had a number of enquiries from individuals and schools to loan equipment and it was satisfying to be able to fulfill their requirements. We still need to follow up with Ian Harding’s grandson, who works at John Edwards Sports Shop in Lewes, to find out if he has got the original bat that Hunts County bats obtained from Curtis Lloyd when the company closed.

Action:Â all clubs

Site statistics Google

These figures are being forwarded to the NSA at the end of each month and contain some very useful information. This has been a most useful tool for us.  This month there were 1,497 visits.

Contact names for clubs

Clubs are still sending in their details, in particular mixed clubs which is good news.

Action:Â all clubs

Minor changes to information

There are still small bits of information which need to be changed but the website is being added to all the time.

Action:Â Rick

Rules

Michael Ledwich reported that he had received three objections from Sussex clubs about the new catch rule. This would be one of the items under review at the end of the 2008 season.

Insurance

Since the last meeting, the NSA had been approached to ask our brokers Perkins, Slade if they could negotiate an extension to the upper age limit in the Personal Accident Insurance. We now have several older members who are not able to be covered under our existing policy.

Action:Â Richard

Publicising the National Stoolball Association

As part of the initiative, suggested by Vic Laker from the Chanctonbury League, to make players and officials more aware of the NSA, John and Kay Price visited Stonewall Park in Kent and Plumpton College during July.

On 22 July, Stonewall Park Stoolball Club entertained 11 Kent teams at their club tournament which was held in the beautiful grounds of Stonewall Park House.  We spent a very enjoyable day there and received some interesting feedback from one of the Kent Umpires present who enquired whether it would be possible for us to put an analysis page at the back of the large stoolball scorebook. He said that it would be very helpful when working out the end-of-season batting and bowling figures. It was explained to him that the NSA had only just reprinted this particular scorebook, but that it would be considered at the next reprint. The eventual tournament winners were Fordcombe Stoolball Club.

The following Sunday 29 July, it was the turn of the Mid Sussex Mixed Tournament which was being held at Plumpton College.  Again it was a beautiful day in a lovely setting and there were five teams present.  A number of the players, both men and women, were well known to us already and it was a very enjoyable and interesting occasion. At the end of the day, in a very close final game between the only two unbeaten teams, Uckfield beat Maresfield by a very small margin.

2008 Stoolball Convention

Suggested dates for the convention are Sunday 9 March 2008 or the following Sunday 16 March.

Any other business

• Shirley Reed reported a mishap with two bats which will need some renovation.
• In the Wessex Friendly Group, the final of the Charity Cup is between Steep Stoolball Club and Milland Stoolball Club.
• Kevin Hilliard spoke about the Presidential replacement and whether this vacancy should filled by a person well-known in the stoolball world, or whether it could be a sporting personality. Alternatively, another suggestion was that the Presidency could remain filled by someone well-known in the stoolball world, and the NSA invite a sporting personality to become a Patron. This will obviously need further thought and discussion before the AGM at the end of November.
• The Chairman, John Price, asked all officers if they could bring a suggestion with them to the next meeting concerning “one thing that I would like the NSA to achieve for next season”.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting closed at 10.25pm.

Dates of further meetings:

• Officers’ meeting at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on Monday 20 August 2007 at 7.30pm
• General meeting on Sunday 23 September at Cowfold Sports Pavilion 10.30am for 11am start
• Officers’ meeting at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on Monday 29 October 2007 at 7.30pm
• Annual General Meeting on Sunday/Monday 25/26 November 2007 at 8pm – a decision is still to be made on the final date.

Kay Price, 18 August 2007

Tags: meetings