Minutes of officers’ meeting on 14 January 2008

Officers of the National Stoolball Association (NSA) met at 53 Kings Road, Horsham on 14 January 2008 at 7.30pm.

Present

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

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the first meeting in 2008.

Apologies: Kay Price (attending Sussex County Stoolball Association meeting) and Rick Mason (on holiday)

Tribute to Margaret Childs (Vice-Chairman of the NSA)

John Price had sadly to report the death of Margaret Childs who was a life-long supporter of stoolball. She represented Surrey on the NSA General Committee in the 1980s; was Chairman of Surrey for over 20 years and became a Vice-President of the NSA. She was a very popular lady and will be sadly missed. He advised the meeting that her funeral would take place on Monday 21 January 2008 at Guildford Crematorium at 3.30pm, and afterwards at The Grantley Arms at Wonersh. No flowers, but donations to CHASE or The British Heart Foundation.

Minutes of the last officers’ meeting

The minutes were signed and approved as a true record.

Matters arising from the last meeting (29 October and AGM)

Constitution

It was necessary to revise the constitution so that our entry into the BingoLotto Scheme was covered by a statement stating that the NSA was a “non-profit making organisation”.

Whilst reviewing the constitution with Michael Ledwich, it became clear that a number of other minor alterations needed to be made. Key in these amendments was the renaming of the Officers’ Committee to that of Management Committee. It was also felt appropriate to change the order of some of the items in this document. After some discussion, it was felt that further changes needed to be made. Michael Ledwich agreed to process these amendments and an updated copy will be circulated to all members in the near future.

Newsletter

John Price confirmed that copies of the NSA’s November newsletter had now been dispatched to everyone in the organisation.

Kenya

Following an enquiry from a member of the Ashburnham Stoolball Club, Laurence Keeley, arrangements have been made to send two bats and two balls to Kenya via a charity worker, Mrs Monica Cook.

She has been visiting a particularly remote and poor part of Kenya and, whilst her main objective is to increase the supply of water wells, she also strives to provide the children with entertainment. This year she has decided to teach them how to play stoolball. We wish her every success.

Shirley Reed asked that she be advised of Monica Cook’s telephone number because her husband has contacts in Kenya with a senior cricket official who may possibly also be able to help her.

Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) service questionnaire

This document had been received from the CCPR seeking views on the quality and appropriateness of the service provided to governing bodies by personnel, emails and meetings. The NSA has replied in positive terms since we believe they have been most helpful in encouraging us in our fight for recognition with Sport England.

Treasurer’s report

Peter Cheesman reported that although there had been little activity since our last meeting, the coaching work carried out by Melissa Mantle had produced the bulk of the income for the latest period. Our balances were still very healthy.

Indian Stoolball Federation

John Price reported that after much dialogue with Kevin Hilliard, Michael Ledwich and Sallie Barker of the CCPR, an agreement for the setting up of an Indian Stoolball Federation (ISF) had been drawn up and sent to Mr Sangram Gadgil. This agreement had now been signed and returned to the NSA.

The potential for a huge explosion of stoolball in India is mind-boggling. The request for attendance at the next stoolball World Championship and a place at future Coaching Seminars was requested by Mr Gadgil, as and when they may take place.

CCPR meetings

BingoLotto

The Chairman reported that he and Kay had been privileged to attend the final BingoLotto brainstorming meeting at the CCPR headquarters in December.

He stated that they had been able to explain to a large proportion of the media people present about the game of stoolball. He also said that he felt that they were able to make a useful contribution to the dialogue taking place. He advised that the launch would now take place on the 29 February 2008 and the publicity for BingoLotto would start on Sunday 21 January with an article in the Business Section of The Sunday Times.

At our request, it was agreed that a publicity video would be sent to all sports to put on their websites in readiness for the launch of BingoLotto. Kevin Hilliard requested that a PDF of the BingoLotto logo be requested for use on our letter heads and for distribution to other clubs who could make use of it.

Web site course – Maximise your Effectiveness and Value

This course was run by the CCPR in January 2008 and was attended by Barbara Fitzpatrick and Michael Ledwich. Whilst generally seen as being very helpful, it was also perhaps just a little bit too advanced for our two delegates. However, the virtues of the Internet, and the enormous potential for reaching out to more and more people, was made very apparent.

Barbara and Michael will be following up their experiences with Rick Mason to see how best they can use their newly-gained knowledge to influence our website, in particular linking with the BBC and other major media websites.

3rd Stoolball Convention at Wivelsfield Village Hall on 9 March 2008

• Agenda: The agenda drawn up by the Chairman was agreed and accepted.
• Timings: It was accepted that the timings shown could only be provisional and would depend on the level of dialogue taking place for each subject.
• Food: The Chairman confirmed that Rosemary Newland of the West Division, SCSA had been approached and agreed to provide a finger buffet lunch for all delegates. John asked that affiliated organisations provide volunteers to help with the service of food and drink during the day.
• Equipment sales: Barbara Fitzpatrick suggested that Keith Younger would probably be very happy to be asked to man the stall and she agreed to do this.
• Public address system: The Chairman confirmed that the “in-house” public address system had already been booked and this should greatly help the ability to communicate with delegates at the back of the hall.
• PowerPoint presentation: Despite enquiries through Rick Mason, a screen for PowerPoint presentations had not been tracked down. John Fitzpatrick volunteered to contact Mrs Baldock, the Village Hall’s bookings manager, and has subsequently confirmed that a screen will be available from that source.
• Publicity: The Chairman thanked John Fitzpatrick for producing a letter to publicise the forthcoming Convention and the proposed letter was accepted and will be despatched to as many people as possible via email and hard copy. A copy will also be placed on the NSA website.
• Evaluation Form: John Fitzpatrick also agreed to produce an evaluation form to give us feedback on the value of the subjects covered at the Convention. This has now been produced.
• Access on Convention Day: The Chairman confirmed that he would be contacting the key holder a week before the Convention date to confirm that we will require access by 9am. on Sunday 9 March. John Fitzpatrick confirmed that since he was in reasonably close proximity he would be happy to collect the keys and open up the building.

It was also agreed that, should the weather be as chilly as it was for our last Convention, that a person be designated to monitor the central heating control panel hourly to ensure that the system did not switch itself off.

Insurance hand-over from Richard Emsley to Michael Ledwich

Michael Ledwich confirmed that, as yet, no date had been agreed for a hand-over of the insurance material from Richard Emsley.

The Chairman said that he would make contact with Richard to ask for a speedier reaction and also to establish whether or not the outstanding issues had been resolved. Subsequently, a meeting has been arranged for Monday 4 February at Horley.

NSA organisation chart and lines of responsibility

In our pursuit of better communications within the organisation, the Chairman asked that all members draw up their view of the NSA organisation. He said that the starting point would be Shirley Reed as our President at the top, working down to the officers and then on to the affiliated and associate members. It would then be necessary to build the links between the various activities and those responsible for them.

Date of next meeting

Monday 25 February 2008 at 7.30pm. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held at the Vice-Chairman’s house and Kevin agreed to send details and a map of his location. Following the 25 February, the next meeting will be on Monday 31 March at 53 Kings Road.

Any other business

• Advertisement in ‘Physical Matters’: It was agreed that an advertisement featuring our three DVDs and the appearance of stoolball in the National Curriculum should appear in the June edition of the afPE journal. Arrangements will be made with Coaching Solutions to produce this in time for the deadline at the beginning of May.
• Stoolball photograph in West Sussex ‘Connections’: John Price confirmed that the mystery stoolball photo in the last edition of this paper was indeed that of Petworth Stoolball Club in 1965.
• Peter Cheesman announced that he would not be standing for re-election at our next AGM in November.
• NatWest Bank: Peter advised the meeting that he had learned that up until 8 years ago the NatWest Bank had held an annual national stoolball tournament. Sadly this was no longer being played.
• Background music: Barbara Fitzpatrick reported that Rick Mason had contact with a young musician who was prepared to compose suitable music to go alongside our clip of stoolball on the web site. The young man’s only request for recognition was that he received “written credit” on our website. It was agreed that he be asked to proceed.

Before closing the meeting, the Chairman thanked Barbara Fitzpatrick and Kevin Hilliard for taking the minutes in the secretary’s absence.

The meeting closed at 10.30pm.

Kay Price/John Price, 16 January 2008

Tags: meetings