Minutes of Management Meeting, 8 December 2008

The Management Committee of Stoolball England met at 53 Kings Road, Horsham, on Monday 8 December 2008 at 7.45pm.

Present

• Shirley Reed (President)
• John Price (Chairman)
• Kay Price (Secretary)
• Trevor Parsons (Treasurer)
• Rick Mason (Website Administrator)

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies:

• Kevin Hilliard (Vice-Chairman)
• Michael Ledwich (Insurance /Rules)
• Barbara Fitzpatrick (Marketing/Publicity)
• John Fitzpatrick (Umpires)

Minutes of the last officers’ meeting

The minutes were signed and approved as a true record.

Matters arising from the last meeting: There was nothing to be raised under this section which would not appear later on the Agenda.

Correspondence

1. Email correspondence with Mukarram Ali, Secretary General of the Pakistan Triathlon Federation, asking for information about stoolball so that he can start the game in his country. Our introductory DVD “Let’s Play Stoolball” was sent to him at the end of November and he has acknowledged receipt
2. Sussex County Sports Partnership: Sussex Sport and Health Network Meeting held at Hove Town Hall on 3 December 2008. John and Kay Price attended. 2008 Sussex Sports Awards attended by Stoolball England at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.
3. Active Surrey: Contact had been made with Michelle Berry from the Active Surrey Sports Partnership in Guildford. During the next few months Stoolball England will be working to build up a relationship with this group to spread the game in Surrey.
4. Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR): Daily bulletins; Sports Club of the Year (SCOTY) 2009 launch; latest edition of CEO’s e-Forum
5. Stoolball for Japanese TV: Approach from a Japanese journalist living in London for a crew to visit England and film stoolball during the first two weeks in February at the Rikkyo School on the West Sussex/Surrey border – date to be confirmed in the New Year. A “Let’s Play Stoolball” DVD was requested and sent.
6. Google Statistics and Alerts: The statistics for November
7. Letter of thanks from our retiring Treasurer, Peter Cheesman
8. Physical Education Matters: It was agreed to place an advertisement in the Spring 2009 edition of this journal.

Treasurer’s report

Our new Treasurer, Trevor Parsons circulated his first monthly financial report and equipment stock sheet. He noted that during the winter months, apart from valuable income obtained from coaching courses at Chichester, there has been very little stock movement, resulting in a loss for the month of £10. He reported that he will be moving the Stoolball England finances into NatWest accounts and to make the previous “deposit” savings more accessible, this money will be moved to an “easy access” account earning a small amount of interest.

Governing Body recognition

When the Stoolball England Constitution has received final clearance from our solicitors, the application will be resubmitted to Sport England.

Rules review

Due to illness, Michael Ledwich was unable to attend the Management Meeting, so the set of rules which were approved at the Annual General Meeting could not be commented on. Rick Mason asked if appropriate diagrams could be added to the new rule book to provide further clarification where necessary and this was agreed. It was also decided that a set of “Indoor Rules” should be added.

It was also pointed out that the new rule book needed to be in print by February so that copies could be circulated to secondary and independent schools with the Year 7 lesson plans. Rick Mason agreed to handle the printing of the new rule book.

Action: Rick Mason and Michael Ledwich

Coaching development

John Price reported that he and Kay had met up with Helen Murdock, a previous Chairman of the National Stoolball Association with a view to enlisting her help with running Level 1 and 2 Coaching courses. Helen has played stoolball for more than 20 years, mostly in Surrey and is an experienced multi-sport coach. She expressed her willingness to get involved with tutoring. She has also offered to help us with our CRB application and will be meeting up with Stoolball England again at the end of December. In the meantime, she will be contacting Melissa Mantle to discuss the coaching awards.

Action: John and Kay Price

Our two trainee volunteers, Rebecca Hull and Ruth Arthur, having completed a Safeguarding Course in October, are now due to attend a 1st Aid Course in Guildford early in January. Natalie Payne, from Horsham District Council Leisure Link, is currently working on a funding application to finance the Horsham Primary and Junior Schools Coaching initiative, and this will be submitted during December.

Action: Kay Price

Stoolball equipment

Stoolball England had a very satisfactory meeting with an Indian manufacturer in London to discuss stoolball equipment, and should receive samples before the end of the year. It was agreed that bats, car stickers, boundary flags and ice packs need to be ordered before next season, and once a new logo has been approved, coaching sweaters.

Action: John and Kay Price

Logo, website, bi-fold leaflet and newsletter

Shirley Reed circulated the latest edition of the newsletter at the Annual General Meeting in November, and Rick Mason has volunteered to work on a new logo and design the new rule book read for printing. Once a new logo has been approved, the bi-fold leaflet can then be finalised and distributed and business cards printed.

Rick Mason made a presentation to members of the Management Committee on how to add individual match and other reports to the Stoolball England website. He also demonstrated how to summarise the first paragraph of a report so that a reader would get a clearer picture on the home page about the content of the report before moving down to the “read more” option. Rick followed this up with a demonstration on the best way to add pictures to a report, so that each article is a mixture of text followed by a picture, followed by more text and another picture etc.

Any other business

It was decided that there was no further business to discuss and the meeting closed at 10.15pm.

Kay and John Price, 15 December 2008