Minutes of General Committee Meeting on 29 March 2009

A General Committee Meeting of Stoolball England was held at Cowfold Cricket Pavilion on Sunday 29 March 2009 at 11am.

1. Present

Stoolball England Management Committee members:

• John Price (Chairman)
• Kevin Hilliard (Vice-Chairman)
• Kay Price (Secretary)
• Rick Mason (Website Administrator)
• Michael Ledwich (Insurance)
• Barbara Fitzpatrick (Marketing/Publicity)
• John Fitzpatrick (Umpires).

Leagues and associations represented:

• Chanctonbury Ladies Stoolball League: (Vic Laker)
• Coastal Ladies Stoolball League: (Pat Wyatt)
• Mid Sussex Mixed Stoolball League: (Rick Mason)
• Surrey Ladies Stoolball Association: (Michael Ledwich)
• Sussex County Stoolball Association: (Kay Price)
• Mid Division (SCSA): (Daphne Hunt)
• North Division (SCSA): (Keith and Doris Younger, Barbara Fitzpatrick and Sybil Voller)
• West Division (SCSA): (Kevin Hilliard)
• Sussex County Umpires Association: (John Fitzpatrick)

Apologies for absence:

• Shirley Reed (President and Wessex Friendly Group)
• Trevor Parsons (Treasurer)
• Richard Emsley (West Kent Ladies Stoolball League)
• Toni Wheatley
• Mike Hearn (East Division, SCSA)
• Chantelle Bennett (North Division, SCSA).

Before the start of the meeting, John Price told members about the death of a well-known stoolball player in Sussex, Wyn Roberts from Ashington Stoolball Club who recently died in Worthing Hospital and members of Stoolball England had attended her funeral at Worthing Crematorium. He also reported that another long-serving stoolball player from East Preston Stoolball Club, Kaye Turner, was very ill with cancer and all present asked that their best wishes be sent to her.

2. Minutes of previous meetings

Minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting (proposed Barbara Fitzpatrick and seconded by Rick Mason) and the General Committee meeting (proposed Barbara Fitzpatrick and seconded by Kevin Hilliard) were signed and unanimously approved as a true record.

3. Matters arising

As a result of changes to the Constitution which included the name change to Stoolball England, approved at the Extraordinary General Meeting, a new logo has since been approved and has been well received.

4. Treasurer’s Report

In the absence of Treasurer, Trevor Parsons, the financial report was presented by Vice-Chairman, Kevin Hilliard. He reported a surplus for the period of £492.98. Income from sales amounted to £1,272 and there was an excellent result from the coaching course run by Melissa Mantle at University College, Chichester where 43 students achieved Level One status producing an income of £1,100.

At the conclusion of the course, successful students received a Level One Certificate plus a Coaching DVD pack and stoolball rule book. In the coaching pack, one DVD deals with coaching the game of stoolball, the other DVD has skills and drills which are suitable for any striking and fielding game.

5. Insurance

The Insurance Officer, Michael Ledwich, reported that he had finally heard from the insurers and could confirm that there would not be an increase in the Public Liability premium this year, it would remain at £41, and the Personal Accident Insurance premium would be £2.50 per person (without specs) and £3 for insurance including specs, as before. Therefore, he could report that the renewal invitations would be going out next week (commencing 30 March). Michael also emphasized how important it was that he was notified of any changes in postal address or email addresses so that invitations would not go astray.

6. Website

Rick Mason, the Website Administrator, spoke about how important it was for clubs to put their fixtures and ultimately their results online. People are looking at the Stoolball England website all the time.

Anyone looking to join a club can see the fixtures of a club local to them and know that a club exists locally and when that club will be playing so they can visit and see them in action. If clubs can then create a page of information about their club, with a club contact name, which can involve an address, telephone number or email address, there is a direct line of contact for new players to get in touch.

Following on from the fixtures and results, it also means that league tables are available and this provides interest for a wider audience and means less work for the league secretary in generating and updating these tables.

7. CRB checks

John Price, the Stoolball England Welfare Officer, reported that, through the auspices of the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR), we can now conduct our own CRB checks via The Media Group in Nottingham. In the past, Stoolball England have been happy to accept CRB checks carried out by other sporting bodies or authorities provided they have at least 6 months left of the three year period. However, it is encouraging that we can now add CRB checks to the list of activities we can undertake.

8. Stoolball England activities since the Annual General Meeting

A summary of the activities undertaken by members of Stoolball England was circulated to everyone at the meeting.

1. In addition to the name change of the governing body and new logo, a working party met during in October to carry out a thorough review of the rules; an application was resubmitted to Sport England with the aim of achieving recognition of Stoolball England as the governing body of the game; having gone through an approval process, we can now carry out CRB checks; and Year 7 lesson plans, created by Melissa Mantle and Connie Chapman, have been circulated to over 150 secondary schools (state and independent) in East and West Sussex, West Kent, East Surrey and East Hampshire.
2. Through attendance at NGB meetings at the CCPR in London, with the Sussex County Sports Partnership (SCSP) at various locations in Sussex and a similar body for Surrey, Active Surrey, Stoolball England have worked hard to publicise stoolball and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all these bodies for their help and support during the last year.
3. In Horsham we are running a coaching “test market” programme for primary and junior schools in the area which is being supported by Horsham District Council’s sporting arm, Horsham Leisure Link, and we were fortunate to secure funding from “Sport Unlimited”. Our aim is to develop this programme throughout Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Hampshire in particular where there are exit routes from schools to local clubs.
4. Stoolball overseas is getting a foothold, particularly in India, with a lot of interest from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Locally, Stoolball England, assisted by Aldrington Stoolball Club, are having a stand and designated playing area in Preston Park as part of the Brighton and Hove “TAKEPART” fortnight of sporting activity and there is going to be the first ever inter-school Sussex under 14s girls’ stoolball event taking place in Brighton (Waterhall) at the beginning of July.
5. What else is in the pipeline? Both the publicity tri-fold leaflet and the coaching manual are nearing completion and should be printed shortly. Together with our two DVDs, we are building up an impressive armoury of support materials. There has been a lot of interest in the Club Accreditation Scheme and a number of clubs have decided to use the funding streams provided for us by the Sussex County Sports Partnership to fund equipment and kit.

9. Feedback from affiliated members

For North Division, SCSA, Sybil Voller reported that the fixtures were made for the season and all the pitches were satisfactory. She went on to say that one of her clubs, Bluebells, had submitted an application to become an Accredited Stoolball Club and they were hopeful of becoming the first club to receive this award from Stoolball England. She cited the value of advertising in local leisure centres and schools when clubs numbers are short.

Doris Younger from East Grinstead Stoolball Club spoke from experience when she told of the hard work involved in finding new players and how happy they were when players were successfully recruited from the local hockey club.

Chanctonbury Ladies Stoolball League (Vic Laker) reported that the fixtures for the season had been completed and circulated. They had elected a new Secretary, Alan Kirby, and their league tournament would be held at Steyning on 5 July.

Coastal Ladies Stoolball League (Pat Wyatt) told the meeting she always felt full of enthusiasm after coming to the General meetings, but that there was not the same degree of enthusiasm in the clubs in her league. A date for their tournament had not been decided yet.

Mid Sussex Mixed Stoolball League (Rick Mason) reported that their Annual General Meeting was due to take place shortly but to date their fixtures for the season had not been circulated.

Sussex County Umpires Association (John Fitzpatrick) said that their Annual General Meeting was well attended and the recent rules review was discussed. However, as a body they were disappointed that a debate on the controversial “catch” rule had been delayed to allow further discussion. He also felt it was important that Stoolball England should create some umpiring qualifications because there was a good standard of umpiring in all the countries and they needed to set some standards.

10. Any other business

There was no further business to discuss.

Date of the next General Committee meeting: Sunday 27 September 2009, 10.30am for an 11am start at venue to be arranged.

The meeting closed at 1.20pm.

Kay and John Price, 22 April 2009

Tags: crb, insurance, meetings