Minutes of the AGM held on 27th March 2009
MINUTES OF THE A.G.M OF BENAVISTA BOWLS CLUB HELD AT EL PARAISO COUNTRY CLUB ON FRIDAY 27TH MARCH 2009.
1. Present – 39 Members attended (see list attached).
2. Apologies – 6 Apologies were received (see list attached).
3. There were no proxy votes.
4. Club Captain Dennis King welcomed the members to the A.G.M. and opened the meeting in the absence of our President Gordon Adams.
5. Secretary Doreen Fabron read out an apology from Gordon Adams explaining his absence from the meeting. Apology attached
6. The minutes of the last meeting were accepted. Proposed by Frances Farmer seconded by Doreen Musgrove.
7. There were no matters arising from the minutes of the last A.G.M.
8. President’s report – Dennis King read out the report which had been prepared by Gordon Adams. In the report he thanked the retiring committee for all their hard work during the year, and he also thanked the social committee. He especially thanked Diana King for the effort and hard work that had gone into the production of the Benavista Bowls Club Play “Murder at the Bowls Club” last October. He said that it was unfortunate that due to his heart attack, Bert Campbell had not been able to fully play his part as Vice-President. He then congratulated all the members who had won the competitions both home and away, and the list of winners then read out. He mentioned that we had had an E.G.M. and finished by wishing the new committee every success in the coming year. (A full copy of the report is attached.)
9. Captain’s report – Dennis King then gave his own report to the club. He thanked everyone for their hard work during the past year. He said that the selection committee had tried their hardest and it was possible that they may not have got things right all of the time, but they had done their best. He then went on to thank Hughie for all the support he had given the club and all the improvements to the club house and its environs. He thanked Barry Pemberton for the upkeep of the green, Sharon and staff for feeding and watering us and Diana for supporting him for the past year. He asked members and spectators to remember to be open handed in their praise of a good wood, not to just cheer their favourites, it was very off putting for competitors if spectators cheer loudly and made rude remarks at the rink side. He asked if the Side captains could report back after being briefed by the skips after League matches, this would help the selection committee in their job. He ended his report by thanking Diana for her hard work with the play and all the members for their support. (A full copy of the report is attached.
10. Treasurers Report – Russell Roper presented the treasurers report and the balance sheet. He thanked Roger Fabron for taking on the role of Membership secretary at the start of the season and he stated that this year the membership was down from 127 to 112 and gave a breakdown of expenditure and receipts. He then announced that the committee had decided that for the year 2009/2010 the club membership fee would remain the same i.e. €17. Dennis King then called for a proposer for the acceptance of the accounts. Proposer David Finestone, Seconder Len Musgrove.
11. Ken McBride asked if he could continue picking the teams on the Wednesday club day, with a view to letting the league players play together for practice. Allan Bates said we had tried in the past, but it had failed. It was pointed out on previous occasions a team practice had been called on a different day. Doreen Musgrove said it was not fair that ordinary club members could not play better players. Ken replied that this format would only apply on Wednesday and the other club days would still be drawn out of the hat. After more discussion Dennis asked if we could have a show of hands of those in favour of Ken continuing to pick teams on Wednesdays. Those in favour 36. Those against 3.
12. Federation Report – Ken McBride report there were now 3000 fully paid up federation members in Spain. He said that the Kings Cup National competition had been suspended due to the unwillingness of the regional teams to travel and stay away during the current economic downturn. (A full copy of this report is attached.) Tony Winterton was then invited to address the meeting and explain what the Federation was trying to achieve. He said that world wide there were 580,000 Federated members and of all their fees 40cents was paid to the World Bowls Association and they in turn used money this to pay for investigating narrow running bowls and drug testing to name but a few things. In Spain there was a regional organisation then the FEB and FEB was responsible for national and international organisation. The funding of the National Spanish Team was the responsibility of the National Sports Council. Tourism was a major part of Spanish revenue and more foreign teams were now travelling to Spain to play bowls. The different regions were funded by the Junta of that region. There is a Council which covers all types of Bowling in Spain and due to the increase in our membership of the Federation Benavista are now represented on this council by Tony Winterton for the next 4 years, Greenland Bowls Club in Alicante are also represented. He said unfortunately last year this region had to return to the national council some €7250 which it was unable to spend on competitions. Doreen Land asked if there could be more mixed sex competitions. Tony said that the single sex competitions were in line with international competitions but the Andalucian Championship had been changed to mixed sex competitions.
13. Ken McBride explained the change of Format to the Winter League. As from October we will only be able to enter 1 team of 4 trips in the Tigers League and 1 team of 6 trips in the Lions League, and 8 members will be have be registered to play only in the Tigers League and they will have to play in the first 2 matches of the season. Ken thought we could possibly select 5 sets of trips in the Tigers League and it would mean that all players would play in 12 out of the 16 games during the season and likewise in the Lions League 7 trips could be selected so all players would play in 6 out of the 8 games. Bill Ogden asked if it was correct there would only be 5 teams in the Lions league. This was confirmed. Neil asked if we could play 2 home and 2 away with the other 4 clubs, but he was told that one of the reasons we were only allowed to put in 1 team was the unwillingness of 3 of the other clubs to travel to us and Superbowl twice.
14. Neil Marshall read out his proposal to increase the selection committee from its present format of 5 selectors to a possible 9 (a copy of the proposal is attached proposed by Neil Marshall seconded by Roger Fabron). Bill Ogden said having served on the selection committee he found it difficult to get 5 members to agree let alone 9. Jill McBride thought it was hard enough to get 5 members to volunteer for committee places. In reply to Neil’s point about this summer there only being at times 3 members on the selection committee, Ken said it was exceptional and if necessary they could always have co-opted another member to help. Neil then read out his second proposal regarding team captains informing the selection committee about the performance of the league teams (a copy of the proposal is attached proposed by Neil Marshall seconded by Tony Farmer). Malcolm Greenwood said he thought the committee should already be aware of what happens in league matches. Ken thought team captains should report back to the selection committee. Diana Faulkner asked if we tried to keep teams together and was told we do. Dennis said that results alone do not count but you have to take into account the how strong the opposition was and how well the team played. It was suggested that an independent person should travel with each team and report to the selection committee. Dennis suggested we take a vote on the first proposal by a show of hands.
The vote that we keep the status quo of 5 selection committee members was carried by a majority 36-3. As the other proposal had been covered in Dennis’s Captains speech it was decided not to put it to the vote.
15 The addenda to the constitution approved in 2007, were re- approved unanimously by a show of hands.
16 Hughie Holgate then addressed to meeting he thanked the members of the committee on the top table for all their hard work over the last year. He also thanked Sharon and all her staff for the way they had run the club house. He also thanked John Carr for organising the quizzes and commended Diana King for arranging social events and the fund raising event she organised for Cudeca. He also said after listening to Russell’s Treasurer Report he may have had second thoughts about providing free tea and coffee after home league matches!
He said he was disappointed with the membership numbers this year, and the take up of the annual playing fees, but he said he does need the support of all club members. He understood that the credit crunch had had an effect on all the members, and as a result he had decided not to increase the playing fees next season. Instead he had decided to try and encourage members by allowing payment in two tranches of possibly €190 on 1st September and €190 on 1st March for annual paying members and he would also give a voucher of €40 upon payment of the second instalment. He had decided to abolish the 9 monthly playing fees because not many members had taken up this option. The 6 monthly playing fee of €275 would also stay the same but members would get a voucher for €20. The vouchers could be spent in the club house for either food or drinks. The pay as you play fee would remain at €7. He said he would like to increase the membership and he also encouraged the members to support the club house, which was now open 7 days a week from 9am to 10pm, with the exception of Sundays which had slightly shorter opening hours.
Doreen Musgrove asked if we could have some more lockers and was told they were planned and should be ready for next season. Bill Ogden asked if the playing surface would be checked, Hughie said he was in talks with Sportscrete. Allan Bates asked about pushers and was told the committee were trying to find suitable pushers, which if possible we would have for the next season.
He told the membership that the Clubhouse would be closed for 8 days over Christmas and New Year so as the staff would be able to spend the time with their families and there would also be a 1 week closure in August so as maintenance could be carried out in the Clubhouse.
Hughie said he and the girls had been on the receiving end of complaints from the members over the last year and asked if members would address their complaints to the committee in the first place in future. He also said he thought that the President should be a fully paid up annual playing member who was here for most of the year and hoped that in future this would be the case.
Dennis thanked Hughie for his report.
17 Ken thanked Russell for standing in as competition secretary during the last year. He said he had calculated that Russell had spent 30 full days from 9am to the end of the days play at the club during competitions.
18 The next item was the election of the new committee a full list of nominations is attached. As we were going to have a vote for the position of Ordinary member selection committee, between Allan Bates and Sandy Guthrie, three members were asked to volunteer to be tellers. They were Frances Farmer, Jill McBride and Neil Marshall. Voting papers were passed round and the votes gathered and counted. Sandy Guthrie was duly elected.
All other members were elected unopposed
President Hughie Holgate
Vice-President Tony Farmer
Captain Dennis King
Vice-Captain Bill Ogden
Treasurer Russell Roper
Secretary Doreen Fabron
Competition
Secretary Neil Marshall
Ordinary Member Ken McBride
Ordinary Member
Selection Committee Sandy Guthrie
The adoption of the committee was proposed by Frank Vernon and seconded by Allan Bates.
19 Three members were asked to sign the minutes as a true record of the meeting they were Doreen Musgrove, David Finestone and Frank Vernon.
20 The meeting was then handed over to the new committee and Hughie thanked the members for voting the new committee in.
21 The meeting closed at 12.30pm.
A.O.B The matter of refusal of membership to Paul and Jan Brown was raised. Doreen said that in line with Superbowl last year the committee had decided to close membership for dual members. It was pointed out that Superbowl had closed its membership completely. She said that we had not closed our membership, but the committee felt there was no benefit in accepting any more dual members. It was asked if the new committee would reconsider the decision and the members were asked for their opinion by a show of hands. The vast majority were in favour 25- 9 of the committee discussing the possibility of opening up dual membership again.
Signed as a true record
Doreen Musgorove David Finestone Frank Vernon
