Attendance:
Barry Donovan (BD), Jonathan Lean (JL), Richard
Westergreen – Thorne (RWT), Algy Grimes (AG), Tony Lloyd (TL)
+ Dave Wood (DW) for the Annual Dinner item
+ Justin Thomas (JT) for the Vice Captain item
Minutes previous
Accepted
Matters
arising
- handicaps with gender neutral tees and Ladies taking part in knockouts
– TL has consulted widely since the previous meeting and shared a draft wording
for the arrangements for knockout matches with male and female participants.
These were agreed and will be displayed on the sign-up page for the knockouts.
TL/JL will also contact members who it applies to in knockout matches once the
draw has been made. (see also Competition Secretaries report)
- Boards - AG reported back on progress with the Boards. It was
agreed that they will be for the Golfer of the Year, Rex Cleaver, Reg Batson
and Annual Stableford competitions and will show past winners as well as current
winners of each competition. AG has also been in negotiation for the completion
of the signwriting that will be required.
Action Point:
To be an agenda item at the next meeting
- feedback provided to the golf committee regarding Swap Day and Match
dates for 2025 – nothing new to report
- Accounts - BD to bring a draft end of year (2022 – 2023) and 2024 –
2025 budget outlines to the next meeting - BD to provide information for the
next meeting to be able to confirm the contribution from funds to the Senior
Captain’s charity
See Treasurer's Report
- Matches - It was agreed that AG and AS will continue with the planning
for 2024 and at the next meeting the sign up and selection arrangements along
with the costings of matches for 2024 will be confirmed to allow time to
circulate to members prior to sign up starting.
See Matches Report
Justin Thomas
JT joined the meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest. Of note
this time was a discussion regarding the four Captains in the club, their
charity efforts, and a desire to create a greater ‘one club’ approach to
fundraising.
There will be an event on 30th March where the new captains
will ‘drive off’ the first tee as a symbolic start to the new golfing year.
Efforts to obtain 4BBB vouchers from other clubs and the challenges of
doing so were covered and the place of the Prostate Project Golf Day in such
arrangements, as a club event, were raised. There will be a club Charity
Committee Meeting shortly where these matters will be discussed.
Captain (JL)
JL outlined his engagement with club events and activities over the past
few weeks.
Vice-Captain (RWT)
RWT has been in contact with several members who are unwell or injured
and this was briefly raised and discussed.
Immediate Past Captain (AG)
Nothing to report.
Treasurer's Report (BD)
BD brought a draft of his treasurer’s presentation to the AGM to the committee
meeting, this included draft financial outturns for the year (2023) and
projections for 2024. These were discussed and suggestions made for BD to
consider..
The donation from the senior section to the Senior Captains Charity was
raised including the topping up from seniors funds the amount that has been collected
via competition entry fees, raffles, etc. Subsequent to the meeting, the breakdown from
the whole club charity activities such as the Parking Spot and Membership for
the Year raffles was made available. Consequently, it looks likely that JL will
be able to present a cheque to Keech Hospice Care for over £7,600 at the AGM.
Donations to the Staff Christmas Box and Junior Section have been made.
Hon. Secretary (RWT)
A few clubs
have already sent us their contact details for 2024 and we plan to send ours
out soon after the AGM. This then leads on to planning the 2025 calendar
starting with making offers of dates to the other clubs.
We do need
to decide what to do about the Bedford and County fixture early in the year due
to the consequence of needing to find another club if we did not play them in
the future. They advised us during 2023
that, due to difficulty in getting 16 players for each match, they wanted to
change to 12 a side for all their matches for 2024. We agreed, at the time, to
agree to 12 a side for 2024 given the short notice but to review our position
for 2025.
Action
Point
Agenda item
at the next meeting
Newmarket
Links agreed to a Swap Day with us for 2024 and then had to withdraw when their
club committee would not sanction it. It appears that they have now prevailed
on the club committee and have an agreement to have a Swap Day in 2025. I
expressed our support and interest and agreed to bring it to the committee
meeting and then get back to them with the outcome.
Action
Point
RWT to
contact Newmarket Links to confirm our interest in agreeing a date for 2025.
We have had
two people let me know they are not continuing at JOG in 2024 and to withdraw
them from the Newsletter circulation list. We have also had three current JOG
members aged 59 and reaching 60 during 2024 make contact and I have added them
to the Newsletter mailing list.
No other
members have yet come forward to join Rafe Bateson and Trevor Darrington as
contacts for new members. TL and I have discussed a few names and TL will
follow up. It would be nice to have one or two more.
The roll up
is running smoothly with Bill Walker organising the rota and the arrangements
for the stableford dates is an agenda item.
JT has
contacted me about a ‘Captains Drive’ event on 30th March to mark
the start of the new year of golf and we can ask him about this when he attends
the meeting.
Competition Secretary (TL)
The final two competitions of the year have taken place since our last
meeting.
The Arthur Lucas (Bring and Win) on Nov 12 was won by Bob Isaacson and
the Christmas Fayre and Baz Backhouse Trophy on Dec 19 by Clive Bassindale.
We need to decide whether to make these qualifying competitions this
year as recommended by the Club Handicap Committee.
Action Point:
To be an agenda item at a meeting later in the year.
The effect of gender neutral tees on handicaps in senior section
competitions
Regarding this year’s competitions and the opportunities presented by gender neutral tees I have taken advice from the club and am satisfied that we are entitled to use gender neutral tees as planned.
Each
player calculates their course handicap using their handicap index and the
adjustment according to the course and for yellow tees. The
difference between the players’ handicaps is the number of strokes that the
higher handicap player receives from the lower handicap player.
The Foursomes Knockout will be played from the yellow tees using the stroke index of the men’s card. The format is foursomes matchplay.
When
one team consists of a lady and a gent the strokes must be
decided by using the online Congu Mixed Tee Calculator for the yellow
tees.”
- in
the notes of the meeting circulated to members
-
on the information on the sign up page
on the club website
Match Secretary's Report (AS/AG)
AG outlined the proposed arrangements for sign up, playing in matches,
cost to play, etc. There will be 5 tranches of 6 matches released during the
year for members to sign up to.
AGM
-
RWT to circulate the AGM agenda the
day after the committee meeting
-
RWT to look at the constitution, consult
with Bill Walker as to how to present the proposal to increase the size of the committee,
and to report back to committee members
-
Succession planning to be an agenda
item at the next meeting
Seniors Annual Presentation Dinner
14th March
11th April
2nd May
18th July
22nd August
3rd October
5th November
14th January 2025
