Seniors 2023 AGM minutes Tuesday Feb 13 2024
Attendance: Richard
Westergreen-Thorne, Jonathan Lean, Justin Thomas, Peter Grimes, Barry Donovan,
Tony Lloyd, Ken Brewer, Nigel Underwood, Dave Wood, Steve Hobbiger, Ian
Maddison, Keith Howlett, Fred Williams, Ray Smart, Derek Young, Gordon
Goodchild, David Tamsitt, Keith Fuller, Neil Pinnington, Phil Armstrong, Dave
Sutton, Peter Salmon, Anthony Bell, Ian Riches, Rafe Bateson, Nick Schumann,
Andrew Bowen, Mike Tipper, Graham Berry, Andy Brown, Bob Isaacson, Bill Walker,
Richard Coventry, Stephen Collins, Mehmet Osman, David Trotter, Chris Roy, Bill
Conway, Steve Luckman, Paul Life, Graham Gadsden, Hazel House, Paul Jones, John
Church, Michael Newstead, James Kerr
1 Welcome by the Captain, Jonathan Lean
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It’s good to see you
all here. A very warm welcome to you all. Hopefully you will all have seen the
agenda so you will know what is going to happen today. However, I first have a
pleasant duty of presenting a cheque to my chosen charity. When I got to the
stage of having to choose a charity to support this year, I was faced with a
daunting choice. There are so many very worthy charities to choose from. I
personally am a trustee of 2 small local charities, but I did not think that it
was appropriate to nominate either of these. Instead, I wanted to keep it
reasonably local and relevant.
Most of us are parents and/or grandparents. Most of us know the
emotions we feel when the child is ill. Fortunately, very few of us have to
endure the emotions of a child’s illness which is life limiting. I cannot
remember how I came across Keech Hospice Care charity (probably accosted by
someone outside a supermarket!) but having spent some time on their website it
did not take me long to realise that this was the charity I wanted to support. Sarah
Phillips is a fundraiser for Keech, and I will ask her to say a few words about
Keech before I present the cheque.
Here Sarah Phillips outlined the work done by Keech
Hospice Care
Thank you, Sarah. And a special thank you to all of you who have
contributed throughout the year either via Just Giving for the 54-hole
challenge (never again!), bidding on auction lots, buying raffle tickets etc.
Jonathan presented Sarah with a cheque for £8,107. 60p
2 Apologies for absence
Rob Bage, Peter Imray, Dave Gauge, Jan Murphy, Lorna Jerome,
Stuart Wilcox, John Whitbread, Len Greaves, Alan Curtis, Tony Goodson, Alban
Macdonald
3 Minutes of the 2022 AGM were taken as read
4 Matters arising
None
5 Captain’s report by Jonathan Lean
I have attended several Seniors AGMs and almost without
exception, the Captain starts by saying how quickly the year has gone. This is
with good reason as I have found out over the past year.
Firstly, I would like to thank Algy for asking me to be his
Vice Captain and to take over from him. He was a hard act to follow but I have
enjoyed the challenge. I have played in 27 of the 28 matches last year, only
missing one for a big family reunion. Thank you to Richard for deputising for
me – I hear that his joke had the audience in tears!
Matches are great fun and a wonderful and economic way of
playing other courses in our region, meet new friends and enjoy ‘friendly’
competition. These friendships are illustrated by the number of guests at our
Member and Guest Day competition are a result of friendships made at matches. I
have played in every competition also and had a distinctly mid-table year. Despite
this, somehow my HI has managed to drop by 0.5! Who can explain the wonders of
the new Handicap system?
Being Captain meant I have had a seat on the Golf Committee
plus the newly formed Club Charity Committee and the one-off 75th Anniversary
Committee. The Charity Committee is a new initiative (that’s tautology as all
initiatives are new!) whereby club charity fundraising would be coordinated
throughout the various sections- Club, Seniors, Ladies and Juniors – and the
proceeds then divided between the sections for the various charities. It had a
bit of a slow start mainly because of the distraction of the 75th Anniversary
activities which took place in the Summer also. However, the committee has
learned a lot and future years will hopefully reap greater benefits.
I hope that many of you enjoyed the activities arranged for
the 75th Anniversary celebrations. I certainly had great fun playing in the
Greenkeepers’ Revenge competition and also attending the funfair evening. An
excuse to go back to my childhood!
Some significant successes with the Golf Committee include
the agreement that we can now increase the number of matches to 15 clubs. This
year therefore we will be including Luffenham Heath in our match programme. It
has been made clear though that this is our limit for the time being and if we
want to have a match with any other prestigious club such as Woburn, we will
have to drop one of our existing matches.
Another issue that I have raised with the Golf Committee is
tee furniture. Having seen how other clubs do it when playing matches, I feel
that it would improve our club if every tee had a ball washer, waste bin and a
board with all the hole details including a small sketch of the hole. This
would be particularly helpful to visitors playing JOG for the first time where
very few of the greens are visible from the tee. Having initially been greeted
with little enthusiasm by the General Committee, this issue has now been taken
up by the upcoming Club Captain, Justin Thomas and has progressed to the stage
of getting prices.
Another success was getting approval to have a further 4
Seniors Honour boards in the bar area. These will be placed close to the
existing boards and will consist of records of winners of the Rex Cleaver, Reg
Batson, Annual Stableford and Golfer of the Year.
It has not been decided yet how far back the boards will go
in recorded winners. My personal concern is that the GoTY board goes back at
least as far as 2016!
The ongoing issue of
having a 2 tee start for home matches continues. This has not been raised at
the Golf committee this year because, as my wife tells me, timing is
everything. The club is undergoing a change in governance at the moment and the
seniors committee feel that it would be better to wait until this is in place
before pursuing this request.
The captain’s job is made much easier when he is supported
by an excellent team. So, I would like to go on record by thanking all of the
committee and others who have helped to make my year run smoothly. Richard
Westergreen-Thorne has been on top of everything as Hon Sec and a stalwart
supporter as Vice-Captain. He has made sure that I don’t forget anything with
timely reminders and been an excellent communicator to all senior members
through his weekly newsletter.
Andy Shilton will be sorely missed, not only by the senior
section but also by the club as a whole as he sails off into the sunset
(literally). He has very efficiently juggled the intricacies of team selection
for matches ensuring as far as possible fairness in selection and balancing
home and away fixtures.
Tony Lloyd has done an excellent job as competitions
secretary and will be a hard act to follow as I take over this responsibility
again.
Barry Donovan has been a welcome addition to the committee
as Honorary Treasurer. He has excelled at managing and updating the accounting
system as well as reporting on the financial situation in a clear way that even
I could understand.
Algy Grimes as Immediate Past Captain has been immensely
supportive and has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the
meetings. He will handle his new role as matches secretary with good humour and
efficiency. I am delighted that he is staying on the committee.
I would also like to thank all of those who have assisted in
the smooth running of the section without being on the committee. These include
Dave Wood who has managed the trophies and also organised the Presentation
evening, Nigel Underwood who, with his wife Sabrina organised the Member and
Guest Day, Alban MacDonald who helped design a new selection matrix for team
selection in matches. Thanks also to Derek Young for managing the sale of
clothing and also managing to sell off the few remaining ties. Thank you to all
those who have volunteered to be match organisers also. I know that Algy would
welcome anyone else who would like to take on organising a match. There is
usually a bottle of wine in it as a thank you.
Thank you also to Bill Walker for taking over the running of
the roll-ups. As many of you know, our Handicap Committee are keen that more
general play cards are submitted for handicapping purposes, so Bill has
arranged for several of the roll- ups to be individual Stablefords rather than
4BBB to allow cards to be entered.
Thank you also to all those who are on the rota for managing
roll-ups. We are always looking for more volunteers to do this on an occasional
basis. Rafe Bateson, Anthony Bell, Peter Salmon, Jim Kerr, Terry Domagala,
David Barlow, Bill Walker and Richard Westergreen-Thorne and I are currently on
the list.
Rafe Bateson, Andy Brown and Trevor Darrington have taken on
the role of welcoming new members to the senior section and ensuring that they
are integrated into the system. Thank you to them.
An additional thank you also to Trevor who audited our
accounts to ensure that we don’t have a ‘Horizon’ issue!
We now have over 250 senior members, and we are always
looking for more volunteers to take on either supporting roles or indeed
aspiring committee members. It is healthy to have a regular influx of new blood
with fresh ideas.
It is the nature of the Senior Section that a few of our
members pass away in the year. This year we should take a few moments to
remember with fond memories Ralph Black, Alec McGeady, Robin Carter, Fred Cox
and Peter Dean. If there are any others that I have forgotten please let me
know and I will include them in the minutes of this meeting.
So, finally, many of you will have looked at your year in
review as reported on IG. Algy told us last year that his most popular purchase
was a pint of Carlsberg lager. I can report that mine was egg and cress
sandwich! I can confidently predict that if Richard chooses to divulge his next
year, it will be Green tea!
I wish Richard success for the coming year. My advice is to
enjoy it as much as I have. It has been a great honour to be your captain and I
thank you all for your encouragement and your words of support throughout the
year.
I hand over now to Richard for his Hon Sec report.
6 Honorary Secretary’s report by Richard
Westergreen-Thorne
2023 was a good year for the Senior Section and I would like
to echo Jonathan’s thanks to what is in total around 30 people helping to run
the section and our events. It would be impossible without you.
Our membership numbers are not as clear as when we had a
membership fee as we now take it as those who are signed up for the Newsletter.
We had a big influx of new members in 2022 post covid both to the club and to
the seniors and numbers have continued to grow steadily. We currently have 271
signed up to receive the Newsletter and, with a handful of other members and ex
members, as courtesy members plus copies going to several club staff such as Gordon
the circulation of the Newsletter is now over 280 a week. In conjunction with
this many members regularly look at the blog for more details, photographs and
insights into what is going on.
We have had 7 existing club members join us in the past
month and five of them are in the 59/60 age group and I am pleased that our
Ambassadors of Rafe Bateson, Andy Brown and Trevor Darrington are already
making contact with them.
We added the Swap Day in 2022 to our calendar as an annual
event and an annual fixture with Brocket Hall in 2023 plus a match with
Luffenham Heath has been added for 2024. All great additions to our calendar
which is now pretty full - of which more later.
The roll up has very healthy numbers each session at present
and it was good to see the trial of the single stableford roll ups in the
Autumn which has led to 8 of them being added to the calendar for the coming
year. This will help provide opportunities for members to complete qualifying
cards to keep their handicaps current.
167 members took part in at least one of the Golfer of the
Year events in 2023 which is a record and, in addition, several others took
part in the knockouts, matches and other activities. It just remains for me to
say many thanks to the other members of the committee and to you and all our
other members for your engagement and support during 2023.
7 Competition Secretary’s report by Tony Lloyd
Looking back at the year we had a packed competition
calendar which went very well apart from one or two weather-related setbacks.
The Greensomes with the Ladies planned for March was the
first victim and was cancelled as the courses were closed due to snow. And I’m
sorry that try as we may the club calendar was so crowded that we were unable
to find another day to play it on. Let’s hope we have more luck with this
year’s Greensomes, our first event of the year on March 5.
The rest of our competitions were a great success and were
extremely well supported.
And the honours were fairly evenly distributed with most
competitions won by a different player… apart from Dave Wrench who shamelessly
took home no less than three trophies. Well done Dave.
Dave almost topped off his success with the Golfer of the
Year Trophy but had to settle for third place as Andy Brown stormed through to
seal victory in the final qualifier of the year. Congratulations to Andy and
also to the other top five players in the Order of Merit, Richard Knell, Rob
Bage and Dave Tamsitt.
Incidentally 167 people played in one or more GOTY events
and everyone with five or more entries made the cut for the Xmas Fayre. So the
moral is if you want to be in the Xmas Fayre get your name down for as many
GOTY qualifiers as you can.
We also celebrated a few firsts. If you noticed an extra
fragrance on the first tee it wasn’t just Pat Gilgallon’s cologne. Yes we had
lady members taking part for the first time including Jan Murphy who with Paul
Dobson won the Foursomes Knockout… the first time a lady has won a Senior
Section competition. So well done Jan and Paul.
We always hope for a few holes in one … but no one was
expecting Chris Walker to score a hole in one on the John O’Gaunt 16th
with a 100 year old hickory club. Amazing and a great headline for the Seniors
Blog, which I hope you all read avidly!
The knockouts were closely fought. As well as Jan Murphy and
Paul Dobson’s victory in the Foursomes, we also saw Clive Bassindale win the
Green Tilley and Paul Jeeves take the Holmwood Plate. Congratulations to them.
Being seniors we are always prone to a few health issues
which force us occasionally to withdraw from competitions. Sometimes quite late
in the day. Sometimes quite early in the day … like 8am on the morning of the
competition!
But I must say when I have had to rejig the start sheet to
take account of these problems, or put out a plea for last minute replacements,
you have all been fantastic at coming to the rescue.
I will pay special
thanks to Keith Fuller who (and I didn’t know this at the time) was in the
shower when I rang him early one morning to ask him if he could fill a slot
vacated by an injured player. Keith dried himself off and was on the tee inside
an hour or so. Above and beyond the call of duty. So thanks to all of you for
making my job over the past year so easy and enjoyable.
I would also like to thank Jonathan for all his help and
advice last year as I grappled with IG and wish him well as he takes back the
reins for this year.
Thank you all and good luck next year.
8 Match Secretary’s report by Andy Shilton presented by
Algy Grimes
Overall, our season performance was Played 28, Won 11, Drawn
6 Lost 11. As with last year the final group of mainly away games took
the shine off a bright start to the season. But it was positive to finish
with an even number of wins and losses especially as we lost both of the ‘extra
fixtures’ to Brocket Hall. It should also be noted that this was an
improvement on last season’s 9 wins, 4 draws, and 13 losses.
The season will also be remembered for some cracking jokes
from the Captain (was this an improvement on last year – I can’t remember).
Season in numbers
At the start of the season, we had 60 players signed up but
by the time we had finished we had used 70 players with most players getting
selected for between 60% and 70% of the matches they had made themselves
available for. There were a few outliers caused by late additions and
withdrawals and long-term illness/injury. This is 11 more than we used
last year, probably a reflection on the increased size of the Senior Section.
Of the 70 players 29 used their Joker. The most
popular joker fixture was Letchworth with 7, followed by Gog Magog having 5, Northampton 4, Saffron Walden 4,
Wellingborough 4, and Aspley Guise 3, also proving popular. But no Jokers
were played for South Beds, St Neots, Cambridge, Leighton Buzzard, Millbrook.
Of most concern was the number of withdrawals, this numbered
101 over the course of the season, a significant increase over last year and
almost 4 per game on average. Some of this was caused by illness and
injury and some by changes of circumstance. My view is that the selection
for the whole of the season was problematic, many people’s diaries for the year
are not known or change during the season, and asking people to confirm in
February is going to be liable to increase the chances of withdrawals later in
the year.
My thanks especially go to the players that responded to our
calls for help during the season. It was much appreciated.
There were no Jokers allowed for Brocket Hall
Costs
At £24 (and not charging a match fee), we were the most
expensive club for match fees and meal costs with Leighton Buzzard,
Northampton, and Saffron Walden still only charging something like £17 and
seeming to be able to supply a meal of equivalence. And others charging
£18-£22.
Next Year
From the findings of the player survey there is a majority
in favour of returning to a batch-based approach. My suggestion would be
to do it in 5 batches, March/April as the first batch, then because of the
frequency of fixtures, monthly a month in advance. I think that this
would help with communication and management of the availability.
One downside of the multiple batch approach is being able to
make sure that equitable selection has been made, especially because we do have
a front-loaded home bias. I think that the Match Secretary should be able
to manage this, because selection rests with the Secretary (on behalf of the
Captain), we should avoid any suspicion of organisers picking their friends.
Using two separate systems IG (where the players are using
IG for most activities), and a separate Google Sheets selection and sharing
system has caused confusion. Members see availability features as they
use IG and think that they have created or changed their availability when the
data in IG was not being used. It has also proved to be difficult for
some members to find what matches they have been selected for. Alban
Macdonald has done a great job creating the Google Sheets system, but it may be
that IG (though it has limitations), does lend itself to a smaller batch-based
approach and because it is a Database it is more intrinsically able to handle
‘change’ in comparison to a ‘Cell based’ system. This is something for
the new Match Secretary to judge.
Looking forwards I would suggest
the trend is still to further de-formalise the games. The ‘Sandwich and
Chip’ matches with Brocket have been popular and other clubs have also
suggested informally that this might be a direction of travel. This is
particularly the case where only one tee starts are available as a rolling meal
makes it easier to enable early starters to eat when they finish and get away
as soon as the last groups are in, and the Captains have done the
presentations. This should particularly reduce the up to 80-minute wait
at the end.
All the matches have now been set up in IG for next year,
and with the addition of Luffenham Heath there are now 30 matches to be played.
I have very much enjoyed being match secretary for the last
2 years and in particular want to thank the Match Organisers for their sterling
efforts getting arrangements in place and of course the entertaining match
reports onto the Blog.
I wish the Senior Section well for the future, the section
is a credit to the John O’Gaunt Golf Club, and it has been a pleasure and a
privilege to play with you all.
9 Honorary
Treasurer's report and adoption of accounts by Barry Donovan
So ends my
first year as Seniors Treasurer. This has been an enjoyable experience, and I
am pleased to report that the Seniors section is financially in a good place. I
would like to record my thanks to my predecessor – Richard Coventry – for an
effective hand over of the reigns.
I would also
like to thank the Seniors Committee for their support and patience whilst I learnt
the ways of their world! Lastly my deep thanks to Trevor Darrington who once
again has provided his professional expertise to the Audit of these accounts.
The year
started with a healthy Bank Balance of £2,183. Our first financial challenge
was forced upon us by the festivities related to the 75 th Year celebrations.
This meant several Matches being switched with home games being played earlier
than normal. This presented potential cash flow problems but were overcome by
good husbandry by the committee.
The approach
taken in managing this year’s finances has been slightly different to previous years.
The attached financial report illustrates this with Costs and Income split for
activity categories, rather than the net impact being reported. We will
continue along the same lines next year and this will hopefully help the
committee manage Costs and Income in a clearer manner. Whilst the totals for
Income and Expenditure look higher this year, the net position is inline. The
statement identifies variances year on year.
During the year
several finance process issues have surfaced mainly due to changes in personal.
These have been frustrating, but I think we are all now the wiser for the experience!
One downside some of you may have experienced has been very late charges made
to your IG account for Matches and Competitions.
I’m delighted
to inform you that we have managed to contribute a stunning £3,200 out of this
year’s funds. Together with Jonathan’s participation in the Main Club fund
raising efforts, which has generated £3,411.60 , means our Captains Charity
will benefit by £6,611.60. This exceeds last year’s figure of £4,060. I hope
everyone is as delighted as I that we have been able to do this particularly in
such trying economic times. During the year a fund is established that takes a
small amount from all competitions and raffles. In addition, we have had
several contributions directly to the fund by members of the Seniors section. An
excellent achievement for the Keech Hospice.
In addition to
the Charity, we have also been able to repeat previous years donation to the
Juniors section.
After allowing
for all inflight transactions, we will end the year with a positive bank
balance of £2,418.28. Our net surplus for the year is £234.92 compared with a
negative £1,183.94 last year. This provides a much-needed cushion for the
Seniors section as we move into the new financial year. Our aim is to support
the Seniors section in all its endeavours and provide the best services we can
to our members and their golfing exploits for the year. To all those involved
in contributing to the Seniors section in 2023 I thank you.
All the best
for 2024.
(I was unable to attach the accounts to this blog but they are available from Barry Donovan for anyone who would like to study them (email: barrimar230@yahoo.co.uk)
10 Appointment of an auditor
Trevor Darrington was appointed Auditor
11 Appointment of Officers for 2024
All officers were appointed unopposed
Nominations:
|
Position
|
Nominee
|
Proposer
|
Seconder
|
|
Captain
|
Richard Westergreen - Thorne
|
Jonathan Lean
|
Algy Grimes
|
|
Vice-Captain
|
Tony Lloyd
|
Richard Westergreen - Thorne
|
Bill Walker
|
|
Honorary Secretary
|
Tony Lloyd
|
Barry Donovan
|
Jonathan Lean
|
|
Competition Secretary
|
Jonathan Lean
|
Tony Lloyd
|
Richard Westergreen - Thorne
|
|
Match Secretary
|
Algy Grimes
|
Bill Walker
|
Barry Donovan
|
|
Treasurer
|
Barry Donovan
|
Algy Grimes
|
Jonathan Lean
|
12
Address by the Captain, Richard Westergreen-Thorne
I am very pleased to be standing here as
your new Captain and delighted that Jonathan decided to nominate me for the
role. It is much appreciated, and I will have a very hard act to follow. I know
that you will agree that Jonathan has been an excellent Captain for the past
year being fully involved in what we do (I believe he played in all the
competitions and only missed 1 match all season) and he has also worked
tirelessly behind the scenes on our behalf and led the Committee very well.
There has even been the odd good joke!
In looking forward to the year ahead I
wanted to choose as my charity something that makes a difference to people’s
lives and which we can all relate to. At a time of massive advances in medical
science I feel that our money will be very well used by the British Heart Foundation
who will spend it on life changing and life saving research. I hope that you
will be able to support my efforts for this charity during the year. I plan to
play in as many events as I can this year but may not be able to match Jonathan’s
achievement. With the additional matches this year there is only one week
between the start of April and November where we do not have a competition or a
match – and that is in the middle of October
In thinking about what to say today I
came up with three key things I would like to see this year:
- I would like to see as many
people as possible involved in what we do playing,
competing and helping
- I would like to see us
continue to develop what we offer our members
- I would like us to enjoy the
golfing year that lies ahead – even sometimes despite the golf
Thank you again for electing
me as your Captain for 2024.
13 Address by the Honorary Secretary, Tony Lloyd
Well what a
turn-up for the books!
I’ve faced a few
probing questions in the past few weeks from friends trying to find out who
Richard’s Vice Captain would be. I had no idea, as I kept telling you. So
imagine my surprise when Richard rang me last night and said: “Tony, what are
you doing next year?”
I’ve never lied as
much in my life. I feel as though I have been living through an episode of The
Traitors.
Naturally I said yes because it is a
privilege and an honour to serve on this committee representing the best and
most vibrant senior section out there. And thanks everyone for taking up this
ultimate Buy One Get One Free offer by electing me both Vice Captain and
Honorary Secretary. The first thing I must do is thank Richard for carrying out
this role for the past three years and wish him well in his year as Captain. I
am sure you will all agree with me that he has done a remarkable job in
ensuring the smooth running of the section and keeping members up to date
through his weekly newsletters which I plan to copy and paste going forward.
Hopefully, like Ernie Wise’s hairpiece, you won’t see the join. These are huge boots
to fill but I will strive to reach the high standards set by Richard. And thank
you Richard for putting your faith in me as your Vice Captain. We can be
rightly proud of the way the Senior Section conducts itself and with your help
I am confident that we can keep up the good work next year. Thank You and happy
golfing.
14 Address by the Competition Secretary, Jonathan
Lean
I would like to start with a large vote
of thanks to Tony Lloyd for standing in for me over the past year. He has done
an excellent job, and I am very grateful to him for all his hard work. I think
that he will agree with me that the Competition Secretary position would
benefit from support in terms of an assistant to ease the large workload around
the times of the competitions and also to act as a replacement in the event of
holidays etc.
I hope that you are all looking forward
to our upcoming programme of competitions and will be diarising opening dates
as well as actual competition dates to ensure they do not clash with doctors’
appointments, holidays etc. Just a reminder of the usual requests. Particularly
applicable to late starters, please can you all ensure that, once you have
finished playing, your score is entered, and cards put in the relevant box or
handed to a committee member before you do ANYTHING else. The competitions
cannot be finalised until all the results are in and leading scores checked
against the score cards. Also, don’t forget to sign your score cards!
If anyone has to withdraw from an event,
please can you make every effort to do this before the draw is done. I
understand that some situations cannot be foreseen or controlled but please
ensure that every competition you enter is clearly marked in your diaries or
calendars to avoid clashing with other events that you have to attend. If you
must withdraw, please can you contact me – not Gordon, Nigel Tarne or Richard
Westergreen-Thorne. Text or email is preferred as I then have a record of the
withdrawal and can act on it when I am next at my computer. Phone calls are OK
provided they are confirmed by text or email. Some of you have contacted me
through the IG messaging system. This is OK but a bit cumbersome so if you can
text or email please do so.
If any of you have inflexible tee time
requirements in order to allow doctors, dentists appointments etc. please let
me know before the draw is done. It is much more difficult to do this after the
draw when everyone has been advised of their tee time.
Finally, the objective is for everyone to
enjoy the competitions as much as possible no matter how well you perform in
them. I will continue to do all I can to ensure that this happens and all
constructive and helpful comments as to how to improve will be very welcome.
15 Address by the Match Secretary, Algy Grimes
One of the last
things Andy did as a member was to nominate me to replace him, I will let you
know in the months ahead whether to thank him or not. We have about 60 players
signed up for the first tranche of matches, so we are in line with last year.
I will aim to
make selections as even as possible to try and give 60% to 70% success rate on
selection. You are asked to sign up for at least two home and two away matches
over the year as a minimum. I will be taking this into account throughout the
year as other tranches open. As far as Brockett Hall away is concerned, we have
had about 35 people sign up for 12 places, so about 66% of you will be
disappointed, but those who play this year and who played last year, will be
ineligible next year.
I trust that this
year, by signing up in tranches of six matches at a time, that there will be
fewer people drop out once selected, I know some of you don’t like this
approach but people should be able to manage their diaries over the shorter
time scales to keep this at a minimum. In due course I will give the selections
to the Match Organiser and they will be touch with those selected to play or as
a reserve. They will choose the playing pairs and will hopefully be able to ensure
the shots end up about even with the opponent teams once their handicaps are
known. I thank all organisers in advance for their help.
Now an apology to
you all, following a trial run of the system with the committee I deleted the wrong
information which led to you being given the wrong link for signing up. A huge
thank you must go to Alban Macdonald for sorting me out and giving me a new
link to share with you all, he has spent many hours working on our system. We
will be keeping the cost per match at £24.00 following some help an negotiations
with the Clubhouse Manager, Paula.
Should you have
any issues do feel free to contact me after the AGM and I will as best I can.
16
Other Agenda Items
A proposal to co-opt two additional members to the Senior Section
Committee from within the membership for 2024 to provide help and support for the work of the committee on behalf of the membership was approved
17 Close of Meeting
