East Midlands Hockey Umpires Association
Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the 10th Annual General Meeting held at Highfields, Nottingham on 20th April 2004
The meeting opened at 7:32 pm with the President David Hourd in the chair.
The President welcomed members and asked them to fill in the circulating Attendance Form
Attending were 25 members and one guest, with 33 apologies.
1. Presidents Address
Welcome to the 2004 EMHUA AGM and thank you for attending.
This season has been difficult with more and more demands being made on the membership and sadly the retirement of several members through injury and the ‘attitude’ shown by players, coaches and spectators alike. If EMHUA, BCHUA and MRHUA continue to lose umpires because of this ‘attitude’ problem the clubs will no longer have neutral panel umpires allocated to their matches. If this becomes a reality the game of hockey will take a backward step.
I believe that the way forward it to ensure that clubs realise that neutral panel umpires are volunteers, and as such could withdraw their services at a moments notice, and without their dedication clubs would have to find their ‘own umpires’ for each match. One solution may be is to have a campaign in which EMHUA, BCHUA and MRHUA meet clubs and have a constructive dialogue with clubs about their responsibilities before, during and after the match.
EMHUA have held cluster meetings at various venues throughout the East Midlands and have proved popular with players and umpires. Sue Sutton and Jane Nockolds were able to attend the recent meetings.
I am pleased to report that two of our members have progressed, David Kingston to Level 2 status and is receiving MRHUA appointments and Marc Abrahams has been umpiring at international level.
The membership continues to grow and EMHUA welcomes all new members especially those who have joined from the ladies game. If any members wish to know what happens at council meeting, who attends and what decisions are made etc or wishes to be a member of the committee please speak to either the incoming president or the hon. secretary who can discuss this further.
If any of the level 1 umpires wish to become a neutral panel umpire please speak to the hon. chief coach who will be able to discuss this further.
Yet again it is very disappointing to report that several clubs have not returned a single captains card whereas other clubs have only returned a few. These captains’ cards are one of the ways in which EMHUA can have feedback on the standard of our neutral panel umpires.
As your retiring president I take this opportunity of thanking all of the officers and members for their hard work during the season and wish EMHUA well in the future.
Thank you
2. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Colin Barker, Jon Barry, Ann Bradley, Graham Brewin, Chris Bull, Anne Clayton, Deborah Cobb, John Foreman, Barry Forrester, Chris Gough, Denise Grace, Charlie Harrison, Bill Hirst, Kay Knight, Anne Linsdell, Andy Luke, Alan Mayor, David Paley, Paul Reeve, Andy Roberts, John Starling, Ian Sutton, Sue Sutton, Steve Timpson, Nick Tomalin, Reg Walker, Stephen Webb, Andrew Willey
Apologies were given for Jo Barnes, Noel & Richard Bexon, Ray Stamper, Peter Thomas.
EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
3. Minutes of the 9th AGM Meeting
The minutes of the 8th AGM were circulated prior to the meeting to all members. These minutes, with no amendments required, were proposed as a true record by John Hayes, seconded by Ian McPherson and approved by all. The President then signed the minutes.
4. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
5. Reports
a) Honorary Secretary Report (J. Yates)
· The Association currently has a total of 166 members, with 2 members umpiring at NHL level, 6 umpires on the Midlands Panel and 25 umpires on the EMHUA neutral Panel. This past season has seen 1 neutral panel umpire promoted to Midlands and 4 members joining the neutral panel, 27 new Level 1 umpire members, which includes 14 umpires from the women’s game joining the Association, which is all very encouraging. We still need more umpires to join the neutral panel, so if you wish to improve or further your umpiring career please consider joining our neutral panel; we can never have enough. On the reverse side, 2 Midlands umpires, 1 neutral panel umpires and 8 level 1 members have retired or given up.
· One of our members and neutral panel umpires died during the season following a long illness, all members were asked to wear black armbands at their next matches, a minutes silence was held at all matches in the East Midlands and a donation to Cancer Research was made by the Association.
· The Association has put on three members meetings this season. It was most gratifying and encouraging to see that both the November and February meetings had in excess of 45 attendees long may that continue.
· There have been 3 issues of EMU news distributed to members. I have been fortunate to receive some contributions from members, however more is always very welcome and I again implore members to take an active part in their newsletter and to submit articles or points of interest for inclusion.
· As stated last year I have continued to utilise email extensively to circulate newsletters, flyers and general information and the AGM papers to members. I hope all members continue to be happy with this method of communication, I have to-date not been advised of any problems or complaints, with 80% of our membership on email, this has continued to provide considerable savings in postage and time taken to circulate information.
· The dates of members meetings for next season have been circulated with the AGM papers. Full details on the content, format etc. will be circulated at the start of next season.
· The MRHUA AGM is on the 12th May @ Old Silhillans Sports Club. ALL of our members of the Midlands Panel should attend. Please make every effort to attend and support EMHUA.
· Finally, my personal thanks go to all the officers and colleagues of the Association for their help and assistance for this year in particular and to all the others who have helped and supported me in my current tenure.
Report proposed by Jerry Yates and seconded by John Litchfield
b) Honorary Treasurer Report (J. Hayes)
· The Treasurer presented audited accounts for 2002/03 and a draft statement of accounts for 2003/04.
The lines for Merchandise will probably be the last season of record, as in future years this will handled directly by the supplier.
Coaching and Level 1 lines will be shown as joint lines in future tears.
There will be monies ring fenced for coaching in future years.
EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
· i) Accounts for 2003/04 - Proposed by John Hayes, subject to audit and seconded by Richard Kirk, with all in favour
· ii) Membership fee for 2004/05 to remain at £5.
Match fees to remain at the same level as last year
Mileage rate to remain at 16p per mile
All above proposed by John Hayes and seconded by Kevin Ronson, with all present in favour.
· A copy of the Financial Statement of accounts for 2003/2004 is attached to the minutes.
c) Outdoor Appointments Secretary Report (B. Workman)
· This has been a difficult season in fulfilling our obligations as an organisation to provide umpires for East Midland’s matches.
· We have been desperately short in numbers this season, mainly due to the lack of umpires to begin with, but has not been helped by unfortunate injuries to key umpires throughout the season.
· We have had one or two additions to our ranks this season and are always thankful to increase our numbers.
· As an association we have continued to appoint to East Midlands Premier League and and Divisions I and II when possible.
· We have also frequently appointed to County games for Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire at all levels up to U’18’s, together with the relevant Vase, Trophy and Veterans Cup games and all Schools and Youth games when asked.
· My thanks to all umpires who have once again given up their free time this season to endlessly turn out for us and support East Midlands hockey.
· Finally my thanks to Dave Hourd for the endless hours on the phone talking to me, and to Peter Byng and John Hayes, and if I have missed anyone out my apologies for doing so.
· Hope you have and enjoyable summer break and come back refreshed for the start of the 2004/2005 season in September.
The report was proposed by Bill Workman and seconded by John Hayes.
The President thanked Bill Workman for his hard work during the season
d) Honorary Chief Coach Report (J. Litchfield)
· Members Coaching Meetings
· 16 September 2003 - The Cooper Test at Highfields was again poorly supported by our umpires. We need to have a commitment to keep fit enough to look after the games we are asked to umpire. The meeting was better supported with Marc Abraham leading an interactive session on “Teamwork”. This was followed by a presentation on the new rules that apply from 1 September and brief discussion of the proposed new rules that come into force on 1 Jan 2004. Some interpretations still needed clarification.
· 30 September & 1 October 2003 – Two “Start of the Season” get togethers were held at Belper and West Bridgeford for all Men’s and Women’s umpires and Club players and coaches. The evenings were led by Jane Nockolds who provoked much thought and lively debate.
· 11 November 2003 – John Anderson, an ex-national umpire talked to us on “How to Manage the Umpire” which was very useful to Clubs and also gave good insight on how to improve pitch management for umpires. We continued our discussion on the January rules, lead by John Litchfield. The new rulebooks were not yet available, which still left us unsure of some of the implications. This meeting was very well attended.
EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
· 3 February 2004 – Visiting Coach Rajiv Khanna presented a video produced by FIH, which showed what they recommend on umpire preparation and match control. This was followed by a power point presentation and lively discussion, lead by Jerry Yates and ably assisted by Raj Khanna and Richard Kirk about all the changes now identified and final clarification after the first few weeks of using the new rules. The meeting was again very well attended.
· Individual Coaching and Watching
· We have 25 (23) neutral umpires on the East Midland list of which 2 have been injured for much of the season. In addition to these there are 8 (8) umpires on the Midland and National list. Of the 33, 8 are over 60. This year, 46 (25) “coaching watchings” have been done; some of which have been carried out from “the other end” or by Coaches from outside our area. This is a great improvement on last season. Our thanks to everyone who has helped with coaching and advising others, in particular to Ken Stanyon who has done 17 reports during the season.
Our particular thanks are due to Andy Barnes, Kevin Ronson, Alan Foster and Peter Leigh who have worked hard coaching young umpires during the season.
· Captains Report Cards.
· 79 (93) Captain’s Cards have been received this year.
· Our thanks to those Clubs who have taken the trouble to send them in. However, fewer East Midlands Clubs have supported us this year particularly after Christmas. 13 of these cards have come from Clubs visiting from West Midlands. The quality of the comments has again been constructive and this is a help to our umpires.
· The Club who has sent in the most cards was again South Notts with 17. Runners up were Ashby with 14. 10 Clubs out of 21 sent in no cards at all! A bottle of whisky will be presented to South Notts by the president at a suitable opportunity.
· Development of Umpire Coaches.
· Peter Leigh Completed his Level 2 Umpire Coaching Assessment at the end of last season and Ann Bradley has passed her Level 1 this season. Three umpires are still registered on the Level 1 assessment process, Kevin Senior, Charlie Harrison, Karl Strickland but have not progressed during the year.
· Grading Committee.
· The Grading Committee has met twice this year on 2 Dec and 16 March under the Chairmanship of our President David. During the season, Ian Hadfield and Gi Berman were awarded EMHUA “A” grades and Adrian Mansfield his “A/B” grade. Peter Thomas was awarded his “B” grade. Several umpires have retired or become inactive. Congratulations to David Kingston who has been appointed to the Midland List as a Level 2 umpire at grade M3. Andrew Lamb has completed 1 game of his Level 2 assessment but was prevented from umpiring his second game due to injury. End of Season reports will be sent shortly to individual umpires. We urgently need to find new umpires during the summer to help Bill Workman who has done a wonderful job trying to cover as many games as possible.
· Level One and PUA Courses.
· Several have been run and Kevin Ronson will report on these.