C Groome
N Carlisle
W Beane
M Foster
K Beaumont
A France / Chairman
Treasurer
Deputy Treasurer
Head Coach
Youth Representative
President Elect
President / Secretary
Apologies: / P Budden
A McClelland
L Suter
M Fielding
S Craven
R Shaw / Club Captain
1st XV Vice Captain
Membership Secretary
Fixtures Secretary
Facilities Member
Committee Member
Item / Subject / Action
1. / Chairman’s Opening Remarks
1.1. The Chairman opened the meeting and thanked those present for their attendance.
2. / Minutes of the Last Meeting
2.1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and accepted as a true record.
3. / Matters Arising from the Minutes of the Last Meeting
3.1. (3.1.) Achieving the RFU desired standard is proving difficult to attain, though the Club is making continued efforts to resolve the situation.
· Andy Biddulph and Ken Beaumont have volunteered to take an RFU approved First Aid course and then to act as Pitch-Side First Aid cover, when available. Secretary to source courses.
3.2. (3.2.) The Webmaster, Chris Limming, is requested to be more timely and reactive to Committee requests for Website support and issues.
· Secretary to contact Chris to add both the Club Coach and the Secretary to the Website as Administrators and to ascertain his commitment to the role.
3.3. (3.3.) Drill Top issue
· The drill top problem is not going to be resolved. Akuma have stated that the tops we received were the tops that the players tried on at the fitting session. The Club Captain and a number of the players are certain that this is not the case, unfortunately, without photographic evidence we can’t prove that. Akuma have sent socks as a ‘without blame’ apology, which the Club Captain will distribute in due course. With no other avenues to follow this matter is now closed, with a decision not to use Akuma again.
.
3.4. (3.5. / 4.f.1.) Club Captain to confirm to the Membership Secretary the regular playing status of RAF personnel. If they are playing week-in, week-out, then they are no longer covered by the RAF Waddington ‘casual player’ payment and will need to become members of the Club in their own right, which as it is post-Christmas would be half price.
3.5.5 (3.7. / 5.) Club Captain to update the Committee on the RILMAC advertising board situation and any others in the pipeline.
· Club Captain has not received a logo from RILMAC so is unable to proceed at this time. Chairman to liaise/provide. / Secretary
Secretary
Club Captain
Club Captain
Chairman
4. / Chairman’s Report
4.1. The President/Chairman wrote to the Trustees outlining the Club’s concerns and received a response that stated that while they understood our points and agreed with many, there was little they could do. The Chairman of the Trustees, Hugh Sargent, has suggested a ‘face-to-face’ meeting to discuss the issues further. The Club Chairman is to arrange a suitable date and those attending are to ask the Trustees to take tangible action, especially on those points concerning the Clubhouse and Dog Fouling.
4.2. The Chairman has provided a quote, from Gladwin, for fitting lighting in the ISO. As long as only fitting is required – no additional rectification work and all existing circuitry and protection meets regulatory standards – then the cost of work will be £236.20 + VAT. The Committee unanimously agreed this amount. / Chairman
Treasurer
5. / Treasurer’s Report
5.1. Current Account:
· Balance £6,088.30.
· £500.00 given to the Membership Secretary, Linda Suter to enable payment of the associated food and drinks costs for the President’s Day. Balancing receipts to the Treasurer post event.
· The Club received a £200.00 donation from Hykeham Lions for offering our support for a Christmas event. It was agreed that this money would be put towards the costs of providing lighting in the ISO. Secretary to send a letter of thanks to Hykeham Lions detailing how the money has been spent.
5.2. Acorns to Oaks Account:
· Balance £2,679.20.
· The Club has received £500.00 from the NLD Helping Hands scheme.
· There is still £500 awaiting payment to the newly formed junior committee in this account. This will be paid when the account at Lloyds Bank is finally open. The Deputy Treasurer informed the Committee that the account is ‘nearly there’ and will hopefully be operative soon.
5.3. Membership Account:
· Balance £1,430.09.
· Since our last meeting, £100 has been paid in as 4 VPs paid their membership fee at the VP Lunch.
5.4.Barclays Bank has lost The Membership Secretary’s Contact Form, the Treasurer has informed Linda of this and asked for the form to be resubmitted.
5.5. The Treasurer advised that it would be best to pause on changing banking provider until the Youth Account is fully up and running. Then the Club need to engage with Lloyds to ensure they can provide the services we require in a more effective, usable and accessible manner.
5.6. The process to make the Deputy Treasurer a signatory for the Club Accounts and remove Al Shaw is on a temporary hold until the Membership Secretary is confirmed as being able to access the account.
5.7. The Treasurer informed the Committee that Online Banking access is initially restricted to the main signatory of the account and that additional paperwork would need to be completed for each additional person that required access.
5.8. The Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer (Treasurer Elect) have begun the Hand-Over / Take-Over process. The process is to be conducted in a timely manner and must be completed by the date of the AGM.
5.9. The Treasurer has not yet received the cheque from RILMAC, can the Club Captain make contact with the Treasurer to facilitate this. / Membership Secretary /
Treasurer
Secretary
Membership Secretary
Deputy Treasurer
Treasurer / Deputy Treasurer
Club Captain
6. / Membership Secretary’s Report
6.1. 4 VPs paid their membership fee at the VP Lunch.
7. / Fixtures Secretary’s Report
7.1. Sleaford have cancelled the match against the 2nd XV scheduled for Saturday 4 March, this was not a Pennant fixture. Market Rasen will now play the seconds instead.
7.2. The County Cup Semi-Final, North Hykeham v Cleethorpes has now been arranged for Saturday 4 March at North Hykeham. This fixture will be a ‘double-header’ Cup and League game.
8. / Coach’s Report
8.1. The Coach is very, very unhappy, there are consistent and increasing availability issues and attendance at training is extremely poor with 9 and 11 attending the last 2 sessions. The Coach feels that there is a lack of buy-in, an atmosphere of almost total apathy and a don’t care attitude coming from the players. The Coach has worked very hard to create a positive atmosphere both at training and on match days, though this has not had the positive effect he hoped for and he doesn’t know the answer to the issue. Ideally, for next season, the Coach would like to implement a ‘don’t train, don’t play’ policy but, reluctantly, accepts that this might not be achievable.
8.2. The Coach confirmed that the targets for the rest of the season remain:
· Winning the Lincolnshire Cup.
· Third in the League.
· Second Team; top three in Nottinghamshire RFU Security Plus Pennant.
9. / Club Captain’s Report
9.1. The Captain stated that the numbers at training are shocking and have been for some time. On Tuesday just 11 players attended, 2 of which are new, this is not a good advert to retain these new players. The previous Tuesday there only 9 attended. We need to look at how we move forward, as it is near the end of the season, perhaps the fitness element could be reduced and maybe make the sessions fun/random, just to try to get the players back at training. Feedback from the players suggests that some don’t train because the fitness session has been too hard. Captain and Coach to discuss the way forward.
9.2. Match days, like everything else there is no willingness to help from the players. For example with the after match meal provision, there have been a number of occasions when volunteers have been requested and 100+ have seen the post but not one has stepped forward. However, the Captain believes that if we started to allocate the jobs then that some players would stop making themselves available. He does not have a solution to these issues.
9.3. Since before Christmas the availability for match days has been extremely poor and it is getting worse. Without the university players we would struggle to even field one side. Again the Captain does not understand why this is and is running out of ideas to solve the problem. Further, the Captain has been sent a screen shot of a conversation between 2 players which stated that they only wanted to be selected for the second team, as it was ‘fun’. This opinion has also been reported from other sources as well, this is obviously adding to the availability issue. Overall, the Captain believes there is no pride in the Club, though is unsure how we address this issue. / Captain / Coach
10. / Youth Coach’s Report
10.1. The Youth Team Coach reported that there has been a very good uptake with the U13s and that it seems far easier to attract this age group to the Club. However, pleasingly, there were also an additional 5 U15s. He went on to state that there is lots of hard work being done on a number of fronts however, if the Youth Section want to expand they are going to need more coaches.
10.2. Due to the potential expansion of the Youth Section the Youth Coach and the Club Chairman are to explore potential playing opportunities at the Hykeham Hub. / Youth Coach / Chairman
11. / Facilities Member Report
11.1. The working weekend was not required due to the great work done by Paul Budden and Ben Thomas who did a fantastic job with the ISO. Many thanks.
12. / Secretary’s Report
12.1. The NLD Office, informed the Club that Mike Waplington and Tracy Edmundson were both re-elected as NLD representatives on the RFU Council for the 2017-18 season. They are the voice of all NLD clubs on the Council so if we have any concerns or would like to discuss anything with them they would like to hear from us.
13. / Acorns to Oaks
13.1. Work to the football changing rooms has now been reinstated as the FA has extended the deadline for the upgrade work to be conducted and has provided some funding. There is a meeting scheduled between the Trustees and the FA to confirm the details. The work is to be scheduled for the off season.
13.2. In discussion with Al Shaw the Cricket Club has stated that they may be able to access a funding line from the ECB that may be able to help with the building work required on the changing rooms. It was requested that the President Elect, Ken Beaumont, contact Ken Parks reference this matter. / President Elect
14. / Sponsorship
14.1. Nothing to report.
15. / Website / Social Media
15.1. The Webmaster is asked to confirm that he has conducted a purge of non-playing members from the Hykeham Players Facebook page. He is also asked to confirm that he has given the Coach and the Secretary administration rights to the website.
15.3. The Secretary is to contact the Webmaster to confirm that he has the time to commit to the role and that, going forward, he is able to keep the site updated in a timely manner. / Secretary
16. / Forthcoming Events
16.1. President’s Day, 11 March 2017:
· Facilities Member; the bouncy castle is booked, £14 deposit paid, the rest to be paid on the day. It will be arriving around 11:30. The Facilities Member will be at the Club to accept delivery. The Trustees are aware but Bar Steward has not informed as yet.
· Chairman of Trustees; there is no problem with the bouncy castle but it will have to be powered from the changing rooms. The Chairman stressed that it is fully North Hykeham RUFC’s responsibility to ensure that we have suitable insurance cover and supervision as the Trustees policy does not cover liability for injuries incurred while using a bouncy castle.
· Membership Secretary; the Ladies have stepped forward ‘in a big way’ with around 18 volunteering to help prepare the buffet which is now fully in hand.
· Treasurer; the £500 in cash required to cover the costs of the bouncy castle, buffet and associated drinks for the event has been given to the Membership Secretary.
· Chairman/President; The President’s XV is coming together well, 26 players, from 10 different clubs, have confirmed their availability. NLD Vice President, David Chamberlain, along with RFU RDO, Gareth Short, will be attending to present the Club’s RFU Accreditation. The President of the Lincolnshire RFU, Melvyn Ashton, will also be attending.
· Chairman; a programme will be printed for the day once all the details are finalised. Bar staff have now been informed of the event. / Chairman / Facilities Member
Membership Secretary
Chairman
17. / Any Other Business
17.1. Autumn International Tickets Incident: With the imposition of the sanction on Dave Pepper and the adoption of RFU approved procedures, this matter is now closed. Many thanks to Mike Waplington, NLD RFU Council Member for his help and advice throughout this process.
17.2. RFU Raffle Tickets:
· The Facilities Member, Scott Craven, stated that the tickets are on their way back, we sold £265 (not including those sold by Al Shaw and detailed below). He decided not to go through the bar staff, in his youthful exuberance he thought he could find the 50 players necessary to sell out. Lesson learnt! If he is still around next year he is happy to take up the challenge again.
· Al Shaw stated Books ordered 210; books sold 86, books sold not returned to me 4, books returned to RFU 82. Money to RFU £41, total profit to the Club £389. Thanks to Scott for his efforts. Al sold 21 books in the last week. The Club needs to put in more of an effort if it is to maximise the fund raising potential of the raffle.
17.3. Tour Update:
· All deposits (£30) have now been received from those going on tour. Transport and accommodation will be booked in the next few weeks. Tour jumpers will also be ordered as the sizes and quantities are now known.
· Badges are now ordered them and are being made now. Money is no longer need from the Club as the Vice-Captain has managed to acquire the badges for free through his contacts.
17.4. Disciplinary Committee Meeting: The Club held a Disciplinary Committee Meeting following an incident in the match between North Hykeham and Buxton on 25 February 2017, which resulted in a Red Card being issued to a North Hykeham player. Full details are recorded in the minutes of the meeting held by the Secretary.
17.5. Annual Dinner & Awards Presentation:
· A number of venues and options were discussed including; holding a sit-down dinner/presentation event at the Showroom on Tritton Road, as well as options for a more relaxed function in the Memorial Hall with either outside caterers providing a Hog Roast or similar or, potentially, for the Ladies to provide a buffet. The consensus of opinion was that there would not be the uptake required to make a function at the Showroom feasible, as it was felt that the projected cost of such function, £30 to £40 a head, would be prohibitive to attendance, especially from the university element and other younger players. Considering these factors, the Committee decided that it would be best to hold the function in the Memorial Hall. The President would provide quotes from outside caterers as he is already in contact with a number of providers in relation to a non-club event.
· As a result of the decision above, the date of the Annual Dinner & Awards Presentation has been set for either Friday 12 or Saturday 13 May 2017, depending on the availability of the Memorial Hall. Chairman to confirm availability.
17.6. Annual General Meeting: The date for the AGM has been set for Tuesday 9 May 2017. / President
Chairman
18. / Date of the Next Meeting
18.1. Thursday, 20 April 2017, at 7:45pm.
A R France