Hoylake RFC
Minutes of Annual General Meeting; Thursday 15thJuly 2010
PresentMark Evans, Tracy Kellaway, Di Cottrell, Dave Cottrell, Eddie Boult, Mike Paddon, Chris Roberts, Ted Price, Peter Price, Ian Malcolm, Keith Moss, Stirling Dutton, Al Green, Tony Behan, Dennis Western, Pete Abbott, John Bailey, John Fielding, Ade Moyse, Brian Kearsley, Dave Cross, George Farwell, Gordon Kay, Dave Dolmoor, Tom Laughton, Steve Young, John McNeil, Don Forshaw, Bill Rogers, Sue Kurton, Jack Kurton, Steve Butterworth, Andy Cotgrave, Debbie Burriss.
ApologiesRichard Chiverton, David James, David Leftwich, Chris McLoughlin, Dick Calver, R. Daniel Jones, John Cowell, John Kellaway, Anthony Walker, Sam Lavin, Jamie Courtenay, Ian Lindsay, Rob Kesteven, Rob Howell, Andy Warren, Eddie Drew, Jeff Rogers, Karl Rogers, Jean Western, Jez Weston, Ron Morris, Brian Burke, Bob Smith, Ron Morris, Geoff Cross, Andy Wylie, Audrey Forshaw, A. Houston, Stan Kirkham,
Welcome from the Chairman and an apology for the late distribution of the agenda and minutes.
1.Minutes of last year’s Annual General Meeting1.1Dave Cross had been down as an apology but had seconded the accounts.
1.2Proposed by Jack Kurton and seconded by George Farwell. Agreed and carried.
2.Chairman’s Report
Review of the past year –Playing Side:
Seniors the 1st XV had another mid table finish with some memorable victories and some forgettable losses. W 11 L 14 - Having watched most of the games what is quite exciting and worrying at the same time is despite where we finished in the league, we are only a small margin from being very successful. Talking of success – brings me to the 2nd XV – another great year with some huge victories (148 nil springs to mind). W 19 L 4 A record breaking season scoring 1288 points , 202 tries and averaging 54 points a game. We have tried to move the 2nd xv to the Miller Homes league this season to try and get more competitive fixtures on a regular basis - but are on a waiting list. Special mentions go to Steve Young – 23 tries 41 conversions and 53 penalties for 359 points and Kevin Jones with 40 tries and Simon Robinson with 92 conversions.
Thanks to Steve young and Jason Pell for their leadership ably assisted by Matt O’neill and Neil Harvey and also a big thank you to the coach Gareth. I know the lads all have tremendous respect for you and that you will get more out of them the longer you work with them. Its great news that Gareth has decided to stay on next year and I am looking forward to seeing how the teams perform, Thanks also to Rob K for his stewardship as Chairman of Rugby – not an easy job but one which Rob is really growing into and imposing his ideas and leadership.
Juniors
It was a successful year for the Juniors –
U7s Cheshire cup plate semi finalist
U8s cheshire cup semi finalists
U8s hoylake 7s Winners
But all in all a excellent season for junior section some great games and some good wins during the season with some strong teams in the age groups that we have.
Once again this year I witnessed the huge event – that is the mini 7’s. And once again, it was a great success and did wonders for the image of Hoylake Rugby Club. Well done to John and Tracy and Di and Dave to name just a few – thanks to all those involved – it was a real team effort.
I want to acknowledge the efforts of John Kellaway who stood down after a few years as Chairman – it is not an easy job but John put a huge amount of effort into it – thanks John. At the same time I want to welcome Dave Cottrell as the new Chairman – if what I have seen of Dave so far in terms of commitment and enthusiasm are anything to go by then the Junior section is in good hands
House and Grounds - Having done the interim refurb last year we have maintained the club whilst we look at the longer term future. Meantime thanks to Steve Butty and Mal James for all the work they do on the club and pitches and also to Phil Brear who despite backing away from a formal position still seems to be the go to man for a lot of issues.
Sponsorship – Another successful year thanks to Jack Kurton and Huw Pearson with increased revenue from sponsorship. The pre-match lunches were again a great success and thanks to all the people involved in the preparation and service of the food especially Sue Kurton and Tracy Kellaway.
Thank-yous - there are a number of other people I would like to mention for their outstanding contribution during the year:
- Fund-raisers - Mike Paddon for the Xmas Draw . Bill Rogers - Vice-Presidents’ lunch. Dennis Western’s Saturday raffles Sue/Tracy and others for Catering – all raised significant sums for the club.
- John Tipping for his tireless efforts on membership & subs and also for his work as club historian – John is passing the mantel over this year to our very own stato – Al Green. Ali is taking over the historian role for which he is well suited – he’s polished his anorak – and will also be chasing those who have not paid subs – so watch out!
Review of last years Key objectives and Looking ahead to next year:
You may recall that amongst all the personnel changes last year and without giving anybody any time to settle in to their roles we set a few key objectives at last years AGM. Although the objectives are mainly longer term, I think it is important to review progress and set out the benchmarks for what we want to achieve year by year: –
- Greater integration with the Juniors. Whilst undoubtedly there will still be the odd occasion were there are disputes in my opinion we are no longer two clubs. Everybody has worked hard at bringing things together and in fact the personnel involved are often one and the same. There are still things to improve but i say with confidence that we are now working together for the future of the club
- Recruitment – we wanted to recruit more players into the club to help us build and maintain our performance on the pitch and if possible raise a 3rd XV for the first time for many years. This took a while to get going but we have a project team across both the junior and senior sections working on various initiatives including school days, promotional flyers and coaching days. And the best news of all – we will have a 3rd XN next year under the leadership of Andy Cotgrave. Andy is bringing through last years Junior Colts and will blend this with a mix of experience. This is very important for the club and Am asking everybody to give Andy as much support as possible.
- As you know, we are also planning the long term future of the club & facilities – last year we completed phase I and have now movedinto to phase II –under a sub committee, plans have been drawn up for a rebuild of the clubhouse based on the existing footprint but making much more practical better use of the space. The plans are now being costed to test the feasibility and we should soon have fully developed plans for the rebuild, the finances and fund raising activities. As soon as they are available, we will make the floor plans available.
- We also wanted to raise the profile of the club through increased sponsorship and Public Relations. This is happening mainly through the recruitment activity and through Jacks team on the sponsorship side – we are oversubscribed on sponsorship and looking at new ways that we can bring in sponsorship monies and improve the experience for our sponsors.
- A new objective for next year – in line with the current economic environment and as you would expect from any well run business or club – we will be undertaking a detailed analysis of our expenditure to see if we can make any savings.
- Also for next year – we are looking at a number of items with a view to updating our livery and image – this includes possible new looks for kit, fixture cards and ties including the introduction of a new club “loyalty” tie – the intention is that it will sit alongside the current club tie and 1st team tie and will be presented for example to people who may not achieve a 1st XV tie but who have played over 100 games for the club.
Thank you.
AT THIS POINT I NEED TO PUT FORWARD A RESOLUTION – LAST YEAR WE VOTED TO MOVE THE CLUB TO IPS STATUS – IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR RULES AND IF WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO AVOID THE EXPENSE AND TROUBLE OF A FULL ANNUAL AUDIT AS OPPOSED TO THE MORE INFORMAL BUT VERY CORRECT AUDIT DONE BY KEITH – WE NEED TO PASS A RESOLUTION TO AGREE THAT: As part of the Mutual societies Annual return under the IPS act we are required to prepare professionally audited accounts. As this is very costly, clubs with turnover of less than 90k can submit unaudited accounts prepared by a qualified person as long as the club’s membership agree to do so at an AGM. So in accordance with section 4A(2) of the Friendly and IPS acto 1968 I propose a resolution allowing the club not to undertake a full professional audit for the year ended 31.3.2010. Proposed by Mark Evans and seconded by Chris Roberts. Agreed by the membership and carried.
3.Treasurer’s report
The Balance Sheet and Income & Expenditure Report were previously available to all members, summary is as follows.
Balance sheet as 31st March 2010: -
fixed assets£18,672
current assets£17,446
loans(£11,062)
net total£25,056compared to 2009 figure of £278335
Income & expenditure to 31st March 2009
Bar sales£51,747
Bar costs£32,486
Bar gross profit£19,260compared to £23,954 last year
Income total£31,026compared to £33,636 last year
Net profit/(loss)(£4,883)compared to (£3846) last year
Main differences this year from last were: -
(£4,694) decrease in bar sales. But cost of sales at similar level. (Margin @ 37.2% against 42.7% 2009)
(£2,392) decrease in House and Grounds
(£761) increase in insurance
(£798) increase in bar expenses
£580 increase in subscriptions
£2,540 increase in sponsorship
The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are:
Bar Sales down by £4,694; 2%.
Bar Gross profit down by 5.5% from 42.7% to 37.2% (35.0% 2008);
although if we look back to 2008 the sales and margin were similar or lower to this years figures which indicates that last year was the exception when there was for example a big increase in bar prices. We also need to take account of approximately £1200 which was lost in a burglary and came directly from the profit. When these things are taken into account the figures look a lot healthier.
Other income increased by £2,882.
Thanks to John Tipping for banking and subs administration, Jack Kurton for bar banking and bar expenses, and Keith Moss for advice and auditing.
Dennis Western asked if the 200 club income was included in the accounts and was told by Chris Roberts that this is still to be put in.
Proposed by Bill Rogers and seconded by Don Forshaw. Agree and carried.
4.Members with unpaid subs
There are a small number of members who have not paid any subs this year – Mark proposed not to read the names out but will make them available to anybody who wants to see them. Bill Rogers informed us that we are obliged to read them out.
Proposed by Bill Rogers and seconded by Don Forshaw. Agree and carried.
5.Proposed membership structure and subscription levels
The only proposed change this year is an increase in the non playing member subs to £25 which is actually the second stage of a £10 increase planned last year. Brian Kearsley asked how much will this increase bring in. With approx. 100 non playing members at present it will be approx. £500.
Proposed by Jack Kurton and seconded by Ian Malcolm. Agree and carried.
6.Election of officers
Great news that all members of committee are standing again and are keen to carry through the good work which started last season. And of course a new 3rd team captain. A block vote was taken on the following positions.
Proposed by Bill Rogers and seconded by George Farwell. Agree and carried.
PresidentC. D. Roberts
ChairmanM. Evans
SecretaryTracy Kellaway
TreasurerDi Cottrell
Chairman of BarT. Selby-Milic
Chairman of RugbyR. Kurton
Club CaptainS. Young
2nd Team CaptainJ. Pell / County RepD. Western
Team SecretaryA. Green
Fixture SecretarySue Kurton
ChairmanS. Butterworth
of House & Grounds
Commercial managerJ.A.Kurton
AuditorK. Moss
Project LeaderS. Lavin
Grant Co-OrdinatorJohn McNeill
- Election of Vice President
Proposed by Don Forshaw and seconded by Mike Paddon. Agree and carried.
8 .Date of first, new committee meeting
Monday 13th September at 7.30 p.m.