Third Annual Joint Council Meeting of the Gloucestershire Bowls Association

Summary of

Third Annual Joint Council Meeting of the Gloucestershire Bowls Association

Date: Saturday 12th November 2016

Venue: Pineholt B.C.

Time: 10.30 a.m.

Chair - Peter Langley (PL, County Secretary). Vice-Chair – Lindsay Collin (LC, Asst County Secretary)

1. Apologies

Cotswold, Canford, Yate, Tetbury, GB Britton, RFOD. [49 members representing 33 clubs present; 19 officers/officials]

1. Summary of Second Annual Joint Council Meeting of the Gloucestershire Bowls Association, 14th

November 2015

Accepted as a correct record.

1. Matters arising

None.

1. Presidential investitures

4.1 Investiture of GBA Men’s Division President 2016, Mr Clive Bennett (Moreton in Marsh BC), performed by retiring President Mr Roy Walker (Cheltenham BC).

Statement by Clive : Many thanks to Roy for all his help and guidance; congratulations and good luck to Elaine.

4.2 Investiture of GBA Women’s Division President 2017, Mrs Elaine Lewis (Redland Green BC), performed by retiring President Mrs Madeleine Hale (Fairford BC).

Statement by Elaine : Congratulations to Clive and wish him all the best for 2017; 25 years of bowling so far for me; surprise in finding myself in this position; being selector for 3 years has given an insight into duties; proud and honoured; look forward to an excellent year.

1. Proposed newGBA Constitution and Rules

5.1LC introduced the consideration of the new GBA Constitution and Rules, by picking up tw[w1]o points on which she had received actual correspondence from clubs :

1.The use of the terms ‘Section’ and ‘Area’ in place of ‘Division’ and ‘Section’, discussed in 2015 JCM. At an early stage the Joint Executive had decided, despite the discussion last year, to stay with the existing terms, to avoid confusion. This was accepted by the meeting.

2.‘Schedules’. After three clubs had asked where were these, it had become clear that the role of ‘schedules’ was not understood. A separate document was presented, which rehearsed again the need for and the advantages of schedules which could be updated/changed by committee work and resolutions. This also listed a wide variety of such ‘schedules’, ‘protocols’, ‘guidance’, etc.. The document (which can be provided) appeared to be fully accepted by the meeting. Examples shown by LC too.

5.2The discussion was opened to the floor, with points raised in no particular order :

• Non-nomination for existing officers and officials (Clause 6.3) Raised by Clive Bennett (Moreton in Marsh); several other contributors in quite a long discussion, including Alan Taylor (Cheltenham Spa), who suggested that ‘elected annually’ needed to be introduced, and David Rolls (Gloucester Spa), who suggested mention of ‘a maximum 3 years, without consent’ being included. General agreement on these points.
• Inclusion of 150 game flashes (Clause 11.9) Raised by Clive Bennett (Moreton in Marsh). Short discussion, but agreed that the existing badges could be used up by MD, but that expanding Clause 11.9 would oblige further 150 game badges to be acquired, which was unnecessary.
• Composition of MD Competition Committee (Clauses 13.2 and 7.21) Raised by Clive Bennett (Moreton in Marsh). Discussion as to whether it was necessary to formally include the Divisional Secretary in the MD Competition Committee. Quite a long discussion, involving others too, including PL, but eventually agreed that – as 7.21 allowed Divisional Secretaries to attend whichever sub-committees they felt necessary or desirable – that the MD Secretary need not be a listed/permanent member of the Competition Committee.
• Use of ‘Wild card’ in selection (Clause 12.5) Raised by Phil Beames (Cam), who supported the use of the wild card, but suggested that all the other eligibility categories in 12.5 were unnecessary. The background to this and the change as recent as the 2016 AGM were explained by LC. Quite a lot of contributors to this discussion; David Hopkins (Pineholt) spoke in favour of a return to the previous ‘open’ MD practices, but Bryan Fox (GB Britton) and Clive Bennett (Moreton in Marsh) suggested that the new system, as defined, actually works for both divisions. This supported a strong contention by the WD, articulated by Maddie Hale (Fairford) and Margaret Davies (Bishops Cleeve), that the qualification criteria be maintained, with the use of the wild card kept to only restricted use. David Skeats (Frampton) pointed again to what he saw as an undesirable difference in approach between the two divisions.
• Unification (not within the consideration, but discussed again) Raised by David Skeats (Frampton). LC noted for information, that the definition of ‘unification’was susceptible to differing interpretations across the 35 English counties, with only 3 being fully unified, the other 32 all keeping some version of ‘unification, with gender sections’. However desirable total unification might be, she saw that most counties would now be unlikely to change their structures.
• Position of County Treasurer (Clause 7.3) Raised by David Skeats (Frampton), who suggested that the County Treasurer should be a permanent ex-officio member of the Joint Executive Committee (albeit without a vote), rather than needing to be invited or asking to attend. Generally accepted.
• Differing positions of Divisional Representatives to Executive Committee on Divisional Management Committees (Clause 7.16) Raised by David Skeats (Frampton), who referred to the widely different roles of the two Divisional Representatives within their own divisions and thought this to be anomalous. Suggested that both the Representatives should be on the Management Committees. Whilst accepting that this sounded logical, as the discussion developed, it seemed that the WD, as argued by Maddie Hale (Fairford) preferred their Representative to maintain a degree of independence and an objective view unaffected by membership of the WD management Committee. Generally agreed to maintain difference.
• Minutes of GBA Executive Committee meetings (Clause 7.11) Raised by David Skeats (Frampton), but more of a complaint than a request to change the new document. Accepted that it sometimes proved difficult to keep the minutes up-to-date on the MD Web site, though the Web links on the two divisional Web sites allowed the other one to always be checked.
• Degree of detail in 12.5 (c) Two speakers referred to the apparent wordiness of 12.5 (c). LC explained the reason – that the players in teams (pairs, triples, rinks) at Leamington were occasionally not the same as the people who had qualified to get there (due to holidays, illness, etc). The words ‘Royal Leamington Spa’ to be removed.
• Reporting of Executive Committee actions (Clause 21) Raised by David Skeats (Frampton), who suggested that an ‘executive actions’ taken by the Joint Executive Committee should be reported as a matter of course to the membership, and that the clause be altered accordingly to say this. Agreed.
• Dissolution (Clause 20) Raised, finally, by LC, who noted that she had been taking advice from the Bowls England solicitors regarding the nature of this clause, which is why it had not been included in the proposal circulated. This matter caused a quite long discussion of the merits of the various options available, involving a significant number of speakers. The County Treasurer, Maddie Hale (Fairford), noted that she preferred the money, if Dissolution took place, to go back to the clubs (in proportion to their affiliated membership numbers), a view that ultimately received near-unanimous support. Alan Taylor (Cheltenham Spa), observed that the GBA was in fact only holding the monies, anyway, and that they properly belonged to the clubs. David Rolls (Gloucester Spa) advocated that the first option should be to seek to pass remaining GBA funds to a suitable body with the same objectives and covering the same geographical area. This also received wide acceptance, so it was agreed that the order would be (a) an equivalent body should receive the money, but, failing that, (b) the money should be returned to clubs.

5.3Bryan Fox (GB Britton) concluding the consideration, gave a sincere thank-you to LC for all her efforts on the Constitution & Rules, noting the large amount of meticulous work involved. Agreed by the meeting.

1. Any other business

6.1Affiliations PL took the opportunity to remind clubs that the affiliation form due back at the end of November must include all club members who have played on club’s green between April and September 2016, regardless of how often they had played. Anything else was unacceptable, a statement strongly endorsed by the County Treasurer.

NOTE

GBA 2016 AGM

Saturday 14 January 2017

10.30 am Cotswold BC

[w1]