BIGGLESWADE & DISTRICT FRIENDLY BADMINTON LEAGUE
Web site address: www.biggbad.freeservers.com
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2006
The Annual General Meeting of the Biggleswade & District Friendly Badminton League took place on Wednesday 14th June 2006 at the Weatherley Centre, Stratton Upper School, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire at 8.00pm.
The Chairman, Les Weston, opened the meeting by welcoming the committee, Chris Spring, Mary Watson, Elaine Drury and representatives and members of the following member clubs: -
Bassingbourn, Broadway, Cam Gears, Ernulf, , Heath Hall, Hitchin, Ivel, Masters, Racquets, Royston, St Neots, Smash, and Wrestlingworth
(Feathers Templar was not represented)
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from St Johns, and Redhoods
2. Minutes of Last Meeting
The meeting unanimously approved the minutes of the last AGM, which had been previously sent to all clubs.
3. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
4. Secretary’s Report
Elaine Drury reported that her main job as secretary was the upkeep of the web site, which has had 3,280 visitors to date. The first half of the season seemed to be okay as regards to getting results onto the web, although there were a lot of re-arranged games. The singles league however did not feature on the web site until March due to the slow return of results of the singles matches. Although Elaine personally did not have the headache of chasing up these results she knew it had been a big problem for Mary. Elaine asked Mary to thank her husband Ian for keeping the web site up to date during March and April while she was abroad. As mentioned at the last AGM Elaine said that she does not have a lot of computer expertise when it comes to websites so she muddles along with the Freeservers one that she inherited from Roger Gamage, so, if there is anyone out there who has the knowledge, expertise or whatever to run the website she would be pleased to hear from them.
Elaine personally thanked Mary for all her work over the years for the league.
5. Fixture Secretary’s Report
The Fixture Secretary, Mary Watson, reported as follows:-
Another season is over with not too many hitches for the established leagues. Our congratulations go to all the winners and commiserations to the rest. There were only six matches conceded this year which we hope indicates you all enjoyed your badminton.
There were 38 entries at the start of the season, unfortunately 3 teams dropped out, 2 of them very early so an adjustment could be made to level out the divisions. Our thanks to Wrestlingworth for moving divisions and helping with the re-arrangements.
Most of the entries were on time, however, one was not received until the end of August which led to a bit of a rush getting out the fixture lists. Being told the entry is in the post and receiving it are two very different things.
The Singles league: – our trial year. The entries were good although from feedback not all clubs circulated the information very well. 11 entered, (10 men and 1 lady) then 2 dropped out and there was 1 replacement. Due to the number the committee decided on a system where everybody played everyone else once so every player had 5 home and 5 away games to be arranged by the players, and this appeared to be the sticking point.
There were a total of 45 games to be played of which 26 were played (one score sheet received very late after final table had been sent out) Some of the matches were not played due to injuries but more appeared to be from general apathy. Ideas to be discussed under AOB
Congratulations to Jimmy Hart our first winner, and a special mention for Graham Carlin who played all the games available to him.
My thanks go as usual to the committee, and the fixture secretaries for their support through the season.
6. Treasurer’s Report
The treasurer Christine Spring, submitted the Income and Expenditure Accounts, and reported as follows:
This season sees us making a profit of £112.30. However £50.00 of that has been utilised on a new Singles Trophy. Our continued aim is to break even and with expenditure not considered to increase the subs can remain at £7.
The accounts were unanimously accepted. p. Angela Mabert s. Roger Gamage
7. Presentation of Trophies
Les Weston presented the trophies to the winning clubs as follows:-
Ladies ‘4’ Division Ivel ‘A’
Mens ‘4’ Division 3 St Neots
Mens ‘4’ Division 2 Ernulf A
Mens ‘4’ Division 1 Masters ‘A’
Mixed Division 2 Broadway
Mixed Division 1 Ernulf ‘A’
Lady of Eindhoven Ivel ‘A’
Singles League Jimmy Hart
8. Election of Officers
Chairman: Les Weston p. Sue Akerman
s. Roger Gamage
Honorary Secretary: Elaine Drury p. Sue Akerman
s. Peter Gibson
Treasurer: Christine Spring p. Les Weston
s. John World
Fixture Secretary: no one volunteered for this job so will discuss in AOB
Three members were elected but the post of fixture secretary is still vacant.
9 Proposals
1.That subs should stay the same at £7, was accepted unanimously:
p. Christine Spring s. J Measham
The new system of scoring was discussed (best of 3 games to 21 and every point counting,) it was suggested that clubs tried it out on club nights but the general opinion was that the league would stay with the old method of scoring.
2.That the scoring should stay the same p. Philip Turner s. Stuart World
The proposal was carried with only one abstention.
10. Any Other Business
Because of the problems encountered with the singles league there were lengthy discussions as to how to run it this coming year, one of the suggestions emailed by Martin Aldridge being that it should be a set booking date perhaps once a month for everyone to play on that day. Some people thought this might work so Paul Smith has volunteered to take on the organisation of the Singles league with the possibility of booking somewhere on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
Updating the website was discussed. Freeservers have just recently updated their website but the general opinion seems to be that we see if we can find a better one. Roger Gamage said that he is prepared to take on the web site again. Philip Turner said that there is a web site called ‘one and one’ that might be worth looking into so he and Roger will look into this.
Roger Gamage initiated a discussion as to how many teams go up and down at the beginning of the season. He felt that his team had been unfairly demoted. It usually depends on how many teams enter the leagues and promotion and relegation has sometimes been at the discretion of the committee to balance up the leagues.
A proposal was put forward that when the fixtures are sent out at the beginning of the season there will be a note to say that it will be assumed that 2 clubs will go up and 2 clubs come down, but with the committee’s discretion if the size of the league changes during the season.
P: Stuart World s: Paul Smith the proposal was accepted unanimously.
The problem of the vacant Fixture secretary’s post was discussed looking at the job it involved. At the moment entries for the league are due in on the 1st of August so that fixtures can be sorted by the beginning of September. One of the reasons Mary is giving up is that she is not around in August to sort out the fixtures. Stuart World said would it help if the fixtures could be sent out later.
No one is prepared to take on the job. The Chairman asked the representatives from the clubs to go back to their respective clubs and have another ask around to see if someone would volunteer to be Fixtures secretary. Meanwhile for the time being Elaine Drury said that as Roger Gamage was prepared to take on the web site she could help Mary with the fixtures.
A vote of thanks and a presentation of a bouquet and Garden voucher was made to Mary by Les in acknowledgement of all the hard work that she has put in over the last 15 years.
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The meeting closed at 10:00 pm
