Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 13th November 2008 at Brooklands
Present: Chairman D.Hurdwell, Secretary/Treasurer K.Mitchell, President M.Bexon and delegates from all teams except Carrington, Nursery and Longford
The Chairman opened the meeting at 7.35 and welcomed all delegates. He gave a brief account of how he felt the season had gone and congratulated all winners. He then welcomed new member team Red Lion, represented by Secretary/Treasurer Matt Jacobs and Captain Syd Haynes-Watts, and wished them many years of happy bowling with the League.
The Chairman then announced the passing of Ron Wallace and Tom Weighill ( both of Trinity). The meeting stood in silence for a short while as a mark of respect.
There were apologies for absence from Nursery and Longford.
The Secretary read the minutes of the last AGM held on 14th November 2007. They were agreed by the meeting to be a true record and there were no matters arising.
The Secretary reported that after a poor start with the resignation of Northenden in late January the season went well culminating in an excellent Finals Day at SW Manchester for which he thanked Derek Jacobs and his team. However from that day a number of changes had occurred which left the actual structure of next season’s divisions in some doubt. SW Manchester 1 and Cringlewood 2 had resigned but Red Lion had applied to join and been accepted. At the time of the AGM Crescent were waiting to hear if their attempt to sign more players had been successful. Peter Nicklin promised to advise the Secretary within the next day or so if they would be in the League next season in order that next years fixtures could be started. The Secretary asked all teams to confirm that at this point they would have sufficient players to complete next years fixtures. All stated they would. Brooklands and Pickering would be promoted to Div 1 whilst Red Lion would play in Div 2. If Crescent continue Chorlton will be relegated – if not Chorlton will stay in Division 1. The Secretary finished by thanking all captains and delegates for their help and the other Committee members for their support , especially Derrick and Maurice.
The Fixture Secretary said that he was delighted at the way clubs had got results sheets to him in good time or at worst phoned/e mailed the result. We get excellent press coverage from Geoff Garnett and have often had our results in the Metro as well as the other local papers but our information has to be passed to him quickly. There is also good coverage on Tony Mortimer’s web site, the address of which is on the fixture card. He was in addition pleased that generally postponed matches were rearranged quickly.
The Competition Secretary stated there had been excellent bowling in the Finals of all the Leagues competitions helped by the fact that the weather had been generally kind. He briefly outlined the results of the Pride of Sale and President’s Cup and congratulated Mike Bacon now of Fallowfield for winning the Merit for a second consecutive season. Due to a poor entry the Eric Dale Pairs was played as a one day competition and won by Neil Thompson and Martin Hewitt of Roebuck. However the day was marred to some extent by the disgusting use of bad language by certain players. He thanked all officials who had kindly made their greens and equipment available and finished by asking clubs to again promote the Merit and the Eric Dale to their players in the hope that we can have much improved entries.
The Treasurer told the meeting that the balance was up £114 at £665 which was excellent news. He explained various differences between this year and the previous and invited questions of which there were none. He said however that in view of the loss of at least 2 and possibly 3 teams in season 2009 and the arrival of only 1 our income would go down by £100 or more. To counteract that and maintain a reasonable balance he proposed that the flat fee be increased to £35 per team and the position be reviewed at the next AGM. This was accepted unanimously.
The Auditor Ged Kerrigan confirmed that he had examined the balance sheet and accounts documentation and found them to be well presented and easy to understand. He said that this would be his last report as he was resigning. Chairman Derrick Hurdwell thanked Ged for his work over the past 17 years and presented him with a travelling clock on behalf of the League.
The Treasurer stated that following his report he proposed that the Honoraria should remain the same and this was agreed by the members.
The structure of the Management Committee was voted by the teams as follows:
In addition Ross Kavanagh of Roebuck agreed to be Auditor.
Proposals from the Committee
This concluded the items on the Agenda but Don Jackson of Sale Cons asked that the Committee be thanked for their work for the League. This was seconded by Derek Jacob of SW Man and a round of applause given which was much appreciated. The Chairman thanked the delegates for the attendance and formally closed the meeting at 20.35 hours.