Annual General Meeting.

  Wednesday 6th July 2005 at Basingstoke Rugby Club, Pack Lane, Basingstoke at 7.30pm

The following are highlights from the Minutes of the Meeting.

Chairman’s Remarks

Another mixed season with teams withdrawing from the League and numbers of players reduced but we have had many competitive matches and excellent tournaments plus a coaching course.  Press coverage in the Gazette has continued and the website has proved very useful and informative for many badminton enthusiasts.  There are so many people to thank for all this:  Trevor and his neighbour, John Johnstone who keep the website up to date, Trevor writes a weekly article for the Gazette and the committee members organise and run the tournaments, the coaching course and plan the fixtures. Without all this dedication, the League would not run successfully; so sincere thanks to all who help in whatever capacity.  Our thanks are also due to the Rugby Club for allowing us to use their premises for this meeting.  As usual there were a few problems in fulfilling fixtures, so again I must ask club and match secretaries to avoid re-arranging fixtures, but inform their members early in the season of all their commitments, so that dates can be put in diaries.  Remember that all the fixtures are published on the website at the start of the season.

Secretary’s Report

In the absence of Trevor, Ruth gave a report.  Most teams returned their match cards promptly but as usual a few required reminders.  Please send in your results as soon as a match has been played.  You and your opponents may know the result but other teams in the division are interested as well. A few matches were played with only two pairs and a very few were conceded.  One of the advantages of our scoring system is that a two pair team may still obtain some points from a fixture.  Phoenix was forced to withdraw teams early in the season due to lack of members but, as it’s name suggests, is now fortunately up and running again.  Loddon and Sherpas experienced difficulties with dwindling numbers of players so have amalgamated to form LoddonSherpas.  The Personal Performance Coaching Course took place at Westgate and was enjoyed by all who took part.  It is hoped to run another similar course early in the season.  We are also hoping to organise a Coaching Course for players from the non-affiliated clubs in the area sometime during the season.  Trevor has already approached Basingstoke Leisure Services and Hampshire County Badminton Association for financial assistance for both these courses. 

Treasurer’s Report

Sandra presented her report which showed that, including the £250 which we received from our sponsor, Ian Dewar of Castlegate Investments, we had a surplus of income over expenditure of £355.05 for the season.  We had suffered a small loss on the tournaments and KO Cup mainly due to the cost of playing the final of the latter at the Sports Centre. Although the committee had originally been prepared to subsidise the Coaching Course there had finally been a small surplus, helped by a £100 grant from Basingstoke & Deane Leisure Services Department and £50 from Hampshire Badminton Association. She did not see any necessity to increase our League player fee which would remain at £0.80 per player.  The Badminton England (the new name for the Badminton Association of England) fee would be £8.30 for seniors (£4.15 for juniors) and the Hampshire County fee would be £4.70.  Mark Bayliss was thanked for auditing the accounts.

Election of Officers and Committee

Before proceeding to this item of the agenda, Ruth thanked Madge Cummings for her commitment as a committee member and treasurer for some 15 years. As she has now decided to retire, Ruth presented her with a bouquet of flowers and a cheque. The remaining members of the committee, Ruth, Sandra, Cathryn, Phil, Tony and Trevor, were willing to stand for re-election.  Their re-election was proposed and then accepted by all those present.  It had been suggested that in order to get another member on to the committee we could ask each club alphabetically to nominate one of their members to serve for one year.  This had not proved very successful.  Jenny Skilton (BH Pegasus) volunteered to join the committee.  Her offer was gratefully accepted.  Sandra Jennings (Waverley) volunteered to assist with the running of tournaments

Appointment of Auditor

Madge Cummings was appointed.

Proposed League Composition for 2005/2006

The Ladies section was accepted as proposed.  There was some discussion about the  number of teams entered in the Mens section.  19 teams proved difficult to place into divisions of a workable number.  The LoddonSherpas representative thought that his club might be able to enter a second team, which would mean that 3 divisions could be organised: one of 6 teams and the 2nd and 3rd with 7 teams.    Beechdown D had been omitted from the Mixed section while Andover Sports were willing to enter a B team if the Hybrid League were not accepted.  In this case there would be 5 divisions. Divisions 1 and 2 would have 6 teams while the other three would have 5 teams. 


A full copy of the Minutes can be downloaded in a Word file by right clicking on this link.


Last updated on 10 August, 2006

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