Uncategorized

2017 AGM minutes

This is the AGM minutes from 2017. Printing these – and getting the numbers right – proves more difficult. Let’s try to embrace a more ecological stand and only print them if we really want them? There is a PDF version HERE or read them online here?

*********************

Minutes 

Shelton Striders AGM

8pm, Friday 3rd March 2017

Boulton Lane Community Centre

Attendees

David Askew,Pascale Holden, Gareth Brown, Sally Winterton, Graham Pickering, Brian Budd, Pam Budd, Steve Cartwright, Margaret Cowling, Steve Aynsley, Tim Bentley, Dave Nunn, Chris Donald, Hayley-Dawn Ho, Lee Meakin, Gerry Mayfield, Matt Henning, Luke Bremmer, Kev Milwain, Dorothy Pickering, Gerrard Moss, Amy Keegan, Sam James, Tim Spate, Martin Kerr, Chris Hopkinson, Carolyn Hopkinson, Alison Nunn, Angela Monk, Sarah Bentley, Ian Patheyjohns, Andy Brooks, Richard Green, Dave Turley, Louise Hart, Bev Baxter, Steve Baxter, Stephen Wells, Chris Purslow, Catherine Clifford, Ian Bell

  1. Apologies for Absence

Sam Pearch, Daz Sheppard, Tracey Hepburn, Roy Hobson, Allan Barber, Marie Standley

  1. Approval of Minutes

Approval 2016 AGM minutes as a true and factual record by Steve Cartwright and Brian Budd.

  1. Presentation of Club Awards

Awards for the 2016 season were presented to club members. 

  1. Club Constitution

2 constitutions were presented to the club; the original 1984 document and the proposed updated constitution. These had previously been distributed to club members via. email. Pascale summarised to the club how some inroads had been made but, whilst the proposed updated constitution was a significant improvement, it was not perfect and would only be in place as an interim document whilst the incoming committee would further refine the constitution in line with England Athletics guidelines. A proposal to accept the new constitution was made, with a counter proposal to retain the original 1984 constitution.

Chris Hopkinson requested further clarity regarding whether the updated constitution was being proposed as an interim document and Pascale clarified that this was the case.

The new updated constitution was accepted unanimously.

  1. Officer’s Reports
    (a) Chair – Pascale Holden

Pascale presented her report based theme of ‘Stepping Up’.

Membership has stabilised with more coaches trained to support Wednesday night training. The well-structured training is benefitting all attendees.

Notable club events included the inaugural Brooksie’s Bash event and the Shelton Striders 10K, for which the presentation of Buffs to the competitors was well received. There has been an increased popularity of wayfarer runs, and there was a great turnout at the Hill Climb Challenge. Club trips, both funded and independent, have also been successful including the Flanders marathon (and races), London trip and Great Hucklow weekender. It was great to see members take advantage of these benefits.

It had also been another amazing year for fundraising, with large sums being raised for the joint club charities as well as Mind (along with numerous other personal endeavours).

Shelton Striders has a strong place within the local running community, including our members volunteering, participating and supporting local Parkruns and other events. The club is fostering great relations with other clubs, and it was great to see the club foray into Country XC as well as the Nationals.

Pascale noted 3 incidents over the past year which saw some of our members stepping up to do what they could to save lives. Many organised the club lifesaving session arranged by Fi and the club now has use of its own portable defibrillator.

Mental health ‘Run and Talk’ events have also been a great success.

A new constitution has been under development, and whilst some gaps have been identified the club is now a lot closer to understanding what needs to be done to get up to scratch and ensure that the club is unshakeable.

New initiatives include the trophy sponsored by Pam and Brian Budd to inspire younger members to be the best they can, as well as the Couch 2 5K initiative.

Pascale finished on the subject of volunteering. There is a massive list of opportunities to volunteer in many capacities within the club but we always see people volunteer to fill the roles which is fantastic. For Pascale, giving back to the club and the wider running community is a joy and privilege much more than a duty. Pascale thanked all those who’d volunteered over the past year and hoped to see the club going from strength to strength through fitness, friendship and fun.

(b)Treasurer – Sally Winterton

Sally presented the accounts for the year ending 31st March 2017:

This has been an interesting year, where we have seen the overall turnover of the club increase and the net expenditure also increase. Leading to a deficit across the financial year, whilst this seems undesirably it was agreed at last year’s AGM that the club should look to ensure it was using funds to support members and not to continue to build the bank balance, so all is good. The club is carrying forward ~£4,000 in the bank.

It is great to see so many events that are supported by the club, where the levels of participation are growing, demonstrating to Derby and the overall running community how good we are.

In summary,

  • Friday club night’s room hire – we will just about break even by the year end.
  • No kit purchased this year due to large over in 2015/2016.
  • Track is very popular and well covering the costs.
  • Club trips are spanning the accounts.
  • Gail looks after Friday catering, stamps and birthday cards and was thanked personally by Sally.
  • Presentation night was a much higher expenditure due to the venue change, a deliberate action as an incentive to encourage attendance, which worked – it was a well-attended, great night.
  • Charity donations were made as per 2016 AGM nominations – club charity, Scouts, Maddy’s Smile, CRY, £1000 donated to Mind from Brooksie’s Bash.
  • Leaders course was a new expenditure this year to help with track training and planned couch to 5k programmes – 1 coaching plus 4 LiRF courses were supported.

I have not specifically included the Shelton Striders 10k accounts, these are available on request. In summary the event made a small profit of £297.78, where the main expenditure was on the special edition T-shirts and buffs, both of which were very well received. The 10k event made a donation of £464 to the club charity. The 10k current account balance is £2695.32.

However, as Treasurer I have two areas of concern:

  • Lack of receipts for expenditure – some people are very good, but others feel it does not apply to them. We are a growing club with a public stature, where we need to be able to prove our transparency as and if required. Going forward I will be more demanding of receipts and summaries for all events with a financial element. There are still some outstanding from this year.
  • Contributions at track and club nights – again some people are very good, but there must be a number who never contribute, this is based on a simple head count versus money collected. I do not propose we implement any draconian methods and start generating registers as we need to maintain our fun and happy club aspirations and atmosphere. Please can we remember and remind others that the money collected here pays for the things we are using and enjoy, which make us successful as a club.

Overall, a successful year that leaves us in a good position for 2017/2018. I would like to thank lots of people for their participation and understanding during my first year as Treasurer and especially to Allan Barber and Graham Pickering for their support.

Sally concluded with a proposal to reduce track subs from £1 to 50p.

Graham Pickering suggested we could just scrap club subs altogether which would benefit Friday numbers.

Andy Brooks added that track subs help to limit numbers at track sessions and keep numbers controllable. We could ringfence money raised at track to invest in track related activities.

Lee Meakin added that subs money is insubstantial and spare funds could be better invested into the club.

Stephen Aynsley proposed that he’d like to see subs increased.

Dave Nunn suggested having 2 collection tins at track for the different groups (who don’t always pass the same entrance). He also added that we need to find more ways to reinvest funds back into the club, including subsidising relays.

Hayley-Dawn Ho added that there is separate banking for the London trip, and requested that costs related to the London trip be separated out in the club accounts.

(c) Secretary – David Askew

David spoke of his highlights over the past year, including the inaugural Brooksie’s Bash trail race (a first open trail event for the club) which he hoped to see continue. Of particular note were Andy Brook’s and charity raising run to Belgium and Sam Pearch’s back-to-back charity marathon runs. The club weekend away to Belgium was a particular highlight and was a very memorable weekend. Finally, the magnanimity of members in removing their own club charity proposals in favour of a cause so close to the heart of the club was a moving gesture.

The addition of the defibrillator, with particular thanks to Rob Donald in obtaining this, will be a huge benefit to the club.

David expressed his desire to see more members to an active role in their club, including through making use of applications to club subsidies for events for members, which a club investment could yield a 10-fold return in potential benefits raised for charity.

David made a number of suggestions to the incoming committee:

  • Consider creating a ‘Social Secretary’ role to share the demands of the existing Secretary role whilst enabling greater social activities for the club.
  • Elect the treasurer for a minimum 2-year term to aid continuity and reduce lost time in arranging authorised club signatories.
  • Making committee meetings and club minutes more transparent.
  • Advertising role profiles for committee positions.

Finally, David expressed his thanks to the club for their support over his past 2 years as Secretary and explained the reasoning for him not standing for a 3rd term due to his changing family situation.

[Sarah Bentley asked for clarification of how old a member has to be to stand and the committee and it was confirmed that there was no minimum age set in either the existing or new club constitutions.]

(d) Membership Secretary – Gareth Brown

Gareth reported the current membership status and subscription proposals:

Gareth summarised the changes in membership over the past few years, which has stabilised at around 236 members for the 2016/2017 season.

Online payment of subscriptions have been introduced to make it easier for members, with #30-40 members making use of this facility so far.

The affiliation fee to England Athletics has increased by £1 per member, a cost which the club has absorbed over the past year. EA had conducted a consultation of these increases, but it is not clear who had been consulted and who voted on the changes (Shelton Striders were not invited directly).

Gareth explained that he would not be standing again having conducted the role for a total of 4 years, and offered his support in the transition to the new committee over the coming months.

Sally Winterton clarified that the costs were the same for EA registration regardless of the subject’s age.

Discussing club subscription categories, Gareth explained that the family membership category was purely a Shelton Striders initiative, and that all fun runs for junior members can be participated in under social membership.

Pascale Holden added that there was little benefit in junior members obtaining competition membership unless they were competing in the Nation X-Countries.

Chris Hopkinson suggested that liability exists for ‘unregistered’ athletes in any insurable event, including club handicaps.

Sally Winterton clarified that no further fees get paid to EA for 2nd claim members.

Gareth presented the following subscription fee proposal:

Membership Fees 2016/2017

  Adult Junior Family
Social £6.00 £4.00 £13.00
Competitive £18.00 £16.00 £40.00
2nd Claim £6.00 £4.00 N/A

Proposed Membership Fees 2017/2018

  Adult Junior Family
Social £6.00 £4.00 £13.00
Competitive £20.00 £18.00 TBD
2nd Claim £6.00 £4.00 N/A

Dave Nunn spoke against any increase in fees given the current state of the club’s accounts.

The proposed membership fees were put to the vote and there was a unanimous result against any increase in the fees for 2017/2018.

  1. Confirmation of Club Charity 2017

The 2017 club charity was confirmed following the club ballot process culminating on 24th February in support of the Head & Neck Oncology Fund at Derby Royal Hospital nominated by Hayley-Dawn Ho.

  1. Election of New Committee

The following new committee members were proposed and accepted unanimously:

Position Candidate name Proposer Seconder
Chair Pascale Holden Graham Pickering Dave Keegan
Secretary Richard Green Andy Brooks Pascale Holden
Treasurer Sally Winterton Pascale Holden David Askew
Membership Secretary Tim Spate Steve Cartwright Sally Winterton
General committee member Tim Bentley Sally Winterton Pascale Holden
General committee member Steve Baxter David Askew Pascale Holden
General committee member Stephen Wells David Askew Pascale Holden
General committee member Roy Hobson Pascale Holden David Askew
General committee member Chris Donald Hayley-Dawn Ho Kevin Milwain
Kevin Milwain Dave Turley Steve Wells
General committee member Chris Hopkinson Sally Winterton Dave Turley
General committee member Sarah Bentley David Askew Steve Aynsley

The Secretary role was accepted provided it didn’t include the organisation of the annual awards.

  1. Any Other Business
  • The date of the next committee meeting is to be fixed by Pascale with the new committee directly
  • Pam Budd thanked people for their help with the tea rota, with particular thanks to Gail. She also announced plans for club investment to cover the procurement of a new teapot.
  • Brian Budd clarified the arrangements for ownership and transfer of the club defibirilator with Pascale as it can be difficult to pass it around between attendees of all our events. Dave Nunn also offered support in helping to advise on the locations of local defibrillator stations.
  • Hayley-Dawn Ho thanked the club for their magnanimity in selected her nomination for club charity of the year.
  • Brian Budd querried the fire avacuation procedures for the centre and observed that we have never held a fire drill, and it was agreed that this would be looked into by the incoming committee.
  • Graham Pickering asked how club members could attend committee meetings and how minutes could be openly shared within the club. He suggested that for general openness an agenda of committee meeting dates could be announced in advance. He also suggested that club minutes be placed on Facebook but other members noted that this would require careful control of member access.