The Federation of Crown Green Bowls

 

MINUTES OF THE A.G.M.

                           10th November 2007 at     

Comrades Club, Ormskirk

 

The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.

 

Apologies:  Tony Wightman (Warrington), Peter Jose (Fylde) and Janet Hill (Rochdale)

 

Minutes:    The Minutes of the A.G.M. 2006 were taken as read, proposed Tony Hodgetts (South Lancashire), seconded Jimmy Hynes, (Middleton)

 

Matters Arising:                     

            Our application for full membership to B.C.G.B.A. was again rejected and as the previous year, by 16 votes to 14. No reason for the rejection is ever given.

            The chairman asked that all our Affiliate representatives contact their respective county associations as to whether their representative on the B.C.G.B.A. Management Committee was mandated to vote either for or against the Federation’s application for full membership.

            Once again the meeting voted to re-apply for full membership of B.C.G.B.A.

            Our membership as associate members has been paid for this year.

 

Correspondence:

            As well as the letter from B.C.B.A. previously referred to we received notes from Janet Hill, Peter Jose and Tony Wightman all resigning from the Board.

 

Reports:

Chairman:

            The Chairman thanked all our Affiliate Associations and all the people involved in running those associations. He thanked all the Board members for the good job they had done naming them all in person and he also thanked the people who had run the various events. He congratulated the men for winning the Civil Service match for the second time and the ladies who won the inaugural match against the Civil Service ladies. No doubt the Civil Service will be trying very hard to win the trophies back next year. He congratulated Nuneaton on winning the first Champion of Champions by one point against Bury in the final. The event being held at Marine Gardens, Fleetwood.

            The Chairman was pleased to announce that Rigby Taylors, Hotters and Dennis Mowers will be sponsoring the Federation again next year. However there are other events, which still require sponsors. Finally he said we could all look forward to the 2008 season with confidence.

 

League Co-ordinator:

            He started by asking that we take one of the Notices of Motion out of order, which the meeting then did. This was a vote to move the League Fixtures from the third to the fourth Sunday in the month. After a discussion this Motion was carried by 15 votes to 6.

            He went on to give dates for the events he had managed to do so far, details of all events will be available on the website very soon. He thanked everyone who had been prompt with their results and also reiterated that results could be sent by post or email. He went on to read a report by Tony Wightman regarding the Junior/Youth Championships. The details of all these were also available on the website. Tony thanked everyone concerned who had contributed to make it an enjoyable season. The meeting wished to put on record a vote of thanks to Tony for all the hard work that he had done over the past seven years for the Youth and Junior sections.

            The League Co-ordinator went on to give an up-to-date report on Child Protection, saying he had attended several meetings and now has the C.R.B. forms that people need to complete if they have any dealing on a regular basis with children.

 

Finance:   

            The Balance Sheet was presented to the meeting and the Financial Officer said that the Affiliations were up due to the increase in the number of Affiliates. Most of the League fees and Merit entries were up but the greatest problem on the Income side was that Sponsorship was down. On Expenditure prize money, Insurance and Green Hire showed the largest increases and we finished the year with a small loss for the first time in our existence. The balance was proposed as a true record by Harry Crompton (Bolton), seconded Dave Clarke (Doncaster) and was unanimously accepted.

 

Press:     

            The Press Officer wished to thanked all the people that had helped with reports and photographs. We get regular monthly reports in The Bowlers World and he thanked Brian Hampson, Editor, for this, although we are restricted to only 1,000 words during the busy months of the year. We still struggle to get reports in the daily press.

            Brian asked for everyone to continue to send him match reports and photographs, which help to get reports in Bowlers world etc.

            The Chairman commented that he had received a price for coloured photographs in the middle of next year’s Handbook.

 

Notices of Motion:

            Proposal from Hebden Royd re Affiliates who do not play in the National League, only paying 50% fees - defeated 4 votes to 15.

 

            Proposed by Fylde re disabled bowlers receiving help from where so ever needed.

            Passed unanimously.

            Also from Fylde re bowls buggies being allowed in all games with some part of footplate being on the mat when delivering jack or bowl. – Passed unanimously.

 

            Proposed by Middleton re change of League structure from 6 divisions of 5 teams to 5 divisions of 6 teams. Defeated 15 votes to 4.

 

            Proposed Bury – League championship fees increased by £10 and returned in expenses to Champion of Champions qualifiers – defeated - no second.

 

            Proposed Bury – current maximum 2 home green players be scrapped. – defeated no second.

 

            Practice time proposals:

            1 – All match day practice times be abolished – proposed Doncaster, second Rossendale

 

            2- Change 15 minutes practice to 20 minutes – Proposed Middleton, second Bury

 

            3- 15 minutes practice visiting teams commence to start time – Proposed Bury, no second.

 

            Vote taken between proposals 1 & 2 – proposal 1 was then put forward to a vote off between that proposal and the existing rule with the latter winning by 13 votes to 12.

 

Election of Officers.

 

            President Phil Brown & President Designate Pat Hull– re elected for 2nd year.

            Chairman Bill Booth, Vice Chairman David Kay, Financial Officer Bill Booth, League Co-ordinator David Kay, Administrator June Booth and Press Officer Brian Holgate were all re-elected ‘en bloc’.

            Youth & Junior Officer – Ken Howarth (Furness)

            Board Members:

            Peter Wilson (South Lakes)

            Tim Rothwell (Rochdale)

            Steve Thompson (Furness)

 

The Federation of Crown Green Bowls 2008