MINUTES OF THE MINCHINHAMPTON TENNIS CLUB AGM HELD ON 9 OCTOBER 2019

APOLOGIES: Cris Fagarasan, Elizabeth Lewis, Di Cason, Sue Watts, Roger Lindley, Angie Ayling, Liz Farley, Emma Williams, Donna Christie, Rene Cason, Jo Moore, Katie Messer, Sarah Clark, Jos Peach, Paul Lock, John Davis, Veronica Pride, Lucy Roberts, Rachel Postlewaite, Gloria Smith, Philip Stevens, Sophie Muir, Dee Weir, Elizabeth Vestey, Camilla Whiteley, Jane Fide, Caroline Hough, Dominic Horner, Viv Callingham, Kathy Hurst.

PRESENT: Becky Putnam, Pat Humphery, Alison Winkfield, Anna MacBean, Sam Davis-Berry, Peter Gardiner, Ronan Lynch, Ollie Loe, Chris Loe, Penny Loe, David Whittaker, Jean Whittaker, John Crowther, Amanda Fay, James Gardiner, Galina Gardiner, Jackie Snelling, Andrew Roberts, Louisa Crisp, James Aburrow, Anne Dickinson

 

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: 

The minutes of the 2018 AGM were accepted as a true record of the proceedings. There were no matters arising.

Proposer: Galina Gardiner; Seconder: Alison Winkfield

CHAIR’S REPORT – BECKY PUTNAM

What a fantastic year of tennis we have had to celebrate the club’s 50thanniversary.  

The committee has been exceptionally busy, with several changes along the way.  

I want to express my thanks to committee members who are no longer continuing or have left during the year - Sue for organising our fixtures for the last few years and engraving the trophies, Galina for her role as Junior Representative, with so many junior teams that was no mean feat! Jason for men’s captain for part of the year and to Roger for being our Chair for the last 7 years along with maintenance member and other tasks as and when required.  I hope that I am able to follow in his shoes to take the club forward successfully into the next phase of our development.

I would like to formally thank Anna MacBean for all her hard work in documenting the club’s 50-year history and the amazing display that she did for us all (and visiting teams) to enjoy in the clubhouse.

This summer saw the culmination of one of the largest projects in our club’s history, with the decision to change surface to artificial clay. This took a significant amount of research and time and effort from several members of the committee, I would like to express my particular thanks to Pat, James, Galina and Alison for their help and input into this project.  I would also like to thank Nick Winkfield for kindly volunteering to make our brush mats for us.

Feedback from members has been very positive, and already we have noticed more hours of use from the court surface compared to the previous tarmac.

It has been another successful year for the Club, with a healthy membership of 122 adults and 103 juniors. We increased our league participation from 6 to 7 adult teams participating in the summer county tennis league and four teams in the winter league, with a pleasing number of juniors key members of these teams.  We again took part in junior league teams across all age groups.  The participation of juniors within the adult tennis has been particularly evident within the men’s teams and indeed in the men’s club championships, with Pete Gardiner and Sammy Davis-Berry winning the men’s doubles and Pete having a good battle with Jason in the men’s singles.

Our weekly social tennis daytime and club evenings are well attended, and we have had some particularly good social tennis events this year, with a couple of handicap tournaments and bring and share meals, and of course our brilliant woods and whites tournament and exhibition matches over Finals Day.    I am very grateful to Galina for organising these events on our behalf, it is very much appreciated and to Jackie for organising the many formal (and informal) social tennis on behalf of so many of you every week.

As already singled out above this has been a busy year where the committee have had to go above and beyond their normal responsibilities, and we are very fortunate that they have done this to ensure the smooth running of the club.  They were:

• Sue Watts, who arranged the league fixture dates, together with the engraving of all the trophies.  
• Di Cason, who week after week has maintained the clubhouse in tiptop condition, please try to minimise sand in the clubhouse to help her keep our club pristine!
• Pat Humphery, our Treasurer and Men's Captain;
• Galina Gardiner, who arranged our brilliant social functions and looked after the Juniors as their representative (which she is now stepping down from).
• Alison Winkfield, our Ladies' Captain.
• James Aburrow, our highly respected Coach (and overseer of new court surface!)
• Andrew Roberts, who organised the Wimbledon ballot.
• Cris Fagarasan, our Membership Secretary.
• Jackie Snelling, our Daytime Social Tennis organiser.
• Clare Gardiner, our Welfare Officer. 

I would also like to thank all the Team Captains, who ran their teams very efficiently, ensuring a great playing experience for team members and a very successful season (which we will hear more about from the captains).

CAPTAINS’ REPORTS

LADIES REPORT – ALISON WINKFIELD 

SUMMER LEAGUE 

With a good start to the summer season, we had some great results across the board this year.

The C team were looking very strong in Division 3 throughout the summer months and did very well to come second gaining promotion, narrowly beaten by Winchcombe A who had 35 points against our 33.   A great result for a new C team squad, lead by their new captain Millie.

Our B team, newly captained by Sophie, had a tough draw this summer with predominately A team opposition and being short of 4 B team players from the previous year, the team battled well, and finished 2ndfrom bottom and so will move down a division for next season.

Having been demoted the previous season, the A team were keen to get back into the premier division.  With a good start, they sat in top spot in Division 1 throughout the summer, finishing with 45 points (14 points ahead of rivals Nailsworth A) and only losing 2 rubbers all season.  I should also mention that although this was very much a team effort, Becky did not drop one set all season!

A great summer of tennis and we all look forward to the next season and team coaching with James to learn new clay court skills.

MIXED WINTER LEAGUE 2018-19

The A team did very well in the 1st(top) division, only losing to East Glos A and David Lloyd A – the two top teams in the Gloucestershire league, finishing 3rd– ahead of Painswick A and Cirencester A.

The B team, having come up from the 4thdivision the previous year, were unlucky to have injury issues and some stiff opposition so were not due for promotion. However due to the new tournament format, they find themselves in the 1stdivision this year.

The C team had a great season, which saw them only missing out on promotion by 2 points to Bredon B, with Lydney A being the overall winners.  The C team plays in Division 2 this year.

Last but by no means least, the D team achieved a fantastic result with a number of juniors making their debut in the senior division.  They came second to Lydney, and have also been promoted this season to Division 3.

Thanks go to all the team captains – Becky, Lee, Howard and Pat, who do a fantastic job of organizing their teams – and particularly to Pat who is sort of remotely in charge of the D team, coordinating parents and juniors to make sure they got to their matches.

There are only 3 other Gloucestershire clubs with D teams – all of which have at least twice as many courts as us so we are very proud to have such a big presence in the winter league considering our size.  In fact the winter mixed league has become so popular with our players and the inclusion of our up and coming juniors, we might consider entering a 5thteam next winter!

MENS CAPTAIN – PAT HUMPHERY

Men's A & B put a solid performance in over the summer season to remain in their respective Divs 1 & 3.  A wide variety of players contributed but special mention worthy of the junior element, who are now such an important part of the club.

That contribution could not be more evident than in Mens C & D, who won their respective leagues to gain promotion.  Clearly the established older members and the two skippers were instrumental in this success but again the club having the junior resources to draw upon makes the strength in depth of our club so creditable given our respective size.

The challenge for the next season is of course to maintain or even improve our standings again - the new courts, the secure footing and the developing tennis all make for a very positive view of the future.

COACHING REPORT – JAMES ABURROW

60% of members have received coaching in the past 12 months from Aburrow Tennis

JUNIOR COACHING

Weekly Coaching Programme – Numbers have now plateaued with just over 100 through summer terms and mid 80’s through Autumn and Winter, bucking the trend of participation dropping without the Murray effect

New partnership with Beaudesert Park School where this term 16 children arrive for a one hour activity paying for court hire and coaching

Junior success stories: 3 players have attended county coaching. Alice Holmes played for Glos U9’s and was 3rdin county championships, Tilly Holmes played for Glos U10’s and lost in a tight match tie break in the semi finals of county championships and Barney Ratcliffe won his round robin group at the U8 county championships and has just joined U9 county training. 

ADULT COACHING

New daytime groups added this spring, including a free weekly serving clinic open to all members taken by assistant coach Zach Webb. I will look to reinstate this again next year.

Tennis Xpress (beginner/rusty rackets) was well attended and brought in new members again

Thursday evening improvers coaching sessions are being well attended and will run through October with some members using this as an opportunity to receive a first taste of coaching as adults

Ladies pre season coaching sessions were once again enthusiastically attended and hopefully beneficial, thanks to Alison Winkfield for co-ordinating the numbers

Adult success stories: Becky Putnam played regularly for the Glos Ladies Over 40’s and James Aburrow was chosen to represent Glos at Over 35’s at Eastbourne county cup.

I have strung 64 tennis rackets for members in the last 12 months.

JUNIORS REPORT – GALINA GARDINER

 Once again, it has been a great year for junior tennis at Minchinhampton, and 2019 has seen the junior section of the club go from strength to strength.

This year eight junior teams ranging from 9U to 18U entered the Gloucestershire Team Tennis summer league. All our junior teams played some great tennis, and of the eight teams entered, three – the under 9s, under 14 boys and under 18 girls – won their division, with another two - the under 10s and under 12s - coming a close second. 

Two other junior tournaments were also run this year, with good levels of participation. The Road to Wimbledon under 14s tournament was won by Leo Gardiner, with Joe Halliwell as runner up; and the Quorn Cup mini-red tournament was won by Toby and Andrew Nicholls, who went on to enjoy playing in a red ball event at Edgbaston.

The success of several years’ coaching all ages continues to reap considerable rewards for the club. Our older juniors – both girls and boys – regularly represent Minchinhampton in the adult summer and winter teams at all levels, and are often enthusiastic participants in social tournaments and on club nights. 

TREASURER’S REPORT – PAT HUMPHERY

Gross membership remains consistent and earlier fears of some decrease here has not ultimately materialised.

We have been hit for £4,800 in Npower electricity costs which date back over 3 years - we now have an account with Octopus which I present monthly readings to them - average £50 p/m but this is the summer 6 months and practically of only minimal relevance - let's see what a full year looks like come May 2020.

Maintenance has been high this year - some of these costs are new surface oriented but in general although some will reduce (there were 2 court cleanings in the last year) other costs such as the hedge trimming is likely to prove to be ours to pay albeit with some MSA contribution.  MSA subs will likely increase in the new year.

We have still managed a £4,400 surplus (grant assisted) We are projecting our surplus will return to the circa £7K level for the foreseeable future taking into account the likely changes detailed above.

By any measure this leaves us with a minimum 5 year period to replace the clubhouse with something usable at £35k and minimal reserves.

Our accounts and projections are healthy but floodlights and clubhouse overhaul need to be considered and budgeted for.

Proposed that the Club Accounts were accepted – Alison Winkfield

Seconded – Andrew Roberts

LEVEL OF 2020 SUBSCRIPTIONS

RATES

It was proposed that subscriptions should increase by 2-3% across all categories, with the exception of Family and Junior rates which increase by a bit more, but was agreed represent good value.

New rates for 2020 (2019 in brackets) will be as follows:

Adult £107 (£104); Joint £191 (£186); Family £210 (£198); Junior £27 (£23); Committee £81 (£79)

Proposed – Alison Winkfield; Seconded – Anna MacBean

CHANGES TO SUBSCRIPTION YEAR

It was also discussed to change the subscription year so that future years run from 1 April – 31 March, which is something that other clubs do as it should address 2 issues in future – 1.  Subscriptions are slow to come in on 1 January post Christmas and not when tennis is at the forefront of people’s thoughts therefore hard to judge member numbers.  This also gives issues re league participation as part way through season and all need to be paid members to represent the club.  2. Also the reduced 6 month membership would then cover the winter months (Oct-Apr) and not the peak summer months.

In order to do this we would have a 15 month membership period from 1 Jan 2020 to 31 March 2021, with the fees pro-rated e.g. Adult £133.75 for the 15 months.

Proposed – Alison Winkfield; Seconded – Anna MacBean

MATCH FEES

It was proposed to increase match fees for home matches from £2-£3 per player so that the balls and floodlight costs are better covered.  Juniors at the meeting confirmed that they would be agreeable to paying this higher rate for adult league matches. 

This would start from Summer 2020 season.  Also team captains are to be responsible for collecting and paying across their teams match fees to the club.

Proposed – James Aburrow; Seconded – Galina Gardiner

All 3 items duly carried:

• New subscription rates
• 15-month period to March 2021
• Match fees £3 per home match from Summer 2020.

 

ELECTION OF COMMITTEE 2019-20

Several posts had changed during the year with Becky carrying out the Chair and Secretary roles and Pat carrying out the Treasurer and Men’s Captain roles.  No volunteers had come forward for these roles, so Becky and Pat indicated that they were happy to carry on with both.

It was raised that Dominic Horner had very kindly offered to step in as fixtures secretary; and after discussions in the meeting John Crowther offered to take up the maintenance coordinator role (with assistance by David Whittaker if required). Becky and Pat expressed their thanks on behalf of the club.

The junior representative role remains vacant – some discussion was held that it would be excellent to have some junior representation perhaps from older teenagers who would be able to run the Quorn Cup and Road to Wimbledon competition. Some juniors to consider the role and will discuss further with James.  A junior parent would be needed to organise the junior league participation. James to consider further.

So the committee for 2019-20 was duly elected as follows:

Chair – Becky Putnam

Secretary – Becky Putnam 

Treasurer – Pat Humphery

Men’s captain – Pat Humphery

Ladies Captain – Alison Winkfield

Membership Secretary – Cris Fagarasan

Social Secretary – Galina Gardiner

Finance Member – Andrew Roberts

Fixtures Secretary – Dominic Horner

Social Daytime Tennis – Jackie Snelling

Clubhouse Member – Di Cason

Child Protection Officer – Clare Gardiner

Maintenance Co-coordinator – John Crowther 

Junior Representative - Vacant

 

Proposed – Pat Humphery; Seconded – Galina Gardiner

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

No formal points had been raised.

Reminder that all “Aussie Sweep” mats need to be left at the back of the court – between each court and flat on the ground so that they are not a trip hazard. Signs to be put up to remind members.