AGM – Thursday 7th April 2016 – Church House 8pm
In attendance; Daren Coles (Chairman) Peter Toms (Competitions Secretary), Clare Jackson (Mixed Team captain), David Sargent, Nick Chastney, Lynn Banks Lewis, Ollie Toms
Apologies; Sean Murphy, Peter Venus, Paul Kaye, David Stark, John Truman, Keith Gummery, Sue White, Serena Skerratt
The previous minutes were adopted and approved by the meeting; proposed and seconded by Lynne Bank Lewis and seconded by Peter Toms
Chairman’s report
To date the club has some 46 Adult members 19 Families, 13 juniors and 2 students. These numbers represent continuing growth in membership since last year.
A new key will be available to members, on surrender of the old key and their payment on Thursday May 5 at Social Tennis. The key will also be available at the White Horse from 8-30 pm on that date.
Golden Jubilee – 9th May 2015 – thank you to so many members for supporting the event – particularly our planning committee ... (Serena Skerratt, David Sargent; John Trueman, AH, Paul Kaye; Peter Toms)
Vintage Tennis competition – Winner Keith Gummery & Daren Coles
Junior Competition – Tim Romsey
Quiz night in the evening which was well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy
Thanks you Sean Murphy for the organising new apparel celebrating our 50 years.
Summer – Doubles Presidents cup won by Peter Canon and Lewis Naughton
Xmas Competition Won by Lewis Naughton and Peter Venus
LTA Membership (venue registration)
The Club joined the venue registration scheme.
Benefits available to registered venues, including:
- Public liability insurance
- British Tennis Membership for all those players linked to your venue
- Allocation of Wimbledon tickets
- Access to Grants
Participation report
The Club is registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in order to take advantage of the tax exemptions available. To meet the new condition for eligibility to stay registered they have introduced new rules i.e. All clubs are asked to keep records of their members’ active participation in their sport (which can include coaching, assisting team events etc as well as playing), to be able to show that the club is a sufficiently active one. So we surveyed the membership in Sept.
New Equipment
Storage box, Chairs and Fete equipment largely funded from LTA grant
New benches installed funding from the Uttlesford District council (£500) proceeds from Fete and some club funds.
Court Cleaning
Anglia Surface care – have recently moss treated and cleaned the court over a 3 day period - £1476
Thank you Sue White for access to your water supply
Thank you
We have had great support from the Village, the Parish Council, John Smith who has loyally attended all our meetings, District Councillor’s Jo Parry & Neil Hargreaves, former Councillor Jeremy Rose, Gaces’ Trust, the Church & Church house committee, Newport Village Stores (NISA has kindly donated £400) and of course all our loyal members.
Treasurers Report
Keith was unable to attend the meeting, however, the yearly accounts were issued and (these are attached to the minutes) reviewed in the meeting presented by the Chairman. The treasurer strategy remains on course to make sure we have the necessary funds are in place for the next time the courts require resurfacing, which requires half the subscription income to be invested per year.
The chairman thanked the treasurer for his support over the year.
Keith has recently informed the Chairman that he would be available for election this year, but regretfully he would be resigning from the post at next year’s AGM. So the club will be looking for someone to take on the role from May 2017.
Keith has offered to work with anyone interested in the role this year, to ensure a smooth transition.
Team Captains report
Peter Toms
The mens team has gained successive promotions from division two to the premier division and won the summer league I believe for the first time by some distance with Ollie helping out for some of the matches. For the winter league, we have managed to hold our own and are looking to finish mid table, so a good year all round.
Clare Jackson
Newport entered a Mixed Team for the first time in the Essex Small Clubs Summer League - we played 8 matches, winning 5, losing 2 and drawing one, to finish a close second behind Castle Hill in the third division - a total of 14 different members played for the club.
In the Winter League, we are currently top of the table with two more matches still to play. It looks like being a close run competition with Elsenham!
Shelter / Clubhouse
The chairman detailed the progress to date
Funding – CIF £2000 must be used before Sept 2016
Parish council and Gaces charity – conditional approval for a 3 x 4m unit – no services
Quotation were requested for a metal container which would have to be adapted.. These cost ranged from £11k upto £23k. Apart from these prohibitive costs there were also concerns from the Gaces charity about access across the park in the construction stages
The Chairman met with the committee again at the start of the year 2016 where he got a approval to proceed with a different construction i.e. a log cabin which would reduces the cost and mitigate the Gaces charity concerns
The chairman presented the following estimated costs and our potential funding for a new construction type
| Cabin | £ | Income | |||
| 3m x 4m (44mm walls) | 3480 | ||||
| Standard model | CIF | 2000 | |||
| 2016 Income | 2800 | ||||
| Less pj07 windows | -600 | Cash from account | 2000 | ||
| Total cabin cost | 2880 | ||||
| Installation | |||||
| Base | 1295 | ||||
| Intallation | 1000 | ||||
| Floor | 310 | ||||
| Insulation | 180 | ||||
| Decking | 396 | ||||
| Fence | 763 | ||||
| Total Install cost | 3944 | ||||
| Total | £6,824.00 | 6800 |
To ensure the club benefited from the CIF fund which expires in Sept 2016 the chairman requested approval for a new funding scheme outlined above. This would mean for one year deviation away from the investment strategy outlined by the Treasurer i.e half the Subscription funds being invested whilst an additional amount approx £2000 would be required from the Cash bank account.
It was put to a vote, and the meeting approved unanimously the Chairman’s proposal.
So for this year ONLY – All subscription funds would be put to the construction of the shelter
Note a working cash balance will remain available to cover our general fees and liabilities
Membership and Court Bookings
The new booking system seems to be working well.... although we’ve had a couple of technical gremlins which were addressed quickly.
The chairman reminded the meeting that tennis courts are run and maintained by the Tennis Club, they are a village facility and apart from the times we have reserved for the club, they are available on a first-come first-served basis to anyone who pays the fee for court hire (£5 for adults £2.50 for Juniors) and a deposit of £10 for loan of the key. Normally there is lots of space available for members and others to play. To be sure of your booking please book ahead.
A new payment method for guests would be implemented in this year which will try and simply the process for the staff in NISA, as we’ve seen a significant drop off in income from bookings made from the shop.
The change will require booking and payment to be made online – whilst the shop will be the gatekeeper for the key as they’ll require evidence of the booking via email receipt or smartphone and then take the £10 deposit for the key. Non Members fee for court hire remains at £5 for adults £2.50 for Juniors per court per hour.
Following discussion it was agreed that there should be a modest increase in Adult membership and family fees but no change for students and juniors
Membership
Adults-£40
Juniors (under 16) £12 (no change)
Students over 16 and still studying £16.50 (no change)
Family two adults, plus any child under 16 £92
Social events
Social tennis starts Thurs 14 th April from 6pm
Xmas dinner tba
Competitions 2016
Hospital cup entry details attached – Peter Toms is our club rep (email inframe90@aol.com)
Entry deadline is Friday 17 April 2015.
Sept – Doubles competition –date to be advised
Xmas Competition –date to be advised
Golden Jubilee trophy – The outgoing Chairman Sean Murphy donated a trophy for the event last year. The chairman discussed a new competition for this trophy to be added to our annual diary. The meeting discussed various formats – open tournament or a internal one etc but did not settle on one, although a date around late June early July seemed the best time with the weather and the heighted interest in tennis around the Wimbledon tournament. The chairman will request ideas from the membership in a newsletter to seek ideas for a competition.
Wimbledon Ballot
3 pairs of tickets available
The draw took place in accordance with the LTA rules; as only opted in eligible members were able to participate.
Our ticket allocation
| Centre Court | 2nd July | £178 per pair |
| Court 1 | 5th July | £158 per pair |
| Court 2 | 30th June | £98 per pair |
The draw winners were...
Centre court- Hilary Johnson
Court 1 – Simon Ollenshaw
Court 2 – Kate Hucknell
A draw was also made for reserves; should the winners not wish to take up their tickets.
Reserve list is as follows...
Centre Court – Peter Venus
Court 1 - AH
Court 2 -John Truman
Coaching
The chairman reminded the meeting that coaching is available and thanked Ollie for his support the club last year.
Ollie Toms contact details
Telephone. 07917652014
Email. Ollie@Olliestennis.co.uk
Twitter. @OlliesTennis
Election of officers
The Chairman Treasurer and Competitions Secretary, (Social Secretary) were re-elected to their posts, Peter Venus agreed to arrange the Christmas dinner and Clare Jackson & Peter Toms agreed to carry on captaining the mixed and men’s teams respectfully
Daren Coles thanked the outgoing Membership Secretary Sean Murphy for his support and will take on this role. The Chairman thanked the officers and members for their support and help over the last year.
AOB
Lynne – brought up the issue with the Ladies Monday morning session having poor attendance due to work commitments – so it was agreed to cancel this time slot.
Ollie – reminded the meeting about the Cardio tennis session on Wednesday’s – it was agreed to make this a club booking slot, however, please book the session with Ollie beforehand.
Fund raising – Club house –Newport News – the chairman will continue to work on fund raising initiatives
Ollie Toms will try and promote the club using a local facebook group
Nick Chastney raised a question in the meeting regarding the membership income for 2016 which seemed similar to 2015, despite there being a significant increase in members – we discussed the matter briefly but felt it related to the some membership fees being accounted for in different years balance sheets – the Chairman will seeks clarification from the treasurer.
Revised court booking 2016 /2017
Court Bookings for members
Saturday 9-11 am Men’s doubles, 11 am -12am Social tennis
Sunday 9-11 am Social Tennis 11-1 pm (as necessary for Matches Mixed and Men’s Doubles)
Tuesday 9-11 am coaching
Wednesday 2 -3pm – Cardio tennis with Ollie
Thursday 6 pm till dusk social tennis
There being no further business the meeting closed at 10pm