at the Towns Club Sittingbourne 23rd September 2004.
The Chairman welcomed everyone
and opened the meeting at 2010hrs.
Present; Chairman David May (Medway)
Secretary Chris
Saville (D & D)
Maidstone; Peter
Harcourt,
Tunbridge Wells; not represented
Medway; Garry
Speller.
Dover & Deal; Anne
Keen & Craig Carlson.
Apologies For Absence;
Janie Macoy, Peter Sainsbury, Di
Welburn & Tony Earl.
Minutes of Previous A.G.M.
4th September 2003 at the Towns Club.
After due time for comment it
was proposed by Garry Speller and seconded by Ann Keen that they be accepted. –
carried unanimously.
Matters Arising;
There were none
Correspondence;
There was none,
President’s Address;
In the absence of the President
there was no President’s address.
Secretary’s Report (as
dictated);
Nationally, no individuals have been held since our last AGM with all competition deferred to the next few weeks due to the massive increases in table hire charges. I will be representing KBBA in the Open singles and Di Welburn in the ladies. Rose & Crown Tunbridge Wells represented us in the National Pub team winning one match and narrowly losing two 2 – 3 which meant they did not qualify from their group.
Intercounties last year once again saw a KBBA side devoid of several top players . It seems it is no longer an honour to represent ones county. The Open side one again survived relegation by a whisker, losing all four matches 3 – 4, even against run away winners Oxford. The point per leg system favoured us as we had no heavy defeats. Chris Saville, Tim Hayes and Pete Sainsbury won three out of four. The ladies ‘A’ side were runners up out of three to runaway winners Sussex. Jan Taylor, Di Welburn and Janie Macoy winning two out of four matches.
I qualified for the top 16 Grand Prix masters but crashed and burned at the event, it was ugly as the saying goes!
The ‘A’ interleague was successfully defended by the original Dover and Deal (East) side. Tunbridge Wells won the ‘B’. The Ladies Interleague was won by Dover and Deal. The knock outs day was again well supported. Mike callanan won the Over 50’s and with myself the Open Pairs. A new face for the under 22’s with the title going to Phil Skillen. The Alternate Rules was won by Alan Smith.
The KBBA web page has continued to be the principal source for info on all matters and entry forms, saving me a massive amount of work posting forms, most of which are a waste of printing. You also will note from the Treasurer’s report that there are again no Secretary’s expenses this year. It is only because of this reduced workload format that I will continue doing this job.
The trailer project is close to completion and has involved high personal expense, having now bought five tables and travelling the length and breadth of the country to get them. I am still looking for good tables. Dover and Deal are going to finance most of the £1050 for the excellent trailer we now own, The sixth table has been loaned to the project by Kevin Clarke for a minimum of three years to recoup the cost of recovering it. I have several offers to sponsor recovering of the other tables to minimise my personal outlay. I intend the project to be non profit making and accountable, but will need to charge rental to cover future costs. This will be nothing like the bills we currently face.
Finally we continue to fight the decline in the game. The future of the interleagues is now secure provided there are enough teams to warrant the Alma opening up all day. The game continues to decline county wide. Even in my own league which is now the strongest in Kent. I firmly believe this is due to our abandoning the five singles format in all league competitions several years ago. Since then we have retained mostly the same players, whilst other leagues have weakened around us, I strongly urge other leagues to get it through to their top players that one leg muppet bashing is an unacceptable way to expect the average league player to suffer a Tuesday evening. If the game and this association is to continue it is up to the few people here to make league nights a fun evening.
I think this game and association is worth fighting for, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent what I have. Apathy rules throughout the County, apart from those few here tonight. Please keep doing what you can to keep things going.
____________________________
Garry Speller thanked the Secretary for his excellent running of the interleagues and for encouraging younger players to take part.
Treasurers Report;
The Secretary presented the
account due to the unavoidable absence of the Treasurer and outlined the
financial position. The current balance is £467.23. Garry Speller asked if
Medway had paid their interleague fees, the secretary confiermed they had eventually been received. Garry
apologised for the delay. It was proposed by Craig Carlson and seconded by Garry
Speller that the accounts be adopted, this was passed unanimously with a vote
of thanks to Di Welburn for getting us back into accountability..
Proposals;
1) Chris Saville proposed and Di Welburm seconded the
affiliation fees be abolished. This would not have significant impact on the association
finances, especially with the reduced table costs due to Chris Saville’s tables
and trailer project. It would however allow all players in Kent access to KBBA
competitions etc. Peter Harcourt said that Maidstone had been forced to
withdraw due to the poor state of their finances. Chris said that any slight
deterioration in KBBA finances should not cause a problem for the next ten
years and, with the continued deterioration, the association was unlikely to
last that long. We might as well put what finances we have to good use. This
was passed unanimously.
It
was agreed that the Secretary compile a list of all registered leagues / teams
/ players.
The chairman than welcomed Maidstone back into the association.
Election of Officers;
All officers with the exception
of the vice chairman had offered to stand, Garry Speller offered to cover this
chair. It was agreed unanimously that the officers be voted in enbloc..
Secretary’s Honorarium;
The Secretary asked that the
honorarium not be increased due to the light workload of the Secretary
nowadays, but asked that it were not decreased as he took all expenses out of
the honorarium, and then left the meeting. On return he was informed that the
Honorarium would remain at £125. This was proposed by Ann Keen and seconded by Garry
Speller.
Life Vice Presidents;
There were no new proposals.
AEBBA Affiliation;
It was proposed by Chris Saville and seconded by Craig Carlson that we remain affiliated, this was carried unanimously.
SCBBA Affiliation.
Chris Saville informed the
meeting that he had written to Simon Tinto but had never had a reply. He had
seen the SCBBA County Secretaries individually, but had not coordinated
anything. He would see them at the Intercounties and attempt to disband the
association.
KBBA Competitions.
Individuals; Garry Speller suggested that the individuals and Ladies
be a tournament of league champions. Chris Saville said that there was total
apathy to the individuals, so if league champions were interested, they would
have already entered. It was agreed that leagues be canvassed on the idea.
Interleagues; Having access to Chris Saville’s tables we would be able
to revert to the old format of ‘A’ / Ladies one weekend and ‘B’ / KBBA KO
another. The weekends being split a month apart at the Alma. Chris Saville pointed
out that we had choice of any dates now we didn’t have to negotiate table hire,
but would appreciate one weekend in early May (not bank holiday) to coordinate
with Dover and Deal finals. The dates agreed were
Saturday
2nd April ‘A’ Interleague.
Sunday
3rd April Ladies Interleague.
Saturday
7th May ‘B’ Interleague
Sunday
8th May KBBA KO’s day.
Garry Speller asked about the table setting up rule being reapplied. Chris Saville said that, as the tables were his, he would know each table and would take steps to make sure slates were good. He would prefer to leave the setting up to himself over the two days using his engineers level, rather than a mad 10 minute tweak before the tournament; but suggested that any team member be allowed to practise on the table allocated to that league. The meeting agreed that rules could not be changed without due proposal in advance, but enough committee members would be present on the day to agree this as an emergency decision.
Any Other Business;
Ann Keen asked Garry Speller to
locate the Ladies Interleague trophy, Garry apologised and said he would do
this. The Secretary also apologised and said that he had not restarted the
trophy book which had not been filled in since last time he was secretary.
Date and Venue of Next
Meeting;
It was felt that no meeting was
necessary unless a situation arose that could not be dealt with via web meeting
or interleagues. The next meeting would thus ne the next A.G.M.
The Vice Chairman closed the
meeting at 2130hrs.