General Purposes Committee Meeting
Held at Kidlington BC on
Monday September 11th 2023 at 7.00 pm
Apologies– Paul Demczak, Bryan Flitter, David Leighfield, Tony Wright
In attendance Chris Weller, Mike Morris, John Hurren, John Henwood, Ryan Full, Alex Fleming, Alan Scholan.
Minutes of the GPC meeting held on Thursday 17th August 2023 having been circulated and signed as a true record. (Distributed with Agenda)
Minutes Proposed Chris Weller Seconded Mike Morris
Matters arising
Alex Fleming asked if the Secretary had been contacted by Chris Shannon, Thame Secretary, regarding the President’s game next year. The Hon. Sec replied that he had made contact, but Chris Shannon had been away. The Hon. Sec said he had asked him to make contact when he returned but had so far heard nothing. Alex said he would try and establish contact.
Alex said that he and Chris would be paying a visit to Chadlington the following Saturday, to give advice on various matters re the awarding of a 4 rink County game to Chadlington next year against Herefordshire. Chadlington were planning to use this game to promote the Club to the village and wider community, in the hope that this would increase their membership which currently stood at just 13 members.
Covid grants had been used to greatly improve the green, but the next project was to enhance the current changing rooms.
Mike Morris asked if there had been any correspondence/action regarding the walkover awarded to a Surrey team at the expense of the Oxfordshire team in the National Mixed Fours competition at Leamington this year. Mike said they had been told by the organiser of the event Lee Rowland that Oxfordshire should register as many complaints as possible.
The Hon Sec said that for the county to register a complaint he would need an accurate account of what took place from one of the Oxfordshire team. AJ Docherty was apparently the only person in the Country at present, the others being abroad, so would email AJ asking him to provide the necessary information. He also felt that to maximise the strength of the complaint, all of the team should individually complain, as well as their respective Clubs as Mike had suggested. Chris said he would email AJ later that evening.
Alan said that following a request at the last GPC meeting for the return of unused tickets for the National Finals, he had received none!
Correspondence
There was no correspondence to consider.
Treasurer’s report
John Hurren said as he was going away on holiday in the early hours of the following morning, he had not had time to do a full report, but obviously would do so for the OBA Council meeting in October.
He had now ordered a supply of new shirts, for next season, and the new indoor season.
The current Bank balance stood at £15,632.00 with Honorarium’s due to be paid at the end of September.
As a result of Competition Secretary Bryan Flitter being unavailable for most of the playing season, and John Henwood doing an excellent job at ensuring the final and semi-finals of each competition were played and well organised the Treasurer proposed that the honorarium for the Competition Secretary be split 50-50 this season between John and Bryan. All were in favour.
OBA Presidency 2024
A discussion took place on a possible nomination for the OBA Presidency for 2024. A GPC Committee member said he was considering is nomination, the only difficulty was fitting this into an already busy playing and administration schedule. Various ways in which this situation might be eased were discussed, Eventually the member concerned said he would make a decision later that week.
Note- A nomination for President 2024 was received from Banbury Borough nominating former Past President Mike Morris)
2023 Annual dinner and Presentation evening update
John Hurren said that response to attendance at this years Annual Presentation dinner was disappointing with only one apology received so far from Tim Jupp saying he wouldn’t be attending.
After discussion it was agreed that the Hon Sec would send a reminder not only to Club Secretaries but Club delegates, and the finalists themselves, details to be provided by Alan Scholan, publicising the event again, and repeating the deadline, October 1st, for receiving replies back from those interested in attending. Changes had been made last year and this to make the event more attractive to potential participants, so it was hoped that a good response would eventually be forthcoming.
Nomination of other OBA Officer’s for 2024
The Hon Sec said that to date, he had only received 4 nominations from Clubs/individuals for the Officer roles they currently occupied. He asked and reminded those present that if they wished to stand for any role, including being a member of the GPC, they needed to get their Club approval, and Secretary to fill in the nomination form that had been sent to them nearly a month ago.
John Henwood said that he was hopeful a candidate he had been talking to would stand as Competition Secretary.
Notification of Middleton Cup/HCL Manager report/ Competition Secretaries report/ Under 25’ Managers’ report ready for OBA Council meeting, 11th October – ( ideally 7th October)
The Hon Sec said that to fulfil the agenda requirements of the OBA Council meeting he would need reports from the Middleton Cup Manager with a Middleton Cup/HCL Manager report/ the Competition Secretary with a Competition Secretaries report and the Under 25’s Manager with an Under 25’s Managers’ report.
Ryan said he already started to compile the Under 25’s report, John Henwood asked the Hon Sec if he would send him last years Competition Secretaries report that he could use as a template, and in the absence of the elected Competition Secretary, he would attempt to compile that report.
The Hon. Sec asked Alex and Mike if they could talk to the President at the last County friendly game of the year later that week to see if he would compile the report that was assigned to him, and ask whether he would be attending the OBA Council meeting in person to present his report. They both said they would.
Ideally the reports needed to be sent prior to October 7th, to enable the Hon. Sec to circulate them prior to the meeting on Wednesday October 11th.
Further Unification update.
The main subject discussed were the Policy Documents that had been produced and circulated within the past month. So far 9 documents had been circulated, with a further 5 ready to go at the end of this week, and approximately another 10 in various stages of production. All are now at some stage of being compiled. With the assistance of the website’s webmaster Caspar, a tab has been set up on the website for these documents regarding Unification to be viewed by anyone and a separate section for comments by those wishing to make their views known on any aspect of the further Unification process.
A full Bowls Oxfordshire Executive meeting was scheduled for Monday October 9th to discuss probably the two most important documents produced on Job descriptions within the new structure, and Financial Governance.
Clothing to mark County semi-final and Finals.
Following confusion and some criticism, the Hon Sec said that this item had appeared on the last two agendas, but no decisions had been taken as yet. So, by going round all present in turn and asking each person what their preference was the following picture emerged.
Almost all thought that in future, a County shirt as worn in representative matches would be preferable to white shirt, County tie and blazer, particularly so on very hot days, and more people had access perhaps to a County shirt than a blazer and County tie.
Opinion was a little more split on grey or white trousers, or shorts, but now the subject had been discussed the Hon. Sec said he would put it on the agenda again after the AGM, to try and confirm the dress code going forward to next season.
OBA attendance at National finals, plan for next year.
The Hon Sec said that there had been criticism from various quarters as to the lack of support from OBA Officers given to OBA finalists at Leamington this year, particularly in comparison to that shown by BOL officers with their competitors,
He had put this item on the agenda not with the idea of reviewing what happened this year but discussing what might be done next year to improve the attendance of the OBA next season.
One of the issues appeared to be the perception that not all members of the GPC are perceived as OBA Officers.
It was decided to put this item on the agenda again in the first meeting of the New Year to add detail and a plan for next year’s Championships.
Bowls Oxfordshire
Alan said that the forms for next year’s County Competitions had now been circulated to all Club Secretaries on September 7th, with an extended deadline for their return this year as agreed at the March OBA Council meeting, which was by the end of November.
Alan had also sent out an email to all Club Secretaries re the success of both BOL and OBA competitors at Leamington. John Hurren said last year he been provided with text and photos to post on the website featuring Oxfordshire bowlers at Leamington, but this year had received very little. Alan said he would send John what content he had to John.
Bowls England matters.
John Henwood gave details of a Coaching course, that he had organised that had just 12 places available, which he hoped would be taken up by Oxfordshire, Details had been circulated to all Clubs and John hoped he would receive details of those who would like to take the course asap.
The National Competitions working party was still in consultation phase, which also included a participation survey which was on the BE website and was worth looking at and filling in.
Any other Business (of a minor nature only)
John Henwood said that he would organise the Champion of Champions competition on Saturday September 23rd, but needed to know more details about the competition, in particular how many competitors might be attending. John Henwood asked about the list of paid entrants, the Hon Sec said he would email later that evening all Club Secretaries asking if they could let John know who their entrant was, if they were going to play in the event, and to check to see if they were definitely attending, and to confirm ideally that they could bring a marker with them, arriving before the 9.00 am deadline when the draws for the competition would be made.
John Henwood said he had provided each of his Headington members with a copy of the draft new constitution and asked for comments. Some of which had been made and had been mixed in content.
Ryan asked how often GPC meetings took place and was told approximately every month. He wondered if occasionally meetings might be held at other Clubs around the County, as although he felt the image of the County was gradually changing it still required further work.
The Hon Sec said he thought this a possibility if the Committee agreed, and perhaps he might like to ask his own Club Carterton if this was something they might consider.
Ryan went on to say he had begun writing a structure for the Under 25’s which he hoped would see progression from this age group through to more Senior levels of the game. He also hoped to include information for those entering the game in the 30-50 age group.
John Henwood said that the first full meeting of the Mens section would take place on 27th September and this group comprises of Roy Radband, Brian Bloomfield, Alex Flemimg, Mark Vaughan, Mike Morris, Sam Watts and John himself.
John again mentioned the Safeguarding course in April 2024 which he had worked very hard to get the BDA to take Oxfordshire seriously. I was a two-tier course ‘time to listen’ (children’s one and amalgamated with adults.
There being no further business to discuss the meeting closed at 20.45 pm.
