General Purposes Committee Meeting
Held at Kidlington BC on
Monday July 15th2024, at 7.00 pm
Minutes
Apologies. John Hurren, Tony Wright.
In attendance Chris Weller, Alex Fleming, Ryan Full, David Leighfield, Mike Morris, Ron Smith, Martyn Cooper, Alan Scholan, John Henwood, Sam Watts.
Minutes of the GPC meeting held on Wednesday May 8th, 2024, having been circulated and signed as a true record. (Distributed with Agenda)
Minutes Proposed Martyn Cooper Seconded Ron Smith
Matters arising
None arising
Correspondence. (HCBA, see below)
Treasurer’s report
Treasurer’s report for OBA GPC meeting on 15 July, 2024
Balance on 10 July 2024 - £ 16,640.51
The following is a summary of Income and Expenditure to date during the current Financial year between 1 November 2023 and 10 July 2024:
|
INCOME £ |
|
EXPENDITURE £ |
|
||
|
Affiliation fees |
3,279 |
|
HCBA Affil& Comp entries |
216.50 |
|
|
Comp entry fees (Dom) |
849 |
|
Match food |
1,587 |
|
|
Comp entry fees (Nat Champ) |
1,649 |
|
Match Green fees |
801 |
|
|
Match Income |
4,905 |
|
Match travel costs |
1,595 |
|
|
Visitors meals |
47 |
|
Other travel |
96.95 |
|
|
|
|
|
Under 25 Squad - clothing |
1,656 |
|
|
|
|
|
Admin/stationary (inc Clubroom hire charges) |
50.98 |
|
|
|
|
|
Umpires |
75 |
|
|
Trading a/c (clothing) |
589 |
|
Trading a/c (shirts) |
0 |
|
|
Last years dinner (late payment) |
50 |
|
Comp expenses |
67 |
|
|
Raffles |
23 |
|
Presidents chain etc |
355.94 |
|
|
|
|
|
Insurance |
105 |
|
|
|
|
|
Donations (P.Cross) |
100 |
|
|
|
|
|
Deposit on October dinner |
50 |
|
|
TOTAL |
11,319 |
|
TOTAL |
6,756 |
|
Surplus current
Overview.
The stock of waterproof jackets is down to two only. The badge is an OBA one and I would like the next order to change to the Bowls Oxfordshire badge for the future, hence the delay in ordering. Dress codes after unification. is an item to be discussed and agreed before long at the BO Exec level. The provision of new jackets is becoming a priority, particularly if men prefer this for travelling to and from events, compared with Blazer and ties.
Affiliation fees increased by £392.50 this year indicating growth in the number of players in the county.
Talks have started on sponsorships for next year and we have launched a new Bowls Oxfordshire Facebook page, which is now available, although we are still at the stage when we are providing training for Content providers. We have received positive responses from Lee Young to share the role of Comms Secretary with Ryan Full and we have spoken to Kate England (Charlbury) about sponsorship opportunities.
The Hon Sec read out the Treasurers report then further discussion took place about the waterproof jackets, It was mentioned that the idea for a new type of jacket, waterproof or shower proofhad been discussed nearly 3 years ago at the 2021 OBA October Council meeting. The Hon. Sec said he would do some research on the decision taken then, and the design of the jacket and circulate this information, before the next GPC meeting for further discussion.
Dependent on what took place at the previous discussion, it was felt in principle that the GPC could take a decision on this rather than it go to a AGM.
Competition update, Semi-finals and finals, National and Domestic Competitions. Venue for finals
The Semi-finalswere now completed, 2 players were in four semi-finalswhich had meant that one of the triples semi-finals had been played on the Friday night, The remaining games on the Sunday had with a early start, and late finish, been completed in three sessions. A similar scenario for the finals looked likely as one player was in four finals in team competitions.
Discussion followed on whether in the future semis and finals couldn’t be played over a weekend. John Henwood thought there may be difficultyfinding a club willing to do this.
It was agreed that the Under 25 Pairs would be played on the afternoon of Saturday July 27th possibly at Banbury Chestnuts, Martyn to confirm green availability, and providing an OBA representative was available on the day to present the trophy.
Organisation of this finalwas in theory made easier by all 4 participants being from Carterton.
Regarding the purchase and engraving of trophies there would be extra expense John Henwood, addedwith the U25 Singles trophy damaged, as it needs a new base and therefore a new box. He was pleased to say almost all the Trophies had now been returned, and the remainder he hoped would be returned in the same condition as they were presented.
OBA Presentation dinner
John Hurren, in his absence had provided an update on the preparations for the OBA Presentation dinner.
Ihave booked the date with Kirtlington Golf Club for Saturday, 19 October, 6.30 for a 7.00 pm meal.
I will forward proposed menus when received, but will go for three courses this year, as many asked for this last year. We are limited to 90 people, but I propose that we invite surviving Past Presidents with their partners, to this event as it marks the last function organised by the OBA, since the last changes to the structure in 2009. I hope the GPC will agree to pay their costs (probably around £300). All invitations should be sent out with the menus etc after the County Finals on 28 July.
Tony has agreed to assist me with the necessary arrangements, and I will liaise with John Henwood or Sam Watts for the competition’s info. I will try to keep the price down to around £30 per person, Dress will be smart casual like last year. Someone needs to develop a list of successes during the OBA years. I spoke to Ian Whelpton after he confirmed that the sound equipment he used for past dinners, was in fact his, but he has agreed to make an offer to us so that we own it in the future. Most of it has not been used much.
The Hon. Sec said that if GPC members had not attended this function last year, he recommended they do so this year, as everything, the venue, food, atmosphere at last year’s event was excellentin every respect.
Preparations for final OBA AGM. Nomination of Mens Section Officers for 2025,? form to go out to Clubs August /September
The Hon. Sec said that this matter was discussed briefly at the lastGPC meeting and the recent BO Executive subcommitteemeeting, at which he had asked Section Chairs for nominations for officers for 2025, across all sections. Once thisinformation was known, could they please send it to him asap. The Mixed section was proving the hardest to fill butwas being worked on. John Henwood said the Mens Section list was almost complete, and Ryan and David said the Junior section list was in the same position.John Henwood asked the Hon. Sec to forward the OBA Nomination form used in previous years, to amend before sending to prospective nominees Clubs.
Review of County matches/HCL/ Middleton Cup 2024. Changes to next year’s selections and management of games. Code of conduct.
Alex reported that the season had been disappointing in both the Middleton Cup, Balcombe Trophy, and HCL.However,all the new players that had been included this year had allperformed well. He felt that both the Middleton Cup game against Sussex and the Balcombe game should have seen victories, buthad been lost in the last few ends played. He felt going forward that the under 25’s should be involved more from next season, and was aware that
Ryan had a draft progression plan to be discussed in AOB, that might enable this to happen.
Code of Conduct
It had become apparent that although one of the policy documents produced last year had been named Code of conduct, the one area this didn’t cover was the period immediately before and during the duration of the game.
It was felt now that where competitive Mens and Under 25 games were concerned, additional guidance in accordance with those used by Bowls Englandstrictly prohibiting drinking of alcohol immediately before and during games, the taking of recreational drugs, smoking only in designated areas, as permitted by the host Club, prompt arrival and attendance at matches and poor behaviour, ie use of bad language, was necessary, and would be compiled in readiness for the start of next season, with all participants in the Junior and Senior squads receiving notification before the season began, and being asked to sign agreement to these guidelines. Failure to do so would result in them not being included in the relevant squad for that season.
Issue had been raised over the last couple of years with some of the problems resulting according to some GPC members in a number of players declining to join squads until a Code of Practice was in place and acted upon.
Apparently, guidelines were issued by Bowls England prior to the National Championships about Behaviour expectations and a similar Code of Conduct was already in place in other Counties.
Initial discussion had already taken place within the Mens section committee about these guidelines, and would continue , until agreement was reached on the final guidelines issued.
Bowls Oxfordshire matters. Competition entries 2025.
Alan reported thata draft Competition entry form had been issued to the relevant people with him working towards issuing the actual entry forms on or around 15th August, with a closing date needing to be added to these forms.
John Henwood asked that the deadline for entries be extended to January, which Alan agreed to. Alan asked for any comments about the form be sent to himasap. The entry forms for each of the new sections meant that a total of 34 different events were now featured. Alan said he had spoken to the two Treasurer’s proposing a slight increase in fees, domestic at £3.00 National Comps at £4.50. Alan has asked each section to look at entry fees and feed back tohimany comments they had on this subject.
Bowls England, Safeguarding updates, and any other matters.
Ron reported BE have sent a list of Clubs who haven’t replied to the BE survey earlier this year, which were Adderbury, Banbury Borough Ladies, Burford,Carterton,Chipping Norton, OUP,OC & C,Shiplake, Thame and West Witney. The Hon Sec said that there had eventually been a very tight deadline for Clubs to reply, which might explain why the numberwas so high, and Clubs could still respond.
Alan reported at a recent BE meeting, that after 2 years focusing on this issue, nationally only 25% of affiliated Clubs have Safeguarding officers, despite BE stating each Club should have a SGO in place by May2025. The process obviously hasn’t worked so to speed the process BE were thinking of sharing SGO for clubs within a short distance of each other, or for Clubs to share a SGO with other sports on their site ie tennis, hockey etc.
Ron Smith said that a number of Oxfordshire’s smaller clubs Chadlington etc are partnering with larger Clubs such as Chipping Norton. OUP now had a volunteer to become a SGO so Ron was working with them to sure they were properly covered, although as a County there was still work to do. The biggest problem he felt was making sure that details were kept updated.
Ron had identified further training courses he wished to attend but would probably wait till the Autumn before enrolling on these.
Invitation to host County games across sections 2025, form to send.
Match Secretary Alex Fleming reported 15 applications from clubs wishing to host County games. There would be 7 home mid-week friendlies next year, and Alex said he had a plan to keep most happy!
Some applications were new, Bloxham, Adderbury, Chadlington, Hanborough and others! He also said he was attempting to get a coupleof new fixtures, He had contacted the Police Federation, English Civil Service and was trying to resurrect the friendly fixture against Middlesex but was waiting for replies on these enquiries.
Surrey had been offered a 4 rink game as had Worcestershire, as they struggled to get players to play away games. He had also asked Dorset if they would like a game, probably at a neutral venue such as Dorchester. Chadlington and Woodstock had hosted County fixtures this year for the first time, and done the County proud, in every aspect of hosting the games, with many compliments for both Clubs on the excellence of the match day experience. Alex was proposing any clubs who holdMiddletonCup trials or Home Counties games next year would not get a friendly game in order to share out the games as fairly as he could.
He had a short list of Clubs who might host Middleton Cup and HCL games, but this needed further discussion within the Mens section, before agreement.
OBA attendance and audience participation at National Finals. Tickets distribution.
Alan Scholan reported that he has tickets, for the National Championships at Leamington in August which he had been issued. The 3 tickets for the whole 18 days, were to be issued to Mike Morris and Ann Lattimore, respective OBA and BOL Presidents, and the third going to the young bowlers section, at the two other recipients request. If they were not used they could be passed on to others.
Asked for a show of hands on who would be attending at some point on behalf of the OBA , almost all members said they would be attending at some point, so a significant increase on last year’s OBA attendance.
Ryan went last year, and asked if to signify they were there on behalf of the County there should be some form of dress code in place. After discussion it was agreed that wearing a County shirt, or if preferred white shirt/County tie, would then show who was representing the County on any given day, John Henwood asked about parking arrangements, as there was some confusion last year.
It was agreed that any player from the Junior section attending should have at least one extra free ticket as they were likely to be accompanied by a parent. Alan said he had free tickets for each day of the event, and to contact him if one was required.
Greens, code of practice for next season.
Martyn reported that with issues with a couple of greens this year, something neededto be in place for next season in order to help Clubs with any problems.Martyn had met with Maureen Cox and the team at Kidlington which had encountered problem earlier in the season, whilst a new greenkeeper had begun a course of action to renovate the green, which was in a state of transition, as a result games were moved to other clubs. As the U25 had played their games at Kidlington for a number of years, Ryan had come to bowl at Kidlington, as indeed Martyn had, and to speak to Kidlington representatives. Ryan said when he bowled on the green Kidlington green it had improved but not yet to the standard required for U25. Ryan had made it clear, this was not personal, but for the benefitof Ryans players and most certainly not an attack against Kidlington, who had looked after the Under 25’s needs so well, for so long.
Martyn said he would be happy to suggest a Code of Practice going forward, and suggested greens selected to host important stages of competitions or representative games were played on 2 to 3 weeks before matches were due to be played and could then be assessed by himself if problems were identified. He said he would be happy to fulfil this role if required.
Martynalso suggested a new section on the new website re greens might be good idea.
HCBA County withdrawals. EGM decision required. (Documents circulated)
Mike Morris explained Kent intended to withdraw from HCBA Competitions in 2025.
Oxfordshire had responded via the GPC to say they hoped Kent would reconsider and remain in the HCBA and that the Kent Under 25’s would continue to play in the Junior HCL.
Since then, Sussexhad indicated they intended to withdraw from playing the HCBA Championships next season.
There was to be an HCBA EGM held at Brackley on August 6thto determine the future of the HCBA and various options.
So, as HCBA delegate Mike needed to know for that meeting.
A decision from Oxfordshire, as to whether they still want to play in theHCL IN 2025
All GPC members present agreed they did, which was voted on and passed unanimously.
Did Oxfordshire wished to take part in the HCBA Championships in 2025. Again, agreement on taking part, voted on, and passed unanimously.
Alex suggested that the one area that needed looking at were the Home Counties 2025 mid-week friendlies, because of the distance often involved in sending one rink to play on behalf of the County in these games.
AOB
Sponsorships, advertising and communications
(Report from John Hurren, in his absence)
I have received limited feedback on the sponsorship document I circulated, but what I received was very positive, so I will send the text to Lucy Smith to develop a draft of the finished article for perusal. I have previously sent her a number of suitable pictures, so I look forward to seeing what this would look like. The next thing will be to ask Lee Young if he will circulate to potential sponsors for the future and request all GPC members to forward suggestions for sponsorships ( with post or Email details). I will provide details of all the past sponsors for the old yearbook. I sincerely hope Lee will accept the responsibility for “Sponsors and marketing” for Bowls Oxfordshire
Some of you will know that we recently started a facebook page for Bowls Oxfordshire and material is starting to appear and looks very good so far. We already have around 1000 friends that receive this and we can significantly increase this if all bowlers would forward to personal friends and ask them to be a “friend”. Not only will this drastically improve our ability to communicate what we are doing and help potential new bowlers for our sport, but this will be attractive to new sponsors if we develop a high following. My thanks to Ryan Full and Zoe Pratley who will place the content, when received, onto the Facebook page. Nineteen people have been invited to send content as things occur, but only half a dozen have agreed so far. I hope this improves, as the more variety that we publish, the better it will become.
Finally, we have started the process of moving material, which is still valid onto the new Bowls Oxfordshire website, which is due to go live, at the latest on 31 March 2025, but hopefully sooner, but after the OBA and BOL have had their last AGMs. I’d like to thank Marc Vaughan of Headington and Chris Jones of Witney Town for agreeing to help me with this large task.
If anybody has any questions following the meeting, particularly about my input, please forward to me and I will ensure all attendees get an answer to the question.
Ryan circulated copies to all present of aproposal for county selection, progression and growth, for Oxfordshire. He explained this was only a draft copy and asked members to take it away. consider the points made in the document, for and against and discuss further at the next GPC meeting in August. He was attempting to tie in the Junior section with the adult section and create a pathway, so we don’t lose bowlers, once they finish playing for the Under 25’s but then appear to be forgotten, as has happened with some players in the past, and are then perhaps lost to ther game completely. The suggested marking system was based on what BE uses for marking players on ability and performance.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting closed at 9.45pm.
