Bowls Oxfordshire Executive Committee Meeting
Friday 21st July 2023 @ 7.00 pm.
Held at Oxford City and County BC
Minutes
In Attendance. Chris Weller,Alan Scholan, Margaret Morris, Jeanette Berry, Ann Lattimore, John Hurren, John Henwood, guest Michel Grossnickel.
Apologies. Paul Demczak, Pat Ray.
Minutes of the Bowls Oxfordshire Executive meeting held on 23rdFebruary 2023 having been circulated were signed as a true record.
ProposedChris Weller SecondedJohn Hurren
Matters arising (not covered in this agenda).
There were no matters arising.
Update to full Committee on Subcommittee activity and current position
Chris explained where the Unification sub-committee meetings had got to in their deliberations. The second item on the evenings Agenda was a discussion of the new Constitution, which had occupied most of the two recent Subcommittee meetings, but now following involvement from most of the Subcommittee the fourth draft had been produced, ready for approval, hopefully from the full committee, and later the Clubs.
John reported on progress within the Mixed section. Counties had been contacted to see if they were interested in playing mixed friendlies, only 3 Counties had so far said yes, but this had been expected.
Anumber of Cups had been “found” within the Ladies section, which could potentially betrophies for any new competitions that might be implemented.
John had held a meeting with Margaret Morris and Julia Lambert to discuss reimbursement of travelling costs and whether the same system and payments could be used for both the Mens and Ladies sections.
BOL were meeting on Monday, firstly the BOL Executive, then the delegates meeting.
Honorariums might be next on the list for discussion, but this might involve pro rata payments across the sections depending on the workloads involved. Bursaries may be available to people interested in becoming President/Vice President.
Overall, John felt that moving forward, with the main source of income still coming from affiliation fees at present, either income must equal expenditure, or new forms of revenue may be required.
Otherwise, if costs continued to rise the Bank balance account would begin to be eroded year on year, which was not sustainable.
At present the only sections being financed were the Mens and Ladies sections with the Junior section being subsidised from present sources of income and no budget at all yet for the Mixed section.
Chris asked Ann and Jeanette what items regarding unification were being talked about at the BOL meeting , and was told that the draft copy of the new Constitution was on the agenda as well as any items that arose from that evening’s meeting.
Chris went on to say that John had been responsible for producing nine Policy documents. Some of this material had been new and some had been removed from the Constitution, (it being easier to amend a policy document if needed in the future), rather than amending the Constitution which would require an SGM or AGM.
Although Chris had reviewed them and made small amendments, they would need approval soon by the full BO Executive.
John then produced a document which listed all the nine policy documents completed by him so far, and a further sixteen which he considered would be required to fill gaps in the new structure.
Although he pointed out the new headings, he asked Committee members to add to the list if they felt a topic had not been covered.
He also made the point that although he had completed all the policy documents to date, he was not prepared to continue to do this by himself, and Committee members and perhaps members from outside the Committee needed to take ownership of some of the headings and begin work on them. John said he had a template he was using that he could forward to help prepare new documents.
He added that in preparing these documents it was an ideal opportunity to assess if past practice was now outmoded, and change was necessary which could be implemented.
There was no point in reinventing the wheel if documents could be found from other sources, Clubs, Counties etc then these could be plagiarised and tweaked for the benefit of Bowls Oxfordshire. Ann pointed out that attached to any policy document should be a review date, whether it be annually, three years, five years, so that the document constantly evolved and changed with new legislation.
Alan pointed out that any policy documents needed to fall with BE guidelines.
Chris said that with John Henwood’s assistance he would be willing to take on the Men’s section protocols.
A discussion then took place on the differences between how teams for OBA and BOL were selected and the criteria used. As a result of the current BOL selection strategy, a dwindling number of players were available for selection for BOL County games at any level.
A subcommittee would be set up at the BOL meeting, to review this and other issues which it was felt needed addressing.
The role of a Communications officer within the new structure was again discussed and its importance, going forward in selling to a wider audience the merits of playing bowls.
Ann raised the issue of the County joining “Disability Bowls” as well as existing clubs who had joined. All considered this to be a good idea.
Alan asked if invitation letters might be sent to the Leagues, Mens, Ladies and Mixed inviting them to become affiliated to the new structure, but John Henwood replied that in preliminary talks held in March it was agreed that any affiliation to the League would need to be discussed and approved by the full League Committee before any invitation was sent. This was acknowledged by both John Hurren and Chris Weller as being correct.
Constitution
Chris explained that he had started with the old Constitution and stripped out all the references to OBA and BOL, and then redrafted and worked on some amendments, and a few changes, to take into account further unification. This draft then went out to the subcommittee and most of its members made some additions or amendments to it, to finally finish, after two more drafts with Version 4 which the Subcommittee approved.
Chris went on to say that the timelines prepared by Ann were at the moment more or less on schedule, but there was a lot of work to do in the next couple of months, if the timeframe for having information ready for the Club AGMs was to be met. He said it was good to finally have a full committee meeting to bring everyone up to date, and input from everyone was welcomed.
Finally, Chris asked if ALL Committee members had read the new Constitution in full and were happy to approve it. Everyone replied that they were happy to approve the document.
Complaints overview
Alan asked what the procedure was for dealing with complaints from within the County.
Chris explained that there was an investigation pending, with a member making a complaint against their Club, but could say no more at this stage.
This complaint, rightly or wrongly, like two others, had begun by him being notified by the complainant, .
He had notified in this latest instance both John Hurren and Alan Scholan of the nature of the complaint.
He had then asked all parties to provide as much information as they deemed relevant so that an investigation could then take place.
There was a common feature which made cases more difficult to deal with, which was Club officers were not always following correct procedure – ie to be fair to all parties, etc. However, the process had worked well for the last two complaints and hopefully this would be the case again.
The correct procedures to follow could all be found on the BE website following rule 9 of the Misconduct policy.
Big Bowls Weekend
Alan said that only fourteen of the twenty-nine Oxfordshire Clubs registered. Overall feedback he had received from Oxfordshire Clubs indicated that they had not done as well as last year, in attracting new members. Some questioned whether the date was too late in the year, some found BE useful, some less so. Some Clubs who had gone their own way and held events earlier than BBW had done better than before. Thirteen clubs had signed up, at the cost of £10.00, to the social media coverage organised by Michel on behalf of Bowls Oxfordshire
Michel reported that that there lots of clicks and visiting links, but this hadn’t translated into people attending Clubs to give bowls a try.
Ideally the date BBW is held needs to be early in May was the consensus of opinion.
Also, Michel suggested that social media coverage for next year should include any recruitment day that a Club holds early in the year, not just BBW.
Coaching/Umpiring qualifications
Alan said BE has asked Counties to support bursaries for people undertaking coaching courses, as there is such a shortage of coaches and Umpires.
The list of Coaches at Oxfordshire Clubs is on the Bowls Oxfordshire website. Of the twenty-nine Clubs listed fifteen have no officially qualified Coach. John Henwood is still listed as the County Coach co-ordinator. He said he would probably be able to get a Coaching course run in Oxfordshire, but he needs sufficient interest and names put forward for this to happen. The course would need a minimum of eight to ten people on a course, it can be completed on Zoom, but is best done in his opinionlive in person. OC&C would probably be the preferred host Club.
Michel said that qualification as an Umpires was not easy, but there are currently only two qualified umpires in Oxfordshire, himself, and Paul Comley.
It was suggested that Alan send an email to all Clubs asking for volunteers either to become an umpire or coach, pointing out the benefits of having a coach within your Club, and the scarcity of umpires to officiate at important games. Also, bursaries are available to cover 50% of the cost, with perhaps Clubs meeting the other half of the costs involved if volunteers came forward.
National Competition issues.
All finals of the Mens National competitions would be completed on Sunday. The U25’s Singles game has been awarded, due to one of the Competitors being away on holiday. Markers, umpires and photographer had all been agreed and notified. A wide range of people and clubs were involved this year, which was pleasing to see.
The Ladies Finals were being agreed, next week, with the Finals being played next weekend.
Alan announced that BE had formed a working party looking at national competitions, in summary –at present there was a continued decline in entry numbers, of national comps, although some felt this hadn’t been helped by the changes made by BE last year.
Affiliation summary.
Alan stated that Clubs had now returned affiliation fee’s. Oxfordshire had lost Goring last year, so numbers had declined further from thirty to twenty-nine clubs.
There were currently 1,539 affiliated bowlers in the County, 1,050 male, and 489 female. Last year had seen no growth on the previous year, and still nowhere near pre-Covid numbers. There were three clubs with more than 100 members in Oxfordshire, - OC&C, Witney Town, and Thame.
Chadlington BC.
Following on from the previous item, Chris wanted to highlight the plight of the next most vulnerable Club, Chadlington BC who currently only have thirteen male members and one lady.–the club received quite a lot of money on their green (from Covid grants)
New member Julian Horsley can’t get enough members together to meet with John and Chris. regarding expanding the club, and therefore it could potentially become another Goring club. They are desperate for new members and players.
John Henwood – in the past, has helped failing clubs, - and has offered to meet with Chadlington to talk about things.
Potential for Sponsorship
Michel said that any form of sponsorship should be linked to full unification.
If unification is approved then there would be a big opportunity to go out to the media and suggested you could look at one big sponsor from leading Oxfordshire companies, or alternatively for competitions, a smaller sponsorship deal.
He felt that there was a willingness there, but the ideal opportunity would be to wait until unification is approved and we have something to offer, and then reach out to companies.
The current financial position may work against us, but £5k, a year possibly to sponsor Bowls Oxfordshire over perhaps a three or five-year deal.
Sponsors are looking at a longer-term commitment. Smaller sponsorship is easier to find. Until a fuller picture is established ie what can we offer, and what do we want and need it will then be easier to find support.
Notification of complaint from member against Club
Already dealt with under Complaints procedures.
AOB.
Chris said that he hoped to send out the OBA nominations for Officers earlier this year and had brought the subject up at the GPC meeting the previous Monday. However, he had not done so yet, as he thought that the approach by both OBA and BOL should be the same, with particular reference to the Vice President/President nominations. Jeanette and Ann said it was on the agenda for the BOL Executive to discuss on Monday and would let Chris know the results of those discussions.
Jeanette asked why BOL hadn’t been consulted about the “starring of greens” which she understood the OBA had implemented this year. Chris explained it had not been done for some time, so the greens that had been looked at were the greens that had been used for the final stages of the National competitions. Five had been looked at and approved with just remaining to be done. The starring had been carried out by Ian Whelpton who had done it previously. If BOL had a representative who was willing to take part in the process next year, he was sure that would be no problem.
There being no further business to discuss the meeting closed at 9.40 pm.
