Minutes - Commitee Meeting 14 March 2018
Minutes of Committee Meeting held at Tyldesley on 14th March 2018
Committee Present.
Fred. Swarbrick; Reg. Robinson; John Powell; Andy Thompson; Greg King; Jon Daldry; Craig Hine; Paul Whiston; Steven Branch.
Apologies.
Ian Cosens; Peter Rhodes; Tommy Hughes; Sara Shackleton.
Meeting Opened 19.10hrs.
Matters Arising.
None
Minutes of previous meeting accepted
Sponsorship
The sponsorship of our cup competitions by B.E.S.T and by L.B.S. has comes to the end of its contract in 2018. These companies are to be presented with a memento in thanks for their support. Fred was pleased to announce that Cup Sponsorship will now be provided by Robinson’s Brewery of Stockport on a 3 year agreement. This is seen as a great step forward as Robinsons is a highly respected brand name throughout the North West. League Sponsorship is now provided by Halbro after 3 years of support from parent company, Raging Bull.
Finance
Greg King presented accounts for the to the end of 2017 These show a healthy balance of in the league account and in the Benevolent Fund. Fortunately or otherwise we have not had to utilise the Benevolent Fund to date this season.There are still monies owed by the RFU and by Sale Sharks. Fred Swarbrick will chase the RFU via Rosie Williams (RFU now paid) and Greg King will chase Sale Sharks.
Finals
The finals of our Cup Competitions are to take place at Burnley RUFC and Widnes RUFC for the 2017/18 season. Which matches will play at which venue will be decided after the semi-finals have taken place.
Dinner
The Presentation Dinner for 2018 will take place at Bowdon RFC on May 11 2018. Ian Cosens will liase with Vicky Perrett of Bowdon to finalise menu and other arrangements. Fred Swarbrick will compile a list of guests to be invited including County Presidents, Sponsors representatives and Referee Society organisers.
Fixtures.
John Powell reported 182 concedes this season so far which equated to 8.5% of fixtures scheduled. This is dis appointing and a higher figure than we are accustomed to but, nevertheless, is far better than the experiences in other parts of the country. The weather has played a major part this winter with 387 matches postponed so far. Of these many have been re-scheduled and some have been allowed as doiuble headers with cup matches. It was found that 67 could not be found a convenient date and these have been resolved by the Pools Panel system. The main reason for this is that the committee has decided not to re-schedule games for mid-week or over Easter as these games are invariably conceded anyway.
At the time of the meeting no games were outstanding.
THE COMMITTEE WISHES TO STRESS THAT IF ANY 2 TEAMS CAN AGREE A DATE AND GET A POOLS PANEL GAME PLAYED THE RESULT OF THAT GAME WILL STAND.
League structure
Steven Branch of the Macclesfield club was invited to attend this meeting to discuss ideas he has had to to assist clubs struggling in the lower divisions. He suggested that the Cup Concede rule should be rescinded and replaced with a league points deduction.(maybe 2 points). This will be properly worded and put to the AGM. He also suggested some kind of safety net/merit table for teams to fall into if excluded fro the leagues on the concede rules. Cheshire RDO’s attempted to do something similar this season but was not very successful. He was prepared to be involved in the implementation of such a system. It was further suggested that Divisions 4 and 5 should have a reduced number of teams and start the season a week or two later to allow players to return from holiday or finish the cricket season or whatever. Furthermore Divisions 4 and 5 should have no fixtures scheduled on International Saturdays either Autumn or Spring. All Div. 5 games postponed should go straight to Pools Panel decision with no attempt to re-arrange. Teams may still play the game by private arrangement if they wish. Fred Swarbrick, John Powell and Steven Branch will have further discussions on detail when we know the number of teams wishing to participate in our leagues next season. This could be further complicated as it is understood ther is a possibility of certain first teams from smaller clubs may wish to leave the RFU leagues and join us. It is not known if any of the first teams in our leagues would wish to join the RFU system. Any new applications to join,or rejoin our leagues should reach the secretary – Paul Whiston – by the end of May.
A.G.M.
It was suggested that the 2018 A.G.M. should take place on June 13 at Aldwinians RUFC. This has since been confirmed with the meeting to commence at 19.30. There will be a committee meeting prior to the main meeting.
A.O.B.
Craig Hine suggested that communications between league organisers and players could be improved by have representations on a Facebook page. There was general agreement that this could be beneficial and Craig will endeavour to organise this. Jon Daldry announced his intention to retire from the committee as his personal circumstance meant that he now felt a little “out of touch” with the modern game and as the average age of the committee was now quite high he felt a younger person should replace him. He will endeavour to find his own replacement but if any bona fide club member in any of our clubs is interested in getting involved he should make himself known to Fred Swarbrick.
Meeting closed 21.20