ORION
HARRIERS
Annual General Meeting Saturday 4th
October 2008, 6pm: Minutes
1 Present
M Joyce, D
Brock, C Thurgood, J Farrier, T Wright, M Farrier, M Penfold, S Penfold, D
Penfold, P Bulaitis, D Maher, T Gale, R Bond, L Stowe, S Joyce, D Joyce, N
McGoun, A Dodd, S Timpson, J John-Lewis, B Bennett, M Armitage, P Robinson, K
Wood, Q Broadbent, E Stone, J Barrett, L Vacher, T Maru, D Milner, W Barton, R
Stone, G Tuttle, P Hernon, S Adams, E Paul, D Taylor, A MacQueen, K Hudson, C
Love, B Jousiffe, R Daly, A Dickin, B Everett, J Mercer
2 Minutes of the 2007 AGM and matters
arising
The minutes
of the 2007 meeting were proposed by J Farrier and unanimously agreed.
3 Captain’s Report
The Captain
reported on his eighth and final year as Captain. He thanked the Committee for its hard work on
behalf of the club, particularly in tackling the clubhouse issue and called for
unity in working together to reach a satisfactory end.
The Club was
going through a period of change, with the young seniors becoming a real force
within the club. Looking ahead the club
would contest the Essex League facing the best teams in the County, as well as
the Chingford League this season. Our
Harrier tradition, is part of what makes Orion different and the mobmatches
represent the backbone of that. He
rallied all members to turn out to ensure three more victories against the SLH,
Blackheath and Ranelagh in the coming season.
In standing
down, he had been honoured and proud to lead Orion over the years and pledged
his ongoing support to the club and its membership.
4 Ladies’ Captain’s Report
The Ladies’
Captain reported on the club’s successes over the year, particularly
highlighting the excellent progress of the juniors and young seniors coming through. There had been a strong growth in the number
of women members and attendances at Wednesday night training. She emphasised the importance of all members
working to raise funds for the clubhouse.
5 Junior Manager’s Report
Orion Juniors
have been striving to consolidate and improve links with local school
partnerships, governing bodies and local authorities. From these links we have
achieved the following:
· Orion coaches have and continue to deliver
the Elevating Athletics programme in local schools through both PE lessons and
after school clubs.
· Junior members have improved access to
cross training i.e. swimming and cycling.
· Orion jointly hosted our first ever Primary
Schools Athletics Championships.
· Orion Juniors receive the latest current
information from governing bodies and local authorities.
· Orion Juniors are made aware of the latest
funding opportunities.
Last year’s
cross country season was arguably the best ever:
· 5 athletes made the top six in the Essex League.
· 3 athletes made the top three in the Essex
Championships.
· 12 athletes were selected to represent
their County compared to 7 in 2006/7.
· 3 athletes made the English Schools
Championship compared to 1 last year.
Track and
Field Season 2007/08:
· 9 medals were achieved in the South of
England Indoor Championships.
· 5 medals were achieved in the Essex County
Championships.
· 2 athletes reached the English Schools
Championships with 1 achieving a silver medal.
UKA Young
Athletes League:
· We came 6th out of 16 clubs
compared to 11th last year.
In the
Southern Men’s and Women’s Leagues our performance was slightly disappointing
because we didn’t have the support required in order to progress. This is an
area we will need to address next season.
Because of
the increase in the number of athletes attending our training sessions we were
very conscious that our sessions didn’t lose their quality. With this in mind
we have increased our Tuesday training session from 2 to 3 hours and from 6
groups to 9 groups.
Orion Juniors
finished the track and field season on a high at the recent Essex Relay
Championships. We took 7 teams and 4 teams came away with a total of 15
medals. On the same day, 30 athletes
competed in the Chingford League. Highlights for Orion Juniors were that of the
top 4 men to finish, 2 were Orion Juniors and 2 were young seniors that had
come through the ranks of the juniors and Natalie Kipps was the first lady
home.
6 Honorary Secretary’s Report
22 new senior
members had joined during the year, taking the total to 310, though no unpaid
members had been removed during the year.
Rev. David Lock who had run 24 consecutive London Marathons in Orion’s
name had sadly died in August aged 79.
The Hon. Sec
called a vote of thanks to Dave Brock who had been outstanding Captain. From 1920 when mobmatches against Blackheath,
Ranelagh and SLH began until 2000, Orion won only 53 out of 218 achieving the
hat-trick in a season on 3 occasions most recently in 1933. In the 8 years of Dave’s captaincy, Orion won
20 of the 24 mobmatches, including 5 hat-tricks.
Maxine Joyce
had in the last 5 years been everything the club could have wised for in an Hon
President. She’d been ever-present at
races sharing her vast experience of top-class competition. She had done so much for the club despite
illness and injury and the club thanked her and wished her well.
Bob Everett
was standing down from the Committee after many years service as Hon.
Secretary. He had organised the club
calmly and effectively and the Captain and the new Hon Secretary were very
grateful for his support and advice in the time they had worked with him. Bob would continue to lead the timekeeping
team to whom the club were also grateful.
The Hon
Secretary also thanked: Richard Kingsnorth standing down as vice-Captain due to
injury and starting a family; Dave Wilkie standing down as Hon Treasurer who
had taken on the job at short notice despite big changes in his own work and
home life; and Colin Lutman standing down as membership Secretary who had
supported successive committees in successfully managing the club’s membership.
The next few
years would be a time of change and opportunity with the change in
accommodation, the club’s centenary and the Olympics. New Committee members would bring new ideas
and the Hon. Secretary asked all members to think about what they wanted from
the club and what they could each contribute going forward.
7 Honorary Treasurer’s, Junior Treasurer’s
Reports & Approval of Annual Accounts
Senior
Accounts
The Hon.
Treasurer reported an excellent cash surplus of about £12,000, mainly because
of an increase in new subscriptions and very limited spend on the
clubhouse. The surplus for the year was £3,500
even after allowing £800 for UKAthletics registration, £300 for a potential
water bill and £300 for unpaid race/league fees. Income for the year was marginally down on
2006/7, due mainly to a 25% drop in donations from the Orion 15. Clubhouse matters aside, the trend in
increasing subscription income indicated a healthy financial status for the
club going into the 2008/9 season.
There were
questions about the large increase in utility bills and the high value of
debtors (inc over £3000 of uncashed cheques) which the Committee would look
into.
The last AGM had
appointed only 1 auditor (Pete McHugh) who had been unable to audit the
accounts in the time available. In light
of this, the Committee had asked Andy Lunn and Sasha Ackland to audit the
accounts instead, which both had done at short notice for which the Committee
were very grateful. On this basis, the
motion that the accounts be adopted (proposed by T Wright, seconded by C
Thurgood) passed with 1 abstention.
Junior
Accounts
Historic
financial management records reflect that of a much smaller and less structured
organisation and as such, had required a major reconciliation exercise and a
complete revision of our financial monitoring and processes. There was insufficient historic supporting
financial records to accurately prepare profit & loss and balance sheet
information for the year ended 30th June 2008.
The Junior
Treasurer instead provided a summary as at 30th September 2008:
Ÿ
Debtors:
£2,190 (estimated membership fees outstanding for
2008/09)
Ÿ
Bank/Cash:
£4,656
Ÿ
Stock:
£3,893
Ÿ
Liabilities:
£1559 owing to GLL and £700 owing to
England Athletics
The
Jun.Treasurer was confident that with prudent financial management and by
adhering to the processes now in place, our club financial position will remain
transparent, cash-positive and solvent.
The Junior
Accounts were proposed J Farrier seconded M Joyce and approved with one
abstention.
8 Motions to amend the constitution
Motion1: That rule 12a be amended to include after the
subscription for 1st claim senior members "with the exception of those who
have retired from competition who shall pay 30 pounds per annum".
This to be put in place with immediate effect to include the current
season. proposed: Q Broadbent
seconded: C Lutman
Motion withdrawn
Motion 2 (2 options): (1) Addition to rule 18. “only members aged 20 or over on the day of
the meeting shall be entitled to vote” proposed: Q Broadbent
seconded: C Lutman
(2) Addition to rule 18. “only
members aged 16 or over on the day of the meeting shall be entitled to vote”
proposed: T Wright seconded:
C Thurgood
Option (2) passed with 1 vote against and 1 abstention.
Motion 3: Change Rule 5 to:
Candidates for election shall be proposed by one member of the Club and
seconded by another (provided that either proposer or seconder be a member of
the Committee). The candidate will then be considered by the Captain,
Ladies Captain and Honorary Secretary and admitted to the club within 21 days,
unless they believe the candidates' membership would be contrary to the best interests
of the sport or the club. proposed: T Wright seconded: B Bennett
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 4: That an addition to rule 12b be made as follows:
"A junior member who has (or will have) reached the age of 20 by 1st
October will, unless he or she has instructed otherwise, automatically become a
Senior Member without re-election, and be liable for the increased
subscription. proposed: C Lutman
seconded: Q Broadbent
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 5: That the age of a family member be raised from 18 to 20 years.
Rule 12b to be amended accordingly. proposed: C Lutman
seconded: Q Broadbent
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 6: That Past Presidents be automatically made life
members on standing down from the position of President proposed B Everett seconded: T Wright
Motion withdrawn.
Motion 7: That the post of Editor be replaced by that of
Web-site manager
Rule 8 to be amended accordingly. proposed: Q
Broadbent seconded: T Wright
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 8: Replace at the end of para 3 "the minutes of
which meetings to be displayed in the clubhouse" with: "The Committee
shall, within 2 weeks of each meeting, record the decisions it has taken and
publicise the decisions to members on the website and in the clubhouse.
As soon as it is reasonably possible after the meeting, the Assistant Secretary
shall distribute the minutes to other Committee members for comment and
agreement." proposed: T Wright seconded:
B Bennett
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 9: Rule 19 to be changed to: "A copy of these rules
and regulations shall be displayed in the clubhouse and be posted on the club
web-site. The Secretary will, on request, mail out a copy to any member
who has not ready access to either of the above" proposed:
Q Broadbent seconded: T Wright
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion 10: That all references to the Amateur Athletic
Association and the Women's Amateur Athletic Association be henceforth changed
to 'UK Athletics'
proposed: T Wright seconded: Q Broadbent
Motion passed unanimously.
9 Discussion of Committee
recommendations regarding the Club's future accommodation
The Hon Sec
introduced the discussion checking that members had seen the full update
circulated with the AGM papers. Since
the update, the Corporation had formally offered the club the Jubilee Retreat,
subject to negotiation on the detail.
The Epping Forest Act precluded them from entering into an agreement for
longer than 3 years, but they were offering a renewable 3 year lease with the
first 3 years rent-free. The club did
not have enough information to decide on the way forward at the AGM, but the
Hon. Secretary asked for members’ views and advice on the way ahead.
It was agreed
that there was a need for a timeline for a decision and that the Committee and
others would work on the detail to bring before an EGM before the end of the
year. It was also agreed that the
fundraising should begin immediately, as whatever option was chosen there would
be a need for funds. P Hernon offered to
co-ordinate the fundraising work and Q Broadbent agreed to co-ordinate the
costing work on Jubilee Retreat, though both would need other volunteers to
make this happen as quickly as the club needs.
C Thurgood would arrange a meeting for potential volunteers to attend
and to organise themselves for both bits of work.
Most of those
present spoke and there was a very clear consensus in discussion for moving to
the Jubilee Retreat. A number of people
spoke about their experience of sharing accommodation between clubs and warned
of the problems in doing so.
Disappointment was expressed at the Corporation’s approach to
consultation, but their change in attitude toward the helping the club was very
positive. The move would provide a good
cause for the club to rally behind.
There was a vote of thanks for the work the Committee had done on this
issue during the year.
The Hon Sec
asked for a show of hands to clarify the view of those at the meeting. All those present indicated their preference
was for the move to Jubilee Retreat with no-one indicating a preference for
fighting to retain the coach house or moving to the Connaught Club.
10 Election of Officers:
Post Name Proposer Seconder
President R Bond M Joyce D Brock
Captain T Wright D Brock
Deputy
Captain E Paul T Wright
Ladies’
Captain C Thurgood T Wright
Ladies
Deputy Captain A de Asha C Thurgood
Hon.
Secretary B Bennett T Wright
Asst.
Hon.Secretary W Barton T Wright
Hon.
Treasurer J Barrett T Wright
Hon.
Handicapper C Lutman T Wright
Hon.
Fixtures Secretary Q Broadbent T Wright
Hon.
Editor/Website Mger R MacLennan T Wright
HQ
Manager A Dickin T Wright
Committee
Members – 4 D Brock T Wright
M
Joyce T Wright
P
Bulaitis T Wright
S
Bunce T Wright
Junior
Manager J Farrier T Wright
Jun.
Membership Sec. S Timpson J Farrier T Wright
Jun.
Treasurer S Penfold J Farrier T Wright
Jun.
Committee D Maher J Farrier T Wright
S
Kipps J Farrier T Wright
A
Dodd J Farrier T Wright
Junior
Liaison Officer J Farrier T Wright
Hon.
Auditors P McHugh D Brock T Wright
S
Adams D Brock T Wright
11 Any other Business
Members
thanked the Sea Cadets for the use of their hall.
Meeting closed 9pm