Minutes of the Aylesbury & District Table Tennis League Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 13 th May 2010 at the Foxhills Bowls Club at 8pm.

Present: David Badham, David Ballard, Richard Beckett, Mark Binder, Phil Blind, Jan Carey, Pete Edwards, Steve Everest, Frank Hardy, Chris Hawkes, Terry Holland, Bill McCafferty, Andy Misseldine, Rennell Moore, Roger Mott, John Richardson, Bob Sargeant, Gerry Saunders, Mark Scott, Mick Simmonds, David Stevens, Jim Styles, Tony Tobin, Nick Tyler, Brian Whitehead,

total 25 (quorum 20) including 7 officers (quorum 4).

•  Apologies for absence

Were received from David Bradbury, Alan Cherry, Jan Crompton, Wilf Crompton, Michelle Davis, Andy Eggleton, Tony Greenham, Derek Marlow, Helen Riddell.

•  Unrepresented Clubs

Ridgeway.

3 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on May 7 th 2009

Adoption of the minutes was approved nem con.

4 Matters Arising

None.

•  Chairman's Report

The Chairman, Jim Styles, thanked Bill McCafferty for arranging for Foxhills to be available for the meeting. He congratulated the League Champions Haddenham A and Trophy winners Bierton on their success. Last season had seen the League continuing with three divisions but with the return of the Frank Mitchell Trophy competition. The revised postponement rule calling for a fortnight's notice seemed to have worked well and despite three interruptions of the fixtures by winter weather all fixtures had been completed within the allowed extension of the season.

Terry Holland would be moving away and therefore retiring from Vice Chairman. He thanked Terry for his many years of active support to the League including 3 stints as Chairman and for his custodianship of Elmhurst in its formative years. He was also pleased to announce that former treasurer Tony Munson was in remission after serious illness.

The Elmhurst Centre table tennis was now stable and running well, the only problem being the difficulty of providing licensed coaches to oversee the training since the introduction of the revised ETTA coaching qualifications. He welcomed the efforts of the Tring Club who now were operating a very successful independent coaching scheme at Tring School.

The Annual Tournament had again been held at the Stoke Mandeville Centre and had been a happy occasion. He thanked David Ballard who had organised this tournament together with the Junior and Riddell Schools Tournaments so successfully and David Badham for maintaining and improving the League Website..

Finally he congratulated Andy Misseldine for retaining the Mens Singles title and Dawn Pearce who had completed the Ladies treble and thanked the team of Officers and Committee for their work towards a successful season..

•  Treasurer's Report

David Ballard reported that the League had accumulated a small surplus of £405 during the season. He attributed this to effective management of Elmhurst which was now self supporting. The financial status of the League was now stable and there were funds in reserve of about £10,000.

He proposed to continue the programme of replacing the trophies which had become urgent.

For the Auditors Gerry Saunders confirmed that the accounts had been satisfactorily audited. He again asked that the Committee give attention to the extent of the League's reserves. He suggested that with the Olympics on the horizon bookings be obtained as soon as available so that parties from the League could visit the table tennis events.

Acceptance of the Report was proposed by David Ballard and seconded by Roger Mott and carried nem con.

•  Election of Officers

The elections were made as follows:-

8 Election of Auditors

The re-election of Gerry Saunders and the election of Phil Blind was proposed by David Ballard and seconded by David Badham and carried nem con.

9 ETTA Individual Membership

The General Secretary explained that as a result of pressure from Sport England the ETTA had developed a scheme for the individual registration of players. This would be introduced shortly for next season. Players would receive a form via e-mail or through the League to make application to the ETTA. Those who played in a single League would be asked to register through that League whilst those playing in more then one League would be asked to register direct with the ETTA preferably on-line. A fee would be payable (currently to be £5.64, £2.82 juniors) that would cover ETTA costs plus civil liability insurance for players.

So far as Clubs were concerned, at registration with the League they would have to inform whether players were registering direct with the ETTA, with the League or with another league. Fees played to the League would now only cover the League expenses plus affiliation with the County Association. League rule changes were proposed that would bring the Rules in line with the new arrangements.

10 Changes to Rules.

Jim Styles proposed and Brian Whitehead seconded the following two resolutions:-

Resolution One

That the following changes be made to the League Rules

Rule 1.4 Insert “(the ETTA)” and the “(the BCTTA)” after the respective full titles.

Rule 4.1 Amend the second line by adding “if any,” after “….. plus the affiliation fee,”.

Rule 5.1 Amend by adding “League” in front of “registration fee”.

New Rule 5.3

At the time of registration with the League players are required either to give proof that they are registered with the ETTA or to confirm that they have made or are making application to the ETTA for individual registration. Only players who have registered with the ETTA or have made an application to the ETTA for individual registration are permitted to take part in any games organised by the League. Players who have made application for registration are required to inform the League Secretary of the outcome of their application.

New Rule 5.4 (as amended in Committee)

Any player whose individual registration with the ETTA has lapsed or has been terminated or whose application to the ETTA for registration has been rejected will be considered as unregistered and ineligible to play in the League's competitions and any results obtained will be expunged from the League's records.

Rules 5.3 to 5.6 renumbered 5.5 to 5.8.

Resolution Two

That the above Rule Changes be introduced as soon as confirmation is received that the ETTA Individual Membership Scheme is in operation.

Both Resolutions were passed nem con.

11 League Registration Fees

The Treasurer stated that in view of the proposed ETTA Individual Membership Scheme he recommended that the League Registration fee be reduced to £32 per team. If the ETTA Scheme should not be implemented then the fee would remain at £48 per team. This was proposed by David Ballard and seconded by John Richardson and carried nem con.

•  Any Other Business

Bat Coverings:- The Secretary informed the meeting that there was a resolution at the ETTA AGM that bat coverings should be to ITTF current standards. This was expected to be approved. Junior teams:- John Richardson stated that Tring would be running two at least teams of junior players next season and asked that other teams co-operate by volunteering early starts to matches and agreeing changes in order of play to assist early finishes for the minors. The meeting supported the suggestion. An entry would be made in the Handbook.

E-mail:- Jan Carey asked that the e-mail addresses of team captains be included in the handbook. There were mixed feelings on this suggestion and it was felt that e-mail addresses should only be included with the team captains consent.

Aylesbury Disabled Games: - Steve Everest sought support from volunteers in helping with the table tennis event (Saturday 26th June) of the Aylesbury Disabled Persons Games. It was agreed that this would be put on the website.

In the absence of any other business the formal part of the Meeting closed at 9.07 pm.

Brian Whitehead

General Secretary

AGM News

7/5/09

The League's AGM took place on 7 th May at Foxhills Bowls Centre. Jim Styles, The Chairman reported on a successful season which saw Aylesbury Sports A crowned as Champions of the Premier Division for the third year running. Elmhurst took the Title in Division One with Bucks CC D topping a competitive Division Two. Whilst individually Chris Hansell of Sports A topped the Premier averages, Andrew Misseldine from Haddenham A won the Mens event at the Tournament for the second year in a row in an excellent 5 set battle with Chris. Top player in Division One was Bradley Willis (Elmhurst) with Mark Luscombe from Tring F taking the honours in Division Two.

Jim commented on the strong financial position brought about by the careful management of Treasurer, David Ballard. An increased attendance at Elmhurst has been one reason for the improvement in finances, a direct result of the energy and enthusiasm from Nick Cresswell with strong support from Nobby Tennison. The season was rounded off by an excellent tournament on 4 April at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, a venue that proved to be more adaptable and seemed to attract a larger ensemble of players.

The usual formalities were completed with the present officers remaining in place with the addition of John Richardson to the committee. One rule amendment was voted in, that being Rule 8.13 relating to postponement of scheduled matches. Part c which states that The Divisional Match Secretary can only authorise postponement of a scheduled match if there is mutual agreement of the team captains involved now has a rider attached "Provided this agreement is reached and notified to the Match Secretary at least 14 days prior to the scheduled fixture".

In any other business, arrangements were confirmed for the upcoming Hard Bat tournament on 5 June and the Summer League which starts on 11 May, both events at Elmhurst community Centre.

The League's President, Bob Sargeant, presented trophies as follows.

Premier Division Champions: Sports A (Nick Hansell, Mike Atkinson, Chris Hansell, Dave Wackrill)

Runners Up: Bierton (Neil Massa, Michael Wilkins, Steve Allen, Dwayne Brooks, Alex Pratt)

Division One Champions: Elmhurst (Bradley Willis, Brian McMullan, Paul Willis, Pete Hammond)

Runners Up: Ridgeway (Brian Redrup, Eric Dutton, Jeff Amor, Bob Croucher)

Division Two Champions: Bucks CC D (Martin Gillett, Steve Rycraft, Rod Payne, Andrew Willard)

Runners Up: Bucks CC F (Iain Willcocks, Paul O'Connell, John Roper, Paul Hartnell)

Finally, Bob presented two awards under The Cyril Thorne Memorial Trophy for exceptional performances by a player and an administrator. It was unanimously agreed that the Player's award be made to Andrew Misseldine , the Mens' individual tournament winner for the last two years as well as this year's Veterans champion. The award for Administrator was presented to David Ballard for his exceptional work as Treasurer and also for being Annual Tournament Organiser each year as well as organising Riddell Trophy, Junior and Hard Bat Tournaments.