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WEYMOUTH RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB Ltd

Minutes of ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held at the Clubhouse, Monmouth Avenue, Weymouth, Dorset DT3 5HZ

On Friday 18th May 2012. Meet 6.45pm to start at 7pm Appogises: -

Nathan Parker & J Lloyd

Attendees see appendix A

1. To consider and approve (with or without amendment) the minutes of the AGM held on 13th May

2011. Agreed and proposed by Julian Quick and Seconded by Chris Davis

2. To receive and approve reports from the Committee on the affairs of the Club since the last AGM

Presidents Address Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to this AGM, as well as this being a review of last year’s activities; it also is the first step in planning next season.

As you known, at these meetings the events over the past year are reported, discussed and recorded in the minutes. The minutes of the previous AGM are also published and these often provide a good backdrop for the current meeting, certainly in terms of what was anticipated for the immediate past year. Most importantly, the accounts of the year have to be accepted and approved so the club treasurer’s role at the meeting is of major importance.

Just a few comments before I hand over the club Chairman, I would like to give a very brief overview of the club’s progress this past year and look to the year facing us. This past year has seen the on-field results of the good work put together in the previous year. We now have a promoted 1st team, a 2nd team promoted last season and finishing mid-table, a 3rd team now playing in a league and a new ladies team. On the junior side, we have teams really making their mark throughout the county and notably one of our players has made it into the England set-up. There is a real buzz around the club these days and much thanks must go to all involved in making this happen not least off the field with the catering, the bar, pitch maintenance and gradual improvement of the clubhouse and the surrounds. One gripe I have is with the lack of club commitment by most senior players, namely to not turning out for touring side games where there is much money to be made over the bar, and for working parties. I feel that one of our drives next year should be to hammer home to players that we are a club not a facility and that they are very much a part of that. We are now nearly at the end of the Weymouth Relief Road saga. This has entailed a huge amount of time and effort that would have been better spent on club development. We started the season with pitch flooding problems but these are close to being resolved and hopefully next season we will be where we should have

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been the year before. Certainly the pitches have been a real bonus and encouraged good crowds. We have recently resolved the state of the surrounding headlands with DCC and this will improve the amenities no end. In conclusion I wish to record my gratitude to both club volunteers and our sponsors, too numerous to name individually, and to say how much they are valued. These two areas are the keys to success for our club and without them we cannot progress. The future is looking bright and we need to make it sustainable by making sure we keep progressing on a wide front. So it’s over to you Mr Chairman

(i) Chairman

The season started with the club entering three senior teams into the Dorset & Wiltshire leagues. With the first XV in D&W South 1, and the seconds in D&W South 2 following promotion from the previous year. The newly formed 3rd’s team started in D&W South 4. The thirds team in particularly is a successes due to the hard work undertaken over the last couple of years by the secretary of the club ( Mr Chris Davis) his the hard work and dedication to the club, His use of media in the form of club Web pages, news letters and general correspondence have grown the playing base of the club immensely. by club secretary (Mr Chris Davis), is Pre-season training started under the coaching of Senior Coach, Paul (Pablo) Harding supported by Chris Plumber who has gone on to manage and coach the second XV. New captains and vice captains were appointed Julian Quick and Joe Gibson for the first team, captain and vice captain respectfully. Kevin Leatham – second team captain and Chris Carlton –captaining the thirds. The first XV got off to an excellent start, winning some great games, and when defeated, it was only by a small margin. The second team was also supported by some excellent talent, with real tough decisions by coaches on selection. In all there were 35 players being selected from the squads to represent the Clubs first XV. With tough games ahead and with injury and player commitments it was going to be a challenge to get a 3rd’s XV out every week. This however proved not to be the case, as all fixtures were met by the club. Towards the end of the season the club welcomed back Len Clarke (Nobby) who took on the responsibility of trying to manage the 3rds. A mention must also go out to the following: RFU Coach of the Year – Paul Harding, who through his dedication and hard work had the First XB to league Champions and D&W Plate winners. Team management by Des Quick helped immensely with organization and control. Chris Plumber both managed and coached the seconds to finish mid table, which was an excellent result following promotion from the previous season. The 3rds, which is made up from a lot of inexperienced but keen players, worked really hard for one another, in games played by much more experienced teams. Never giving up, the team has improved immensely, to the point of winning their final game of the season. Well done. Pitches

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The club continued to pursue the best possible outcome on the quality of the new pitches from Dorset County Council. This resulted in many hours of work by the management and ground committees with the legal support of Graham Whitby (Hull Gregson & Hull). The final results and ongoing legacy looks to be good. The Club eventually got to play its first matches in November/December 2011. Flood light training also started on the new pitches at this time, with a small reversal to the southern pitches under generator lights due to water logging on the northern pitch surface. Water logging of the surface continued to be a regular problem, to the whole of the club, both Senior and Youth. These issues have now been addressed by the pitch contractors and DCC with a series of deep tine aerations and sand dressing to reduce surface panning and improved drainage. DCC have given the club written assurance that should this pitch treatment by required in the future, they will fund the work. The new flood lights on the northern pitches are still to be commissioned following finishing work. Half way through the playing season, the club took the decision to fence off the tree line to the east side of the southern pitches. This was to stop irresponsible dog owners from trespassing through the trees and around the club house, minimizing doggy poo poos.! J A big thank you to Barry Ross-MacKenzie and William Ronald, Landscaping, who undertook this fencing work for the club. Sponsorships Main club sponsorship for the 1st and 2nd XV was provided for the season by SBL (Stuart Barnes Ltd). The first and second XV running out in the new shirts carrying the SBL company Logo. Plaques, signs, leaflets and programs have all been provided to the club by Swift Signs Ltd, a big thank you to Karl Langtree Alison Hunters, Mark Collett and Gary Owens have also provided sponsorship to our Mini and Youth section. Milestones The Club celebrated its 140 years with success. A plaque commemorating the occasion was unveiled by South Dorset MP, Richard Drax. The afternoon being a great success, with many dignitaries, members of Dorset and Wilts Constituent Body, local volunteers organizations and members of the club attending. The unveiling was followed by speeches from myself, Club President (Des Quick), Richard Drax (MP) and Jess Nagel, (former mayor of the borough) All attending enjoyed lunch supplied by Weymouth Deli and Grangers foods. The afternoon finished with the first XV smashing the opposition to go top of the division.

(ii) Mini & Youth

This has been my second season as M&Y Chair, and we have had lots of changes, nearly all for the better. We have had the use of our own pitches, which has given us better continuity. In the Minis age group, we were part of the pilot for the new “shaping the game” rules, which replaces the old “continuum” in same ages across the board. More of this later...

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We have greater numbers of people prepared to pitch in, and do whatever needs doing right now, helping to ease the pressure on some of the “regulars”, although I understand Glyn is very reluctant to let anyone else clean the toilets... We have good numbers in most age groups, although we still struggle at those “awkward” ages, where the players discover Girls, Alcohol, and cars (not necessarily in that order). Some age groups were still attracting new players in the last few weeks of the season. We have had good success with word of mouth promotion, and this is good to see. We have hosted 2 festivals, organized a couple of tours, (PGL, and a playing tour), and have hardly been banned from anywhere! Volunteers For me, the core purpose of Mini and Youth is to get kids interested in playing rugby, develop their skills, get them involved in something positive, and mostly, to have a lot of fun. Ultimately, we are training the First Team of tomorrow. In the last 4 years, as my own son has moved from under 6’s to under 9’s, he has learnt a lot, made some great friends, and enjoyed a lot of Rugby. None of this happens without a lot of hard work behind the scenes, so we have to say thank you to all those who contribute. Whether it is washing the match shirts, or completing the training courses to be able to coach the kids, we have a host of volunteers that make it happen. We have benefited from some very committed coaches, who help pull everything together. As CPD for coaches is on the horizon, it is important we maintain our coaching staff, and equip them properly to deliver quality coaching as they, and the children, move up through the age groups. A special thank you here to the Catering team for all they do – maintaining our reputation as the best club in the county for post-match food! A second special Thank You to Andy Martin, Mike Murphy, and Nathan Parker for their work in organizing Beach Rugby, to keep us going until the new season. Shaping the Game This year saw the piloting of a new way of training and playing rugby for Mini and youth. The changes mostly come in at the transition from tag to Contact (u9), which is the age group my own son plays in. The new rules introduce the different elements of the Contact game in stages, rather than all in the U9 group, and encourage a more open and flowing game, much like that the Southern Hemisphere teams have played for years. Not only did the coaches have to get their heads around the differences mid season (we started in December), they had to make sure the players did too! Our coaches and players had to master two sets of rules, and switch between them, depending on who we were playing. At the end of the season, we played another team who were still playing the “old rules”, and we beat a very strong team, just because we were moving the ball better, and not committing all the players into every ruck and maul, so when we got possession, we could move the ball really quickly. I, for one, am sold on this new method of training and playing. We seem to have had greater success in our matches, competing on an equal footing with some of the traditionally stronger Dorset teams, and players from all ages can certainly hold their heads up and be proud to play for Weymouth. Festivals The real test of a clubs’ character has to be what happens when a thousand people descend on you. The Breakaway festival – our largest event, was blighted by bad weather this year, but it failed to dampen the spirits of our volunteers. We had a good day of Rugby on Saturday, but couldn’t play on the Sunday. The visitors I spoke to all commented on what a friendly club we were, and how helpful all the volunteers had been, sorting out all sorts of issues to make sure the visitors enjoyed themselves. The festival also saw the launching of the largest unmanned kite in Weymouth this year, as Chris Calts catering tent fell victim to the wind. Admin

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I was able to attend the Dorset M&Y chairs meetings,– these gave an excellent chance to network with opposite numbers in the local clubs, and were used to good effect to interact with Chris Burton on the discussions about the future directions for our clubs, and ensure all clubs had the same ethos – putting having fun first. While I paint a very positive picture, there were a few problems along the way, and I remain very grateful to both Glyn and Chris for their advice and support in dealing with these. In closing, while the role of chair can be a challenge, I have found it to be very rewarding, and have enjoyed the last season!

(iii) Volunteers / membership

Although the amount of membership collected has been good there is still problems that need to be looked at, as you will see from the accounts that we are showing a deficit of over £20k. Unless this shortfall is addressed some if not all of the aspirations of the club will need to be curtailed and or rained back. The clubs view is that maintenance costs for the pitches will continue to increase year on year which will require some thought in how this money is found. All seniors’ players need to understand that non league games and touring teams bring good revenue to the club which helps to keep the membership fees to an acceptable level. The recent game against Woodford actually cost the club money due to the very poor attendance. Next season the club needs to have a home fixture of some sort every weekend of the season; this applies M&Y and seniors alike. Going forward more responsibility in the collection of membership needs to be passed to the senior Captain`s, coaches and team mangers so that all monies are collected in a timely manner. The plan is to put the Mini & Youth membership up to £60 per year which will give us an extra £2785 per year which will be all that can be done in the short term without starting to affect the number of players. The seniors needs a bit more work as some players are only paying when they play either on the day or per month, and this needs to be addressed, probably by a 100% increase in the cost. This would take 1 off match fees to £10 per game and Monthly senior fees to £30 per month. Some work need to be done on checking anybody who is paying as unemployed and or student as I have had nobody come up to me and ask to increase their membership as they either have a job or have qualified. Player’s details should be obtained as soon as they turn up for training and a quick explanation of the costs of playing so when they turn up for their first game they either have their match fee and or standing order form completed. The club needs to be looking at introducing fees for HLM / FLM either by way of a donation or membership fees; perhaps we should ask for a minimum of £20-£40 donation per person Before the new season starts work will be done on DD for membership as currently we have no control over Standing orders and require the players to change and update any increase in fees. We also regularly suffer when standing orders are not paid due to the player having insufficient funds where as DD are always paid. The club relies on volunteers to carry out every role, from coach through to barmen and we need everybody to help as and when they can. If the club was to move over to using paid staff them the membership cost would have to rise, perhaps even double or triple. The clubs needs volunteers in the short term to find new sponsors, sell barrel sponsorship for the planned beer festival, to help the club and the RFU at the up and coming Weymouth live site. The club now has to operate 12 months of the year and not just for 8 months of the year I would like to thank all of the volunteers that have helped this year, John Beare & Laura Beare, Pablo and all of the Coaches, Team managers, the Catering staff, my fellow club Officers, Committee members and everybody that has helped to make this season so good for the club. I do hope that you will support the new members joining the club and help them to fit into the role

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(iv) Playing and Coaching

Head Coach Report

Weymouth Seniors have had a hugely successful season seeing the first team win the Dorset and Wilts one (south) league by a massive 23 points, lifting the dorset & wilts shield and reaching the cup semi-final of the lychett minster sevens. The second team finished in a mid table position in there new league, the Dorset and Wilts 2 (south) seeing them learn valuable lessons for next seasons campaign. . The third team had there best season since forming, fulfilling the all but one majority of there league fixture. . This shows that the club has a strong player base that we need to keep adding too.

The weekly selection meeting on a Tuesday evening saw a big improvement in team stability enabling us to ensure that all teams kept a strong core of players giving them the best chance of success. Thanks to Julian Quick, Kev Leatham and Chris Calton for their support in this and their hard work this season ringing around players etc.

Training this year has been very enjoyable seeing strong numbers attending all season. We have seen positive results with players improving there skills and game awareness, but we will need increase numbers next season to enable us to continue improving with team run throughs, a vital tool in improving team performance needing more consistent attendance thus enabling us to cope with the increased challenges that will come from promotion. My thanks go to Chris Plummer who has been fantastic with the second team management this year and a great source of knowledge at our coaching sessions again

The introduction of Phil Robinson to my coaching team has been of huge significance with his well structured and innovative speed and agility training bringing higher levels of speed and endurance to the players seeing a much reduced injury tally.

Thanks also to Des quick and for his assistance in managing the team this season

Next season with we will need to pull together as a club with all players striving to play at the best level they can at every opportunity as this will send the standard of playing upwards

Finally many thanks to you the players for your great efforts and commitment throughout this season. You have showed you are ready for the idea of better rugby. Now the hard work really needs to start

Paul Harding

(i) International Tickets Contact, JO Advised that he would be moving to assistant

Treasurer and still remain as Ticket Contact for the Club

3. To receive and approve a Financial Statement for the preceding financial year, this will be made available on the night for inspection and discussion (as per rule 9.2)

You will see that a lot of work has been spent on the accounts to breakdown all of the costs so we can accurately look at each section of the club. This work should pay dividends as any planned clubhouse development needs to be funded, if only in part from any surplus revenue. The club is looking at a beer festival and more Mini & Youth festivals and I would like to be able to say next year that the money earn`t from these events will not have to pay for the clubs normal costs.

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4, Election of Officers (ii) President (iii) Chairperson (iv) Honorary Secretary & Discipline Secretary (v) Honorary Treasurer & International Tickets Contact

4. To Elect Vice-Presidents,

    VPs 1 Russ Conway 2   Arthur Fisher 3   Roger Fullbrook 4 Mark Gibson 5   Mark Wright 6   John Ross-Mackenzie 7 Derek Abbott 8   Brian Wilkes 9   Ian McMillan

10 John Lloyd 11   Jackie Arnold 12   Paul Honebun 13 David Williams 14   Hugh Priestley 15   Frank Martin 16 David Stone 17   Kenneth Roebuck 18   Karl Lantree 19   Penny Jelfs 20   Nigel Jelfs 21   Michael Leatherland 22   Lara Barnes 23   Stuart Barnes 24   Debby Macdonald 25   Kenny Cresswell 26   Ian Spofforth 27   Mark Freeman 28   Alex Goracy 29   Derek Smith 30   Richard Jones 31   Greg Schofield

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32   Charlie Fox 33   Paul Dewar 34   Alex McLean 35   Alison Hunter 36   Steve Hunter 37   Sally-Ann Chittick 38   Idris Martin 39   Alex Man 40   John Davies 41   John Marchment 42   Justin Waller 43   John Beare 44   Roy McCullough 45   Adey Bown 46   Hugh Rodney 47   Phil Gollop 48   Julian Oddy 49   Peter Whittle 50   George Lavis 51   Gary Heald 52   Mike Lovegrove 53   Philip Robinson 54   Conrad Cole

5. To confirm the election of any Honorary Member made by the Committee during the preceding year. John Lloyd was nominated 6. Election of Sub Committee Members

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7. To consider any other motion received by the Honorary Secretary in time to be added to the

Agenda of the Annual General Meeting, or amendments to the above proposal in writing duly proposed and seconded and received by the Honorary Secretary not less than 24 hours before the time for which the Annual General Meeting is convened. (in accordance with rule 9.5)

8. To consider any other business of which due notice has been given (in accordance with rule 9.5)

10. To hear any other relevant matter for the consideration of the Committee during the ensuing year, but on which no voting will be allowed. Appendix

Chris Davis Club Secretary Weymouth RFC Ltd Signed as a true record of the AGM held on Friday 18th May 2012

Signatures

Name: ..................................................... Signature: ................................................. (Member) Name: ..................................................... Signature: ................................................. (Member) Name: ..................................................... Signature: ................................................. (Member) Name: ..................................................... Signature: ................................................. (Member)

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