Minutes of a meeting of Sefton RUFC Board: Wednesday 1st October 2014.
Present: WFJ (Chair) RS (Minutes); AC; ASt; ASp; GP. The Chairman also welcomed Paul Ryan (PR), who, after WFJ’s appeal for help at the AGM had expressed an interest in helping the Board with its work.
Apologies: DL.
1. Matters Arising from the Previous Meeting.
a) A quantity of Rugby balls had been ordered and delivered. Gum shields for shop stock and resale had also been added to the order.
b) Repairs had been carried out in the clubhouse, ladies toilets, changing room corridor and toilet area.
c) David Platt had carried out the landscaping and fire escape footpath work at the rear of the clubhouse.
d) ASt had replaced the Lane entrance sign replacement. Cost had been £130. Thanks to Arthur!
e) 2 doors had been repaired/replaced in the changing rooms at a cost of £180.
f) Stand roof replacement. No developments yet.
g) New ‘code of conduct’ A boards had been purchased for pitchside display at a cost of £225 + VAT.
h) WFJ had purchased some new pitch marking equipment.
2. Current Financial Position.
RS reported
i) Further to the previously presented annual accounts which had shown a slight trading loss on the year, we had now received a payment from ‘Escape’, the organisation who we purchased our beer supplies from. Had we received this in the financial year to which the payment related we would have actually broken even. The annual accounts had also shown a drop in the bar trading profit margin to 46%. DL, Asp and RS had met and revued our pricing strategy. Most bar prices had been increased in an effort to return to our target of a 50% profit margin. Several recent price rises from our suppliers had not been passed on to our customers, but we can no longer hold down our prices. Our profit from the bar remains the life blood of the club.
j) RS presented the current position on the bank balance and recent major expenditure.
k) We have received £4667.49 as a result of the Gift Aid claim submitted previously by WFJ. (Well done Bill!).
Our building insurance annual premium is due on 26/11/14 through the company Club Insure. We are about to enter the final year of a three year fixed price deal. RS asked the Boards permission to make an annual payment of £2065.00 which saves us several hundred pounds on making a series of monthly payments. (Agreed). RS also felt we might have to carry out some safety or security work which was usually a requirement of renewal.
l) The minimum wage had increased. The necessary adjustments had been made by DL.
3. VAT Recovery:
RS reported to the Board that since the last meeting there had been a major development that related directly to the recovery of VAT on grounds projects.
The last quarterly VAT return submitted should have resulted in a payment to the Club of approximately £11k. The bulk of this sum came from two main sources. The first was repayment of VAT on membership which had been paid in error following erroneous advice from the VAT helpline. The second was VAT recovery from the recent pitch drainage work. The written report from Russell Moore of Saffery Champness had assured us we were fully entitled to reclaim this second amount. The rest of the £11k was made up from our normal trading.
The unusually large amount involved in this particular quarterly return had obviously brought us to the attention of the VAT Officers and the Club had received a letter requesting that we make an appointment for one of their Officers to visit us to inspect out VAT records.
RS had organised a meeting to take place in the clubhouse on Wednesday 1st October 2014 (today) with DL and SE in attendance.
The VAT Assurance Higher Officer (Michaela Doyle) attended with one collegue. She was given a copy of Russell’s report and indicated she would contact him direct to discuss it if necessary.
She made an examination of some of SE’s data and appeared to be reasonably happy with the overall records with the exception of the membership figures. RS is going to email her a ‘snapshot’ of our membership types and numbers for April 2014.
She also insisted that a partial exemption calculation must be done and recorded for each quarter. (This is a complicated calculation that is do with us claiming VAT for grounds works, which in normal circumstances we could not recover if it was not for the fact that we hire out our playing facilities to other organisations).
Hopefully if all our paperwork and exemptions tally we should get back most, if not all of the VAT money back in the near future. (ongoing).
4. Production of a system to combine & manage membership information.
A problem exists within the Club in the fact that we have two separate computer systems for recording membership. JF system for gather DD payments, and DB’s system which he has historically used for mainly the ‘adult’ membership.
We need a combined system so that accurate membership details and numbers are available, and updated on a day to day basis.
PR is willing to sit down with JF and DB to see if the information from ‘all’ the various systems can be successfully migrated into a working system. He will also assess the RFU’s own Game Management System (GMS) to see if it can be utilised in any way. (The Board expressed their gratitude to PR for taking this task on!).
5. Pitch Drainage Project - Current Budget Status.
WFJ presented a detailed breakdown of the costs of this project to date. The actual project would not ‘officially’ finish until the consultant agronomists PSD Ltd would issue a defect free certificate. (May 2015?).
WFJ also explained necessity for the Legal Charge that had been placed on our property as a result of the method of funding of the project.
6. Rugby: Adult Men’s, Women’s & Junior Sections.
ASt reported that, following a nasty facial injury to one of our players, we had taken the unusual step of writing to the opposing club to inform them that they had a player who thought eye gouging was an acceptable part of the game! No response had been received as yet.
Our Ladies team continue to play, and win games! ASt and RS will meet with their representatives soon to clarify certain issues over their membership and organisation.
ASt also raised the issue of a club physio. He will come back to the Board with a firm proposal.
AC gave the Board an update on the Colts team situation; Cardinal Heenan; Safeguarding issues; Club Accreditation; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday training nights; Requests for pitches from Schools and several other issues.
7. Other Urgent & Essential Items.
WFJ reported that our Janitor of the past 8 years, Mike Adderly has retired. A presentation of book vouchers had been made. His duties would for the time being be carried out by RS and DB on a job share basis!
Lancashire/Merseyside U15’s have requested use of our facilities for a fixture on Wed 5th November. There is a list of requirements, lights, meals etc. The fixture was agreed.