HHUA Management Committee Meeting 3 – 2011/12
7.30pm, 08.11.11, Romsey WMCC
Attending: RW, JMG, LW, JHol, AG, JH, FS, MR, NP, CH, RJ, GT (minutes)
Apologies: RH, RS, PG, DB, AN, ME
Item / Action1. / Apologies for absence
As noted above.
2. / Minutes of the last meeting
2.1 / Matters arising
· Item 2.1/5 – clubs do not have to use HHUA appointed umpires for matches
· Item 2.1/7 – concerns with EH – RW advised this is resolved through the introduction of the GB Level 1
· Item 3 – website has been revamped
2.2 / Actions – all complete with the exception of:
· Item 2.1 Website system enhancements to be carried forward
· Item 5 Previous report from RH (carried forward). RW to look into different charges for Sunday matches.
· Item 5 Previous report from RH (carried forward). RW to ensure that availability grid for Sundays is changed to be the same as Saturday’s if possible. RW to ask RH to send members an email about this if it is possible. / RW
RW
RW
3. / Correspondence
a) GT advised of correspondence between DB and Trojans HC (incorrect ULO contacts). Situation now rectified.
b) GT advised of item from Chris Bond re: umpire understanding of when a red card should and should not be shown (i.e. MMO instead). Discussed and agreed current advice sufficient – this appeared to be a one-off case.
c) GT advised of second item from Chris Bond re: umpires joining together at the end of a match. Agreed this was the usual practice, but that players offering to shake hands while umpires were walking towards each other should not be ignored. It was not felt appropriate to encourage umpires to run to the centre of the pitch.
4. / Officers’ Meeting
GT ran through the main discussion and action points arising from the recent Officers’ Meeting:
a) RW to obtain a count of match numbers from individual umpires to decide the appropriate levels for the award of a free ‘after-match’ shirt. The games to be taken into account are: Saturday league, Sunday league, EH Cup, HHA Cup (but not Hants Day itself). Games not included are friendlies, midweeks, juniors and indoor.
b) AG to request HHA pay for the full cost of shirts provided to umpires on Hampshire Day.
c) Campbell Reeman (CR) to email members asking about interest in HHUA branded merchandise for sale through the shop – should only order enough to satisfy demand. RW to take to CR.
d) Officers agreed that the following website enhancements were not required: i) hospitality low scores; ii) confirmation members have read rules; iii) financial management audit
e) AN to ensure C&S meeting held before Christmas
f) Discussion over South members or candidates ‘returning’ to County – AN to take to South meeting
g) ME to look at the cost to clubs of introducing flat fees for umpires attending Sunday matches
h) RW to investigate providing a free text box next to attitude/behaviour scores to understand the differences in grading from different umpires – what’s considered acceptable behaviour? Some concerns that verbal abuse is not being sufficiently dealt with. RW to talk to Chris Bond also. / RW
AG
RW/CR
AN
AN
ME
RW
RW
5. / Reports
5.1/5.2 / Chairman/Vice-Chairman – nothing to report
RW advised that correspondence had been received from Paul Turnbull via Roy Holcombe, expressing disappointment about ‘losing’ his grading. RW to investigate. / RW
5.3 / Treasurer – see report attached
RW advised that all Committee Members need to advise whether or not they are going to be claiming mileage for attending meetings, as we need a true reflection of expenditure in the accounts. Pro-forma from ME passed around the meeting.
Discussion around the flat fee issue. Agreed that RW would request ME investigate a flat fee of £10 with a reduced mileage rate and that the Officers would discuss this. AG to mention at next HHA meeting that HHUA are considering this for introduction in the 2012/2013 season. / ALL
RW/ME
AG
5.4 / Appointments (Saturday/Mid-week) – see report attached
RW advised that DB was currently away from work because of illness and is therefore using a spare laptop of RWs. Potentially need to provide laptop for DB in a few years. JHol advised could potentially pick up a bargain. JHol/RW/DB to discuss. / JHol/RW/DB
5.5 / Appointments (Sunday) – nothing to report
All must encourage colleagues to put in Sunday availability. / ALL
5.6 / Indoor – see report attached
5.7 / Coaching/selection – see report attached
CH advised starting to receive appointments.
JMG mentoring Chris Ward.
5.8 / Membership/L1 Register – nothing to report
5.9 / Umpire development – see report attached
RW recorded thanks and ‘well done’ to CH.
5.10 / Young Umpire Development – no report submitted
RW recorded thanks and ‘well done’ to JH/LW.
LW advised that approaches were being made to say how good the young umpires are.
5.11 / HHA Rep – see report attached
All noted as complete – Haslemere chosen as Hampshire Day venue based on cost.
5.12 / SCHUA Rep – nothing to report
6. / Any Other Business
6.1 LW advised that some additions have been made to the HHUA handbook
6.2 AG asked about PGs note about providing a round-up of the use of the feedback facility at the AGM. Agreed this should happen.
6.3 JHol asked about availability for the Committee dinner
6.4 RW asked why the AGM date was shown as provisional – GT advised this was always the case until confirmed at March Committee meeting. / PG
Meeting closed at 9pm.
Ginette Tessier Richard Wood
HHUA Secretary HHUA Chairman
Reports:
Treasurer
We have now received League appointment fees from every club, (one club very nearly had their appointments withdrawn) I will be sending out an invoice to any club who has incurred extra charges by the end of this week.
So far, everything has gone quite smoothly in the handover from Alan, hopefully it will continue that way, although Alan is on hand if I need to ask him anything.
I will bring a sheet to the meeting for anyone who does not wish to claim for their travel to the meetings, so I can incorporate those miles into the accounts.
I plan to look at the mileage rate on the AA website in the next month to update everyone at the January meeting.
Appointments (Sat/Midweek)
The Saturday appointments are going reasonably well; with some prodding and prompting here and there, some HHUA members who were slow out of the starting blocks in September/October have now begun to make themselves available. So far this season HHUA has been able to appoint to 93% of of Hants D2 Men's league matches, as well as to every match in Hants D1 men and HWHL D1. This is a clear indication that HHUA is currently able to cope with the vast majority of its Saturday appointing targets.
The usual teething problems (new ULOs, failure to communicate or respond to problems) have occurred with university teams on Wednesdays. The BUCS home Wednesday fixtures for the ten local university teams are very unevenly distributed and this has caused some problems, not least on Wed 23 November when there are no fewer than seven BUCS matches (HHUA has appointed to six of them).
Three clubs have wasted an awful lot of appointed umpires' and my time so far this season, mainly either because the ULO fails to liaise with me or confirm on time with the appointed umpires or the club "forgets" to provide post-match refreshments. Those clubs are Southampton University, Portsmouth University and Trojans HC; in spite of several reminders and requests, the latter still has last year's ULOs' contact details showing on its club web page on the HHA/HHUA website!
A number of coaching and assessment sessions have taken place, according to requests made by Phil and Allan. This includes all three new members Simon Berendt, Lauren Mullett John Van Berkel, as well as the returning Amy Edwards. Paul Robinson proved to be a disappointment in that he asked for HHUA appointments and then withdrew from nearly all of them.
Please contact me by e-mail or by phone if there are any queries or points to clarify on the above.
Appointments (Sun)
Nothing to report.
Indoor
On Indoor front…there is no further update really…there may be an alternative to Karen and Mike Ward is investigating this as it seems that the individual who has ‘volunteered’ their services wants to do it as a business enterprise..not sure how this would be perceived by the teams and how it would affect costs they pay…but we shall see.
I have not heard anything from Hampshire Competitions reference any indoor qualifiers for South Tournaments but that’s not unusual…its normally last minute manic rush..and they realize they need umpires to have a game. I await the usual e-mail from Sarah Lunn or whoever is doing it now?
Coaching/Selection
We have had a slower start to the season than recent years with less coach availability than last year. Nevertheless, there have been 33 individual watchings up to the weekend of 5th/6th November, thirteen less than at the same time last year.
Despite the coach availability shortage we have been able to manage our resources such that we already seen, or are scheduled to see in November, most of our target umpires with prospects for promotion. This has meant fewer maintenance watchings than we would like but we are trying to use our coaches to best effect. I am pleased to say we have already seen several promising new umpires who have recently joined the association.
We have in place a plan to expand the coaching group; both Chris Ward and Mick Renfrey have a mentoring session this month (thanks to John Gawley) with a view to a formal L1 Coach assessment later in the season.
A meeting of the Selection Committee is scheduled for November.
I have received several e-mails as a result of our new feedback facility. These have been mostly complimentary, although there are a couple which may require some further following up.
Membership/L1 Register
Nothing to report.
Umpire Development
PROGRESS in 2011 to date:
39 Hants club candidates have attended 4 courses, plus 14 university (who won't be around for long) and 9 out-of-county (to be assessed and registered by their local HUA)
26 Hants club (+4 university) candidates have been assessed to qualify L1, including 4 (+2) from the most recent courses, with 7 to 12 more due by Christmas.
The candidate list stands at 18 (+9) from this season's courses, plus a backlog of only 7 (+0) from earlier courses.
NEXT UMPIRE COURSES:
At the last meeting, there were 17 club umpires registered for the 18 Sep course. After extra short courses for those who could not attend, the final total of new club candidates was 22.
The 2012 course dates and venues have all been confirmed and listed on the HHUA Diary:
8 Jan at Henry Cort School, Fareham; 22 April at Down Grange, Basingstoke; 16 Sept at Hamble Community College.
News of the Fareham course was posted on 28 Oct, and applications are starting to come in.
Haslemere HC continues to enquire about an 'in-house' L1 course, without indicating candidate numbers. I have pointed out the poor results from 5 clubs who tried it - 15 L1 from 32 'home' candidates (45%) - and that, for 2 years, the success rate of club umpires on regular HHUA courses has been 90% (53 qualifying L1 of 58 passed exam). They are thinking about it.
GB L1 UMPIRE AWARD:
... has been announced for launch in Sept 2012, with no clue as to differences from the current L1. The award is to be aligned with National Vocational Standards for Officiating, and the L1/L2/L3 player coaching framework. Jane Nockolds says we should be excited.
Young Umpire Development
Since the last meeting, we’ve made some changes to the fixture list on the website. Now all junior hockey fixtures appear in the CYUAG section. This will allow us to select & appoint to any games we see fit to use for development of young umpires.
This season EHB has change the format of the U16 & U14 EH cup. Going from single games to regional round robin tournaments. This has given us opportunities to appoint youngsters to matches this side of Christmas.
Already have appointed to 1 event in Winchester, & have 4 more events sorted over the next few weeks. Venues in Bournemouth, Trojans & Winchester. The clubs have been very positive in having youngster umpiring at these events.
Thing are looking a lot better than this time last year, with 8 youngster being active. Of which most of them will be available for the whole season.
A good mix of young umpires.
South Wise,
Back at the end of Sept. Dan Stewart & Simone Bendoni was appointed to the East JPRC. Currently setting up an assessment with RYUAG for Lauren Mullett.
She should have had this at the weekend, but the game got cancelled.
Coming up.
We have more of the EH cup events, Dorset School finals & JAC’s.
HHA Rep
1} HHA requested that HHUA publicise the £20 cancellation fee on the Website.
2} HHA will send information regarding the 5m interpretation from FIH to all Club Secretaries.
3} Hampshire Day 2012 will be at Haslemere HC.
SCHUA Rep
Nothing to report