ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
of the
EAST SUSSEX BRANCH OF THE PONY CLUB
Location:-Herstmonceux Village Hall
Date:- 28th February 2014
Committee members present:
Julia Pitman, Lisa Taylor, Elizabeth DeNieffe, Lucinda Morgan, Beccy Lloyd-Stubbs,Rachel Gowland, Sara Folwell,Nicky Powell, Hannah Saunders, Tish Wells, Rhona Sims, Clare Bassett, Hannah Taylor,Sally Williams,Leo Hickish and Natasha Bartlett
Apologies:
Gundrada Hole,Kate Miles and Angela Boniface
Declaration of pecuniary interest:
None
Minutes of Last AGM:
These were approved by Debbie Shiret and Seconded by Jane Hughes
Reports:-
DC’s Report:
Julia opened the AGM by welcoming everyone to our 2014 AGM and 2013 Prize giving and the Great East Sussex Bake off!
Julia asked us all to cast our minds back to last summer as all we can think of at the moment is rain, rain & more rain plus mud!! Still it’s all on the up now being today is the last day of Winter! Last Summer was fantastic lots of hay made to feed our ponies in the wet winter nature’s a wonderful thing!
With the good weather we started our Summer Rallies on 8th May and ran all the way through to September with only 1 evening being cancelled(mid June) due to rain. A total of 15 evenings we all had great fun especially having our older members helping and instructing you. The barbie was great to have each evening, but Julia did get fed up with being cook! We’ll do it exactly the same this year, Wednesday’s again, starting 14th May. Any offers for cooking Juliawould be delighted!
The working Rallies, Summer Rallies and Camps saw at least 70 of our members take their next standard achievement test. How fantastic that you are all eager to learn and continue to build your knowledge & ability.
With the dry Summer everything ran. ESPC successfully ran 8 competitions; 2 sj, 1 dressage at GX and at Montague Mounted Games, Horse Trials, Tetrathlon, Summer Show and a Hunter Trials. All a huge amount of work but great successes its so lovely to enable and see our members putting their training into practice. Not only is it lovely to give our members an opportunity to compete for their Branch but they are our main fund raisers enabling us to purchase new equipment and refurbishing old.
With that money we have purchased a full set of junior plastic jumps, had a new floor and refurbished the flat bed trailer, built a mini mini xc course, purchased TET turning targets and subsidized members with training costs. So everyone benefits Julia said a big thank you to her hard working Committee and all those that come out and helped but asked if we have more this year please.
This year, being that we are a training organization, we are looking into subsidizing all member and our thoughts are to make the Winter Working Rallies at GX free of charge. So bear that in mind over the Easter Hols 10th April, it’s not often you can go somewhere with ponies for free.
We are being ambitious again this year. We’ve already run 2 successful shows at GX and our 1st Triathlon at Claremont school thank you to Hannah for her acquiring the venue.
We are hosting the Area 11 (regional finals) Mounted Games at Montague on 11th May. If you are not coming please come and get involved, it’s as much fun being a spectator as it is a rider. Clare Bassett is the chief organizer, please go and see her and offer your help. We also intend to run our ODE on 1st June, TET 15th June, Summer Show 29th, Hunter Trials 7th Sept and finish off with sj show at GX in November. Wow just mentioning them exhausts me! Please put these dates in your diary keep them free and the week upto each event so you can support and help us. Looks like that’ll be the whole of June put aside for ESPC!
All our member have been amazing and I was thrilled to see so many put their hard work into fruition. We had teams qualify through the Areas regional finals in mounted games, eventing and dressage a total of 5 teams going to the National Championships to compete against other qualifying teams from all over the UK…….what an incredible achievement ……..makes us all very proud.
So when they are not training or competing they’re having fun, what great camps we had, all that attended had an amazing time with memories that they will carry all the way through life. We have the same teams running them again this year. Nicky and her team doing mini & junior camp again at Montague Monday 28th July to Thursday 31st. Lisa and her team doing senior camp at Ardingly Monday 4th August to Saturday 9th.
We finished the year in tinsel with a fun yuletide party at Crockstead. Thank you Hannah Taylor what fun we all had and so did the dogs and thank you Rhona for the delicious home made food.
The Pony Club offers other opportunities running alongside your training in horsemanship, keep an eye on the main PC Website. YELA is one, Youth Equestrian Leadership award for all members 13yrs and over it’s an excellent scheme. Go onto the main HQ website have a look and register its great for future CV’s let alone broadening your horizons and developing maturity.
Julia closed her report by thanking everyone for being such a great bunch, and stating that she could not do the job of DC without such a supportive Committee, excellent members and great parents.
Treasurer’s Report:-
Treasurer’s Report and Accounts, 1 January – 31 December 2013
Please find attached the Branch Financial Return for year ended 31st December, 2013.
I am delighted to take on the role of Treasurer, and want to thank Sara Folwell very much indeed for leaving the finances and the organisation of them in such a first class condition.
The year-end bank balance stood at £20,694 which is a very healthy position for us to be in as a branch. Our turnover was around £52,000 and we ended the year with a £2,500 surplus. The main source of income for the branch remains our competitions run throughout the year by the committee and their helpers. These raised a total of around £15,000 this year and profits were in excess of £9,000 which funded all of our capital expenditure. As treasurer, I cannot stress enough how important these are to the financial health of our branch and how vital it is to support these as competitors and as helpers to the event organisers.
Both junior and senior camps ran very successfully last year and by careful management of costs, we are able to keep the fees for each at the same level as last year.
Because it has been another very successful year for the ESPC, we have been able to keep investing in facilities for our members. The major expenditure for this year was around £3,600 on a new set of mini show jumps which were very well-used over the summer months, including for our competitions. We also invested in some mini cross-country jumps at Montague which are a fantastic resource for members starting out on their eventing careers! Towards the end of the year, we spent around £2,000 on a set of turning targets for shooting practices for tetrathlon which will also be invaluable for running our own triathlon and tetrathlon competitions.
The role of treasurer is a fairly time-consuming one, and the part of the job I am less than thrilled about is being a collector of bad debts. We have a continuing problem with the non-payment of entry fees, both for our own competitions and for team entries for competitions being run by other branches of the Pony Club. This totalled over £2,000 for this year which is surely an unacceptable level since it effectively means some members are subsidising the entries of the non-payers.
I want therefore, to make sure that every parent realises that it is your responsibility to pay entries fees on a timely basis, ideally well in advance of the event and preferably by cheque to make it easier to keep the accounts in good order. If for some reason you have been unable to pay before the event or on the day, you must please send me a cheque for the amount owing as soon as possible. My name and address are on the website and all you need to do is to write the member’s name and the event on the reverse of the cheque and then send it off. Please do not wait to be invoiced; the onus is on you to pay whatever is due.
Re-election of Committee Members, Retiring and Election of New Committee Members:-
Sara Folwell stood down as Treasurer but will remain on the Committee.
Leo Hickish - TET stood down.
Dot Greenway stood down.
Rhona Sims was appointed as the new Treasurer.
Tish Wells was also welcomed to the Committee.
No other changes were taking place and the Committee was re-elected en mass.
These were approved by:- Sarah Massey
Seconded by:- Charlotte Marshall
Members Reports:-
Sally Williams then gave everyone an introductory talk on our new discipline of Endurance. We had a training session booked for 15th April 2014 and an event booked on 17th May 2014.
We then had six members give reports and obtain their Public Speaking Badge:-
Angus Morgan – TET
Duncan Morgan – Racing
Bindi Vereker – Eventing
Annie Wallace – Dressage
Nicol Bassett – Mounted Games
Alex Williams – On her first year with the East Sussex Pony Club
Prize Giving and Reports:
Julia and the discipline heads presented the cups to members who had excelled in a particular discipline.
East Sussex Pony ClubNominations for Annual Cups 2013
Discipline / Name / Description / 2013
PPC / William Trophy / Best prince philip pony / Billy
PPC / Peacock Challenge / Snr individual outstanding performance / Nicol Bassett
PPC / Junior Cup / Jnr individual outstanding performance / Katie Brian-Davis
PPC / Mini Cup / Mini individual outstanding performance / Fleur Jeffrey
PPC / Team Achievement Trophy / Best team achievement / Junior-Megan,Katie,Lauren,Tia and India[Sopie,George] Senior-Nicol,natasha,Romney,Rosie and Amy
Dressage / Novice Dressage cup / Ind highest achievement novice dressage / Rosie powell
Dressage / Dressage cup / Ind highest achievement dressage / Antonia Wallace
Showjumping / Mini-Mini / Highest achievement m-mini sj / Rose Chaplin
Showjumping / Blue Dolphin / Ind highest achievement mini sj / Riley Wootten
Showjumping / 11-13 / Nancy Taylor
Showjumping / Novice SJ Cup / Ind highest achievement novice / Mollie Saunders
Showjumping / Sacha / Ind highest achievement intermediate/open / Kim Taylor
Showjumping / Sierra Shield / Outstanding achievement / Georgia Boult,Alfie Marshall,Nicole Bassett
Hunting / The Hunting Cup / East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt / Iola Hughes
Hunting / The Hunting Cup / Coakham Bloodhounds / Florence Hole
Tetrathlon / Best Female (Larry O'Reilly) / Natasha Bird
Tetrathlon / Best Male / Duncan Morgan
Tetrathlon / Best Shot / Angus Morgan
Tetrathlon / Under 10 (Jenny Wren) / Charlie Saunders
Eventing / Mini / best ind performance mini / Tia Whiteman
Eventing / Sandrock 12 under / best ind performance under 12 / Bindi Vereker
Eventing / Novice / best ind performance novice / Annabelle Simes
Eventing / Intermediate / best ind performance int / Eleanor Simes
Eventing / Senior Challenge Cup / best ind performance open / Polly Miles
Cross Country / Cross Country / Most improved at training / Rebecca Amees
Racing / Best racing performance / Duncan Morgan
General / Fun Days / Amelia Smith
General / Fun Days / Bertie Kane
General / Man Friday / Horse or pony best achiever / Smartie Simes
General / Piccolo / Pony that does everything / Polly Morgan
General / Rosalind Ryder Smith / I coped against the odds / Amelia Smith
General / Teddy Bear Mug / Young member who has participated fully / Fern wells
General / Young Members Cup / Young member who has participated fully / Keira Whiteman
General / Newcomers / best all-round newcomer / Alex Williams
General / Foreman Spirit Team Challenge / Individual showing best team spirit / Scarlett Vereker
General / Under 12 / monst consistent and dedicated under 12 / Duncan Morgan
General / DC cup / individual who has made greatest contribution / Gabi Pitman
General / Rafael cup / person/team outstanding merit / Not awarded
General / Mappin cup / team trophy for competitive team - usually HT / Intermediate Eventing Team
General / Perrin Salver / family making outstanding contribution / Hickish family
General / The Good all round egg cup / best all round member / Rosie Powell
General / rally attendance / highest rally attendance / Van buer girls
General / Cup of Endeavour / general achievement/commitment / Emma Folwell
Julia also presented the Competition Badges to members.
Competition Badges for year 2013
Dressage Comp; Rosie Powell, Antonia Wallace
SJumping intro; Molly Bartlett, Katie & Lauren Brian-Davis, Lauren & Imogen Carr, Rose Chaplin, Oliver Clarke, Charlotte Cluff, Rosie Fieldwick, Emma Folwell, Maia Lambert, Georgina Morgan, Alex Nard, Charlie Saunders, Katie Hipkins, Holly White, Tia & Kiera Whiteman,
SJumping comp; Flora Allessandroni, Elle Bartlett, Georgina Boult, Harriet Goodfellow, Izzie Marshall, Scarlett Vereker, Katy Wise,
Eventing intro; Molly Bartlett, Imogen & Lauren Carr, Rosie Fieldwick, Emma Folwell, Alexandra Harley, Amy Miles, Georgina Morgan, Alex Nard, Jessica Roberts, Mollie Saunders, Katie Sim – Read, Cora Taylor, Katie Titmus, Katie Hipkin, Harriet VanBuer, Tia Whiteman, Hannah Williams, Riley Wootten
Eventing comp; Elle Bartlett, Georgina Boult, Emer Edwards, Oliver Grainge, Florence Hole, Izzie Marshall, Hannah Miles, Rosie Powell, Annabelle Simes, Scarlett Vereker, Antonia Wallace, Katy Wise
Mounted Games Intro; Katie & Lauren Brian-Davis, Georgina Brown, Fleur Jeffery, India Piper-Dadswell, Millie Smith, Tia & Keira Whiteman, Riley Wootten
Mounted Games comp; Romney Hole, Rosie Powell,
TET Intro; Harriet Armstrong, Alfie Marshall, Alex Nard, Jessica Roberts, Charlie & Freddie Saunders, Harriet Van Buer,
Racing intro; Duncan Morgan
Meeting closed about 9.15pm and we then went on to have our cake competition and party.