East Midlands Hockey Umpires Association

Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the 9th Annual General Meeting held at Highfields, Nottingham on 15th April 2003

The meeting opened at 8:05 pm with the President David Hourd in the chair.

The President welcomed members and asked them to fill in the circulating Attendance Form

Attending were 25 members and one guest, with 21 apologies.

  1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Jon Barry, Marc Abraham, Andrew Willey, Clive Dennis, Mike Bull, Colin D Anderson, Trevor Carter, Ann Bradley, Andy Ward, Chris Bull, David Wood, Colin Barker, George Palmer, John Starling, Anne Lindsell, Andrew Lamb, Mike Cockburn, Rob Anderson, Graham Brewin, Nick Tomalin.

Apologies were given for Andy Roberts.

  1. Minutes of the 8th AGM Meeting

The minutes of the 8th AGM were circulated prior to the meeting to all members. These minutes, with no amendments required, were proposed as a true record by John Hayes, seconded by Ian McPherson and approved by all. The President then signed the minutes.

  1. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

  1. Reports

a)Honorary Secretary Report (J. Yates)

  • I wish to start my report with a personal note regarding the position of Secretary. As you are all aware I stated my intent to stand down from the post at this AGM for personal reasons. However I have despaired at the apparent lack of either enthusiasm or willingness of anybody to take on this role and it was becoming more obvious that the Association was in danger of folding. Therefore, as a result of this and in the form of an experiment for one year and of course with the AGM’s agreement, the President and I, with Councils consent, have split the Secretaries role into three areas, namely Secretary - responsible for minutes and communications, and two Assistant Secretaries responsible for events organisation and memberships. Two members have agreed to take on the new roles and these new posts will be co-opted onto Council. On this basis, I have indicated my willingness to be re-elected as Secretary if the AGM so desires.
  • The Association currently has a total of 165 members, with 2 members umpiring at NHL level, 8 umpires on the Midlands Panel and 26 umpires on the EMHUA neutral Panel. This past season has seen 3 members joining the neutral panel, 14 new level 1 umpires joining, 11 level 1 umpires re-joining and 7 umpires from the women’s game joining the Association, which is all very encouraging. We still need more umpires to join the neutral panel, so if you wish to improve or further your umpiring career please consider joining our neutral panel; we can never have enough. On the reverse side, 2 Midlands umpires, 3 neutral panel umpires and 8 level 1 members have retired or given up.

EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)

  • One of our members and neutral panel umpires died during the season following a long illness, all members were asked to wear black armbands at their next matches, a minutes silence was held at all matches in the East Midlands and a donation to Cancer Research was made by the Association.
  • The Association has put on three members meetings this season. It was most gratifying and encouraging to see that both the November and February meetings had in excess of 45 attendees long may that continue.
  • There have been 3 issues of EMU news distributed to members. I have been fortunate to receive some contributions from members, however more is always very welcome and I again implore members to take an active part in their newsletter and to submit articles or points of interest for inclusion.
  • As stated last year I have continued to utilise email extensively to circulate newsletters, flyers and general information and the AGM papers to members. I hope all members continue to be happy with this method of communication, I have to-date not been advised of any problems or complaints, with 80% of our membership on email, this has continued to provide considerable savings in postage and time taken to circulate information.
  • The dates of members meetings for next season have been circulated with the AGM papers. Full details on the content, format etc. will be circulated at the start of next season.
  • The MRHUA AGM is on the 14th May @ Old Silhillans Sports Club. ALL of our members of the Midlands Panel should attend. Please make every effort to attend and support EMHUA.
  • Finally, my personal thanks go to all the officers and colleagues of the Association for their help and assistance for this year in particular and to all the others who have helped and supported me in my current tenure.
  • The secretaries report was proposed by Andy Barnes and seconded by Kevin Ronson.
  • John Hayes proposed a vote of thanks to Jerry Yates for seasons work.

b)Honorary Treasurer Report (J. Hayes)

  • The Treasurer presented audited accounts for 2001/02 and a draft statement of accounts for 2002/03. No additional comments were made or questions raised.
  • i) Accounts for 2002/03 - Proposed by John Hayes, subject to audit and seconded by Richard Kirk, with all in favour
  • ii) Membership fee for 2002/03 to remain at £5.

Match fees to remain at the same level as last year

Mileage rate to increase to 16p per mile

All above proposed by John Hayes and seconded by Kevin Ronson, with all present in favour.

  • A copy of the Financial Statement of accounts for 2002/2003 is attached to the minutes.
  • The President thanked John Hayes for the years work.

c)Outdoor Appointments Secretary Report (M. Bull)

  • This has been a difficult season in fulfilling our obligations as an organisation to provide umpires for East Midland’s matches.
  • We have been desperately short in numbers this season. This has been mainly due to a lack of umpires to begin with, but has not been helped by unfortunate injuries to key umpires throughout the season and of course the sad loss of our colleague Alan Rutherford.
  • I think it is again appropriate to remember in this report Alan’s contributions to our association.
  • We have had one or two additions to our ranks this season and are always thankful to increase our numbers.

EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)

  • We have continued to provide neutral umpires for all levels of East Midlands league hockey together with appointments to various cup competitions, tournaments, county U’14, U’16 & U18’s and schools/youth matches. We have also continued to exchange our ‘A’ grade umpires with our colleagues at Birmingham to give us both experience of our two associations. My thanks go to Peter Byng, the BCHUA appointments secretary, for his continues help over the year.
  • The position of Outdoor Appointments Secretary has become somewhat arduous with the commitment to the amount of time increasingly needed to maintain this service effectively. I have undertaken to delegate a certain amount of this work and introduce ‘managers’ who have overseen any necessary alterations to already appointed matches. This has had the effect of successfully reducing the workload and I wish to thank all those ‘managers’ for their time, effort and support over the season.
  • On this note I wish to add that I am stepping down at the end of this season from the position of outdoor umpire secretary. I wish to thank everyone for their help over the last two years but feel the associations interests are best served by someone with more time to offer the post. I will of course endeavour a smooth handover to my successor.
  • I hope you all had an enjoyable year and that you will be with us for the start of the new season, beginning in September 2003.
  • As an association we have continued to appoint to East Midlands 2, 1 and Premier leagues and Midlands 2 games. We enjoy our relationship with BCHUA and thank them for their support and co- operation throughout the season. Our Grade A umpires are cross appointed with our Birmingham colleagues to give them experience of different teams mixed with different umpire colleagues and different venues.
  • Many thanks to the BCHUA appointments secretary Peter Byng for his invaluable support.
  • We have also frequently appointed to County games for Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire at all levels up to U’18’s, together with the relevant Vase, Trophy and Veterans Cup games.
  • We still suffer with a lack of available umpires on occasions so I send out a timely message that we still need more umpires of all abilities to join our association. Please help if you know anyone considering joining and point them in the right direction.
  • Through promotion we have lost Andy Roberts and Marc Abrahams (of our A grades) to the Midlands panel this season. Our best wishes to them in their future success.
  • I also wish speedy recovery to our injured umpires whom I hope will soon return to active duty.
  • Finally my thanks to all of our umpires who have once again given up their free time this season to endlessly turn out for us and support East Midlands hockey.
  • Saturday, Sunday and midweek appointments have been generously supported.
  • We as umpires are paramount to the success of hockey at all levels and our commitment is vital. Please retain your interest and I look forward to seeing you all again next season.
  • The report was proposed by Tony Gerrard and seconded by Dave Hourd.

d)Honorary Chief Coach Report (J. Litchfield)

  • Members Coaching Meetings
  • 17 September 2002 - The Cooper Test at Highfields was not well supported by our umpires. When I see Clubs sending cards back with “D – Poor” grades, I worry about our commitment to keep fit enough to look after the games we are asked to umpire. The meeting was better supported and Andy Barnes gave a talk on the EHL Conference. This was followed by a discussion, lead by Richard Kirk, on this year’s Rule Changes and revised interpretations.

EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)

  • 19 November2002 – We invited two of the Clubs we umpire, Mansfield (M2) and Boots (EMP), to come to a practical session on the pitch. Paul Sheardown and Nick Parr gave a skillful demonstration of things often missed by umpires. Of the 15 Grade A and A/B umpires who are appointed to these two Clubs, only 2 came to the meeting. We continued our discussion indoors and our guests answered questions and made useful points. Eighteen umpires, including several Level 1s, attended.
  • 4 February 2003 – In view of the poor attendance at the November meeting, the third meeting was split into 3 groups, each group meeting in one of the three Counties. We wished to find out what our members wanted from their Association, and to encourage more level 1 umpires to attend. Over 50 members attended the 3 meetings. A wide number of coaching points were made indicating that this format suited more of our members.
  • Individual Coaching and Watching
  • Since 1997, the overall number of our umpires accepting neutral appointments has fallen by 15% and the average age of our neutral umpires has risen. We have 23 (25) neutral umpires on the East Midland list of which 2 have been injured all season. In addition to these there are 8 (9) umpires on the Midland and National list. Of the 31, 9 are over 60. This year, 25 (35) coaching watchings have been done; many of which have been carried out from “the other end” or by Coaches from outside our area. This continued reduction has been caused by our grave shortage of numbers. Coaches and Watchers have had to umpire themselves. Our thanks to everyone who has helped with coaching and advising others.
  • Our particular thanks are due to Andy Barnes, Kevin Ronson and Peter Leigh who have worked hard coaching young umpires during the season and several are developing well.
  • Captains Report Cards.
  • 93 (100) Captain’s Cards have been received this year. A full breakdown is shown overleaf.
  • Our thanks to those Clubs who have taken the trouble to send them in. The quality of the comments has been constructive this year and this is a help to our umpires.
  • The Club who has sent in the most cards is South Notts with 16. Runners up were SSC and Rolls Royce both with 15. South Notts win the bottle of whisky for the Club returning the most cards.
  • Development of Umpire Coaches.
  • Andy Barnes and Chris Gough have passed their Level 1 Umpire Coach Assessment this season. Three umpires have started their Level 1 assessment process, Kevin Senior, Charlie Harrison & Ann Bradley. Peter Leigh continues to work towards his Level 2.
  • Grading Committee.
  • The Grading Committee has met twice this year on 3 Dec and 4 March under the Chairmanship of our President David. During the season, David Kingston was awarded his EMHUA “A” grade and Ian Hadfield his “A/B” grade. Several umpires have retired or become inactive. Congratulations to Mike Bull who has been appointed to the Midland List as a Level 2 umpire at grade M3. End of Season reports will be sent shortly to individual umpires. A full list of grades is attached to this report. Unless new umpires can be found during the summer, next season will start with us able to cover fewer games in the first eleven leagues next season.
  • Level One and PUA Courses.
  • Several have been run and Kevin Ronson will report on these.
  • The report was proposed by John Litchfield and seconded by John Hayes.
  • The President thanked John Litchfield for his hard work during the season

EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)

e)Honorary Assistant Secretary Report (Level 1’s) (K. Ronson)

  • 2002-2003 was again a good year in terms of candidates who passed the theory examination. 61 people passed on the four courses run. Our problem will remain the difficulty that we have, in converting umpires into Panel Umpires. Many of those who pass both parts have no intention of becoming neutral panel members. We must see it as a first step and must then hope to encourage Club Umpires to become Panel Umpires when they have gained experience and each club has enough trained umpires to cover all of their matches. It must also be pointed out that my fears about university students not intending to take the practical test have proved to be unfounded. They have a very good completion rate. However, we must also face the fact that we are training people who on completion of their studies, naturally leave our area.
  • We were faced in January, with a new and ridiculously complicated new system and a new price increase. On your behalf I have asked Milton Keynes to review its new system and they have agreed to discuss our/my criticisms. We were obviously faced with a £6 per candidate, price rise which we were forced to pass on to candidates post Christmas.
  • I would like to propose that we adopt a £21 per candidate fee keeping the £50 per course, fee. I would also like to propose that we raise the Tutor fee from £20 to £30. It has not changed since 1993. It would be merely a gesture as it does not reflect the work put in, in organising a course, marking the papers and communicating with candidates and Milton Keynes.
  • ALL members voted in favour of increasing the course fees to £21 per candidate , plus £50 per course organised.
  • I would like to finish by recording my thanks to John Litchfield, John Hayes, Alan Foster and Andy Barnes, who have given great help and support this year.
  • The report was proposed by Kevin Ronson and seconded by Jerry Yates.
  1. Changes to EMHUA Constitution

The requested changes had been circulated prior to the meeting to all members.

The constitution was to be amended to allow the creation of a new post to Council of Youth Development Officer, which required changes to Items 3 & 6.

The changes were adopted following a proposal from Jerry Yates, seconded by John Litchfield, with all present in favour.

  1. EMHUA’s “Top Club”

Was awarded to Mansfield Hockey Club. This is the result is the collation of the umpires Club Report returns. 15East Midlands Clubs had more than 8 qualifying reports, these included reports received from BCHUA umpires on East Midlands clubs.

  1. President’s Trophy

Was awarded to John Hayes for his contribution as Treasurer to the East Midlands Hockey Umpires Association in introducing and managing the new club fees structure.

  1. Special Awards

This year your Council has voted to make special awards for service to the Association to:

Mike Cockburn

Mel Owens

  1. Panel Badge Awards

Association Badges are awarded to:David Kingston

Ian Hadfield

EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)

10.Election of Officers

President:Dave Hourd continued in post