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Macclesfield Harriers and Athletic Club
Annual General Meeting 10th March 2011
Present: Craig Harwood, Andy Skelhorn, Philip Barnes, Phil Cheek, George Fisher, David Hancock, Steve Lomas, Mark Wheelton, Julian Brown, Janet Hatton, Barry Blyth, Bob Lynch, Pauline Lynch, Kevin Ranshaw, Carol Ranshaw, Chris Bentley, John Mooney.
Apologies for absence: Barbara Murray, Anne Farmer, Mike Greenwood.
1. Minutes of previous AGM on Thursday 11th March 2010
These minutes were missing so they could not be read and agreed.
2. Matters arising from 2010 AGM
No matters arising.
3. Chairman’s Report
Craig Harwood presented his report to the meeting. Craig stepped down as Chairman after 4 years in the role and 2 years as Vice Chairman prior to that. In 2010, nobody was prepared to stand for the position of Chairman. Craig agreed to continue for one more year so that we might find a successor. We have not found a successor yet and it is time for somebody else to step forward. Mark Wheelton proposed a vote of thanks to Craig for all the unseen work that he has done for the club over the years. The meeting agreed unanimously.
The highlight of Craig’s report was that it would appear that the maintenance work on the running track will be done in 2011 with 100% council funding. The funds for the work (approximately £80,000 in total) have been secured within East Cheshire Council’s approved budget for 2011 – 2012. Quotations for the work have been received and dates have been proposed which will minimize disruption to the track events calendar. Craig said that the Council officers had been “incredibly helpful”. It was difficult to understand the workings of the Council but Macclesfield Harriers have been “pushing at an open door”. Craig clarified that the idea of the club contributing money to the track maintenance work was only raised with the best of intentions. It was mooted as a means of “priming the pump” in order to allow the Council to obtain funds from elsewhere. The club committee resisted the idea of making a contribution because the work required was for maintenance, and the club already pay for the use of the facility, not for improvements.
Craig also proposed 3 motions concerning a long term licence or a lease of the track, volunteers’ travelling expenses and the creation of the new position of Honorary Club President for Bob Lynch. These motions are detailed below under “Any other business”.
4. Treasurer’s Report
Chris Bentley presented his report to the meeting.
Chris pointed out that the hire charge for the running track will be increased on 1st April 2011. He suggested that it may be necessary for some club funds to be used to pay for this charge. Chris stated that membership income is decreasing slightly. Julian Brown commented that there are fewer active athletes and that there are less children where the membership turnover is high. Kevin Ranshaw said that he does not want to increase the track fee whilst the club has £40,000 in the bank. Craig Harwood said that he did not want the A.G.M. to be sidetracked into a debate on the track fee. Craig Harwood made the point that the track fee should be fixed at a level that should meet expenses and provide a small surplus amount.
Chris stated that the club made a saving on the awards evening for 2010. Craig Harwood informed the meeting that this saving would be balanced out by an increase in 2011.
Bob Lynch drew the meeting’s attention to a big silver trophy, that the club possesses, which is not used for anything much. The club may wish to consider utilizing this trophy for an important award or realizing the value of the trophy by selling it because the price of silver is very high.
Mark Wheelton told the meeting that the figure on the balance sheet for the funds secured for the track maintenance work should read £80,000 not £90,000. Mark also said that negotiation was going on with the Council’s Assets Controllers including Keith Pickton.
Bob Lynch said that he had sat down with Neil Thomas of East Cheshire Council in order to review the 3 quotes that have been received for the work. Bob has left it with Neil Thomas to make sure that the quotes still stand and that the bidders are still able to carry out the work at the desired time.
5. Election of Officers
Position / Holder / Proposed / SecondedChairman / Vacant
Vice Chairman / Vacant
Secretary / John Mooney / Craig Harwood / Phil Barnes
Treasurer / Vacant
Ladies Managers Road and Cross Country / Alison Hartopp and Anne Farmer / Craig Harwood / Janet Hatton
Legal Adviser John Hirst Craig Harwood John Mooney
Magazine Editor / Alison Gunn / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Membership Secretary / Julian Brown / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Club Colours / Jan Edgar / Craig Harwood / Bob Lynch
Club Development Manager / Bob Lynch / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Coaches Representative / George Fisher / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Northern Men’s and Ladies’ League Coordinator / Ashley Pritchard / Bob Lynch / Craig Harwood
Cheshire Track and Field Coordinator / Alan Webster / Bob Lynch / Craig Harwood
Road Running Manager / Steve Lomas / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Position / Holder / Proposed / Seconded
Club Statistician / Rachael Lawrence / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Welfare Officers / Bob Lynch and Pauline Lynch / Craig Harwood / John Mooney
Phil Cheek only agreed to be Vice Chairman on the basis that he would not be expected to be Chairman. He was happy to be an eminence grise because the club needed to use his wealth of experience in so many areas. Now he is spending much more of his time working for Cheshire Wildlife and working on other environmental projects. Bob Lynch said that in the absence of a Chairman the committee must meet regularly and the remaining committee members must each take their turn to act as Chairman.
Chris Bentley stood down as Treasurer.
Julian Brown said that in the absence of a Press Officer he will see that articles that are sent to him will be passed on to the press. However, the onus must be on the writers of the articles to send them to him. If people send him articles at the weekend (Sunday night at the latest), he will post them on the club web site and send them to the press on the following Monday. Julian is happy to be the link with the press and the web site.
Any Other Business
As these motions have not been published well in advance of the AGM, there will be a cooling off period of 1 month before any decision is made on them. The trigger for a reversal of a decision will be 20 or more members (over the club voting age of 14 years old) signing and presenting a petition to the Committee in order that the Committee may review a decision within the cooling off period of 1 month. Craig stated that the minutes should be published promptly.
1) “That the Club Committee shall be empowered to pursue taking out a licence or a form of long lease from East Cheshire Council for the Running Track and its Facilities. Any such arrangement shall only be entered into after it has been presented in the club magazine “GO!” and approved at an EGM or an AGM of the club”.
We have no formal input into the way that the track and the clubhouse facilities are run. They are owned and run by the Council although The Track Appeal donated £50,000 for their construction and Harriers lobbied the Council for their construction. They would not have been built without the input of Macclesfield Harriers. Originally the club decided that they should not have a formal involvement in owning or running the facilities because they considered that it could become a financial burden upon the club. We now consider that it is essential that we have a formal influence in the form of custodians of the facilities. We already perform this role on an informal basis.
Grant aid funding, for example from the National Lottery or WREN, is not available to clubs who do not own their facilities or do not have a lease on their facilities or on land to be developed for 7 years or more. Additionally, grant aid funding from some sources is not available for local authority projects. A partnership between Macclesfield Harriers and East Cheshire Council would assist our fund raising efforts to maintain and improve our facilities. East Cheshire Council’s officers believe that it is possible that such a licence or such a lease might be negotiated and they recognize that it might be a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Kevin Ranshaw said that we do not know what the wording of a licence or a lease will be and that this wording will have to be examined by the club legal adviser.
Bob Lynch commented that such an arrangement would mean that the club would be committed to pay hire charges for 7 years. The whole idea is about obtaining grants.
Mark Wheelton commented that we will need to clarify exactly what arrangement we proposed to enter into. From his own experience of such matters he knows that the club cannot have a lease but we can have a licence, which is very different. He felt that the way forward was to enter into dialogue with East Cheshire Council then we should sit down with the club legal adviser and discuss it. Any arrangement for less than 7 years will be treated by the council as a delegated authority and it will be dealt with by the Head of Assets. It will be vital for the club members to approve this move.
Bob Lynch stated that the club should take advice from UK Athletics on this matter
Kevin Ranshaw said that WREN and some other organisations are only interested in obtaining grants if you have a lease on the land.
Craig Harwood said that the intention of the motion was simply to obtain authorisation to open talks.
This motion was proposed by Craig Harwood and seconded by Phil Cheek.
2) “That the Club Committee should amend the arrangements for paying for travelling and other expenses of club coaches, helpers and officials on club business such as coaching sessions. These arrangements should be amended where necessary using the parameters suggested by the volunteers’ organisation “Running Sports” and/or the parameters suggested England Athletics/UKA”.
We currently have a very low mileage allowance (15p per mile) which is paid for the full length of the journey provided that the journey is 8 miles or more in length. Many of the club’s volunteers are either retired or they have limited means. The principle here is that there should be no obstacle to volunteers claiming reasonable costs should they wish to do so. We are asking club members to indicate to the Committee what they feel about this issue because it has produced very heated discussions.
Carol Ranshaw pointed out that the general rate for a mileage allowance is 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles.
Barry Blyth said that someone has to go around the Macclesfield Half Marathon course in their car and that such a trip is an obvious candidate for a mileage allowance.
This motion was proposed by Craig Harwood and seconded by Phil Cheek.
3) “That the Club Committee should create a new position of Honorary Club President and that Bob Lynch should be elected to this position if he should wish to be”.
The intention of this motion is to thank Bob for many years of work and for his ongoing and unstinting work for the club.
This motion was proposed by Craig Harwood and it was carried unanimously. Bob agreed to accept the position.
4) “That the club constitution, dated 2008 should be amended as follows: Rule 8, Annual General Meetings, part d) should read “To appoint a qualified accountant to review the accounts for the year”. Part f) should be added to read “Notice of the AGM shall be posted on the club’s web site and shall be published in the club’s magazine at least 28 days before the meeting. Rule 12, Finance, part f) should read “The Treasurer’s accounts shall be reviewed by a qualified accountant appointed at the AGM. The qualified accountant shall not be a member of the management committee.”
The above motion was proposed by Bob Lynch.
The following amendments to the club constitution were also requested by members at the AGM:
Rule 2, Club Colours, should read “the colours of the club shall be a maroon vest with a silver diagonal”.
Rule 6, Management, the whole of the last sentence should be deleted i.e. “The position of Chairman shall be held for a period of 3 years, with the holder applying for re-election if they so wish”.
The above motion and amendments were approved unanimously.
5) Steve Lomas stated that he wanted to use Facebook in order to give immediate alerts to road runners. The members approved this unanimously.
Craig Harwood made the point that we need to be posting the date of the AGM and publishing it in the Club Magazine in November.
Phil Cheek stated that the changes of Club Officials should be notified promptly to Alison Gunn (Magazine Editor) after the AGM.
Julian Brown said that the minutes of the AGM should be published in “GO!” magazine.
JB Mooney 29th March 2011