Minutes of a meeting of Sefton RUFC Board: Tuesday 14th February, 2017

VenueSefton Clubhouse, main bar.

PresentWFJ, AH, RS, ASp, PR (minutes), MJ, ML, MT, ASt

ApologiesGP

1. Matters / Actions Arising from the Previous Meetings (10th January, 2017)

Completed:

Action [RS]: To liaise with Club insurers, letting them know of the recents Clubhouse re-evaluation. This may mean a potential increase in Premiums.

Action [PR]: To distribute an up to date Membership list, including membership fees and payments. Sent 12/02/2017.

Action [MT]:To put together the Sefton application for a Natwest Rugby Force grant. This was submitted on 12th Feb, with an attempt for a £500 grant, ticking all the boxes, with a view to improve the sidelines of the main pitch.

Ongoing:

Action [RS]:To send the Club’s new (altered) Rules to HMRC/CASC. (Ongoing)

Action [PR]: To complete / distribute AGM Minutes.

Action [PR]: To document DD process as undertaken by [JF]. Confirm an action on monthly failed Direct Debits.

Action [AH]: To collate the Junior Participation figures and email to PR.

Action [ASt]: To ensure the Ladies have some suitable applicants to be represented on the Board, for the AGM.

Action [AH]/[MJ]: To discuss Sefton’s long term Strategy for a Girls team at Sefton, with Kevin Greaves.

Action [MJ]: To provide full details of hosting the Lancashire Finals Day at Sefton, and seek a Board decision on requesting to host the function.

2. Financial Matters

The following is from [RS]:

F01. Current Bank balance

F02. Recent significant payments out since the last meeting include:

F02a. After last month’s meeting when we agreed to act on the revaluation of the Clubs premises I have made two payments. One to Bennett Kaye of £354, for their professional fee, and following discussions with Club Insure I paid an additional premium of £312.51 to increase our cover to £845,000. The Floodlights and Stand are not covered, which explains the difference between the full valuation of £990k.

All four of our storage containers are now covered by insurance.

F02b. £600 was paid to UIS our alarm company for their annual fees, which include the monitoring service.

F02c. £224.30 was paid to Fitwell for embroidery on the Panthers training kit. This was paid for by £59.50 that came in from the girls, plus £164.80 from their sponsorship money.

F02d. I have continued to make payments for offsite training to a number of organisations. I will give a full summery when all training has returned to ‘home base’, hopefully at the end of this month. I estimate that the total cost for all sections will be around £3k.

F03. Significant Payments Received include:

F03a. Bar trading has now picked up after the Christmas break. I have targeted the 6 Nations games as an opportunity to maximise bar sales!

F03b. We have received 2 payments from FCC Ltd since our last meeting. £1597.44 in January, and £1698.60 on the 8th Feb.

F03c. We also received £914.00 from the RFU in payment for our returned(?) Six Nations tickets. It’s still unclear what further payments we may receive as part of our share (if any). I feel we must accept that revenue from this particular stream will be reduced from previous years. Things may be clearer at the end of the season.

F04. Other Matters:

F04a. I have been contacted by the energy firm who found us the current two deals we have for electricity supply (club and floodlights). The Clubhouse contract is up for renewal in July. (Floodlights in October). The sooner you renew, the better the deal, but I’m just trying to work out the implications of the new hot water system before coming to a final decision.

I would ask the Boards permission to act on this matter between Board meeting if necessary. I will of course consult with as many of you as possible before ‘pushing the button’!

3. Membership Strategy

Objective is to get an up to date listing of Sefton Membership, ensure we chase Membership Fees from Players, and ensure a Membership Participation Log is up to date (for CASC qualification).

[PR]: Discussed recent Junior Membership meeting with Roy Webster and Pete Merriman.

[PR]: Highlighted Membership figures (eg, 217 Registered Youths, 83 are not paying). There is a requirement for a volunteer (parent?) to assist with the register in each team.

We are still struggling to comply with the CASC requirement of 50% of our Members participating in at least 12 events in our year.

Action [PR]/[AH]: To work through the Family Members and collate Participation figures for various individuals.

Action [MJ]: To push Junior Coaches into compiling regular registers, for Participation logs (and CASC status).

4. Adult and Junior Section Rugby Reports

Junior Section

The following italics are from [MJ]:

J01. Last week was the end of 14 offsite training sessions. All have been well attended. Only 1 postponed (frozen) matchday.

J02. RFU are taking coaches into local schools. This is funded by the Liverpool Development Group.

J03. Need more numbers in the U16s and Colts. More than 25 is required, as a core to sustain a whole season. Meeting with Collegiate on a potential merge but nothing has been confirmed. U15s have many players who are not local (the parents are the ones behind this). The Board need to consider the younger Junior’s objectives (with a shift from “winning” to “enjoyment and participation”), recruitment strategy and retaining numbers.

J04. The U13s now have no coach, and will struggle to continue as a team.

J05. Junior Presentation Day. Proposal to reformat the event, with a separation and grouping of the Junior Teams (say, U13-U16, etc), down to certain time slots, to not bore everyone at once. Also to promote fun awards. The Minis could be on a separate day, and the older ones in the evening.

J06. Pointed out the Board read the detailed and concise U11s match report (over 1150 words) and report back with their feelings.

J07. The Colts team folded on 7th February. This is not a surprise, given the players changing attitudes at this time of the year, and priorities going towards studies. The Colts season was fairly successful, with the objective of getting the players into the Senior Men’s Teams.

[RS]: Stated that Alan Langford should be acknowledged for his work and contribution that has brought the Colts through to this stage. His enthusiasm and good work should be commended.

J08. Emerging Schools Event to be held on Wednesday 9th March, hosted by Kevin Greaves. We have very little intake from Cardinal Heenan. Sefton will open its doors but will need to have someone present on the day, to approach the kids.

Action [MJ]: To ask Alan Langford if he can attend the Emerging Schools Event at Sefton, with a view to attracting more Junior Players.

Senior Section

The following italics are from [ASt]:

Mens Firsts: 10/14. Good wins against the Medics and Oswestry. But with some hard games coming up

Mens Seconds: 9/11. A good win against Warrington keeps the 2s in 9th position and on the rise. We do need the squad to train more regularly if they are to improve and make their way up the league. Not having their captain does not help them even if it does help the 1s.

Mens Thirds: 3/11. The 3s are doing very well under the leadership of Matt Bland. They are currently 3nd in their league, 2 points behind the leaders. If they can keep up this good run of results then they should achieve promotion this year.

Sefton Ladies: 3/9. The Ladies are sitting third in their league just 4 points short of 2nd. Good wins against Grasshoppers and Manchester have kept the pressure on the top of the league. Disappointing loss against BirkenheadPark.

Panthers: 5/8 A few heavy defeats after Christmas have not managed to dent the spirit of the Panthers . They still train hard in good numbers and should gradually improve as time goes by. They give a lot of inexperienced players game time and should benefit in the end.

S01. Stated that all Sefton playing kit should be red, white and blue.

S02. Panthers cancelled their Workington game (it was not sustainable).

S03. The Panthers’ Eccles fixture was again a one sided affair and they will probably have to accept that they will get these games. Sefton are not a complaining club!

5. Other Urgent and Essential Items

[MJ]: The District Perform Pathway (DPP) was meant to provide 15 Sale season tickets.

Action [PR]/[MJ]: To approach the Sefton individual to encourage current potential dispute with Sale Shark tickets.

[WFJ]: The new showers still have issues. There are ongoing snags that are to be addressed.

[AH]: The Women’s Strategy Meeting was held at Sefton. It was deemed successful by all accounts. The Women’s Premiership is changing format next year and this will have an impact on the lower Women’s leagues.

[AH]: Junior Girl’s Teams. A number of local clubs have Girl’s teams.

Action [AH]: To consider a strategy for a Sefton Girl’s Team.

[ML]: There is a planned Veterans game next week at the Vale of Lune. ML to organise a coach (via Stu Bailey), and potentially seek RFU funding.

Action [AH]/[RS]: To register the Club’s Alan Webster Defibrillator with the local Ambulance squad.

[PR]: The complimentary Sale season tickets are getting full use, but there are a few games still left in Sale’s season.

Action [AH]/[RS]: To ensure the Sale tickets are still visible on the Club’s Website.

[WFJ]: Attended the Lancaster Board’s “Is our Game in Trouble?” forum on 18th Jan. Nothing really much to report back from this, other than it was poorly managed.

Date of next meeting

Tuesday 21 / 03 / 2017 (every second Tuesday of the month, except when Bill is not here).