Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 30 March 2017 at Stroud Cricket Club.
Present: Directors - Peter Jubb (Chair), Steve Silk (CEO), Phil Carter and Trevor Crouch,
Associations & Leagues: BYCL, GCCL, SDCA, SCCDG, CGCA, BDCA, YL&PDG
Clubs: BWIP CC, Bristol YMCA CC, Cheltenham CC, Cirencester CC, Eastcombe CC, Eastington CC, Frampton-on-Severn CC, Frenchay CC, Hatherley & Reddings CC, Newent CC, Old Down CC, Redmarley CC, Rockhampton CC, Sheepscombe CC, Stroud CC, Tewkesbury CC, Thornbury CC, Winterbourne CC
Also present: Sue Brees (Secretary)
The Chairman welcomed all present and thanked Stroud CC for their hospitality.
The meeting stood for a minute’s silence to remember the life of Derek Howell, former Secretary of the Gloucestershire Cricket Association who had passed away recently.
1.Apologies – Kevin Langley, Andy Shield, John Hollingdale, Len Attard, Pete Boorman, Dave Hull and Tony Hitch (B&D).
2Minutes of the 2016 AGM
The Minutes of the AGM held on 10 March 2016 were agreed as a true and accurate record.
3.Reports
3(a)Chairman’s Report (available prior to the meeting via the website)
The Chairman thanked all for attending and for all their work in cricket. There are lots of changes taking place in cricket nationally with the ECB announcing the new T20 franchises and the broadcasting rights going on sale this summer. It is expected that Facebook, Twitter as well as Sky and BT are expected to show an interest in broadcasting games. All Stars Cricket has arrived from Australia and the Women’s World Cup takes place later this year with 8 games being held in Bristol. The implementation of the restructure of Saturday League Cricket went very well and a huge debt of thanks must go to Trevor Crouch and his colleagues in the B&D and to Brian Hudson and the Gloucestershire Cricket League for all their hard work. Unfortunately there has been a deterioration in player discipline and the Leagues will be adopting a zero tolerance in the 2017 season.
Thanks to Steve Silk and his team for all their hard work. The workload gets more and more each year but they take it all in their stride.
Thanks to Brian Hudson for his sterling service especially on governance issues and for chairing the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee and the Senior Clubs and Competitions Group. Andy Shield succeeded Brian as Chairman of the Senior Clubs and Competitions Group and recently joined the Board whilst Kevin Langley took over the Chairmanship of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee. Roger Gibbons stood down as the County Club Representative to be replaced by Tony Elgood who then became Treasurer Elect of the MCC and so stood down from the Board, John Hollingdale, the treasurer of Gloucestershire CCC has now joined the Board as the County Club’s representative.
Finally, thanks to the other Directors, Trevor Crouch (Vice Chairman), Phil Carter (Finance) and Courtney Kerkin for all their hard work.
Brian Hudson commented that ill-discipline issues are not always reported. The Chairman reiterated that WEPL are going to have zero tolerance for the 2017 season.
3(b)Chief Executive’s Report (available prior to the meeting via the website)
2016 was a year of two halves. The first half saw normal service as usual whereas the second half saw the ECB making the Boards more accountable with greater investment coming down to the individual boards. A large number of initiatives were rolled out, All Stars, Women’s softball cricket, Play Cricket, new CRM systems, Myclub software on top of the Boards existing commitments. The ECB will continue to send more initiatives down to the Boards to pass on to their clubs.
The Board has developed a 14-strong team with two more additional members of staff coming on board in May. Gareth Dawson and John Peplow joined the team during 2016. Scott Tremain has been promoted to the Growth Development role from the 1 March 2017 and Tim Hancock has taken on the role of Head of Talent Pathway for the GCCC U19 Academy. The GCB has taken this on to ensure there is one pathway for young cricketers to become professional cricketers. The Board also has lots of volunteers who put in lots of extra hours including the Leagues and Associations who are also run by volunteers who give up so much of their valuable time.
There is a lot of noise about the decline of cricket but the ECB recognises that Gloucestershire is one of the few who are bucking the trend. Gloucestershire are trying to ensure that everyone can play cricket at the level they want. We offer more ways to play cricket be it structured Saturday cricket, Big Bash, secondary school participation, league cricket, U16 T20, U15 Girls’ Blast etc.
The restructure of the Leagues went well and it was good to see that we pretty much got the teams in the right leagues.
On the performance side, Gloucestershire won the U13 and U14 Boys’ Taunton Festival and the Disability team reached the National Finals.
In 2017 there is already a lot going on. 42 clubs have signed up to be All Stars Cricket Centres.
The relationship with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club continues to develop with collaboration between the two clubs continuing as we finalise the structure of Gloucestershire cricket going forwards.
Brian Hudson commented on the club welfare issues. Steve reiterated that all clubs need to have a named Welfare Officer who must be qualified. All Stars cricket insists that all clubs taking part have a named Welfare Officer. Seven out of eight counties around a table at a recent ECB meeting were unable to confirm that all their clubs have Welfare Officers in place although it was noted that the vast majority of clubs do have them in place. Trevor Crouch commented that one of the major complaints is that people are unable to transfer a DBS between different activities. Trevor thanked the Board and Jim Donaldson and the Youth League for championing the work to ensure that all clubs have Welfare Officers. The Senior Clubs and Competitions Group also agreed that clubs have to have people in place for the start of the 2017 season. Theresa Ellison will be keeping the records up to date and will contact all Gloucestershire clubs during the winter of 2017 to let them know who will need to retrain for the following season.
Brian Hudson commented that the GCB insisted that the County League should hold a register of names and was disappointed that this hadn’t been maintained. Sally Donaldson commented that the BYCL had brought a rule in in 2014 that all clubs registered to play in or who wished to join the BYCL had to have a qualified Child Welfare Officer in place. It was noted that if a village club who only runs one team on a Saturday has to pay £70 for two courses for a Child Welfare Officer, this is a lot of money for a small club and if the courses are mandatory, it would be nice if the ECB put on the courses for free.
Steve Silk explained that starting at the beginning of May DBS will be available on-line for those wishing to host All Stars Cricket. County verifiers will be able to verify on-line later on in the summer. The ECB are not 100% comfortable about portable DBS even the GCB staff have to have multiple checks. The ECB are trying to resolve this problem for volunteers and clubs.
The Chairman thanked the Youth League and the Senior Clubs and Competitions Group for all their hard work. Had there been Club Mark in 2016 then this information would have automatically been picked up.
John Peplow thanked Phil Jordan for taking over the running of the Stuart Canvas Cup and Trophy from Dave Hull.
3(c)Finance Director’s Report and Adoption of Accounts (Account available prior to the meeting via the website)
The Cricket Board’s accounts show a surplus for the year of £43,550 (2015 - £17,231) on turnover of £634,918 (2015 - £624,030) which represents a new margin of 6.86% (2015 – 2.76%) which is above the Directors targeted net margin surplus of between 1% and 3%.
The cricket Board reviews it’s Reserves policy annually and following the format adopted to cover a winding up, the reserves required are £116,605 (2015 - £105,000) actual Balance Sheet Reserves £158,517 (2015 - £114,916) (see note 7 in the accounts).
The excellent surplus for the year has been generated due to tighter controls on costs, greater use of GCB staff on Chance to Shine and Street Chance projects reducing the requirement for paid external coaches and increased income from sponsors both existing and new. With the actual reserves now some £43,600 above the Board’s target reserves the Directors agreed to make available £10,000 to increase the ECB’s Small Grant Scheme and recognise clubs that offer their grounds for GYL matches by offering them free places on the 2017/18 coach education courses and further support clubs sending volunteers on scorer’s courses.
The success of the Board in delivery in clubs, in the community at large and in schools is down to a dedicated team of staff well organised and led by Steve all of whom should be congratulated and thanked for another year where little has phased them.
The adoption of the annual accounts was proposed by Sally Donaldson and seconded by John Lindley.
Affiliation fees – no increase this year as agreed at the 2014 AGM. There will be a review for the 2018 season
The Chairman thanked Phil on behalf of the Board for all the work he does for the GCB.
3(d)Chairs of Development Groups: Senior Clubs, Youth Performance and Women & Girls (reports available prior to the meeting via the website apart from the Youth Performance group)
Andy Shield had highlighted in his Senior Club & Competitions Group’s report five on going activities, Club Welfare, Unilateral Playing Regulations & Processes, Umpire Retention & Recruitment, Club Development Officers and Collaboration.
Steve Silk commented that the GGA has been thriving over the last 8/10 months since Eric Woodmason joined the Group and in February the GGA hosted 260 groundsmen at the SISIS Day at the Brightside Ground.
Brian Hudson commented that the clock is ticking for aligning the Leagues in respect of Playing Regulations and Processes. Steve confirmed that a blue print of the differences is available.
Youth League Performance Development Group – Jim Donaldson thanked Craig Hayward for his help and support over the years. Jim reported to the meeting that there were more youth teams and games played in the County in the 2016 season. The work continues to ensure everyone involved in cricket has a current DBS certificate and Jim expressed thanks to everyone who has contributed to making cricket safer for youth players. Steve Silk thanked Jim and Sally for all their hard work in youth cricket.
Steve commented that 2017 is a massive year for Women’s and girls’ cricket with the Women’s World Cup. The GCB are fortunate to have Lisa Pagett as the Manager of the Western Storm team. The ECB are planning on introducing an initiative for Women’s softball festivals at club level. This initiative could result in increased membership revenue/more volunteers. The GCB will run 6 sessions for a club free of charge. 12 clubs with no current women teams have already got involved.
4.Rule changes
None proposed. The Chairman commented that the Board in conjunction with the County Board will be looking at the Constitution over the coming months.
5.Elections
5.1Chairman – Peter Jubb confirmed he was happy to stand again for a third and final year. Proposed by Trevor Crouch, seconded by Sally Donaldson and elected unopposed.
5.2Non-Executive Directors – Trevor Crouch, Courtney Kerkin, Kevin Langley and Andy Shield were proposed for re-election by Peter Jubb, seconded by Sally Donaldson and elected unopposed.
6. AOB
None.
The meeting closed at 8.10pm
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