WILLIAMSTOWN CANNONS BASKETBALL CLUB INC.

Registered No A0031670Z

MINUTES OF 2008 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Wednesday 22 July 2008

At the Williamstown RSL Club.

1.Meeting commenced 8pm.

2.Present: Tanya McIver (TM), Kate Christie (KC), Irene Alexandrou (IA), John Pannifex (JP), Steven White (SW), Greg Lawson (GL), Lisa Leydin (LL), Teresa Williams (TW), Emma Rice(ER), Daniel Dowling (DD), Andrew Fithall (AF), Bernadette Cooper-Ellis (BCE), Kerrie Owen (KO), Craig Tucker (CT)

3.Apologies:Jillian McNamara, Oliver Murray, Penny Milhe.

4.Presidents Welcome: CT welcomed everyone to the AGM.

5.Minutes of 2007 meeting: Minutes accepted as a true and accurate record.

Moved AFSeconded KO

6.President’s Report: (CT)

Welcome to the Williamstown Cannons Basketball Club Incorporated 2008 Annual General Meeting.

The Williamstown Cannons Committee met seven times over the course of 2007/8. It has been an enjoyable year with more players playing basketball and as a direct result, more parents are becoming involved in the club as coaches and team managers. In the past year the committee and our dedicated coaching staff have worked hard to keep the club moving ahead, while preserving our club culture. I would like to especially thank the committee, for the time they have put into their respective roles and to our coaches and team managers who keep our teams organised and playing basketball week in, week out. I would also like to thank the coach and committees families, who have supported our volunteers.

From our existing committee we have our Head Coach Andrew Fithall electing not to re-nominate for a position tonight, and in the last month Ann-Maree Dervan has also stepped down from the Uniform Coordinators role.

Andrew has been involved with the Cannons Committee since 2003 and has filled many roles within the Williamstown Cannons including ABBA representative, Head Coach and Team coordinator. In the past couple of years Andrew has been the backbone of the committee fulfilling both head coach and coordinating roles at once. Andrew continues at the Cannons in the capacity as a coach, and has recently joined the ABBA committee, so will remain involved in domestic basketball. We wish him well in his new challenge.

Ann-Maree joined the general committee in 2006 and stepped straight into the role as Uniform Coordinator. Ann-Maree has been a regular at training sessions at the start of each season, making herself available to our new members seeking uniforms. She has a unique ability to cope quietly and calmly with the demands of the role and the committee have enjoyed working with her and valued her input over the past two years. Ann-Maree has recently returned to study and work, and we also wish her all the best in what she aims to achieve.

I would also like to thank Teresa Williams for enthusiastically stepping up to the free throw line at short notice to fill in as Uniform Coordinator.

The 2007/8 Year

In this current Winter season we have four under 8 teams, sixteen boys’ teams and ten girls teams playing in the Altona Bay Basketball Association (ABBA), a total of thirty teams. This is up four teams from the same time last year and up ten teams from three years ago.

You will hear from our Treasurer in a moment; however we find ourselves in a sound financial situation as we continue to maintain a balance between income and expenses. A developing issue will be an increase in game costs due to the reduction in byes of playing fixtures with the new courts coming on streamnext season.

Highlights of the year include:

  • Our inaugural trivia night,
  • This was held at the Williamstown RSL in October 2007. Phil Castles entertained a crowd of approximately 80 with Andrew Fithall guiding the trivia. While a small amount of funds were raised, the aim of the night was fundamentally social, and a terrific night was held by all.
  • Expanding our training venue time
  • With the increase to 32 sides in our Summer 07/08 season the allotted time at Pasco Street had become extremely tight. This issue has now been alleviated somewhat with the use of the new Williamstown High School Bayview Street Campus court on Wednesday nights.
  • Communication with members
  • The committee improved its communication with members via a regular monthly electronic newsletter and regular updates on our website. We continue to improve and update our database which will add to our communication efforts
  • Early payment discount
  • The introduction of a discount on early payment of fees has helped to improve the management time of this process.
  • Administration control
  • We continue to improve our control over our membership base. We have placed responsibility for our club database with the Registrar and have closed the loop between new players, the ordering of uniforms and invoicing for fees.

Future Threats and Opportunities

  • Development of coaches
  • Without the proper development of coaches, the development of our children will be restricted. We are keen to develop consistent coaching and playing philosophies and methods and aim to better communicate these techniques to new and experienced coaches alike. It would be good to involve more of our older aged players coaching younger aged kids.
  • Team Selection
  • The Cannons moves into a new era of team selection with the proposal of separate girls and boys team coordinators. While our philosophy is not expected to change, the process of undertaking such tasks is expected to be broken down to all coaches. The Summer season will be the first opportunity to undertake this task and it will not be without teething problems. We expect that proper planning and communication leading up to October will alleviate many parental concerns. The more assistance we get in this task the better.
  • Developing our Club
  • With the increase in the number of children involved in our club it will be important to continue to develop and expand our committee and committee helpers to cope with the increasing pressures associated with a growing club. Off committee roles such as an Under 8 coordinator has worked well, and we hope to increase the use of this type of help in the future through developing roles such as a social organiser and a grants applier.
  • Developing a Williamstown court into a game venue on Saturday mornings
  • Despite the two new courts being built at the Altona Stadium the competition will quickly outgrow the infrastructure, requiring outside courts to be competition venues. If we do not push for a Williamstown venue now, we may have to travel further a field in the future.
  • Maintaining controls
  • With the large numbers now involved with the club, it is increasingly important to maintain control over the entry of new players into our club. This will be an ongoing concern. Coaches and team managers are reminded that they must go through the Registrar to recruit new players into teams. This ensures player contact details are received, a uniform is procured at the earliest possible date, and players are invoiced for fees. Bypassing the correct procedures will mean that players are not covered by insurance.
  • Similarly, it is disappointing to note that a volunteer committee must continually following up on late fee payments. Not only is this awkward and time consuming for the committee it is embarrassing for the member. All players are to pay their fair share of fees. The committee must continue to send a clear message to members that late fees will not be tolerated. Players that have not addressed their fees must continue to be banned from Round 5 of each season.

Craig Tucker, President

7.Treasurer’s Reports: (KO)

Moved AFSeconded TW

Treasurers Report for the year ended 30 June 2008

For this financial year ending 30 June 2008, the accounts have been prepared on an accrual basis, which recognises income and expenses in the period in which the income is earned and expenses are incurred. This is called the “matching principle”.

Williamstown Cannons has two seasons a year, however, these seasons do not coincide with the Clubs financial year end. Winter 2008 fees are billed in May 2008 however not all fees were received by 30 June 2008. This has resulted in a debtors balance in the statement of financial position. In addition as the Winter season runs until the end of November 2008, a certain amount of fee income is considered “unearned income” at 30 June 2008. The Club has also accrued expenses that have been incurred before 30 June 2008, but not yet paid.

For the year ending 30 June 2008, the Williamstown Cannons Basketball Club Inc finished the year with an operating surplus of $5,034. This is up on last year’s operating deficit of $10,725.

Cash at bank is $44,000, compared to $21,224 for last year. The improvement in the cash balance is due to enforcing due dates on membership fees for the 2008 Winter season. This can be seen by the reduction in the Clubs trade debtors. Trade debtors for 2008 were $2,256, compared to $10,443 in the 2007 year.

While cash at bank is $44,000 it needs to be noted that:

  1. The club receives no other income between now and the end of the Winter season;
  2. The club needs to use this money to pay:
  3. ABBA court fees for the Summer season outstanding at 30 June 2008 of $7,002
  4. Williamstown High School hire fees estimated to be $6,431
  5. ABBA playing fees for the winter season estimated to be $14,616
  6. ABBA registration fees for Summer 2008 which are paid in advance of invoicing 2008/09 Summer membership fees, this is estimated to be $1,950 for 30 teams
  7. The club is currently tendering for the new design and supply of new uniforms that will be supplied to current players at the end of the Winter 2008 season. This is still to be ratified by the Committee of Management.

A separate analysis of the costs associated with the Winter 2008 season has been completed and was presented to the Committee of Management. This indicated that current average fee of $111.22 per child just covers our average costs per child of $108.24. This is a net surplus of $2.98 per child.

A review of our fees for the 2008/09 Summer season will be completed taking into account increased training costs for the hire of Williamstown High School and other related matters.

Kerrie Owen, Treasurer

  1. Head Coach’s Report: (AF)

This is my final report as Head Coach of the Williamstown Cannons. As I have said in previous reports, Head Coach was probably never the correct title for the function performed. It has always been a team coordinator role and the role has grown considerably over the last four years. I believe the Club is moving in the right direction in creating the two team coordinator roles and having a “proper” head coach function for someone who has the skills and abilities, and importantly, the time available to spend time doing what a Head Coach should do: recruitment and development of coaches for the Williamstown Cannons teams.

I would like to acknowledge the work of all the Williamstown Cannons coaches. Coaches come from varied backgrounds, not always a basketball one. Some put themselves forward while others take on the role because there is no-one else available. Having to provide a coach for every eight active players is an ongoing challenge for any basketball club. We have had a couple of recent situations where we have had two teams training together with one of the teams then having a “match-day-only” coach. As someone who has tried to work with this model, I don’t believe it is a great way to go and should be avoided in future. I believe that it is imperative that every team have a dedicated coach responsible for training as well as match-day. Again, the appointment of a proper Head Coach will assist in this. My only advice to Steven White as the Head Coach Elect is “avoid becoming a fill-in coach for any team just because they are unable to provide a coach from their parent ranks or an alternative source.” Given what Steven already has on his plate, I don’t think he will have any spare time to do that anyway.

The Team Coordination role, which has been my main function over the last four years, is something I took very seriously. The philosophy I brought to the role was to get players into the most appropriate team and have the team in the most appropriate playing division. This philosophy created a greater workload in that every season required re-mixing of teams and communication and coordination with large numbers of coaches and parents. It is the re-mixing of teams that creates the greatest level of angst, particularly amongst parents. Not all clubs operate this way. Some are happy to let teams stay together. New players to the clubs either plug gaps or a placed together in new teams. I don’t think this approach is effective for a number of reasons. Firstly, players develop at different rates. Players who start out together may, after several seasons, be of very different standard. Allowing teams to stay together would result in having players playing at a higher or lower level than what is appropriate to their ability. The approach can also limit the development of players who come to the game later. By necessity, brand new players to the game are generally placed together in lower divisions. With the process I have had of, through consultation with the coaches, identifying players for promotion to higher levels, new players could move into higher level teams. Sometimes this required existing players to be moved to lower level teams. Communication with coaches and parents and players was always vital to the success or otherwise of this approach.

I am stepping down as Head Coach / Team Coordinator. I offer my replacements my full support. I will not be on the sidelines publicly or privately criticising their performance. I know the difficulty of the tasks and appreciate the commitment of anyone who is willing to take on these functions. My philosophy, as outlined above, is not set in stone. The incumbents will put their own stamp on the job and bring their own philosophies and approaches. I wish them well.

I have said in previous reports, and I will repeat in this one, that Cannons is the best run club within the Altona Bay Basketball Association. It is financially sound. Its structures and processes are transparent. The stature of the club is due to the hard work and dedication of the previous members of the club executive and now of the current executive. I am confident the incoming executive will continue to ensure Cannons is a well-run organisation. Renewal is important to the ongoing health of the club.

Thank-you to Craig and all members of the Executive. Everyone does a very good job within their role, but I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of Kerrie Owen. The solid financial position of the club is very much due to Kerrie’s work. It is a shame that there is so much work. Debt collection should not have to be a function of the Treasurer at a junior sporting club. Unfortunately it is, and it seems it is not unique to the Cannons. Kerrie, and her predecessors, have done a very good job.

Thank-you for the opportunity to be part of such a good club. I wish all members of the new Executive Committee well and am confident Williamstown Cannons will continue to be successful by whatever measure you would like to apply.

Andrew Fithall

Head Coach (outgoing)

9. Registrar’s Report (GL)

There are 42 children on the waiting list for the summer season. Currently at Cannons there are 239 players playing across 30 teams and a total of 173 families.

Most of the teams have the 8 players in a team.

U12 Boys is the age group with the most teams and longest waiting list.

Next season potentially will have only one U10 girls team based on current waiting list and most of current U10 girls will go up to U12 due to age.

We have been encouraging people on the waiting list to contact Williamstown Magic.

The registrar’s data base is now the master data base to avoid teams being filled with children not on waiting list in order to avoid any potential queue jumping and having players playing who are not financial and hence not registered to play.

10Constitutional Amendments.

None

11. General Business

  • Uniforms

As raised in the Treasurer’s report the committee is reviewing uniform change and proposing that the club pay for all winter season current players new uniforms. A number of designs where put out for display. The predominant color must be yellow as this is the club’s priority color.

  • Team Selection

The disadvantages of the current selection process and philosophy was raised and discussed key issues were; if players move too much then team doesn’t bond; changes to training nights mid year affect families with other commitments; the club appears to have poor communication between coaches and committee.