Presidents update
Hi all
It is important I communicate the outcome of last nights AGM to all members.
Prior to the meeting I circulated a note which advised the membership base that the current Committee was all indicating a desire to "retire" from the committee at the AGM, and not stand for re election.
Hence our Club is at a crossroads - we need to establish a completely new Committee. In my view it was not critical to the Club to form a committee last night.
It is critical however that we form a quality committee of people that really want a role in the club where they can contribute to the successful ongoing governance of the Club.
I was not comfortable that we had a dearth of nominations - we in fact had 2 nominations only for 5 positions. One of those was for myself and I had already indicated that I will stand for another year, as President
Given the lack of nominations I proposed the following motion, which was seconded by Neil Donnelly
"The nominations for the election of officers to be reopened until 30th January, with a Special General Meeting to be arranged ,on a date to be confirmed in early February for the specific purpose of forming a new Committee. In the interim period the existing Committee will continue to act in their current capacity for the purposes of making any decisions on behalf of Club members"
A vote was called for. Of 41 members present 31 voted on a show of hands to pass the motion, no one voted against the motion, and the balance abstained.
Accordingly I can advise that the nomination process has been reopened and we seek nominations for the following positions.
President / Tennis Vice President / Squash Vice President / Treasurer and general committee members (can vary from 1-4).
The executive committee must be a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 9. I do have a preference for a committee of about 6, but flexible on this point.
Whilst we do not have job descriptions attached is a brief I have put together re responsibilities of the Tennis and Squash VP roles, and treasurer.
I really would like a bean counter to get involved, more as a resource than anything else.
It's your Club and I am appealing to the membership base to stand up and get involved. It was encouraging to see that a lot of positive discussion had already started last night. It would have been better if that had happened 2 weeks ago but I suspect that many turned up to the AGM without giving the situation the Club is in enough thought.
Many Clubs would struggle to get the turnout we do at an AGM, and I appreciate the continued support of our membership base.
We need to tap into that loyalty and passion we all have for the Club, and form a Committee to move forward with
I look forward to a healthier nomination box at the end of January
Have a great Xmas and a safe and happy New Year
The Club will be closing the bar on Tuesday 22nd December as Leanne and I are disappearing on the 24th and we have the pre Xmas close down procedures to observe - line cleaning etc.
The bar will reopen on Monday 11th January.
I look forward to 2010 and another chapter in the Clubs success.
Cheers "T"
Squash Vice President - Responsibilities
1. Junior Squash
The involvement of the Squash VP in the junior Club is one of guidance and advice only.
Junior Squash in 2010 will be without Jonathon Pauro.
Our Friday night junior program has been run by JP for the last 2 years with the valuable assistance of Kevin Williams / Mark Smith and other parents.
I have approached Chris Lloyd to take on Friday night junior coaching, with the assistance of his father Brian to cover for Chris when he has personal playing commitments etc. Brian has been coaching players at all levels for many, many years at the Hamilton club and I look forward to his involvement and the increased involvement of Chris with our juniors.
Late in 2009 we had a meeting with a number of interested parents including Sheryl Hickey and Deb Bower whom are enthusiastic about injecting some of their efforts into making Friday juniors night a high profile event at the Club.
The junior Club will prosper the more involvement we have from interested parents.
We host a One day junior tournament in September which has been great for Club profile in recent years. It is not an expectation that the Squash VP has any involvement in this tournament at all.
2. General Coaching
The Club President is responsible for arranging Club coaching. We haven't had an "official" Club coach since Annie Hall left.
I need to formalize a contract with Chris which includes junior coaching for 2010.
We will continue to offer new squash members a free coaching session with Chris when they join the Club.
It has proven successful and a good way of introducing new members to Chris.
3. Inter Club
Dave Gregory has continued to keep this going and handles liaison with Auckland Squash re grading etc.
Dave has indicated that he will continue to assume statistician responsibilities and also will assist sorting interclub teams etc.
Jason Kay, a Club member. Is also the Auckland Squash interclub organizer and makes sure we don't miss any important dates etc
4. Club night
Thursday night from March to October is our Club night.
This has been very successful in the last 2 years and I think is probably the most significant commitment the Squash VP makes.
For many regular attendees it is their only "Club" experience as they either don't have the confidence or desire to play interclub. It is a critical component to the successful induction and introduction of new members to the Club.
It really requires 2 people a week to run it - one on the board and one playing. Many of the attendees love the opportunity to have a hit against a higher graded player or to get some coaching. Typically what happens is it starts with a hiss and a roar but by the end of the season it is more difficult to find volunteers.
Cath got lumbered with it last year - she did a great job but as a Club we need to ensure the weight doesn't fall on one person's shoulders.
The Squash VP needs to liaise and garner support from as many volunteers as possible to give up, maybe one Thursday night every 2 months.
5. Tournaments
Mar Herne Bay B
May Herne Bay Open
Club champs TBA
Plenty of assistance to organise here - we run good tournaments
In general for tournament hosting.
Matt Taylor assists with Posters , Dave Gregory with draws and online registration. I am sure they will continue to do so.
Leanne and I organise Bar and liaise for kitchen.
Someone needs to buy prizes
Tournament control needs to be organized but heaps of assistance. The squash community always dips in and helps.
Super Champs - eliminations July. I think we need to do a better job this year.
We need to appoint coaches in the first instance and liaise with them re court usage prior to tournaments. It is frustrating for normal members to be shut out on Sundays because of squad training commanding precedence over all other users. An agreed and coordinated timetable needs to be sorted so that at any given time only 2 courts are taken up for Super Champs training.
Also last year one team let the Club down badly - It is questionable that we should have even fielded a team in the grade concerned
6. Auckland Squash and NZ Squash responsibilities
Leanne and I do these
NZ Squash membership return required by 30 Sept MR/LR
Auckland Squash SEM return required by 31 Oct MR/LR
Auckland Squash AGM November/December MR
The Squash VP doesn't need to get involved in this unless they want to.
It is an administrative task handled by Leanne and Mark.
The focus I want from a Squash VP is to concentrate on keeping the wheels moving from a playing perspective.
As a rule points 3, 4 and 5 will require most of your attention
Treasurer - Responsibilities
1.Cheque signatory
Required to sign cheques for creditors and wages on a weekly basis.
Leanne/ Keith prepare for sign off and requires a visit once a week to authorize payments
2. Monthly financial reporting
Club is 100% independent on MYOB program which Keith is very proficient in. He has been there since install and has a good understanding of the system.
Keith, despite no accountancy qualifications has developed a good grasp of managing ledgers / P+L statements / depreciation schedules and balance sheets.
He also does cash flow projections and manages other key items such as subscription renewals and monitoring of membership trends.
Keith developed the ClubMember system we operate which manages our data base and membership information. He built it so he knows it.
Keith is down to one day a week now as the Club has become significantly more efficient in managing our financial transactions since the introduction of MYOB.
Leanne has some knowledge and does input some data into MYOB but has not had much involvement otherwise.
In saying this I don't believe it is critical that we have a contingency plan - Keith has holidayed for up to a month at a time and the Club has coped. MYOB is also a well accepted and universal tool in small businesses so I think that whilst we rely on Keith, it is a relatively low risk.
Keith produces monthly P+L and balance sheets by about the 14th of the following month and generally just wants the ok from the treasurer to finalise the accounts and ask any pertinent questions.
I know Keith would appreciate a financial guru to bounce things off occasionally.
3. Annual reports
This is an area where a person from a financial background could assist to deal with auditors and finalise annual accounts.
We have had 3 years without a treasurer with a financial background, which hasn't been a problem other than the end of year wrap up with auditors.
Our financial year ends Sept 30 - it would be helpful to have someone to drive the process for finalisation of accounts and have a resource for Keith to refer to other than the auditors.
Tennis Vice President - Responsibilities
1. Junior Tennis
All handled by David Mustard.
Friday nights 3.30 - 6pm for first and last school terms. We pay coaching fees for this to David or whomever he uses.
Everything else - Thursday night juniors etc are user pays direct to David
2. General Coaching
Obviously David Mustard
Contract finalized with David this year which is for 3 years.
Tennis VP role is mainly about liaison with David around court usage, and balancing requirements of members with David's requirements
Court availability has been agreed already this year under new contract negotiations.
From time to time David will ask for courts for specific events - D+A / Parent - child/holiday programs etc. This is handled on a case by case basis but usually ratified as the requests are for time periods that are not substantially restricting members access to courts.
3. InterClub
Although there is really only one interclub season it does generate quite a bit of work. Auckland Tennis does tend to be a bit of an information overload organisation.
Scott has started to enlist some support from Candice Smith and others to share the workload and we should continue to encourage this. Results are entered on a weekly basis by Candice
There are some mid week ladies competitions and winter interclub comps - we have had some minor involvement in these historically.
There is generally quite a bit of organisation to do at the start of the season but thereafter the responsibility and onus shifts to the captains.
There is always an ongoing problem knowing exactly how many teams we should put in and how many people per team we should have. This year we have increased to 13 teams - after a rough start things have settled down quite well and we have 3 or so teams performing really well in their grade which is great.
It is hoped that defaults and player availability problems that have historically plagued us after Xmas do not revisit us early 2010.
Once set up the VP role should be to monitor player and team commitment but also to encourage and support captains.
There is a school of thought that perhaps a "reserve" list should be created for captains to source from …..but often when you are scrambling for players it is Friday night already and the "reserves" have already made plans for the weekend.
Interclub generates most of the VPs work.
4. Club night
Wednesday Club night works well. It is part of the Tennis professional contract to run and maintain Club night.
It is not required that the VP attend but a regular appearance is desirable.
Also after Xmas in early 2010 I would like to see the Wednesday night BBQ reintroduced. We will be shortly purchasing a new BBQ - Dave Tyler and myself have previously done the cooking and can continue to support this.
5. Sunday Club day
Has not really had much focus in recent years but is something that can be worked on post Xmas with settled weather and our great new extended deck facility.
6. Club champs
February / March Format in recent years has attracted some debate and discussion.
Scott is trying a new format this year which he has indicated he will see through and support the incoming VP.
It is probably wise to assess the success of this years event with the view to what we do in 2010/2011.
7. Auckland and NZ Tennis responsibilities
Both these organizations send out a lot of stuff.
The meetings tend to be long drawn out affairs and not a lot of fun.
However it is critical that we scan the information they send us and ascertain what is important and what is not.
It is helpful for me to have another set of eyes scanning the info. I am on the email list - but ask that the tennis VP is as well.
Leanne and I have been handling the admin and levy returns for the last year or two and will continue doing so.
AS with squash I would prefer the Tennis VP concentrates on "playing" and representing general tennis members views. The "biggies" are items 3+6.
