Minutes of the Beaumaris Bowling Club Annual General Meeting held at the Bulkeley Arms Hotel, on Friday the 4th March 2022, commencing at 7.15pm.
Present:
President – Robin Davies
Chairman - Mike Ormond
Deputy Chairman – Alan Caughter
Secretary – David Mathias
Treasurer – Barry Harris
Assistant Treasurer – David Mathias.
Life Members: - Derek Stanley – Robin Davies – Mike Ormond.
Members: - Dave Jones – Tim Williams – Peter Evison – Arfon Jones – Keith Bailey – Pat Smithson – Colin Rutter (Guest) – Trevor Ashenden – Martin Davidson – Geraint Owen.
Agenda:
1 – Chairman’s Welcome and Opening Remarks:
The Chairman welcomed the members to the meeting after what had appeared to be an age, since the last Annual General Meeting, was held on the 29th November 2019. He went on to say that it was time to get back into the flow and start playing competitive bowls once again. He said that tonight’s meeting would be a defining moment for the Club, as the members would have to decide later whether to have one or two teams playing in the Saturday Coast League in 2022. His personally opinion being that the Club should do everything in its power to continue to field two teams.
2 – Apologies for Absence.
Apologies were received and recorded from:
D T Evans – David Graves – Bobby Williams – Allen Parry and Adam Harris.
3 - Condolences – 2020 – 2021 – 2022.
The Secretary confirmed the passing of the following members and friends of the Club.
Ken “Clogs” Parry – 12th March 2020
Mrs Cath Morris – 6th January 2021
Ken Thomas – 11th January 2021
Mrs Margaret Davies – 26th January 2021
Trevor Bate – 12th February 2022.
The Chairman said a few words in relation to Clogs, in that his passing had been expected, but the passing of Thommo had been completed unexpected and a great shock to all his friends. He also mentioned Margaret, wife of Robin, who had for many years been a loyal and supportive friend of the Club and who had provided many a Raffle Hamper prize to help raise money for the Club.
As per expected custom he requested all members present to stand for a minutes silence in memory of all five.
The Secretary thanked everyone who had in, pre CoVid times, attended Clogs’ funeral, but would could of course, due to CoVid regulations, not attend the Funerals of Cath, Ken and Margaret.
4 – Minutes of 2019 Annual General Meeting – 29th November 2019.
The Secretary confirmed that these Minutes had been posted on the Beaumaris Bowling Club website, and as such he did not intend to read them out.
Derek Stanley proposed and Tim Williams seconded that they be accepted as a true and correct record. This was endorsed by all present.
5 Matters arising from the Minutes.
There were no matters arising from the Minutes.
6 – Hon Secretary’s Report.
The Secretary confirmed that he had posted an in depth report concerning the 2021 bowling season on the Beaumaris Bowling Club web page and didn’t intend to read it out.
He however wished to thank the following:
Tim Williams – for all the work he continued to do in relation to the update of the Beaumaris Bowling Club web page, Facebook page and more recently the Anglesey and Bangor and District Bowling Association Facebook page.
Leighton Jones – for all the work he continued to do in relation to the maintenance of the Happy Valley bowling green, especially after his near death accident in early 2020. The Secretary confirmed that Leighton had cut and lightly scarified the green on the 28th February and that hopefully it would be fit to practice on by the end of March.
He then went on to give a brief resume of information relating to the Associations and Leagues.
Welsh CGBA – The Annual General Meeting had been delayed and was now to be held in Prestatyn on Saturday the 26th March commencing at 2.00pm.
Gwynedd CGBA – The twice cancelled Annual General Meeting was due to be held at the Split Willow Hotel in Llanfairfechan on Saturday the 19th March commencing at 1.00pm.
He confirmed that Barry Harris and Dave Williams (Llanrwst B.C.) had been nominated as the new Joint Managers of the Gwynedd Senior Citizens Team, to replace Alan Dugdale and hopefully both appointments would be endorsed at that meeting.
Sadly however the Meirionnydd Bowling Association and the Llangefni Bowling Club had now both disbanded, the Peibio and Tywyn Bowling Clubs were now only going to play social bowling and the Llandrillo Bowling Club were, in 2022, going to affiliate with the Shropshire Bowling Association.
Anglesey and Bangor and District Bowling Association – The Annual General Meeting was held on the 3rd March 2022 and the following resulted:
The Monday Night League was to revert back to its 2019 format of doubles and singles matches, but if teams turned up 1 / 2 players short, they would be allowed to double up and retain individual and team aggregate, but would at the end of the season, be deducted 1/2 points as appropriate.
The Wednesday Night League was however in 2022 to change from a Singles League to a Doubles League format.
4 - Doubles matches – 8 players – four matches – 3 on the card – two games to start, but after first match off, the last two matches could start. If one player short, teams would be allowed to double up without any penalty.
Gwynedd Senior Citizens League - It was confirmed that as the Colwyn Bay British Legion Club had now dropped out of the league, Beaumaris B would not now be relegated and remain in a Division 1 of 11 teams, with a Division 2 having 10 teams. The Fixtures for 2022 having now been posted on the North Wales Bowling Web Site by Mike Ormond.
Super League – Of the 12 teams previously committed to playing in the 2022 season, the Broughton, Caerwys and possibly now Craig y Don Bowling teams had now withdrawn.
Saturday North Wales Coast League – the delayed Annual General Meeting was set to be held on Saturday the 2nd April 2022 and as such the Club probably had time to submit Notice of Motions if they so wished.
He confirmed that the Llandudno Bowling Club had withdrawn both their teams from playing in the league in 2022.
This concluded the Secretary’s Report.
7 – Hon Treasurer Report – 2020 – 2021.
Copies of the Balance of Accounts for 2020 and 2020 had been previously circulated with the Agenda by the Secretary. These confirmed the following closing balances:
30th October 2020 - £2174.81 credit
8th November 2021 - £6043.37 credit.
The Assistant Treasurer confirmed the following income details:
2020 – Sports of Wales Grants x2 - £895.00
2021 – Donation from the Estate of the late Ken Thomas - £5000.00
2021 - Donation from Sheila Graham – £160.00
2021 - Donation from the Estate of late Cath Morris - £90.00
2021 - Sale of woods Ken Parry and Ken Thomas - £125.00
He personally thanked Keith Bailey – Hefin Jones – Tim Williams and himself who had in 2021 paid the full £35.00 subscription fee and not the reduced subscription fee of £20.00
There were further discussions on opening a Savings Account as there was now over £5000 in the Current Account, which the Assistant Treasurer stated he would look into.
The Chairman thanked David Mathias for the work he had undertaken for the Club over the last two difficult years as both the Secretary and as the Assistant Treasurer and it was especially pleasing to see that the Club now had a very healthy credit balance.
8 – Approval of Balance Sheets.
Keith Bailey proposed and Alan Caughter seconded that the Balance of Accounts be accepted for 2020 and 2021. This was endorsed by all present.
9 – Approval of Subscriptions 2022.
The Assistant Treasurer confirmed that the current subscriptions were:
Full Member - £35.00
Junior Student Member - £20.00
Country Member - £20.00
Social Member - £35.00
He proposed no change in the subscription fees for 2022.
He however reminded the following that as they had paid their subscriptions for the 2020 season, which was not played due to the CoVid pandemic, but had then been credited with the £20.00 reduced subscription for 2021, that their subscriptions were technically still in credit. It would be left to these persons as to how much they wanted to pay the full subscription or not for 2022.
These were:
Alan Caughter - £15.00 in credit
Peter Evison – £15.00 in credit
Olga Evison - £15.00 in credit
Martin Davidson - £15.00 in credit
Arfon Jones - £15.00 in credit
Geraint and Daniel Owen £35.00 in credit.
10 – Election of Officers and Captains – 2022.
The following were elected as Club Officials – Team Captains for 2022.
President – Robin Davies
Chairman – Mike Ormond
Deputy Chairman – Alan Caughter
Secretary – David Mathias
Treasurer – Barry Harris
Assistant Treasurer – David Mathias
Monday Night Captain – David Mathias
Wednesday Night A team Captain – David Mathias - ANO
Wednesday Night B team Captain – Geraint Owen
Veterans A team Captain – Brian Begley
Veterans B team Captain – Trevor Ashenden
Super League Captain – Adam Harris.
It was decided to hold over the election of both the Coast League A and B Team Captains until after the North Wales Coast League Annual General Meeting scheduled to be held on Saturday the 2nd April 2022.
11 – Honoraria in arrears – 2020 – 2021.
The Secretary confirmed that he had listed this item for the first time ever on the Agenda, as in the past the Club could not afford to pay Honoraria to its Secretary and Treasurer. He mentioned Trevor Ashenden and Derek Stanley would had for many years carried out the work without ever being paid an Honoraria payment.
However the last two CoVid years had been extremely hard and taxing for him and as such he felt that some form of Honoraria gesture, in appreciation of the work he had carried out for the Club, would be appreciated, especially as he also never charged anything for postage and photocopying costs.
The Secretary then left the room and on his return, the Chairman confirmed that the members had decided to pay him an Honoraria of £100 in lieu of the work he had done as Secretary and Assistant Treasurer over the last two years.
The Secretary thanked the members for their kind gesture.
12 – Decision on A and B teams playing in Coast League 2022 season.
The Secretary had previous to the item being discussed passed out a handout from the 2019 playing season, which highlighted that in that year the Club had 32 players, but with known non players in 2022, this left under 20 players available to play.
The fact that Andrew Stanley and Colin Rutter had now indicated their desire to play on Saturday’s now changed the outlook somewhat.
A long discussion accrued during which the Chairman and Alan Caughter made impassioned speeches for the Club to maintain two teams in the North Wales Coast League in 2022.
Eventually it was decided to propose two notice of motion from the Beaumaris Bowling Club, if allowed, to the North Wales Annual General Meeting, to be held on the 2nd April 2022. These were:
1 – That when Clubs had both an A and B team playing in the league, the rule on allowing a B team player to play only 2 games for the A team be removed. I was to be replaced by a rule that allowed free movement of Club registered players between the A and B teams, any number of times during the season.
This would allow certain players not getting a game for the A team to play for the B team and of course vice versa.
Alan Caughter stated that if he was able, he would come to the Annual General Meeting to propose the Notice of Motion, provided of course the Club got a seconder for the proposal. The Chairman also proposed that some form of communication be listed on the North Wales Bowling Forum enhancing the merits of supporting the Notice of Motion.
If the Notice of Motion failed, then the Club would continue with its second Notice of Motion, which was as follows:
2 – That the number of players playing in both A and B teams be reduced from 10 to 8 players.
Again this was dependent on getting a seconder for the proposal. However if the first Notice of Motion carried, the Club would reserve the right to withdraw the second Notice of Motion.
Finally it was confirmed that if both Notice of Motions failed, that the Club would press forward to playing both an A and B team in the North Wales Coast League in 2022.
· As per the above the Secretary on the 5th March 2022, E mailed the North Wales Coast League Secretary proposing the two Notice of Motions for the Annual General Meeting to be held on the 2ND April 2022.
13 – Reports of Team Captains 2021 season.
The Secretary confirmed that a full break up of information in relation to the playing of all leagues in 2021 could be found on his Secretary Report posted on the Beaumaris Bowling Club web site.
He did however congratulate the Super League on winning the 2021 Toyota Premier Super League Title and narrowly losing in the final of the Toyota Premier Knockout Cup Competition against the St Asaph Bowling Club at the Rhos Park Bowling Green.
14 – Notice of Motions from Management – Members.
The Secretary confirmed that there had been no Notice of Motions put forward.
15 – Any other Business.
15.1 – Nomination of Life Member to replace Ken Parry
The Chairman confirmed that nominations should be put forward to the Secretary for the 2022 Annual General Meeting.
15.2 – The Two Ken’s Cup 2022.
The Secretary confirmed that this had been put on the Agenda at the request of Barry Ward, who’s wife Hazel, was the late Ken Thomas’ niece.
After a long discussion it was decided not to run either a Club or an Open Competition in the memory of both Ken Parry and Ken Thomas, as firstly, it would be very difficult to find a suitable date. Also invariably, sadly, after a few years, the interest in playing such a competition would dwindle.
It was therefore unanimously decided to investigate purchasing a brass bell on a wooden stand, engraved suitably in their memory. So on match days every time the bell was rung, everyone would remember, with fondness, two past bowlers and characters of the Club.
15.3 – Upgrade of the Happy Valley Clubhouse 2022.
The Secretary stated that basically the Beaumaris Clubhouse was literally a dump and wanted volunteers before the season started to completely refurbish it. It was also his intention to install a refreshments table to allow Kim and Dave to go home early, especially on Super League home match nights.
He confirmed that Gwyn and Wyn had already painted the inside of the Clubhouse.
· After the meeting the Secretary was contacted by Kim to say she had already cleaned the Clubhouse out and had left Cups etc in it for the members to use. The Secretary confirmed that he would discuss the matter further with Kim in due course.
15.4 – Gwynedd Cup entries 2022
It was decided to enter two teams in to the 2022 Gwynedd Knockout Cup at the forthcoming Gwynedd CGBA Annual General Meeting on the 19th March 2022.
15.5 – Fundraising – Tim Williams.
Tim Williams felt that in line with other sporting clubs in the area, he felt that the Beaumaris Bowling Club should investigate the possibility of running Fund Raising events. The Chairman proposed therefore that Tim looked into the matter and brought forward his ideas.
As there was no further Any Other Business items to discuss the Chairman, thanked everyone for attending, a good 2022 bowling season and closed the meeting at 8.50pm.
Chairman Date.
After the meeting Peter and Olga Evison and Alan Caughter all paid the Assistant Treasurer their 2022 Club Subscriptions. Geraint Owen was informed that as he was in credit of £35 from the 2020 season, his 2022 subscription was fully covered.