Minutes of the meeting on 9th July ’18 at 7.00 pm
Clubhouse, Rowleys Drive.

1) Present: Jane Bellis (Chair), Stuart Sigworth (Secretary), Marcia Grundy, Mike Jones, Dave Cooper, Rhian Bradley, Mandy Coutts, Elain Owen, Sam Jones
Apologies: Steve Thomas (Treasurer), Gareth Sharp, Jamie Thomas, Jonathan Fagan
2) Minutes from meeting on 5th June: Proposed by Dave Cooper, Seconded by Mike Jones.
3) Nominations & Elections: No public nominations

Jane Bellis explained her situation for the purposes of being transparent and clear from the outset. Very little available time with work and other charity commitments but for the lack of any other nominations for the role would be prepared to take it on under the agreement that a growth plan be put in place, legal/FAW compliance be met by all coaches, and development strategies for the whole club would be a priority- as this could be tied in to her other work and funding accessed to cover admin expenses and help with the workload that has been needed for the role so far and will be an ongoing commitment. Jane also mentioned plans to develop a leadership scheme for U16’s and ladies where the club would support them with coaching and referee training (which Elain mentioned used to be in place, and also a disability focussed team to be fully inclusive which Mike said he would be interested in helping with. All in agreement and happy for Jane to stay on. Dave proposed and Elain seconded the motion.

Stuart Sigsworth happy to remain as secretary. Mike proposed and Marcia Seconded.

Steve Thomas expressed that he wishes to retire from his role as Treasurer and Ladies Coach to focus on family commitments but is happy to remain within a consultancy role within the club. Those present were happy to hear that Steve is remaining with the club and wanted to thank him for all of the hard work managing the role single handedly. Marcia Grundy happy to take over the role of Treasurer with the support of Jane and Stuart and a new policy to be set up to help with the workload which may include a bookkeeper for 1-2 hours per week and a counter check system and new accounting system to help with funding, compliance and growth. Jane proposed and Dave seconded the motion.

Philippa Havill also expressed that she wishes to retire from her role as Safeguarding officer. Marcia and Jane are both happy to take on the role between them giving 2 safeguarding officers and several coaches also expressed that they would like to go on the upcoming training sessions. Elain proposed and Mike seconded the motion.

Jane also discussed the idea of having sub committees such as a fundraising committee led by Rhian Bradley as Fundraising Coordinator and any parent helpers who would like to volunteer. It was noted that Rhian has worked really hard during the run up to the presentation night and tournament to gather donations and has paved the way for us to get into local supermarkets to access token schemes, bag packing and grants. Tracie Owen was also mentioned as a parent who has gone above and beyond with her fundraising activity and would be a great member of this committee.
Mike suggested that we set up a communications committee to look at branding and streamlining and refining our communications, in particular social media and then manor in which we deliver information to parents and coaches. Ffion happy to help with this and Jane to facilitate a meet up and planning session to get things moving for the new season.

4) Chairs Items

i) .Tournament: Jane congratulated Jonathan and all involved for the most successful tournament to date. Great feedback received so far and other than a few issues with communication and ID checks all went very well. We made a profit of £3581.50, turning over £5557.00 with costs of £1975.50 which is fantastic news and can be mainly attributed to the new ground and the appearance of the sunshine giving us almost £1,400 in ice creams and cold drinks! Plans to be put into place for more games/attractions for next year and candyfloss/popcorn/speciality hot drinks as an alternative if the weather isn’t great. Plans to be discussed for digital ID checks in advance for next year. Plenty of medals are left over for use next year to keep the cost down. We still need to buy a crate of beer for the groundsman as a thank you.

ii) Presentation night: Positive feedback on the whole. Raffle went on for too long so maybe split into 2 next year? Also older groups have to wait a long time and many people have left so discussed the option of swapping year to year and doing oldest to youngest next time. Again trophies left over which can either be used for player of the match for the rest of the year or re badged for next presentation to save money. Ideas discussed to invite ex players to present awards which prompted the discussion of celebrating our achievements more and having a ‘hall of fame’ on the website and using past players success as a PR strategy to encourage new players.

iii) Constitution changes discussed. New constitution to be drawn up in line with legal compliance and distributed to everyone in due course. Marcia asked about contact address -do we need to update contact address and can it be C/O Rowleys Drive rather than someones personal address?

iv) Coaches update: Welcome to 2 new coaches: Sam for the U8’s and Patrick for U14’s. New start forms to be filled in, ID cards, first aid, DBS and any FAW training to be updated for all coaches so that we can get on the register to access more PR. Jane/Stuart to work on a new coaches info pack and mentoring options for new coached with little experience.

v) Registration update: Marcia and Stuart have now processed most of the forms but are still awaiting a few more. Main areas to promote are the new U8’s and U16’s. This to be done via new posters, open training session and Rhys’ Summer camp.

vi) Training plan: Club now settled at new ground and all teams have had training sessions here with positive feedback. Care & Repair are working on ambulance access for Dee Park and we need to try and recruit some volunteers to clear the area and help build a ramp (Elain to try and source this via community service, and coaches/parents who have access to hard core/building supplies and would like to help please get in touch.) All teams have now confirmed their training times and Jane confirmed with Carol.
Ladies would like to train on a Thursday and possibly a Tuesday as an extra session. Marcia has been working on winter pitches and booked Hawarden for many of the teams. Still working on last few.

vii) Summer Camp update: Rhys still taking bookings so posters to be re distributed via all coaches on social media and Jane to send again to head teachers to send via parent mail during the last week of term. Plans to recruit and generate new sign ups during this time.

viii) Ladies Update: Elain attended the Ladies AGM and was made aware of the suspension details which resulted in our girls spending 6 weeks without playing and then fulfilling al but 1 fixture which was a massive undertaking in the time with multiple matches in the same week. Our Ladies won the championship so big congratulations to all. Unfortunately they were not presented with their trophies so Elain made them aware that we were not happy with the lack of recognition for such an achievement and we have been assured that they will come to us to do a presentation at a later date. It was suggested that it would be a nice idea to involve the younger groups with this. Discussion around 1st and 2nd division development and feeding up to the premiership. All present confirmed that the club is fully supportive of our ladies working up to the premiership and this would be a fantastic way to achieve the growth we want and inspire the community and our younger players. Elain to look into the logistics and costs associated with this and feed back to the committee at a later date. Discussion around coach leader training working from C, B and eventually A as an aspirational goal. Policy to be put in place by Jane & Stuart to protect club funds when facilitating coached CPD. Elain also mentioned kits for ladies needs to be fitted and not mens sizes and also for the u16’s.

ix) Incentive scheme for players: **Before the discussion started Dave mentioned that there will be a demo day on 13th August with all of the clubs showing skills in front of investors so it would be good to have some presence to help Care & Repair do this. Sam suggested the idea of putting on a mini tournament session while they are there. Elain suggested getting bulk tickets for the Wales/England game in Newport and will look into sourcing these and at what cost. Coach hire to take the girls? Jane suggested a budget of £250 per team after tournament each year as an end of season incentive. Rhys suggested by proxy that a club event at connah’s quay swimming baths at £200 for 2 hours would be good as a fitness fun day.

x) Growth & Development plan: To become a standing item on the agenda. Plan to set up a players committee with one nominated player from each team to sit in on specific meetings bi-annually and feedback to players to help make decisions on actions that affect them. Feedback will then come to full committee to work through and make decisions at full meetings.

5) Treasurers Report:
£5,924.68 in bank
£250.15 cash

Marcia and Stuart to take over banking with Jane cross checking and a new budget and growth plan put into place over the coming months so that we can plan what we want to purchase for the club, how it will be funded, and set a minimum fund to be kept in the bank. Budgets for training and development, team building and kits & equipment to be set for each year and when we want something specific which may be a large outlay, corporate sponsorship and grants will be looked into. Rhian to organise and liase with Marcia and Stuart on this.

Online banking to be set up with app to assist with bookkeeping and accounts. Marcia and Stuart happy to deal with book keeping for 6 months as a trial before deciding whether we need a book keeper for 1-2 hours per week.

Fees for this season to stay the same but have a much tighter control and monitoring system. Those who wish to pay in full will be invited on kit handover day and those who wish to pay D/D will have details and be given

U 6-8: £45 one off fee
U9-U10: £8 per month over 9 months (£72 total)
U11-U16: £15 per month over 9 months (£135 total)
Ladies: £16.60 per month over 9 months (or £37.50 quarterly, or £75 bi annual – £150 total)

Elain to let us know about fees to register with the womens North Wales FA

6) Kits
Decision to be made within meeting regarding new kits and action taken immediately. Jane mentioned that the club seemed to have had a few years of procrastination around this area and no resolution in place yet so hard decisions needed to be made for the good of the club and for the purposes of sorting out the main issues that everyone came up with when she took over. Everyone wanted full kits for all age groups bot nobody could come to agreements about the way forward.

Jane’s suggestion was to use some of the funding from the tournament as we weren’t expecting it, match funded by a 50/50 split between ASDA sports development grant and Andy Owen local business sponsorship. This would be a spread investment so low risk to the club and good for local business, as well as giving each player a full kit so that we can start as we mean to go on as a club with our new ground. Mike had mentioned that our latest kits were only 18 months old and so a waste of money if we just replace them. Jane mentioned that the club could sponsor a girls team overseas in a developing country and send old ones over, which would help with our PR and future funding.

Discussion over capping numbers per team to ensure fairness across the club. Lots of numbers discussed but Dave proposed that 18 be a max guide and any others sent over to other appropriate age groups who may be struggling. All agreed.

Name change discussed as Dave had mentioned our new ground doesn’t reflect the name, and if we are investing in new kits we need to be mindful that they will be in place for a few years so if we are to change names it needs to be now.

Final Kit decision: Name to remain the same. New kits to be ordered with the funding strategy as above. Jane & Rhian to access ASDA grant ASAP. Andy Owen to forward company logo to Jane. Blue kit to be handed in on a set date over the next few weeks and sorted by Jane, Marcia, Stuart & Rhian to be re distributed as our away kit. New kits to be ordered via Janes contact (or Pendle Sports – Elain has contact and has used before – we will see who has the best quote and quickest turnaround). Colour/design to be chosen, top 3 by coaches and then votes from players and parents in the next week or so.

Any excess kits/equipment we don’t need will be sent overseas to a team we will twin with and offer support/connection to our players.

Future budget/plan set for tracksuits/raincoats/hats/water bottles and coaches kits.

7) AOB: None

8) Date of next meeting: Not set at time but Jane would like to suggest Monday 13th July as the start of new season training 7-8pm

Discussion following the meeting by coaches & management decided on the following top 3 new kit colours & styles to be voted on by players and parents: