Sully Centurions Cricket Club

Minutes of Committee Meetings - 2008

Minutes of this year's committee meetings are posted here.  If any member wishes to see a copy of any previous  year's committee meetings, please contact the webmaster on centurioncricket@hotmail.co.uk stating which minute(s) you wish to receive a copy of. 
Committee Meeting – Tuesday 12th February 2008

7.30pm at the Sully Inn

Present A Davies (Chair), DW Sylvester, DP Sylvester, R Sylvester, M Fisher, D Eskins, J Sylvester

1. Apologies for Absence: M Thomas

2. Minutes of Meeting held on 18th December 2007: Agreed as a true record.

3. Matters Arising

Sponsorship: Sully Inn – JS has spoken to Ken.  RS has spoken to 3 Horseshoes; they are keen to get us back there. A good offer could be on the table.  Agreed that DWS and RS talk to 3 Horseshoes. DWS and JS will speak with Sully Inn.

Allen & Harris – Money has now been received.

A letter had been received from St David’s Hospice thanking Jamie and Ryan for their donation of £314.80 following the charity football match on Boxing Day. MF will put a copy of the letter on the website.

Club Cheque Book: The new mandate has now been completed. MF, AD and DWS are all signatories.

Annual Dinner Questionnaire: The questionnaire is ready for distribution. MF will send it to those members on the email list. AD will distribute hard copies (and letter re subs) at nets over next couple of weeks.

Classic Sports: Long discussion over the details of the bill for kit from Classic Sports. It was agreed that the remaining £500 should be paid this week. AD is to pick up the cheque from DWS on Thursday morning and deliver it personally.  It was agreed that lessons needed to be learned from this situation, as it had been counterproductive and did nothing to enhance the club’s name.

4. Financial Statement:  Following the agreed £500 payment to Classic Sports there was £900 in the current account. JS handed over two cheques totalling £282.50 (one sponsor and one junior subs). DWS reported that some junior subs money was still outstanding.  He will contact MS for the balance.   Kit needs to be ready by 1st April, therefore sponsors will need to be finalised by then.

It was agreed that there needs to be a concerted effort to get the subs in over the next few weeks. RS will concentrate on 1st XI. AD agreed to chase up the rest.  DWS agreed to bring monthly bank statements to future meetings.

5. Feedback from Meeting with Sully Council:  AD and MF reported on the meeting with the council and the subsequent follow up letter received from the clerk. The 2007 rent has now been set at £1500. A cheque to that value will be sent to the council this week. No information has yet been received from the council regarding the 2008 rent.

The clerk’s letter stated that he would be writing to the rugby club to tell them to reinstate the electricity supply to the scoreboard. This was welcomed, however it was agreed that we should impress on the council that the scoreboard needs to be checked on a monthly basis.

Concern was expressed at the news that the council has told us that the pitch has already been booked on 20th April, which is the date of the Glamorgan Academy match.

DPS will give MF the fixture list (including friendly games) and MF will draft a letter to go to the council stating our concerns and the fact that we need to honour our commitment to Glamorgan for this match. The fixture list will also be sent; with a statement that we can be flexible, but there are some matches (e.g. the Glamorgan Academy match) that we need to keep on the proposed date.

6. Feedback from Meeting with Vale of Glamorgan Council:  MF and DWS reported that the meeting was helpful and that we stood to gain considerably by agreeing to a Management Agreement with the Vale Council. Unfortunately there was likely to be a delay in ratifying any agreement due to the forthcoming council elections.

7. Sponsorship: JS reported that £6000 - £7000 was likely to be coming in shortly from various sponsors. This was welcomed. He also suggested that more people should get involved in fund raising, as it was a vitally important aspect of running the club.

8. Player Update:  Unfortunately we have had some bad luck with some targeted players, but JS announced that one player was likely to join within the coming weeks. The committee welcomed this. Glamorgan CCC has not allocated any player to us this year. Mike O’Shea is going to play at Bridgend.

It was agreed that we respond to Glamorgan simply by asking that we be considered in future years.

9. Ground: DPS reported that the roller was away being repaired and is due back within the next two weeks. The playing area needs to be squared off properly. It was agreed that we write to the council asking that we bring in a professional to help us to do this and we will cover any cost.

10. Training Balls: Due to the dwindling supply of balls for nets the Chairman had agreed with JS to buy some new senior and junior (soft) balls. This has now been done and JS will be reimbursed.

11. Fitness Training Bill: An invoice has been received from Vale Council – RS will deal with this.

12. Any Other Business: DWS – asked for adverts for 2008 programme. JS will check with sponsors on their requirements.

DWS – Suggested that Tea Money should be raised in order to cover rising costs (Agreed to discuss this at next meeting).

The meeting finished at 10.00pm

The next meeting is to be held on Tuesday 11th March 2008, 7.30pm at the Sully Inn.

Committee Meeting – Sunday 9th March 2008 - 7.00pm at the Sully Inn

Present: A Davies (Chair) DW Sylvester, D Eskins, R Sylvester, M Sullivan, J Sylvester, M Fisher

 1. Apologies: DP Sylvester, M Thomas and C Bruce

 2. Minutes of Previous Meeting (12th February 2008) Agreed as a true record.

3. Matters Arising
· Questionnaire - Two responses received.  Date for 2008 Dinner will be end of September (Friday or Saturday Night).  Price should be around £25.00.  Agreed to pursue Copthorne and/or Mount Sorrel Hotels.  DE and RS will follow this up.

· Subs - There is still a large number outstanding.  Concerted effort is needed to get the 2008 subs in.  After some discussion it was agreed that this season’s tea money would be £4 per player.

· New Letter Heading has been produced.  After final amendments it will be used.

4. Financial Statement
DE declared that £33 had been raised at the quiz night.  RS also had two lots of subs to hand in.
DWS produced the monthly bank statement, which was scrutinised by the committee.  Currently we have £1100 in the account.  There are still several fees to go out for this season, including insurance, league fees and payments for match balls, so this will be diminished shortly. 
Some more bills were presented for payment - including nets (Vale of Glamorgan).  RS requested that the treasurer give him a cheque for £200 to cover the fees for the training days (he will bring the cash in but would prefer the club to pay the cheque to the council.)  This was agreed.  MS will pick up the cheque from DWS tomorrow (Monday 10th March).
DWS was again requested to bring in the club chequebook to the next meeting.

5. Sully Council Update
The council has agreed to the following requests:
Glamorgan Academy date - 20th April
The club can bring in Andy Noyes to square off the pitches with Donny. The league can go ahead with the testing of pitch (AD will contact John Owen to inform him of this).
We have sent in our list of fixtures, including friendlies, to the clerk.  In all there are five Sundays allocated to Sully Spartans.
The council has now informed us that the 2008 rent is £1700.  It was felt that we ought to write to them and point out that we have to pay £200 extra, while, at the same time, we have 5 Sundays less allocated to us.  The council will no doubt be charging the Spartans for the use of the pitch, so it is only fair that we should not have to pay for those days.  At £50 per Sunday that is a total of £250.  Therefore we should only be paying £1450.  However, we are happy to pay £1500, which is the same as 2007.  MF will liaise with the chairman in order to produce the letter.

6.Scoreboard
The Council has declared that the work undertaken on the scoreboard is unsafe and illegal.  The club paid LD Oliver £1100 and has their letter, which states that the work is completed to British Standard safety regulations.  DWS pointed out that the warranty is affected if we don’t test the electric during the close season.  JS will liaise with JD Oliver and report back.  It was agreed that this needs to be sorted as soon as possible, as the season is almost upon us.

7.Sponsorship Update
MF announced that several sponsors’ logos had now been put on the website, with a new ‘sponsors’ page’ also being produced.
MS said that Grabit and PM Rees had pledged money to the juniors.  Grabit will also give money to the main club.  Broad Street Motors will again be sponsoring the club.  James Hull has, as anticipated last month, agreed to sponsor us for a large sum of money this season.  DE said that Angela was looking into getting some sponsorship via work, as was AD.
DWS asked that we send a letter of thanks Mr Scaglioni for agreeing to produce our programme free of charge and for producing the laminated fixture lists (passed out at meeting).  This was agreed.
Some discussion followed regarding the advertising boards.  It was agreed that DWS will supply the wood and that DE will liaise with his contact (Hooky) in order to get the work done.  JS requested that we get five 3ft x 16ft boards for major sponsors.  DWS said that boards that size would not stay up in the wind at Burnham Avenue and that we could not dig holes to keep them secure without council permission.  It was agreed that DWS would supply the boards within 14 days.

8.Player Update
JS announced that the situation is as it was last month.  The issue regarding the transfer of RJ from Barry Athletic is still ongoing.  RS will follow this up and a deadline of March 31st was put on the action.

9. Cover Tops
JS said that 3 new tops were needed.  DWS disagreed and felt that they could be repaired.  If we need to replace them it will be very expensive for the club (approximately £1000).  RS will liaise with Andy Noyes at Burnham Avenue in order to check what needs to be done.

10. Junior Nets.
DWS stated that MT had made the sockets and he had picked them up.  There was a need to check that the nets we are purchasing are still in good condition.   Agreed that DPS check them at Byrnham Avenue. 

11.Coach for Corsham Match
It was agreed that if we were to have a coach for this match it needed to be funded directly from those would be going.  The event should be cost neutral.

12.Yearbook/Programme
Any remaining adverts should be sent to DWS by next Friday (14th March).

13.Feedback from Discussions
The Sully Inn can give us the same as this year in sponsorship.  The 3 Horseshoes have not been able to meet with us.  RS and DE will pursue this option.

14. Any Other Business
There was none

 15.Date and Time of Next Meeting: To Be Arranged
The meeting finished at 9.40pm.

Sully Centurions CC

Committee Meeting – Thursday 10th April 2008

6.30pm at the Pavilion, Burnham Avenue

Present: A Davies (Chair) DW Sylvester, R Sylvester, M Sullivan, J Sylvester, DP Sylvester, M Thomas and M Fisher

1. Apologies: D Eskins and C Bruce

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting (9th March 2008) Agreed as a true record

3. Matters Arising

Annual Dinner – DWS reported that the Mount Sorrel Hotel would do the dinner for £16.50 per head, with additional £50 for the disco and £50 for the late licence (until 1.00am). Agreed that we should book the Mount Sorrel – preferred date is 7th November, with 14th November as a back up date if the 7th is not available. DWS will follow this up.

Collection of Money - DWS asked those responsible to ensure that all monies that had been collected from members (whether from subs or from events, such as the quiz night) were passed on to the treasurer as soon as possible. RS reported that he held a balance of £13 from the Training Day, but reminded the meeting that the final bill for the Wednesday nights fitness sessions had yet to be received from the Vale Council.

Scoreboard – MT had fixed the electrics, although Sully Community Council was still disputing the ‘legality’ of the work. MF reported that a letter had been received from the council regarding this and that an ‘independent inspection’ had taken place, which appeared to support the council’s view. However, our letter from Lee Oliver, who did the original work, states that work has been carried out to meet the required standards. In view of the impending council elections it was unlikely that anything would be forthcoming from the council over the next month, so we would simply ask that they contact Lee Oliver if they wished to discuss the matter further. As far as Sully Centurions is concerned, we have covered ourselves by ensuring that the letter from Lee Oliver clearly supports our case.

4. Financial Statement DWS reported that, following receipt of money from a variety of sponsors, our bank balance was in excess of £10,000. However, there were still several items of expenditure to go out over the next month, including the league fees, match balls, insurance and any other expenditure still to be agreed at this meeting (see below). Collection of members’ annual subscriptions was still an issue.

5. Cover Tops  RS and JS reported that the cover tops were still leaking and that we would not be able to make them last another season. New tops would cost in excess of £1500. After much debate it was agreed that we should do the following:

JS will contact the manufacturer to order the new tops (this will take at least two weeks to complete)

DWS will contact the insurance company to see if we can claim the cost back (as most damage has been due to vandalism).  Existing covers will be repaired so that they can be used for the next couple of weeks.  DPS will get a new tyre for one of the covers that requires it.

All of the above to be carried out as soon as possible – Initial work to commence on Friday 11th April.

6. Advertising Boards  JS reported that we need five 16x3 boards for our 5 major sponsors – each board will consist of two 8x3 boards, therefore we actually need ten of these. Currently we have six. It was agreed that required boards would be ordered and completed by next week. MT agreed to make some poles that would be driven into the ground to support these larger boards. It was also agreed that the smaller boards would be placed at the scoreboard end of the ground while the large ones would be situated at the pavilion end. Captains were reminded that players needed to help with bringing in the boards and the rope after each home match.

7. Junior Nets  The committee was disappointed that the work had still not been completed. JS will contact Martin Tanner again in order to sort this out. DWS agreed to pick up the remaining boxes from Cardiff on Monday. It was agreed that Saturday would be preferable, as more people would be able to help. DWS said that he will try to do it on Saturday, but this was largely dependent on whether anyone would be available at Sophia Gardens. As the juniors were meeting on Monday night it was agreed that it was a priority to get this sorted.

8. Spare Scoreboard  MF asked what had happened regarding this – in view of the potential problems with the electronic board, it would be sensible to have a back up. JS reported that he had agreed with Glamorgan CCC to give them one of our spare green mats for their indoor use in return for a spare scoreboard that they no longer required. This was welcomed and it was agreed that DWS should pick it up when he collects the boxes from Sophia Gardens.

9. Sully Council Update   MF reported that he had sent two emails to the council and had received a response. The Inter League match on 7th August was agreed. Our issues with the 2008 fees would be put to the new council when it has its first meeting on 6th May 2008

10. Player Registrations  Andrew Davies’ coaching certificate had now been located and the ECB had confirmed his status. AD has been in touch with John Owen (SWL Secretary) and as soon as the certificate has arrived we can officially register Andrew.

Barry Athletic have now agreed to Rhett Jones’ transfer, as the financial problem has been rectified.

All remaining registrations should be completed by next week.

11.Subscriptions  We were still awaiting subs from several members. It was agreed that the captains should contact team members in order to chase this up. The situation is now critical. MT suggested that we could offer a scheme where members can pay monthly via direct debits. It was agreed that we should consider this at a future meeting.

12. Any Other Business

MF – the Inter-League Match on 7th August will be a big occasion for the club and we should do our best to publicise it and try to get as many people here as possible. Agreed.

DPS – The sight screens will need to be pulled over as soon as possible – agreed that as many people as possible should help out on Saturday morning.

DWS – We have some more friendly fixtures arranged, some of these are midweek games. MF agreed to inform the council of these.

13.Date and Time of Next Meeting: It was agreed that we needed to meet again before the league season started so the meeting will be on Thursday 24th April 2008 – after nets at the Pavilion.

The meeting finished at 8.00pm.

Committee Meeting – Thursday 24th April 2008

8.00pm at the Pavilion, Burnham Avenue

Present: A Davies (Chair) R Sylvester, J Sylvester, DP Sylvester, D Eskins and M Fisher

1. Apologies: M Thomas

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting (11th April 2008)  Agreed as a true record

3. Matters Arising

Kit – JS reported that the shirts with the sponsors’ logos for the new season would not all be ready by the first game (this Saturday) They will be done as soon as possible and hopefully this will only be short delay. DWS had paid £1000 to the suppliers and the balance was ready to be paid.

Advertising Boards – Three of the large boards had been completed but two remain outstanding, due we are told, to a lack of wood at Hook Signs. This is to be resolved as soon as possible as we do not want to let our sponsors down.

4. Cover Tops: The replacement cover tops have now been ordered at a cost of £2,300. These will take two to three weeks to be ready. This order also includes two new wheels for the covers and some side sheeting. The committee expressed thanks to Matthew Thomas for his work on the temporary repairs to the old tops, which will be in use for the first few weeks of the season.

5. Junior Nets: RS reported that the boxes had finally arrived from Sophia Gardens and that he had been in touch with Martin Tanner to get the work completed. £1,000 had been paid and the balance is now due. JS also reported that the deal to get the spare scoreboard from Glamorgan CCC had now fallen through and we are still in need of one. It was suggested that JS ask M Tanner to make one – it should cost about £100. This was agreed.

6. Match Balls/Umpires’ Money for 1st XI Games: AD reminded the meeting of the arrangements that had been previously agreed – the scorer would be given the umpires’ cheques and the match balls for all the home games. DPS agreed to sort this out with DWS.

7. Match Day Preparation: DPS said that he was OK with everything apart from the moving and siting of the large advertising boards, for which he will need some help. JS suggested that if this was a problem we might have to agree to pay someone to assist Donny on a Saturday morning. RS suggested that we should see how arrangements go for the first week and make a decision following this. Agreed

8. Coach for Corsham Match: Castle Coaches and Thomas Motors had been approached. The Thomas Motors cost was £400 but as they are to give us £300 in sponsorship for this year it was decided that we should go with them. The pick up time was suggested as 9.30am from the Three Horseshoes, as they will put on a breakfast for us at 8.30am. This will be finalised nearer the date.

9. Sully Council Update: MF had received a letter regarding two midweek friendly matches that we have organised. There appears to be a slight problem with access to the pavilion before 6pm due to the S Club meeting there. This is normally addressed by the S Club moving to the Jubilee Hall when we have a match. MF will see DWS and get back to the council.

10. Player Registrations: All have now been completed, with the possible exception of Wayne Ewar – as the latest league communication lists his status as ‘pending’. However, DWS had been in touch with the Llantwit representative who had assured him that the matter had been dealt with. We need to ensure all is above board and agreed before he can play. AD agreed to check.

11.Subscriptions: We are still awaiting subs from several members. It was agreed that the 1st and 2nd XI captains should have the list of those who are still outstanding and explain this Saturday that if the money was not forthcoming then they would not be considered for selection next week.

12. Any Other Business AD – An email had been received from Chris Chaulk regarding the progress on the Glebe Field and asking what the financial situation was. AD agreed to contact him in order to explain the current situation. It was suggested that we needed to have a concerted effort to address the Glebe Field situation and make a final decision regarding our future commitment to this project. This will be discussed again at a future meeting.

MF – A letter has been written to The Sully Inn thanking them for their support and wishing them well for the future.

13.Date and Time of Next Meeting: To Be Arranged

The meeting finished at 9.05pm.