HertsSQUASH
County Committee Meetings
Present: Dominic Webster, Isobel Smith, Sally Ann Webster, Jason Foster,
Paul Drakes, Phil Jenkins, Fiona McLure, Mark Blake, Derek Thorpe
Apologies: Nicky Wase, Lesley Garner
Firstly, sadly Jason will be moving to Derby and Mark Blake will be taking
over as Chairman. Sally Ann, who has resigned as League Secretary, will be
handing over to Phil Jenkins. The rest of the committee remain the same.
AGM Minutes
The committee agreed that the minutes were a true record of the meeting.
Website
Jason felt that as he would be leaving the committee and also Sally Ann it
was a good time to have a ‘clean sweep’ and have a major face lift for the
website. It is looking very dated and needs a completely new look. Sally Ann
had received an email from Humber Squash and she
thought that the website looked good. We really needed to start from scratch
and build up a new website. We will keep the domain name which Derek has
been paying for up until now. When the next invoice comes in for this Derek
will pass to Paul for payment. Much discussion ensued regarding items that
could be included on the new look website e.g. a more up to date online
league system, online entry forms and also the possibility of using PayPal
to pay directly online for tournament entry fees, t-shirts or other items.
Derek confirmed that he has just designed website with PayPal and would be
able to work with Phil & Mark compiling a new one for Herts. Phil will put
together a list of essentials for the new website and will liaise with
Derek.
Treasurer’s Report
Only 21 teams have paid so far for the Summer Leagues. Do we need to put up
entry fees? The cost is £30 at present. The committee felt that this would
be a problem. We haven’t had many outgoings apart from trophies. Copydisk,
who sponsored the Herts Closed in January, submitted an invoice which it was
agreed we would pay half of. We currently have £2,949.20 in main bank
account. Junior Committee have requested £1,500.00 this was agreed.
Mens Leagues
Sally Ann, having resigned as League Secretary at the AGM, needs to pass on
all contacts etc to Phil Jenkins who will be taking over. Many thanks once
again to Sally Ann for all her hard work. The most important thing is to
send the entry form out for the winter leagues, this really needs to go out
by the end of the week. Sally Ann will send Phil all the email contact,
telephone numbers etc. Phil would like to keep his own email address
separate and Derek will look into setting up an email account through the
website. The committee discussed whether match are really necessary now as
the online leagues should be enough. Sally Ann feels that the a better
league software could be found and had received a few emails regarding
different packages 9 -0 being one. Paul has knowledge of 9-0 as R3 Leisure
are using for their in house leagues. Phil will make some enquiries into new
software but will take into consideration that it needs to be able to run 3
person teams, have an archive, a ranking list, also it would be good to get
the ladies leagues online as well. The system would have to be user
friendly. We could justify putting up the entry fees for the leagues to
cover the costs of the new website and league software, putting them up to
£50 per team. There hasn’t been an increase for a few years. Phil will
investigate costs etc. and liaise with Sally Ann and Derek, he will have
final decision as it will be him running the leagues. We need a cut off date
though to either go with a new system, or to stay with old system for coming
season.
Ladies Leagues
Paul mentioned that R3 might be looking to put a ladies team in the leagues.
He gave Fiona contact details and she will find out more. We could put
advert on the website asking if there are any ladies out there looking to
play team squash. Jason mentioned that there will be a ladies social match
during the festival of squash at Bishops Stortford.
County Teams
Jason has asked Scott Rickard at Berkhamstead whether he would be interested
in running the Men’s 1st Team. Scott has agreed to do this but will probably
only be able to come to a few of the committee meetings.
Isobel said that she would like to put in a second ladies team into the
Women’s league. She will email Dominic to remind him to do this.
Men’s O35 team – this team has been withdrawn for the last two years due to
lack of available players. The committee discussed whether it was worth
entering a team this year. The general consensus was that there are plenty
of O35 players in Herts, we just need a Captain for the team to organise
them! Steve Lloyd had expressed an interest again, but the committee decided
that Mark Blake should carry out the role for the time being. We need to get
contact emails for all current players and build up a data base.
County Closed Championship
The weekend of 19th /20thJanuary 2008 has been earmarked for the tournament.
Jason just needs someone to run it. As it will be at Broxbourne Mark said he
would be happy to help. Jason will need to pass on all emails addresses etc.
for entry forms to go out. We will also advertise on the website. Phil
suggested being able to enter directly from the website and pay with PayPal,
this would really make things far more efficient. Derek confirmed that
should not pose a problem.
Just Rackets Cup
Jason asked for someone to take over the running of this event. Isobel said
she would be willing to do this and Sally Ann will also help.
Any Other Business
Following the sad death of Nigel Clout, who had been on the committee
briefly some time ago, Lesley Garner at Cannons is organising a doubles
tournament in memory of him.
Jason suggested that we ask Gary Spindler of Just Rackets and R3 whether he
would like to join the committee. As a Hertfordshire based company he is
always very keen to sponsor events and get involved. Mark will contact him
to discuss.
Sally Ann mentioned that she had received emails from Ian Mackney of Radlett
expressing an interest in helping on the committee. He is a racketball
player and would be keen to promote racketball. Also Mike Byrne from Gosling
and Chris Thomas, who has just come off the junior committee. It would be
beneficial to the committee to have someone to deal solely with publicity.
Jason mentioned that Justin Price is our England Squash representative and
that perhaps he could be invited to the next meeting.
Finally Sally Ann was presented with a bouquet of flowers and ‘personalised’
teapot and mugs to thank her invaluable work as league secretary over the
past ten years.
Next Meeting is to be arranged.