LX CLUB
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
Held on Sunday 3^rd August 2008
At the Great Northern Railway Hotel, Peterborough

The meeting opened at 11:00am with  Nigel Strofton in the chair and 44 additional   members in attendance. A copy of the attendance list is filed in the minute book and is available for inspection from the General Secretary.

The Chairman welcomed all present to the Annual General Meeting.

1.                  APOLOGIES:

The Secretary had received 51 apologies for absence - list attached in minute book.

2.                  MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 2^nd SEPTEMBER 2007:

 Copies of the minutes had been distributed and were duly approved.

3.                  CHAIRMAN’S REPORT:

 After his first year in office, Nigel Strofton used his  report to give particular thanks to a  number of officers who spent many unpaid hours carrying out the functions that kept LX in the forefront of Veterans hockey-

·         David Read – as fixture secretary – who was now on his 41^st version of this year’s fixture list

·         Keith Hunt – as Team and membership secretary for many years -who oversaw players’ availability and liaised with match managers

·         Guy Mayers – who had served as the Club’s treasurer for some 8 years and was  now handing over to Ray Jeff . It was the intention to propose him as a vice-president

·         Adrian Stephenson – who produced the LXer- and George Hazell who with Adrian looked after the club’s website so efficiently

·         Bob Purshouse – as secretary – seemed to thrive on hard work

He intended to leave comments on the playing performances to Club Captain, Gerald Wilkinson but did want to comment on the question of the appropriate selection process for the England and LX red teams which had been the subject of significant criticism at the open forum held immediately before last year’s AGM. He thanked Peter Sharpe, one of the current selection committee, who had taken a year away from playing, to serve solely as a selector and to review the selection processes and recommend an appropriate selection structure maintaining the necessary integrity and transparency to build on the strengths of the past whilst starting to develop a sound system of succession planning for selectors, coaches and players. His recommendations had been considered and accepted by the Management Committee at its meeting on 24 April but he felt it  important that all members should be aware of the proposals that had now been adopted.

At his request, the secretary then summarised the main recommendations as follows:-

a) Appoint a  Co-ordinator (or Chairman) of selectors – who preferably should not be a team captain – to oversee the whole selection process and be responsible to the LX Management Committee for the integrity of that process.

b) The selection committee to be made up of the Co-ordinator of selectors plus 2/3 other selectors. The selectors should be endorsed by the LX Management Committee on the recommendation ,if necessary, of a sub committee composed of members with relevant  experience. The selection committee will be responsible for recommending annually the appointment of the captains of the England GM, GGM and SGM teams approving recommendations for vice-captains, coaches and managers and the captain of LX Reds 

c) Team captains, once appointed, should be co-opted to the selection committee to assist in the selection and development of tournament squads.

d) Consideration be given to appointing coaches to all England teams who will be responsible , with input from the captain and management team, for team selection during tournaments.

e) Permission should be requested from England Hockey to change the age qualification at the Regional Tournament to over 59 and 64 respectively (instead of 60 and 65)

f) Consideration be given to inviting suitable players to LX membership in their late 50s rather than in their early 60s.

g) Team captains should be appointed from those eligible only for that particular age and while players eligible for an older age group should not be barred , selectors should be encouraged to introduce new blood in the interests of good succession planning.

h) From next season, selectors should normally be appointed for a 3 year period , subject to annual review by a sub committee of the LX Man. Committee, with the possibility of being eligible for appointment for a maximum of 6 years.

i)   Selectors should abstain from discussion when their own selection is involved, and the Co-ordinator of selectors should take soundings from the other selectors in the interests of transparency to confirm that a selector is worthy of selection to a particular squad. Where the co-ordinator himself is under consideration for selection, these soundings should be taken by the Chairman or President of the LX Club.

Those members attending the AGM confirmed their general approval.

 4.       CLUB CAPTAIN’S REPORT

Gerald Wilkinson’s full report is attached in the minute book. He highlighted the full fixture list achieved through the substantial efforts of the Fixtures and Team Secretaries together with Match Managers. 31 matches, 3 hockey week-ends, 3 home tournaments and 3 foreign tours plus the European Vets tournament had all been fulfilled with the reputation of LX  remaining intact or enhanced. Hockey provided by LX averages about 1 match per weekend – some 52 matches over 12 months. Notable were the visit again to Jersey organised by Dave Robson, a winning return to Lille under Ian Russell’s leadership, a trip to Padua through Adrian Stephenson and a first tour to Vienna organised by Richard Clarke. He drew attention to the need to find a  solution to cater for the less mobile and those who no longer play regularly in a Saturday club team.He had some ideas in mind but match managers will be required. Although 37 different match managers helped to organise fixtures during the year, there was still a need for new Match managers to come forward. The England GM and GGM squads were building up to the World Cup in Hong Kong in September and a number of training matches had taken place. The GGMs were trying to retain their title and the GMs had a title to win back from the Germans. He wished both teams and the LX Reds success.

The Position of Club Captain.
Gerald commented on his position as club captain and consideration of his replacement. He felt that when the time came for this, the club would have a choice of either moving forward retaining its primary aim to be the provider of National Grand Masters teams or  move backwards and become just a social hockey club like the Dutch De Zestig Plussers or combine both successfully. He believed the right person to take over this position should have a foot in many hockey doors and should be akin to a Performance Director responsible for the playing reputation and ethos of the whole Club. The role had to balance the hockey playing aspirations of the players of the National teams and the LX Club’s non-National players. The CV of any future holder of this position should include experience of National team hockey as a first requirement.    

5.       TEAM SECRETARY AND MEMBERSHIP REPORT

Keith Hunt’s full report is attached in the minute book.  Highlights were :-

·         Playing membership now stood at 132 plus our Vice-Presidents, Non playing members and Associates ,although he felt some of the 132 might now be classified as non-playing.

·         5 new members had joined this year ,  3 members  had resigned and 4 had asked to be reclassified as non-playing. The club lost one of its stalwarts with the death of David Simms.

·         Membership was now by invitation either through the Regional Grandmasters Tournament or through the Selection Panel after vetting any individual recommendation.

·         118 members had made themselves available for one or more games , tours or tournaments, but Keith was concerned at the lack of availability of the younger membership which he hoped would improve next year.

Robin Mayes also thanked Keith for the enjoyable  event at Reading to mark Keith’s 70^th birthday

6.       FIXTURE SECRETARY REPORT     

David Read’s full report is attached in the minute book. Highlights were:-

·         29 LX Club fixtures were planned in 2008, including tours to Vienna, the Lakes, Jerssey and Lille. 14 over 60 ‘A’ team games and practices had been arranged plus 8 over 65 ‘A’ team games, and 4 LX Red/Blue team games in preparation for Barcelona and Hong Kong

·         5 England /LX Club teams played in the European Vets tournament in Barcelona and 2 England and 1 LX Club team were going to Hong Kong.

·         In May the Regional tournament at Cannock was expanded to include over 65s for the first  time as well as over 60s.

·         Thanks were due to George Hazell who coped admirably with updating the web site and all those who annually arrange fixtures. Newer members were requested to come forward with fixtures as older ones were lost

Nigel Strofton thanked David and referred to the possibility of some mid week inter club games also referred to by Gerald in his report.. This idea was generally welcomed.

7.          TREASURER’S REPORT

The accounts  for the year ended 31 December 2007, which had been independently examined by Robin Mayes, had been distributed to all members with the meeting agenda.  These showed that for the year there was a surplus of £2,771.  At the year end, the Club’s reserves stood at £ 14,133 of which £ 11,546 was in the bank and £ 2,268 was in stock .

Guy referred to the Club’s four income streams in 2007:-

·         Sales of club kit  which had produced a surplus of over £500

·         Receipts from fixtures had exceeded costs of fixtures by £1,800

·         The Grand Masters European Cup at Canterbury had realised a surplus of £814, and

·         Subscriptions/joining fees which ,at just under £4,000,were not quite sufficient to meet other general club expenses.

Since the end of the year the level of cash has reduced as a result of payments made for the European Vets tournament in Barcelona but Guy believed the year would end up in surplus. He thanked everyone for their support during his 8 years as Treasurer.

Adoption of the accounts with no change to the levels of joining fee, playing or non-playing subscription  was proposed by Nigel Strofton, seconded by Gilbert Grace and approved unanimously.

 8.    ELECTION OF OFFICERS

a) The election of officers as set out in the attached list was proposed by Laurie Alcock, seconded by Ian Russell and approved unanimously.  There was still no nomination for Foreign Secretary .

b) Vice Presidents. The Committee wished to recommend that Guy Mayers – for his services  as Treasurer over an 8 year   period -  be appointed a Vice –President as an     acknowledgement of his hard work and commitment to LX over many years. This was carried unanimously.

9.   ANY OTHER BUSINESS    

a) Sponsorship Committee.

The Chairman referred to the 2012 World Cup which was most likely to be held in  England and the need to maximise sponsorship for this by using all of our contacts within the Club. A sponsorship committee was to be proposed. Ian Russell and Roger Lomas offered to assist on this committee.

b) Web site.

George Hazell asked for indications from the meeting of how often the web site was used. The majority seemed to use it fairly frequently. Leon Mack asked that where possible selected teams were put on the web site. Often members made themselves available for fixtures but heard /.nothing more.

c)      Tournaments

David Brampton raised the use of players in a squad at tournaments. To leave people on  the sidelines for 65 minutes of a 70 mins game was inconsiderate. It was explained that for LX sides, every effort was made to give all players equal time but this may not necessarily be the policy  with England teams.

d) AGM 2009

The secretary stated that the next European Cup was to be held near Amsterdam towards the end of August 2009. It was therefore proposed to hold the AGM on July 25/26.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and contributions and declared the meeting closed at 11:45 am.