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DUFFA Annual General Meeting Minutes


Meeting notes

DUFFA AGM Sunday 27th of September, 2009


Minutes for Annual General Meeting of Didsbury Ultimate Frisbee For Amateurs held at Parrswood Pubic House, School Lane, Didsbury, Manchester - Sunday 27th September 2009
Present
Alan Heckman
Phil Torpey (part)
Simon Jermy
Shelley Heckman
Mark Mynett (part)
David Shingler
James Griffin
Steve Cairns
Kevin Lucas
Oliver Wilcox
Matt Anderson
Trishy Emeny
Stuart Collier (part)
Ant Bailey (part)
Taj Uddin (part)
Stevie Senior (part)
 
1
Introduction
 
Chair introduced agenda. Some items required by constitution and items proposed in run to AGM. Topics to be discussed openly, proposed motions (informally) and motions to be voted. Voting procedures for nomination of Committee to be ran as last year.
2
Approval of Last Year's Minutes
 
Approved last year's AGM minutes. Copies passed.
 
RESOLVED: Chair proposed to approve the agenda and begin the meeting. No objections raised and motion was passed.
3
Report from Chair
 
1)      State of club
a.       Club is in a "good place", we have a lot of freedom and decisions to make - not necessarily today - on where to take the club. 
2)      Activities since last AGM
a.       48 Sunday sessions
b.      28 Thursday sessions
c.       21 indoor sessions
d.      3 skills sessions
e.      7 tournaments entered
f.        3 friendlies played
g.       9 out-reach sessions for kids (7 break, 1 Middleton, 1 Southport)
h.      2 adult sessions
i.         2 out-reach more next week
j.        Purchased 200 discs
k.       Now have jerseys!
l.         Club banner
m.    Cones and other miscellaneous equipment purchased
n.      6 discs sent to Kenya
o.      9 discs provided to Outreach kids
p.      £70 + 17 discs for Disc for Kids scheme raised
q.      Hat tournament!
3)      Outlook of club
a.       Lots of ideas
b.      Good outlook – we're not insolvent!
c.       Built strong community
d.      We're running hat in 2010
e.      More outreach sessions!
f.        Anyone interested in the room can do whatever they like!
g.       Mini league!
h.      Mini hat
i.         Hat tournament growth!
j.        Junior team!
Concludes – we're doing well and will keep doing well.
4
Report from Secretary
 
Secretary echoed words of Chair and noted following:
·         Facebook membership currently at 215, continues to grow
·         Good number of queries answered - website and Facebook group continue to advertise the club
·         More socials are required but those that we had were great successes
·         We beat our nearest rivals in a well spirited and hard fought friendly!
5
Report of Treasurer
 
·         Overview of treasurers role
·         Biggest task is the DUFFA Hat accounts – can't close accounts until refund from HMRC - looks like we're getting a refund! 
·         Pre hat finances and receipts and reimbursement was good and fast! Since Hat been busy in personal life but they are in good shape.
·         Proper presentation of accounts to be done - and validated by our reviewer. 
·         £1600 in the bank at the moment but some hat reimbursement. 
·         £1000 - £500-£600 in bank for the club. 
·         134 Frisbees left in stock. 
6
Certification of Accounts
 
Not done in time for AGM - will report this and publish them on the website.
 
RESOLVED: Accepting all reports and accounts status.
7
Fix Membership Fee
 
All felt free was the correct price. 
 
RESOLVED: Chair proposed to keep membership fee at zero. No objections raised and motion was passed.
8
Changes to Constitution
 
No changes proposed in advance so cannot change. Chair advised that if anyone has any changes then we can call a special general meeting. 
 
RESOLVED: No changes required at present. 
9
Review and consideration of bye laws
 
Never passed any previously. 
Anyone with any byelaws can talk to a committee members - recommend that they do so. 
 
RESOLVED: Chair proposed to create byelaws should a need arise in the future but none required at present. No objections raised and motion was passed.
10
Consideration of DUFFA Venue
 
A discussion was held RE venue change, some of the points raised were:
·         Stay at Didsbury park. We are known to play there - safe!
·         Now have 30 people turning up - no space for extension or a second pitch and pitch is too small.
·         Possibilities Fog Lane, Fletcher Moss. 
·         Saturday trial suggested prior to move. 
·         Other pitches may be in use for Sunday football.
·         Caution on a temporary move - confusing. 
·         Numbers in Winter might be a more issue. 
·         Didsbury Park Pitch in a state already. 
·         Consider our relationship with the Royal Oak
·         Is a problem of people complaining that they don't get enough pitch time - perhaps some regulars aren't subbing though.
·         Fog Lane does have a number of insects
·         Fog Lane has more risk of theft of bags etc
·         Reserving pitches is difficult. 
·         Be careful of going somewhere that isn't free subs would affect our numbers. 
·         Risk of more injuries on a bad pitch 
·         Dog faeces - Didsbury Park has a fenced area.
·         Caution of student drop off. 
·         Fletcher Moss nice and clean but is a known flood plain. 
·         Proposed that we stay for the winter and move there in the spring. 
 
RESOLVED:   Stay at Didsbury Park for now, subject to formal review in 6 months and trial with a continuous review! Seconded. None opposed, none abstained, passed unanimously. 
11
Consideration of Questions of DUFFA 2010
 
Positive feedback from DUFFA Hat Tournament 2009 - was a success. 
Hat tournament committee met post tournament to discuss next year. Narrowed to three options
1)      Keep same size
2)      Increase to 450 people
3)      Some growth
Risk is that this would need a venue - we are aware of the pitfalls of the venue and know how to work around these. Hat tournament committee took a task to look at different venues with larger capacity. Chair proposed to ratify the decision of the committee by the whole club as it's so important to the club. 
 
A discussion took place, major points raised:
·         Query on what venues have been considered
·         Parrs Wood High School was one but thought to be an expensive option
·         Bigger tournament required to fund  more expensive venue - would rent a marquee with stage and bar £2.5k est. Expense - get a bar company to run - with 10% takings. 
·         Allows live bands with big PA!
·         Plattfields and Heaton Mersey RFC - all possible.
·         Platt fields seems to be a difficult one.
·         Query on size of Durham hat - 240 approx
·         The security issues
·         Limited camping space at Parrs Wood at Juniors event. 
·         Fear of loss of great atmosphere of secluded venue! 
·         Discussed Burnage RFU spare field but Sunday car boot means we can't use that. 
·         Query on a mix of using Rugby venue and the Parrs Wood fields but we've actually have filled the club venue. 
·         Discussion on potential numbers - felt 300 is not unrealistic with little effort
·         Chair was confident we can sell out whatever we want to do with suitable marketing effort.  
 
RESOLVED: Motion to authorise the club committee to deal with the question. No objections raised and motion was passed.
12
Consideration of a one day tournament for Manchester teams. 
 
Discussion held, representatives from the Manchester Open team   felt this was something that they wanted to do.
 
RESOLVED: Chair proposed to defer this to the new year and co-operate with Manchester team. No objections raised and motion was passed.
13
Consideration Short term league
 
DUFFA is strong enough to run a series of events - 4 teams proposed in the first year - 14 a team. 60 people needed to come to 3 weekdays and a Saturday. 
 
RESOLVED: Chair proposed to defer form a committee to look at this in the new year. No objections raised and motion was passed.
14
Discussion and clarification of the committee at large role
 
Existing Committee member was unsure of the role of the committee at large members - don't meet so what is the role? 
 
Felt that most organisation was done by the hat committee and the rest informally via email. We do need more formal meetings as in theory the committee decide everything for the club - in actual fact we've chosen to take big decision to the general assembly. We need 9 people who are willing to act in the capacity of the club.  A feeling was raised that generally most decisions are made by the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. 
 
RESOLVED: Committee bi-monthly meetings to be held. No objections raised and motion was passed.
15
Discussion of Training Schedules
 
Last year’s AGM we suggested that we’re run more training sessions. We found it difficult to get volunteers - some of the barriers are not having a lot of will to make it happen. 
 
Discussion raised the following points
·          Training has to be separate from the standard sessions. 
·         Need an event to work towards.
·          Current form the training takes that no one gets to use the skills learnt - it’s pickup again
·          Running sessions is difficult because the skill levels of the attendees are unpredictable so can’t plan the session effectively. Difficult to be inclusive to those who attend. 
·         I see the Open team would absorb the players that want to play at a higher level. This compliments DUFFA’s place alongside the Uni teams.
·         Query raised on whether Open teams training would be open to all - even if they don't want to commit to the full team. Informed this was the case
·         Nice that we can remain a 'pub team' - a feeder team and keep it informal. 
·         The original plan of training was to have a competitive team but now that Open team exists this issue disappears. 
·         DUFFA still a place to run beginner level sessions - zones - stacks etc
 
RESOLVED: Focus on low level skills and introductory sessions - within the DUFFA aims, as often as felt necessary monitored by the Committee in the bi-monthly meetings working with Manchester Open team. No objections raised and motion was passed.
16
Any Other Business
 
Chair invited topics from the floor.
 
Bradford Invitational
DUFFA Invited to the Bradford invitation 14th & 15th November. 2-day indoor session with curry! 
 
Winter League
General discussion of historic discussions. Volunteers for helping to organise this.
 
Instruction to Chair - Convene a committee to look into the possibility of running the winter league.
Steve, James, Ant, Huggy, David raised interest in this.
 
Golden Rulers Friendly
Needs organising. 
 
Sat 24th October - First Manchester Open 1 day hat tournament.
Sign up on Facebook.
 
Scheduling of Training
JG wishes to keep the session at 12-2 static instead of moving with the light. 
 
Informal vote held - but felt that this is a wider issue. Informal majority said that this should stay as is.
 
RESOLVED - deferred to committee.   No objections raised and motion was passed.
17
Election of Committee
 
Chair proposed the nominations of the Chair, Sec and Treasurer then all six Executive Committee Members.   The 'At Large' members would be voted in a secret ballot with the results announced after the meeting. 
 
Nominations for position of the Chair
Alan Heckman was nominated and seconded. Alan accepted the nomination. No further nominations received.
 
RESOLVED: Alan declares himself Chair. Alan Heckman thanked those present.
 
Nominations for the position of the Secretary
Steve Morgan was nominated and seconded. Steve accepted the nomination. No further nominations received.
 
RESOLVED: Chair declares Steve Morgan as Secretary. Steve Morgan thanked those present.
 
Nominations for position of the Treasurer
Simon Jermy was nominated and seconded. Simon accepted the nomination. No further nominations received.
 
RESOLVED: Chair declares Simon Jermy as Treasurer.  Simon Jermy thanked those present.
 
Nominations for Executive 'At Large' Committee Members
 
The following members were nominated, seconded and accepted:
·         Steve Senior
·         James Griffin
·         Taj Uddin
·         Shelley Heckman
·         Stuart Collier
·         David Shingler
·         Oliver Wilcox
·         Trisha Emeny
·         Matt 'Huggy' Anderson
 
RESOLVED: The vote should take place and the results announced at the training session and sent to the club via the Facebook group.
 
A round of voting occurred. The Secretary counted the votes and informed Chair post meeting, only of the 6 names 'first past the post'.
 
RESOLVED (post meeting): The six members with the highest votes (in alphabetical order) were
·         Matt Anderson
·         Stuart Collier
·         Trisha Emeny
·         James Griffin
·         Stevie Senior
·         David Shingler
 
RESOLVED: Proposed to adjourn, hold the ballot and results to be announced at the next meeting.
18
Adjournment
 
Motion to Close Proceedings
 
All present agreed.
 
RESOLVED: Chair closes DUFFA's second AGM.
 
CHAIR:                  ……………………………………………………………………………………………..
 
DATE:                    ……………………………………………………………………………………………..
 
Date and Time of Next Annual General Meeting: - 26th September 2010 (tbc)
 
The meeting finished at 1615 (approx)
 
Steve Morgan
 
Minute Secretary to the AGM
 
27th September 2009