Present: 

Officers:

J C Briggs, D Martin, E Spray, R Columbine, J Sawyer, M J Kingsland, J Ellis, J Pickering, A Bexon, G Atkin, S Hales, J M Storey, H Price, F Fox, A Hutchins, S Hague, R Dennis

Honorary Life Presidents:   Rita Chambers and Mr. J A Hunt

Representatives of the following clubs attended:

Beeston Fields, Beeston Valley, Bingham, Boots, Byron, Carlton, Carlton Forum, David Lloyd Aspley, David Lloyd West Bridgford, Experian, Forest, John Carroll 'Ashanti', Kirkby Crocodiles, Long Eaton, Nottingham Trent University Staff, Nottingham University Staff, Nottingham Veterans, Oxton, Phoenixwood, Radcliffe Knights, Redhill, Rushcliffe Arena, Southwell Centre, University Hospital and Nottingham University Students.

1.

Opening Address:

The Chairman welcomed those present, particularly Clive Ricks, the new Chief Executive Officer of Badminton England, and Sue Shelswell. He then asked all present to observe a minutes silence in respect of our late President Mr. John Wadsworth, Jack Britton an Honorary Life President and Marjorie Kingsland.

2.   

Apologies for Absence were received from Paul Adcock and West Bridgford BC.

3.

The Minutes of the AGM held 2nd June 2004 as published in the 2004/05 Handbook were endorsed as a true record.

4.

Officers' Reports: - (Full reports are available elsewhere on this website)

John Briggs invited questions or queries from those present.

Mike Kingsland asked the Treasurer why the Development Fund carry forward was down, John Briggs replied that the allocation of funds for Development would come from the current year 2005/06 and therefore could not as yet be shown, but that whatever was needed to be spent on Development would be spent.

Rita Chambers asked John Briggs to clarify the position of the Mike Denman Fund as she felt that many present would not be aware of these funds, or their purpose. John answered that these funds had been bequeathed to Nottinghamshire Badminton Association by Mike Denman from his Estate to support players, or for any other good cause. Alan Hunt asked if these funds were supposed to be for the Juniors and Mike Kingsland agreed that this was what the Will had stated. The funds are therefore to be used for this purpose.

Marshall Storey was asked if he had anything to add to his report. Marshall advised that he had little to add save that clubs must register with Badminton England or they would suffer the consequences. Nottinghamshire Badminton Association was adopting a policy of zero tolerance on this matter and several clubs had been penalised this year.

Alison Bexon reported that she had not had any problems and that the fees had been paid promptly. She backed up Marshall's comments regarding player registration.

Marshall advised clubs to indicate clearly any of their players who were registered elsewhere with Badminton England.

John Sawyer was asked if he had anything to add to his Web Report. He advised that everything was going well and asked that members should keep watching it as it was changing all the time.

The Officers' Reports were accepted by the Meeting.

5.

Community Club Development:

John Briggs advised that Sport England had confirmed a grant of £65,000 towards the total cost of approximately £160,000 - £170,000 for the refurbishment of Chilwell. Nottinghamshire Badminton Association, in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council, were to provide the balance and Nottinghamshire County Council would be able to claim back the VAT payable on the cost of the project.

The work was to start as early as possible, firstly on the two-court hall and progressing to the three-court hall. The work should take approximately ten weeks, with completion hopefully early in September. The Contractors had been appointed, Colin Kent had been appointed as the Architect and Mike Kingsland had been appointed as the Project Manager. Mike advised that Nottinghamshire County Council were putting pressure on him to confirm that the funding was all in place and that we needed a Development Plan to be in place before the final funds could be released. Mike further advised that the schedule could only be adhered to subject to the availability of the contractors.

Mike requested that all of the clubs who play at Chilwell remove any valuables from the premises by 20th June and must advise Mike as to their future locker/storage requirements by the 11th June. Failure to remove these items would result in them being discarded.

Mike Higgs of Forest BC raised a question from the floor, as to the long-term effect of the Association paying out £65,000. John Briggs advised that even if we had had to pay the full costs we had the money. The Courts at Chilwell were the Association's main source of income, which would continue. Mike also asked if the court costs would go up and John advised that they probably would, but not by an unreasonable amount.

6.

Berry Hill Project:

John Briggs advised that this was an exciting new development that had been mentioned to himself, Paul Adcock and John Ellis by the Mayor of Mansfield. The project involved building an entirely new Sports Centre at Berry Hill in Mansfield. Mike Kingsland advised that the total cost of this project would be in excess of £6million. John explained that Sport England and the Lawn Tennis Association were contributing large amounts to this and Mansfield District Council was selling the existing Leisure Centre. John Briggs and Paul Adcock had subsequently had a meeting with the Mayor and advised him that if major Badminton events were to be encouraged to come to the venue more than the originally proposed four Badminton courts would be needed. The Mayor was most enthusiastic and the matter is ongoing. The project is hopefully to be completed sometime in 2006. Nottinghamshire Badminton Association will make a contribution in the form of equipment and advice.

7.

Clubmark Presentation:

Prior to Sue Shelswell making her Clubmark Presentation, Clive Ricks, the new Badminton England Chief Executive Officer, thanked Nottinghamshire Badminton Association for inviting him to the meeting and thanked the members present for their support. He advised that we must all encourage the younger players, who were the future of Badminton. He advised that the coaching structure was being revamped and would consist of levels 1 to 5, with Lee J Bok and Ian Wright being at level 5. He further advised that the sixth and final Regional Development Officer had been appointed. He is hoping to be able to visit all of the 41 counties to introduce himself and he asked for any questions or suggestions.

John Briggs suggested that the questions could be asked from the floor after Sue Shelswell had made her Presentation.

Sue Shelswell advised that through the massive Development Programme that had been put in place, hundreds of young people were coming into the sport and eventually needed to be able to join senior clubs. However, these youngsters could only be placed in a safe environment and one of the purposes of the Clubmark Award was to show that a club had all of the elements in place to satisfy these requirements and that they followed best practice. The clubs need to have systems in place to show safety and learning opportunities. It was envisaged that there could be a transitional stage, when several club members could volunteer to play with, help and encourage the youngsters to progress to a level where they felt comfortable playing with adults. Children will, in future, only be able to be sent to an accredited club.

Elaine Spray asked for more volunteers to become coaches and John Briggs said that the County would heavily subsidise this.

Martin Hollingworth asked Clive Ricks if Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms could come to Nottinghamshire to do a demonstration. Clive said that he would look into this and remarked on the impact that Gail had had when she participated in an edition of "A Question of Sport".

John Ellis advised Sue Shelswell that our County 4th Team acted as a transitional stage for both club players and youngsters to begin a county career. He further advised that we were lucky to be able to afford this as our County Teams cost in the region of £5,000 to run and not many counties can afford this.

Alan Hunt advised that the County Vets, were always on the lookout for players and asked for any interested parties to get in touch.

Clive Ricks presented John Briggs and Ron Dennis with Badminton England ties and thanked the members for the welcome that he had received.

8.

International Players' Achievements:

John Briggs was sure that the meeting would wish us to record in these Minutes congratulations to our local players for their achievements at both the Olympics and the All England Championships.

9.

Election of Officers:

John Briggs advised that due to the sad death of our President, John Wadsworth, a new President needed to be appointed. He further advised that, constitutionally, this did not require a vote and due to the support given to Nottinghamshire Badminton and Umpiring over many years thought Stewart Hague would be a fitting choice. Stewart had agreed to accept the post and was duly appointed.

Stewart then addressed the Meeting and stated that he had a long involvement with Nottinghamshire Badminton and considered this appointment the biggest honour and was delighted to accept.

John also advised that Paul Adcock had resigned as Vice Chairman and that this was a position that required voting upon. He said that he had approached Dave Martin regarding this and that Dave had agreed to stand if required.

John also asked the existing officers if they would be prepared to continue in their various roles. All of the present incumbents agreed to continue if required. John asked if there were any nominations for any of the Officers' positions and as there were none asked the members to re-elect the present officers. The present officers were duly elected.

John advised that Ken Tantum had resigned from the Committee and asked if there were any volunteers to fill the vacancy and, as there were none, this is left in abeyance.

10.

Proposals to alter the League Rules: - see Senior League Rules.

11.

Agenda for Badminton England AGM:

To consider and to direct our Representatives on how they should vote on any proposals that are put before that meeting. John Briggs advised that there was nothing contentious on the agenda. As usual the affiliation fees would increase at the rate of inflation.

12.

Members to attend Executive Committee AGM:

To appoint two members of the Senior Association to attend the AGM of the Executive Committee on Thursday, 2nd June, which will be held in the cafeteria at Chilwell Olympia. Alan Hunt and Paul Bexon were duly appointed. It was pointed out that all members were welcome to attend if they wished to do so.

13.

AOB:

Elaine Spray advised the meeting that there was to be a Wheelchair Badminton Event in Leicestershire on Sunday, 29th May 2005 and that she had the details if anyone required them.

She also advised that a PE and Sport Conference was to held at Nottingham Trent University on Monday, 20* June 2005 and the closing date for applications was 31st May 2005, again details can be obtained from Elaine.

John Briggs advised that the presentation of the English Badminton Award to Gill Attewell, which was being kept a secret in order to be a surprise for her, was, in the best 'Carry On' traditions, so well kept that Gill went on holiday to Italy completely oblivious to the feet that she was to be so honoured. However, all's well that ends well as the Award was received on her behalf by her sons Andy and Mark at the Sunrise Tournament.

14.

Closing Address:

The Chairman thanked all those attending and also thanked our guests for coming.