WILTSHIRE VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION
GENERAL MEETING
Held at Devizes, Hare and Hounds Public House
Wenesday 26th September 2012 at 19:00
1. Present
Cliff Ball Chair Calne
Paul Rainey Secretary Olympiad
Sarah Newstead Ladies Development Devizes
Matt Stevens Junior Development (Girls) Devizes
Jorg Steimer Wootton Bassett
Richard Morten Calne
Su Brennand Junior Development (Boys) Melksham
Irwin Aiken Beach Development Wootton Bassett
Jenny Boorman Child Welfare Officer Calne
Neil Bentley Competition Secretary Calne
Matt Unnstone Erlestoke
Andrew Wescombe Calne
2. Apologies
Serena Morten Treasurer Calne
Richard Howells Mixed League Wootton Bassett
Steve Spurlock Vice Chair Aquae Sulis
Hans Kaashoek Devizes
Kelly Jones Swindon
John Bird Salisbury
Non-Attendance
Salisbury Volleyball Club
3. Minutes of Previous Meeting
a. Everyone accepted the minutes as a true account of the Annual General Meeting held on 19th June 2012.
4. Matters Arising
a. Matt Stevens to liaise with Richard Howells to add a link on the WVA website to the calendar on the SWVA website.
Action – Richard Howells to add link to the SWVA website calendar.
b. Can the bonus points be added in near real time so that position in league can be seen. Clubs should consider if the results approval should generate bonus points, points deducted if not approved or no points for the next AGM.
Action – Richard Howells to see if an extra column can be added to the results table showing the bonus points.
c. Insurance – It was suggested that a copy of the group insurance policy be attached to the minutes of the meeting as an appendix.
Action – Cliff Ball to get Richard Howells to put a link on the WVA website with reference to version and date.
d. For the returnable trophies, it was discussed that they should be returned, engraved by 1st Jan. If the trophy is not returned, then there should be a fine of £20 per trophy.
Action – Cliff Ball to add new rule for fine if trophy not returned.
e. WVA Blog & new South West Team Administrator – Steve Grimes. Communication needs to be via different methods as not everyone uses 1 method of communication.
5. Treasurers Report.
a. See Appendix A
b. Report was provided with the status of the accounts.
c. It was mentioned that the money in the accounts could be used to subsidise courses and potentially help struggling/ new clubs. E.g. supply of some balls.
d. The age for Junior is Under 18 and in full time education.
e. The costs of the Pre Season Tournament were deemed as acceptable as 2 courts had to be booked for 6 hours and the cost of the medals. It was noted that court costs have been less in the past due to playing at Melksham.
Action – All clubs to pay fees as soon a possible.
Action – Serena Morten to provide electronic copies of the finances for inclusion into the minutes. (for AGM and current meeting).
6. Child Welfare Report.
a. There have been no issues to report.
b. There is a link on the WVA website and there is lost of information on the Volleyball England website.
c. If a club has any juniors, then coaches have to be CRB checked with Volleyball England. Currently the check is for an activity e.g. volleyball. It was suggested that the application should be left as broad as possible (Wiltshire Coach) so as to not limit the scope of the check. There is no cost except for postage. If there are any adults in the club that work with the children, it is worth them being CRB checked as well.
d. There is a course Safeguarding in sport which costs around £25 and takes around 3 – 4 hours.
Action – All clubs to advise Jenny Boorman of the name of the clubs Child Welfare Officer.
7. WVA League Report.
a. See Appendix B
b. It was mentioned that all clubs must be registered prior to playing any league match or tournament .
c. Players must be registered at leat 24 hours before playing.
d. It was requested that there be a single page for player registrations as it was a number of years ago as it makes it easier to view all players.
Action – Richard Howells to look into changing the viewing format of the registered players.
8. Ladies and Juniors Report.
a. See Appendix C
b. For boys to play, they must be Year 11 or under, being under 16 at beginning of the school year.
9. Competitions Secretary Report.
a. See Appendix D
b. It is possible that the inter- regionals may move and therefore 18/5 may become available for EoS Tournament.
Action – Discuss End of Season Tournament and Presentation Evening at next meeting.
10. Junior Development and Competitions.
a. See Appendix E
a. Boys start their training this weekend at the Riverside Centre in Exeter (info on SWVA website).
b. Next meet is 13/10.
c. Kelly Jones is taking some U15 and U17’s.
11. Beach Development Report.
a. See Appendix F
b. It was suggected that an email to all clubs be sent out early (before the end of the season) to know what the set up for the summer would be.
c. The preferred method of communication for playing at Coate Water is text message.
12. Mavericks Men
a. The national team, with 9 people in the squad, won both of the matches in the first triangular (3-0, 3-1)
b. The south west team, with 14 registered players, is being run by James Morten.
c. There have been 2 training sessions and there were over 20 people attending. It has been a good start to the season.
d. The Mavericks is open to all men/ boys that are at a reasonable standard.
13. Club Round Up
a. Melksham – Started training again in September with 15 people turning up on avaeage. Playing 1 team with Sunday matches.
b. Olympiad – Were out in the park over the summer but only managed to play 4 times due to the weather. Training inside again now and the numbers seem to be better than last year with 8 – 14 each week. 2 new players have started and 1 more is likely to start next week.
c. Devizes – See Appendix G.
d. Erlestoke – Quick turnover and therefore basically a new squad. Have just bought new kit, balls and posts (still in need of scoresheets).
e. Wootton Bassett – Quite a lively summer with playing at both Lydiard Park and the Wiltshire beech. Have a few more players and are now training inside again with around 30 – 40 people turning up. There were a couple of people starting due to seeing the Olympics. Currently trying to expand the training times to better accommodate the number of players turning up.
f. Salisbury – John Postance was a line judge at the Olympics.
g. Calne – Numbers are steady with a couple of new adults and juniors. 3 teams in the leagues. Andrew Wescombe is doing some marketing to try and increase the juniors. Andy Smith was a line judge at the Olympics, Serena and Richard Morten were part of the managent for the volleyball at the Olympics.
14. AOB
a. Junior League
· It was suggested by Andrew Wescombe that maybe a Junior League should be set up to be run separately to the Ladies and Junior League. The format would still need to be decided (mixed, age groups…..)
· This format could be used to feed a Mavericks Junior team and also develop junior teams generally.
· It was mentioned by a number of people that there is already an opportunity for juniors to play in the established Ladies and Juniors League. It appeared that some of the issue of wanting to set up a separate league was to do with selling the completion to juniors. This could be addressed by saying to the juniors that it’s a tournament for juniors but there are some ladies that play as well. Kelly Jones from Swindon has 15 boys that have played in the tournament.
· One option could be that a satellite Grand Prix be set up/ suggested to be held in Wiltshire, or set up some friendly games within the WVA for juniors.
Action – Andrew Wescombe to suggest a date/ format for a trail junior tournament.
b. Volleyball England Proposed Fees
· At the VE AGM a vote was taken to change the fee structure from being an £85 club fee to a £10 club fee and £10 per player (£5 for Juniors). This was voted out but an EGM is to be held in November to discuss this.
· Individual membership would bring with it a magazine, a monthly news letter, a membership card and personal insurance.
· An option to not be charged would be to have the WVA as a non-affiliated organisation but this would mean that any peson that is registered as a cach or referee would not be able to affiliate to the WVA.
Action – Richard Morten to send email with information.
c. Sarah Newstead – Mentioned that there are 2 level 1 coaching courses coming up; October in Barnstaple, December in Gloucestershire.
d. Matt Stevens – Mentioned that all clubs need to be affiliated to VE to play in the WVA and Devizes won the Salisbury Tournament mixed team event.
e. Irwin Aiken – Said that the club has a lot of players that ready for the league yet but would like to play some friendly games.
f. Richard Morten – Mentioned that MOD Corsham have a new court and would be interested in having a friendly match to get the club off the ground.
g. Cliff Ball – Asked for a vote on if the rules for club non-attenance should be enforced. Vote was unanimous in favour and Salisbury Volleyball Club to be fined £5.
h. Cliff Ball - Asked if everyone could look at the proposed rule changes and agree/ make suggestions prior to the next meeting so that they could be voted in at the next meeting.
15. Date of Next Meeting – Wednesday 14th November 2012
Appendices
Appendix A.
Treasurer’s Report
Available from Serena Morten
Appendix B
League Secretary’s Report
Available from Richard Howells
Appendix C
WVA Ladies and Juniors League Report
The L&J league first fixture is this Saturday with 4 teams confirmed to attend. The league will continue to run with the same format as last year as it worked really well.
It was quite difficult to select dates for the fixtures this year due to the amount of volleyball being played this season by Wiltshire teams. With a bit of jiggery pokery Matt and I have managed to book 7 L&J fixtures from September to April all held at Lavington School Sports Hall. The dates are:
Saturday 29th September
Sunday *21st October* 14th October
Saturday 24th November
Sunday 16th December
Saturday 26th January
Saturday 16th March
Saturday 27th April
All these dates are on the WVA website (I will need to change the October fixture as it clashes with a Men’s NVL home match, not sure what happened there!).
If a new player is registering on the day of a fixture I will collect in details of which club and team they are registering for and forward the details onto the league secretary.
I look forward to seeing some new faces this season and some great volleyball being played.
Appendix D
Competitions Secretary’s Report
The pre-season tournament is taking place on 30 September at Tidworth Leisure Centre. Scheduling the tournament was difficult as there were various other events taking place. As consequence only 8 teams have entered. The tournament will make a large loss. Christie Miller was not available and the cost of hiring Tidworth is £400. After consulting with the chairman I decided to raise the entry fee to £40 but this will still not cover the cost of hiring the hall. There was some discussion about not buying medals which cost about £100 and I would like the thoughts of other committee members on whether to continue with medals. Following feedback at the last tournament I have purchased an air-horn for signalling the start and end of matches at the tournament.
I have said that teams should register players taking part in the tournament with the WVA and will provide a form for them to declare their squads. However it needs to be resolved with the League Secretary and Treasurer about aligning this with the league registration process and paying the registration fee.
Planning for the Dave Kinder Knockout Cup will start after the pre-season tournament has been held.
Appendix E
Wiltshire Volleyball Junior Girls Development Officer Report
- Summer has been relatively quiet in terms of training and competitions for juniors.
- Both Swindon and Devizes entered some of the SW junior beach tournaments
- Regional training is now back up and running. 4 Devizes girls attended the first SW girls training and 1 girl from Swindon.
- SW Boys training is starting up this coming weekend and I know there will be players from Swindon attending.
- Emily Maslen, Edith Waterman and Yasmin Kaashoek from Devizes VC attended Volleyball England’s high peaks performance camp. From this Yas has been selected in the England Cadets squad for the forthcoming season.
- 1st Junior SW GP is happening on the 6th October in Christie Miller. Devizes are running the day and hopefully Wiltshire will be well represented
- Matt Stevens has been asked to attend the next England Junior Ladies National Training weekend as assistant coach to Bertrand Olie
Appendix F
Beach Development Officer’s Report
The weather
· Not the best Summer weather to promote Beach Volleyball this year.
The sessions
· The first session (At Coate Water, Swindon) was attended mainly by Wootton Bassett, but also attended by Calne (x2) and Devizes (x2).
· Regular sessions “come and play” were arranged on a Sunday afternoon and during a week night at Coate Water . Generally only attended by a mixed bag of Wootton Bassett players.
Junior Competition
· During Challenge Swindon, where other sports were trialed and showcased a Junior competition was run. This was supported by players who Kelly Jones is training.
· BBC Wiltshire broadcast live from the event (Interviewved some of the kids and explained a bit about volleyball)
· A come and try net was also in place and the court was always busy with interested juniors and some adults.
Advertising
· Email direct to clubs to establish interest in;
o Weekly sessions
o A tournament
o A regular summer league
o Give details of local English summer beach tournaments.
· No responses received back.
· Richard Howells has set up a slot on the WVA website to use --- I didn’t use this as I was emailing and texting players direct.
Other
· Salisbury Volleyball Tournament ran a 2-a-side competition on grass which was a successful and popular format.
· I played for the first time in the “king and Queen” of the Beach Tournament at Croyde in very poor weather (wet and almost gale force winds) on the first day ---- I can recommend this as a good tournament; you enter as an individual and play with other individuals in pools of 5 or 6 and you progress to get a final placing in the competition – enter a low division if you haven’t played beach before.
Did you know? - Lots of Goans’ live in Swindon and play Volleyball on the beach at Coate Water!
And …………Next Season????!!!
· Order some warm sunny weather!
· Get a regular monthly 2–a-side competition at Coate water on the sand.
· Is there interest in a 2–a-side grass league (better availability of outside courts!) – This could happen around the county.
· Arrange a 4-a-side mixed beach tournament at Coate water for juniors
· Arrange a 4-a-side mixed beach tournament at Coate water for adults.
· Publish a summary of Beach Volleyball summer tournaments and send to clubs for info.
· Use WVA website to advertise/ promote events
Feedback
· what would clubs like to do to promote Beach?
· 2 a side grass a good intro on Beach starved Wiltshire?
· Best way to promote /advertise and get people interested/involved?
· Any suggestions / any interest?
Appendix G
Devizes Club Report
- We continued to train all over the summer (when it was dry) outside on Devizes Green in the aim of picking up new members during the Olympics. We have so far had 9 new adult players attend our indoor training, which is a massive number for Devizes and much needed.
- Before the summer holidays myself, Luke Wiltshire and Kate Pearce visited 4-5 primary schools and delivered a 1-2hr taster session of volleyball to year 6’s. This has proved invaluable as the Lavington after school club has now got over 20+ new U12 (year 7s) attending alongside the 10+ over 12s. I have now got my hands full coaching all these!
- We have lost 3 of our prem players due to them moving away (uni) or deciding to play NVL instead of WVA League. However we are happy that these three players have got the opportunity to progress their volleyball at a higher level.
- We would like to say a huge congratulations to both Sarah Newstead and Martin Shakespeare for their involvement in the Olympics. Sarah was a scorer at the Paralympics and scored the Gold medal women’s match and Martin was the NTO manger for both the Olympics and Paralympics.