Report of January Council Meeting

[<<] [>>] by Ian Vincent at Hurlingham
21 Jan 2012 (CqE Official News)

Barry Keen, the Chairman of Council, opened the meeting by asking us to stand in memory of Nigel Graves and Pat Kennett, former members of Council who had died since the last meeting. A glass trophy is to be presented by the CA as a trophy for an event in the Seniors in memory of Nigel.

The main business was financial. Roger Bray, the Honorary Treasurer, gave his forecast for the outcome for 2011, which was for a surplus of approximately £6,700. However, he also showed an adjusted figure to assist Council in preparing budgets for future years, which showed a deficit of the order of £1,300, after smoothing the cost of international events, ignoring the allowance for building depreciation, including a provision for building maintenance and deducting the amount required to protect the value of the CA's reserves against inflation.

A budget for 2012 was agreed, which was for an adjusted deficit of £11,300. This was largely due to increases agreed in the expenditure on international events and development grants. The former was partly to fund our team for the new World GC team championship, a GC equivalent of the MacRobertson Shield, but also to pay travel costs for teams competing in GB v USA and GB v Ireland matches, with the aim of strengthening our teams by reducing any financial bar to availability. There has been a strong increase in demand for development grants, partly due to a number of clubs being forced to relocate or take on lawn maintenance (thus requiring capital equipment) due to local authority cutbacks, and partly due to a number of clubs in the south and east wishing to install irrigation.

Council then agreed a policy for deciding on the level of reserves to be held by the Association, but referred back the schedule proposing the actual amounts as being unduly cautious. However, even if the figures are reduced by allowing some overlap between the categories, it seems unlikely that a large windfall will become available for a one-off increase in expenditure or reduction in income.

The staff in the CA Office: Liz Larsson, Liz Budworth, Liz Parson and Paul Hands, who has replaced her, where thanked for their work during a particularly demanding year, due to the exceptional number of international events.

The Management Committee reported that a bid was being prepared to stage an AC individual World Championship in 2013, either to coincide with the Opens or in early August. If successful, it was hoped that arrangements would be finalised by mid-summer.

The Council Meeting was followed by the inaugural meeting of the Federation Working Party, which has been tasked with reviewing all aspects of the working relationship between the CA and the Federations, with a view to identifying any weaknesses and proposing, where appropriate, improvements to the existing structure.