Report of March Council Meeting

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent
29th March 2017 (CqE Official News)

Council was back in its usual room, with an expansive view of the Hurlingham lawns.

Peter Death reported that the accounts showed a surplus despite £45.7k of grants being given to clubs last year and the continued decline in investment income. He particularly thanked the reporting accountant, Marian Hemsted, for completing her review so thoroughly at a difficult time, and the accounts were approved for submission to the AGM.

This year is likely to be a lot tougher, with expenditure on the MacRoberstson Shield, membership database and increased staffing. Looking further ahead, it was agreed, for 2018, to increase the per-capita subscription for larger clubs by £1.20 and that for smaller ones by £0.20, with a £2 reduction in the individual subscription for Premium membership, but only if the change to make all club members eligible for Standard membership had been introduced by then.

The Secretary reported that Bill Arliss and Roger Staples would be seeking re-election at the AGM in October. Charles Waterfield had been re-elected to represent Croquet North, but Terrey Sparkes was returning to his former role as Secretary of the East Anglian Federation and will be replaced by Brian Havill as its representative on Council. Terrey was warmly thanked for his service.

With the formation of the WCF Association Croquet Laws Committee, it was agreed that the time was right to offer copyright of the Laws to the WCF; the Croquet Association had previously been holding it on behalf of the other major governing bodies. We were the preferred bidder for the GC World Championships in 2019 and clubs would be asked to express interest in hosting it. It was agreed to support the idea of a WCF U21 AC Championship, even though we may not initially have any players able to enter it.

Jeff Dawson had led a review of the membership database replacement project, which although significantly behind the originally projected timescale, had now delivered an initial version for the office staff to try, containing data about existing CA members. It was about to enter an Agile phase of development and it was agreed to review the position again in August.

The Chairman reported that only a few clubs had replied to his letter about Safeguarding and the possibility of an Anti-Bullying policy. The Executive Committee will develop an equalities policy which would be more appropriate for a voluntary organisation.

Twenty four applications had been received for the post of National Development Officer, of which six were short-listed for interview. Information from the Federations had indicated that the decline of competitive Association Croquet was only relative to the substantial increase in Golf Croquet over the last few years, but there was concern that new players were not being introduced to AC. A report with recommendations to address this has been circulated to clubs. Mindful of the success of young players in other countries, a summer school is to be tried, to encourage and develop ones that are already playing either code, possibly having started because of family interest. The offer of a year's free paperless CA membership, to be made to participants in the GC Student Championships at Sheffield, is to be extended to other student events.

New grades of Senior and Elite Golf Croquet Coaches are to be introduced and it was suggested the clubs hosting coaching "Pods" could charge £5/head to non-members attending if they wished. An inaugural GC Home Internationals will be held in Ireland at the end of September. It was agreed that neither the AC nor GC Opens should clash with other CA or international events.

Posters for National Croquet Day should soon be available, with two designs, one targeted at a sporty and the other a more social audience.

Finally, it was announced, to applause, that Martin French would be awarded the Council Medal at the AGM for his outstanding service to Croquet.