Minutes of the AGM of Barnsley Squash and Racketball Club held on 21st October 2021 – 7.00pm.
Chairman – Ian Meade
Committee Members Present – Ian Meade, Suzanne Horner, Jim Uttley, Richard Maxwell, Lee Greaves, Shane O”Keefe, Paul Westwood, Nigel Godwin
Apologises for absence – Tony Exley, Malcolm Harrison
Minutes of last AGM accepted as a true record by Shane O’Keefe and seconded by Lee Greaves
Chairman’s Report
Thanks for your attendance – it’s been a long time, almost two years since our last one.
At our first meeting following the last AGM I was re-elected for a further term as Chairman. Jim Uttley, who had been co-opted the previous year, joined us together with Tony Exley. Malcolm Harrison was also reselected and was elected as Life President of the Club. Malcolm decided to step down as Club Secretary and Nigel Godwin was unanimously elected to serve in his place. I have been chairman alongside Malcolm for over 30 years. His commitment and work for the club has been unstinting. He took over the post when the Club was in difficult times and much of what we have now here has been achieved on his watch. He is the epitome of a true clubman and someone I have been able to rely on and trust implicitly from start to finish. Malc continues to serve on the Committee and I am sure you all wish to thank him for all he has done over these many years.
We were able to report last AGM on the great strides forward we had made at the Club in a host of areas. This work and development continues. Each Committee member has designated tasks within specific areas and their work is bearing fruit. Please remember they all do this voluntarily, so our thanks are due for this. I have to say that this current Committee is the best and most proactive in all my time here.
Quite naturally the COVID epidemic has impacted severely on the Club since March 2020. The Committee has met regularly and worked tirelessly to provide what facilities we could during this, whilst always having the health and safety of our members at the forefront. It hasn’t been easy (or very good even at times) but we have done what we could and what we all believed was right for the membership. We will continue to do this. Despite the difficult times and the maintenance/improvements that we have carried out, we are still in a strong financial position. The booking system works well and is flexible enough to cope with the demands we have placed on it in terms of all social distancing issues. We have done many improvements too, including carpets and court cleaning/maintenance whilst we were in lock-down. We were also successful in receiving grants from England Squash which helped during our period of lost income. Team squash was all suspended approaching the end of the season but we are now able to resume for the forthcoming season. We won’t be fielding a Premier side this season though. On the coaching front, we have added newly qualified coaches and are thus able to expand our offer for juniors, teams and ladies as well as individuals.
Lastly can I thank you all for your patience and understanding in the current climate. We will continue to communicate with you and will always try and provide as much court time as possible, while following England Squash guidelines and using our own common sense. We all missed the Club – all aspects of it – so let us hope for further light at the end of the tunnel in the hope we can return to normality in the not too distant future.
Election of Officers
4 vacancies – Suzanne and Richard have resigned. Ian and Lee are standing for re-election.
Andrew Tressler stood for election. Proposed by Lee and seconded by Nigel.
All in attendance agreed to the election of Andrew and re-election Ian and Lee.
Treasurer’s report
Accounts were distributed by Paul.
Paul explained that despite the big loss in court and lights income, due to Covid, the club’s finances were stable. This was helped by the grant obtained and the big cost saving because of the absence of a Yorkshire Premier league.
Maintenance
It was confirmed that during the enforced COVID closure of the club, the club was re-decorated, re-carpeted and the showers in the men’s changing were re-furbished. It was also confirmed that further work in both changing areas had been delayed due to COVID and the wish to restrain spending during the closure.
There were positive comments from the floor regarding the timing, standard and outcome of the maintenance work.
Team report
There was nothing to report regarding team results, etc. due to COVID stopping all team matches.
Team squash has restarted. Jim explained that the club has entered teams in the Sheffield and District division 2, division 3 and veteran’s leagues, the Kirklees league and division 2 of the Yorkshire league.
Jim also stated that there are opportunities available for members to become team players.
AOB
The membership level was discussed. Shane explained that the present membership was approximately 160-170 members, in comparison to 250 members prior to the pandemic. The aim is to return to a membership of 250. New members are slowly coming to the club and it is hoped that the New Year will bring further new and re-joining members. There were suggestions from the floor regarding possible schemes to promote an increase in new membership. These are to be discussed by the committee.
The coaching of juniors and the present promising situation was discussed. From the floor, it was stated that the use of courts for junior coaching should be treated as a priority.
Rob Fieldsend mentioned that he thought the information on the web-site looked out of date. It was explained that the club now has direct control of editing the web-site and Tony Exley is up-dating the site. If there were any comments regarding the site, could they please be passed to Tony.
Rob also wished to pass thanks to Suzanne for her service to the club as a committee member, coach and player.
The meeting concluded at 7.40pm
