Perhaps the greatest joy of being Club Organiser is the opportunity, nay obligation, to attend no less than 3 AGMs. As a throwaway gesture in the direction of open government, I am able to share the major points to arise from these events.
KCC AGM
All 2015-16 club members have received a copy of the AGM minutes, so there's not really any need to revisit this particular event. Suffice to say that the "Old Guard" largely remain in control of all Club posts, except for the following changes:-
Rod Webb is the new Webmaster
Carl Pickering is the new Social Secretary
Ben Graff is Captain of our new side in the Divisional Cup competition in the Coventry League
LDCL AGM
The major point to take from the Leamington League AGM is the rule change relating to eligibility when a club has two teams in the same division. The new Rule 20 will read:-
"If a club has more than one team entered in the League, then for eligibility purposes the teams shall be considered to be in rank order. EG, if a club has 3 teams, A, B and C, then the A team is considered to be the highest team, and the C team the lowest, regardless of which divisions the teams are in. Captains may call on players from other teams for reserves. However, on playing more than 2 games on any board or boards higher than bottom board in a higher team, then any such player shall be deemed ineligible to play in the lower team for the remainder of the season."
The meeting also discussed at some length the rather vexatious question of match postponements and claims, prompted not a little by the Solihull B - Kenilworth B soap opera from last season. We were basically vindicated, but it didn't do us a lot of good as we still lost the match after we had already won it. However, the meeting was assured that in future the Rules as written would be applied properly. So all club match captains need to be aware that they have to request postponements at least 10 days before the due match date. This may mean that we all have to select our teams a bit earlier than usual if we suspect that player availability may be a problem.
Child protection issues were also discussed, as they had been at the club AGM, and as they were at the CDCL AGM. The upshot is that KCC definitely needs to develop and publish a policy, and this is on the Club Organiser's list of things to do. Luckily, it's currently a very short list.
CDCL
The most contentious issue at the Coventry League AGM was a point which bugged me all season long, namely clubs not adhering to the rule requiring a constant board order (and the league officials refusing to do anything about it). In Division 1, for instance, University A fielded five "illegal" teams; Coventry A seven; and Rugby A nine. No mean achievements in a 14 match season. A rather shambolic vote seemed to leave the rule unchanged - ie there is a constant board order rule, but the Fixtures Secretary (the newly elected Simon Weaver) has the discretion to allow variations. This seems ridiculous to me. Either have the rule or don't. But such is life in AGM world.
And talking of Rules, it became apparent that the Coventry League doesn't really know what it's own rules are. However, League Secretary Mike Johnson is going to accumulate rules from various sources and circulate to clubs with an eye to providing a single, agreed set to which we can all work. This should hopefully address the question of eligibility for the KO Cup, where certain player selections last season seemed to stretch the rules rather further than ideal.
The league decided to dispense with a number of old, redundant trophies and I put in an accepted bid for one of these, which will give us a ready made trophy when/if Ben gets any Club Championship off the ground. Alternatively, it will look quite nice in my office.
I indicated to the meeting that Kenilworth would play in the Divisional Cup next season. Good luck with raising a team for that, Ben!!
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