April 2009 - The Club Secretary sends out (on April 1st of all dates - I'm saying nothing) notice of the forthcoming AGM and things are serious enough that as well as an agenda he also includes a separate letter describing the difficulties of the Thursday social chess nights. Attendance is down to only 4 or 5 people on some weeks, possibly due to the fact that our home match night is Wednesday and not so many people are eager to spend two successive nights at the Royal British Legion Club. The Secretary also raises the prospect of a return to the Sports and Social Club and urges members to think of new ways to promote the club, as there have been few newcomers to KCC in recent years. I should just like to mention that in keeping with the general level of administrative excellence which has characterised the club in recent years, the Secretary once again fails to specify the AGM venue, presumably relying on osmosis or something similar to inform the membership of this minor detail.
May 2009 - The AGM is held on May 7th in the unspecified and unrecorded venue. Fifteen people somehow turn up, including many familiar names (Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King, Krombeen, Morris, Payne, Pickering (T), Rogers, Shurrock, Watson, Whatson, Webb and Wood) and an unfamiliar one (A. Riddoch). Apologies were received from Messrs Pickering (C) and Pelton, but P. Mills, N. Mottram and K. Raison are absent without apology. (I think I should reinstate this system of naming and shaming in any future AGM Minutes I might pen.)
The Chairman was able to tell the AGM that this had been the club's most successful season for many years. With 5 teams, we were the largest club in the LDCL, and all teams finished in the top half of their divisions. Star turn was the C team, who won Division 3 by 6(!!) points, while the D team came 1st= in Division 4 ..... with the E team, who they shaded on game points! And Mike Johnson won the league individual competition, beating Dave Shurrock in the final. The Secretary, predictably, had nothing to report yet again, while the Treasurer followed suit and failed to produce any accounts. Even though the only items of expenditure had been £170 on League fees and £40 of catering for the League Jamboree. He effectively asked the meeting to believe him when he said sufficient revenue had been collected to cover these costs and subs were left unchanged. All post-holders were re-elected for the coming season, meaning we would once again field 5 teams - but the all conquering C team would remain in Division 3.
Finally the meeting arrived at the contentious issue of venue. In an uncanny foreshadowing of future years, Mike Johnson said that some members would never turn up at club nights, whatever the day of the week or venue. Roy proposed that the Committee be mandated to look at alternative venues and decide upon the best choice, but the rank and file was having none of this elitism and rejected the idea. Ever the diplomat, Mike Johnson instead successfully proposed that the Committee should indeed investigate possible venues and recommend its preference for consideration by the membership at the EGM/Team Formation Meeting before the start of the 2009-10 season. Under AOB it was reported that the club's equipment was not in great shape, and Bruce H and Chris agreed to take an inventory and make recommendations for any additional requirements.
And so the meeting closed at 10.50, with no-one any the wiser as to where they would be playing next season!
August 2009 - The EGM (18 people in attendance!) decides upon the team composition for the coming season (naming 17 players and 2 reserves), but of the much anticipated venue recommendation there is no mention. So maybe everything in the garden is rosy, after all? ............... No!!
April 2010 - Bernard writes to the membership. The club faces a serious crisis - we are being evicted by the Royal British Legion from the upstairs concert room, as it has been let (for a whole 52 weeks) to two separate aerobics classes at £20 a night. The Club Secretary told them we were rather disappointed that this had been decided without any contact with KCC, for which they apologised, but he admits it is a moot point as there was no way we would have matched this rent. The Secretary further reports that club night attendances have been very disappointing, and the small spend by KCC members has doubtless encouraged the RBL to seek alternative business. The Sports and Social Club is still available, though the room is extremely untidy and Bernard thinks this would be a retrograde step.
After canvassing member sentiment the Secretary reports that the ambiance of the RBL is much preferred for club nights over KSSC, and hopefully we could continue there on Thursday nights with no charge. But what to do about a match venue?? The AGM on April 22nd will be crucial - and everyone is urged to attend in our hour of need. However, despite the crisis and the need for a firm hand on the tiller, both the Chairman and Secretary have tendered their resignation and it will be up to some other poor saps to come in and save the club. (Alright, the letter doesn't phrase it quite like this, but I'm reading between the lines, OK?!)
May 2010 - For some reason the AGM has been delayed by 2 weeks and takes place on May 6th. The tension is palpable - there is a very real possibility that the club will collapse. But the membership have responded to the Secretary's exhortations and turn out in force - 18 present! The meeting agrees (by 14-0 with 3 abstentions) that the Committee will approach the RBL to try and secure a match venue on either Monday or Tuesday nights. Though this will significantly increase our costs. As a consequence the Treasurer proposed that club subs should increase to £60 pa. And this earth-shattering proposal was accepted.
Off the board issues may well have affected the club's performance in the 2009-10 season, as the Chairman reported an almost universally dismal playing record. Our 5 teams had not distinguished themselves - the A and E teams had both finished last; the D team 8th of 10; the C team 7th of 10 (what happened to the previous season's all conquering performance?); and the B team 3rd of 7. Remarkably, though, the club had won the Open KO Cup, beating Stratford in the final. How on earth did that happen?
Its a complete new management board at KCC, since Roy also stands down as Treasurer. The new powers in the land are Bruce (Chairman), Mike Johnson (Secretary) and Chris (Treasurer), while Carl takes over from Phil as A team captain. As well as standing down from their KCC posts it transpires that Bernard and Phil have also had enough of being League Chairman and Secretary respectively.
The AGM ends with the Team Formation Meeting being arranged for September 2nd (but where will it be??), and Bruce makes an unbelievably generous offer to buy dinner for everyone beforehand. Is the current Chairman reading this?! And finally the new Secretary urges everybody in the club to get an e-mail address. Welcome to the 21st century!
May 2011 - And - frustratingly - this is where the available Archives run out. The only other document between the 2010 and 2014 AGM's is a hand written set of accounts for the 2010-11 season. (Which record a loss of £238.58 due to a large expenditure on ten clocks, leaving a balance of just £121.42, but things could have been much worse as we had received a donation of 18 sets and boards to the value of £257.88. As the identity of the donor was not disclosed I shall respect the apparent wish for anonymity, even though I know who it was!)
So this means that there is currently no record to hand of how the venue crisis was resolved. What I do know is that the KCC match night pretty soon became a Monday, and the venue remained at the RBL until 2013. At some point, and possibly immediately, the Thursday club night venue moved to the Royal Oak, which was its location when I first started attending sometime round 2012.
KCC records resume in 2014, but given that I have written them since then, these can hardly count as coming from the archives. Which means that - for now - the journey through KCC's glorious history has ended. But it would be nice to think that the missing three years might be filled in sometime in the future. With Bruce having been Chairman, there's every chance the record keeping was maintained, and so maybe those missing documents will come to light and enable this series to end on a nice round number. But as it is, we are stuck on 19. Which makes the choice of song very easy indeed!
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