© 2008 Huntingdonshire ACO

AGM of the Huntingdonshire ACO

At Greystones Public House, Sawttry

23rd February 2009

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Chairman’s Welcome

3. Treasurers Report

4. Secretary’s Report

5. Training Officer’s Report

6 Appointments and Assessment Officer’s Report

6. ECB and HCB Representative’s Report

7. Election of Officers

7. Any  Other Relevant or Irrelevant Business

8. Date and time of next  meeting

11 Members present.

Apologies for absence were received from: Doug Urwin, Jack Bloodworth, Ian Burton, Jim Crisp and Steve Ross

CHAIRMANS REPORT:

Welcomed those present and apologised for not being able to deal with the business of the Constitution at this meeting. This would however be ready for the next meeting.

TREASURER'S REPORT:

Apologised for not having made contact with C. Jones regarding the transfer of assets from the Huntingdonshire ACU&S to Huntingdonshire ACO. Bulb for projector/new projector to be purchased and paid for by ACU&S before transfer. Secretary will contact C. Jones to arrange this payment and obtain a cheque for balance of assets to ACO.

SECRETARY’S REPORT:

Chairman's recovery continues to improve. Specialist recommended a Pacemaker be fitted, he is now on a 'needed' list and waiting for this to take place at Papworth. He asked me to tell the meeting that he is not available for election to any office.

TRAINING OFFICERS REPORT:

ECB now training officials. Level 2 courses for scorers and umpires nationwide. Eddie McGeown going on scoring course. I have been on 3 day course and hope soon to be involved in tutoring at Level. Carol Morris will also be doing some scoring training and will hopefully get involved also in tutoring. Anyone wishing to do one of these courses, please let me know, preferably by Email, so a record can be kept. or fill in CV's given by Steve Ross.

Level I in progress at Peterborough with 9 to 10 involved.

'Introduction to Umpires' evening at Alconbury on March 30th.

Others to be arranged at Oundle School and Kimbolton School.

APPOINTMENTS & ASSESSMENT OFFICER'S REPORT:

Firstly my apologies not being present but I have an appointment with a surgeon's knife, today. I will however be making myself available to stand again in 2009/10.

County age-group appointments

I was hoping to have the appointments made in time for this evening but I am still short of availabilities from 10 or so of our colleagues. The list of fixtures was sent out at the end of January with a proposed return date of Feb 20th. For those who have not yet returned your availabilities, I will be finalising details this week, so please ring me if you wish to stand in age-group games. If you have brought details with you tonight, in my absence please let Adam Allies have them and he will ensure I get them, this week.

I will complete the fixtures as far as possible by Friday which means if you do not contact me you will only have the opportunity to fill in any gaps that might exist.

Each age-group has a new team manager appointed, a list of their contact details will be posted on the HCB web-site and I hope to add the umpiring appointments to the HCB fixture list on the web as well as to our own Hunts ACO web-site.

Christmas Cup

I have had very few returns of availability for the Tuesday night competition that starts in May. I know historically that our colleagues at the Southern end of the county have, in the main stood in this competition, as we in the "North" tend to get involved in Peterborough and Stamford based midweek cups. Your help here would be appreciated. I am also unsure of the "fee system" for this competition, perhaps someone would let me know?

Kimbolton School

The school fixtures have been posted, similarly I am still awaiting responses from several people, particularly those that have stood in these school games before. The school have 7 Saturday fixtures this season and I would therefore urge colleagues who do not stand in league cricket to make themselves available for these matches.

Tom Webley is the new cricket master at Kimbolton, he has played first-class and more recently minor county cricket for Dorset.

County Panel

Following agreement with HCB and Hedley Swannell, the County cricket manager we have agreed a panel of Hunts umpires to stand in County, County Development and U19 games this season. This will hopefully prevent the concerns caused last season by the use of umpires from outside the county (notably Cambs)....... in Hunts games.

ECB U17 Appointments

We are still awaiting details of these appointments from Lord's, it is unclear when these will be available.

ECB Assessments Report

An unofficial report and updated list was sent to Chris Kelly at lord's before Xmas. It is unclear at the moment whether we need to prepare an interim report in June or simply a full report, update and grade assessments in October. It appears that the interim June report last year was not acted upon, so there is doubt as to whether it will be required in 2009.

Fees

Fees for county age group and other matches will be agreed and hopefully posted on the web-site along with the appointments by the end of March.

Fees will mirror the rates paid by our Cambridgeshire colleagues, these will be confirmed early in March.

Hunts 50+

I still need some takers for these games - for some reason they seem unpopular with our colleagues?? Fees will be agreed with the 50+ management team and will be paid cash on the day in 2009.

There was some confusion last season and HCB are clear they will not be paying from central funds, the team must "cough up". Therefore any umpire standing in a Hunts 50+ game I suggest you ensure they pay you up front before you stand.

Tucker League Representation

At both the CCUSA AGM in December and the Cambs January meeting, the main subject of discussion was the £25 fee for Tucker League umpires. There has been no increase in this fee for 3 years despite the increasing costs of living, particularly in respect of fuel.

A proposal to increase the fee in 2008 was refused by the clubs and our Cambs colleagues and myself believe that Tucker are now falling behind other local leagues.

I am attending a Tucker meeting this Thursday (26`") where the following 3 proposals are on the agenda:

1) An increase to £30 per umpire.

2) Where umpires stand alone the fee will be £40.

3) Fees will be paid, in full, on attendance at the ground regardless as to whether play takes place. (This mirrors the ruling in the EAPL)

There are also proposals to raise both Hunts League and CCA fees from £20 to £24.

I will keep you updated as to how this progresses. If anyone has any questions, please ring me

Contact

Can I ask that during the season if you have any changes of availability, you ring me firstly on my mobile number it is literally on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week due to the nature of my work. If you need to drop out of games I would obviously appreciate the maximum amount of notice possible, similarly if you find yourself available at short notice there may be cancellations that need fulfilling. Finally, if I have inadvertently missed anyone in terms of contact and appointments please ring me. The membership records we have are, we believe, accurate, but I have spoken with several colleagues who have decided to retired through injury this season and are therefore unavailable to appoint.

If I have not covered anything that you need to know please ask the question of Simon and if he is unable to provide an answer, I will get back to you later this week

ECB and HCB REPRESENTATIVE:

Notified members the Huntingdonshire County Board dinner will be on March 27th 2009, speaker being Ronnie Irani.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS:

Chairman: Simon Black Proposed by Tony Place Seconded by John Sims Re-elected en bloc

Treasurer: Keith Golightly

Secretary: Alan Jones

Training Officer: Adam Allies

Appointment & Assessment Officer: Steve Ross FCB & HCB Representative: Simon Black

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

With the demise of ACU&S, the Huntingdonshire ACO requires a new Constitution as soon as possible. in order to deal with this. I give notice that the next meeting will be an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Monday April 27th 2009 at the Greystones Public House, The Green, Sawtry starting at 7.30pm.

Meeting closed 8.45pm.