Minutes of the English Orienteering Council AGM held at Grenoside Community Centre, Main St, Grenoside, Sheffield, Yorkshire S35 8PR, on Saturday 14th May 2011

Present:

Philip Gristwood Chair

Lesley Ross Treasurer

Helen Gristwood Kit Officer

John Rye Senior TM, Chair Senior Selectors, Interland TM

Chris Morris Secretary

Jeff Butt SWOA & Junior TM

Andy Hemsted Chair, Veteran Selectors

Simon Greenwood SEOA

Henry Morgan WMOA

Meeting opened at 5:47 pm
1. Apologies
Sue & Keith Marsden, Arthur Vince, Trevor Bridle, Martin Ward, Brenda Morgan, Mike Bray.

2. Acceptance of 2010 Minutes
The minutes of the 2010 meeting were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters Arising
All actions complete.

4. Chairman’s Report
• Improving again on last year, all our teams won their matches. Congratulations are due to all team managers, members and selectors.
Early this year, noticing Mike Hamilton’s mention in Focus of BOF’s intention to support the Home Nations, the Chairman took the opportunity to write to BOF to lobby for continued funding for 2011.  They replied quickly stating that they would be able to provide £2000 again this year, but there can be no guarantee that they will be able to maintain this level of support in 2012.  They should understand where the 2012 budget will be by September.
• The National Fixtures Group had briefly discussed the sustainability of HIs in their current format and made a suggestion that there should be a review of the competitions but were not sure who would do it. Within the Fixtures Group there is a deficit of understanding of the needs of the HIs. Whilst the other nations ‘get on’ and host HIs very satisfactorily, the English regions seem less willing as it often falls to their Fixtures Secs to try to get something moving and some perceive the additional organisational demands of HIs rather outside their comfort zone. The suggestion of a review is perhaps an attempt at trying to cut down on the numbers of fixtures to fit into an already full calendar (ie it is assumed their desired recommendation is a combined HI (JHI, SHI and VHI)). Events Committee has responsibility for HIs. In an effort to be proactive when it is England’s turn we have engaged with SEOA (JHI 2012) and SWOA (SHI 2014) already. John Rye had suggested sending a short briefing document to the (English) Fixtures secs before their next meeting and has agreed to produce this.

5. Treasurer’s Report
• The statement of accounts for 2010 was issued to everybody and also a forecast for 2011.

• Proposed petrol rate change:

Single occupancy 11p per mile

Cars with two athletes 20p per mile

Cars with three athletes 28p per mile, and 2p per mile more per additional athlete to reflect in some part the increase in petrol costs.

• By the end of the year this tries to achieve a balance of at the very least £3100 to cover 2012 Interland cost – coach, accommodation, deposits etc and also outlay for England clothing – O tops etc to replenish stocks prior to Interland.

• Expenditure this year is expected to be higher than last year – the juniors are competing in Northern Ireland and the veterans in Scotland. The whole junior team plus coaches are travelling by plane to Northern Ireland. The juniors will have to hire a couple of minibuses to provide transport for the weekend.

• We have been guaranteed £2000 from British Orienteering for this year, although next year we may not be so lucky.

• To raise the remaining funds from the athletes’ side it was suggested that personal contributions rise by £5 across the board.

• It was further suggested that exceptionally the personal contributions for the JHI rise to £90 to spread the costs of the flights evenly between the team members so that those flying from more expensive airports e.g. London, wouldn’t lose out financially and the overall net cost remained affordable by EOC.

Athlete Contributions:

JHI – £90

SHI – £80

VHI – £85

Interland 2012- £90

Levy on Regions, per capita – 65p

• The budget and forecast were proposed by the Treasurer and seconded by Jeff Butt. Carried unanimously.
6. Home Internationals

• JHI (Kinnoul & Devilla, Scotland)  – results: England – 135Scotland – 119Ireland – 61Wales – 45
• SHI (New Forest, Hampshire – SCOA) – results:  England  – 54Scotland – 48Wales – 24Ireland  – 17
• VHI (The Gower, Wales) – results:England  – 244Scotland  – 201Wales  – 170Ireland  – 82
Dates of all 2011 HIs have now been fixed in the autumn and can be found on the EOC website.

7. Interland

• Another win at Lübbecke in North Rhine Westphalia (Germany) making 16 in a row.  Thanks to John Rye for all his efforts in managing another successful trip.
• EOC – England  – 252

VVO – Vlaander  – 212

FRSO – Wallonie  – 146

WTB – Westfalen – 124

LNPCCO – N.France – 99

NOLB – Nederlands  – 41
The Chairman noted one particular benefit the Interland match offered: England’s top veterans and juniors racing the same courses and travelling together, allowing productive interaction and development.

• FRSO have confirmed the details for Interland 2012 in Southern Belgium: 22nd April 2012 at Habay-la-Neuve.

• The Ligue Nord–Pas de Calais de Course d’Orientation (LNPCCO) again sent a team and have now been invited to take part on a continuing basis.

8. Appointment of Selectors
Sarah Noot stood down as Junior selector last autumn and was replaced by Tim Tett.  There were two other offers from suitable people who would both be willing to assist if other vacancies come up in future.  We would like to express our thanks to Sarah for her contribution over the past 6 years.

9. Selection policies

• All three selection policies for this year are in place and published on our website.

10. Website

• The EOC website is still running successfully.  In relation to previous problems with posting pictures we have had an offer from Judith Holt to assist with this if necessary.  If anyone can provide any further historic information, previous results, etc. we would be pleased to have it to add to the site

• Over the last year the counter shows we have had an average of 1000 visitors each month.  As before there are peaks corresponding with competitions.  We have now had visitors from 78 countries.

• Tim Holt has recently said that he will continue to support us. We record our thanks to him for this. He will shortly invoice us for hosting the website for another year. He has set up a new picture gallery system.

11. Team Kit

• 4 items of clothing are available in a range of sizes

• O tops supplied by Ultrasport

• T shirts and hoodies supplied by Welbeck

• Jackets supplied by Trimtex

• Clothing cannot be ordered on demand because supply time for the O tops has increased from 3 to 8 weeks and 6 weeks for hoodies and Ts. Therefore we have to hold quite a large amount of stock

• We have changed the supplier for hoodies, Ts and badges but with no increase in cost.  A small rise in the base cost of O tops plus the rise in VAT means they will now cost team members £36 to purchase (£2 rise).

• In stock at the moment:

• 27 O tops – 1 x XL, 4 x L, 3 x M, 6 x S, 13 x XS

• 22 hoodies – 7 x L, 7 x M, 8 x S

• 19 T shirts – 8 x L, 4 x M, 7 x S

• There is still a small supply of sweatshirts available for loan

12. Constitution Amendment

• The constitution states: “The Council shall elect a Chairman and one other officer each year.”   At the last AGM this was discussed however a proposal was deferred to 2011 to allow proper process – pre-notification on the AGM agenda.  The proposal that the relevant article of the constitution should be amended to read:  “The Council shall elect a Chairman and two other officers each year.” was proposed by the Chairman and seconded by Simon Greenwood and carried unanimously.

• The Constitution posted on the EOC website will be updated accordingly by the Secretary.
13. Election of Officers

• All officers were willing to stand and Philip Gristwood, Chairman, Chris Morris, Secretary and Lesley Ross, Treasurer were re-elected unopposed after being proposed by Simon Greenwood and seconded by Henry Morgan.

14. AOB

• EOC Funding
• One previous idea for raising money was for BOF to share their levy with us from the 3 English Area Championships (National Events).  When writing to Mike Hamilton earlier this year concerning their financial contribution this was mentioned, but unfortunately did not elicit any response.• Another previous idea was to try and raise money as sponsorship (this is currently being investigated).  • The last meeting wondered if there might be some sponsorship opportunities by advertising on our website as this had a large number of visitors• Unfortunately, neither of the last two items was actioned during the year. We need a volunteer or sub-committee to take this on

• Last year Sarah Brown took on the role of Home International Coordination Officer to advise English regions hosting HIs on what is required of an HI, both the competition and the supporting aspects (accommodation and feeding). It is important to note that the events will still “owned” by the Regions and this role would be purely advisory.  This is just a reminder to seek her assistance.

• John Rye stressed the importance of needing to make the case for our £2000 in 2012.

15. Next meeting

• The 2012 British Champs will be hosted by NWOA in the Lake District and this weekend was proposed as the date and venue for the 2012 EOC AGM.  The meeting was in agreement that the AGM should take place in Cumbria on Sat 5th May at 5:30pm (or some other time to be agreed before the event).

• Meeting closed at  6:45 pm