The 2008 Remnants CC annual general meeting was held at the Fitzwilliam College Cricket Ground bar on Thursday, March 13, 2008, and proved to be something of an epic both in terms of attendance (a full eleven being present -- better than at some games last year) and duration (the discussions clocking in at about two hours). Geoff Hales chaired the meeting, the highlights of which are as follows.
The minutes of last year's AGM, held on March 20, 2007, were taken as read.
Dave Williams went beyond the call of duty by producing a five-page financial statement that led to a number of discussion points. Due to under-charging at nets last year, some big equipment purchases, and a record number of cancellations (eleven in all) the club lost money last year, although it is hoped that these were just one-offs. (For instance, the kit is in a very healthy state, and we already have enough balls for most of the season, although they were purchased after the end of the financial year.)
A more endemic problem is the late- or non-payment of subscriptions and, after much discussion, a policy was settled on which should both induce regular members to pay their subs early, whilst allowing new members and fill-ins to play legitimately. Un-subscribed adult members pay a match free of GBP 5.00 until they have paid their GBP 15.00 subs, when the match fee comes down to the usual GBP 3.00 (with the corresponding figures being halved for juniors). The extra match fees do not count towards the eventual sub. It is hoped that this will simply induce everyone to pay their subs without being chased up (and payment on the match day is fine) although if people are slow to pay then it is the club that benefits. The treasuer should also benefit from being spared the hassle of constantly reminding people about subs; it was also agreed that receipts would be given out on request.
On a related note, match fees for games with tea will be GBP 5.00 to cover the expense, and should not be thought of from the point of view of getting personal value for money, but as a contribution to the courtesy of providing tea for those clubs which have travelled a long distance to play us (e.g., FAS in early July -- ``those ringers need feeding'', as Les said).
Geoff Hales began his report with a summary of the club's performances for the 2007 season: of 28 fixtures actually played, we won 16 and lost 9 (with 3 internal), taking our all-time tally to 410 won and just 236 lost. However this includes results from the last few years' six-a-side competitions; when the validity of this was put to the vote it was strongly rejected, and so the six-a-side matches will no longer count towards the result statistics.
The 2008 fixture list is already largely complete and, aside from the usual mid-week games, should include an all-day friendly against on July 6, in which we'll join forces with Romsey Town's league side to take on the might of The Woozlers. There is some sense that many other clubs' secretaries prefer to organise these matters via e-mail, rather than the telephone, these days, leading Geoff to solicit help in organising the fixtures next year. More generally, Geoff would like to step down from this task in the next year or two -- having done three decades of extrordinary service this seems fair enough -- and so anyone who's willing to take on some of these taks should make themselves known.
At last year's meeting there was a discussion and nominal agreement that every Remnants team would include a tweflth man; however this idea was seldom put into practice in 2007, and an informal poll of club opinions on the matter was undertaken. Most people seemed happy -- or at least prepared -- to do this duty once a year, and aside from making it much more likely that we'll have a full side at the ground at match time, there is the additional benefit that much less calling round on match days should be required if there is (as is so often the case) as last-minute drop-out. After a long discussion about the various options, a motion was passed that: Remnants would name twelve players for each match, with the twelfth man expected to be present for the start of the match, but that nobody would be expected to do this more than once a season. If the nominal eleven are all present the twelfth would be encouraged to score, umpire, etc., but would of course be free to go. Moreover, if the twelfth man plays there would be no match fee; if he does not then his next match will be free. It is hoped that this would be seen as an important contribution to both ensuring that the club punctually fields a full team at all matches and to reducing the amount of time Goeff spends organising teams each week.
Once again there were some problems with poor umpiring last year; Geoff's strong suggestion is that members should not umpire if they are unfamiliar with the rules, but should read our short umpiring guide instead. Also, a good way to get a feel for the on-field job is to umpire square-leg only for a game or two. Even better, attend the Cambridgeshire Cricket Umpires & Scorers Association's level 1 course in umpiring in October -- at a nominal fee and anyone interested in doing so should contact Geoff.
The club membership is very healthy, being somewhere over fifty, and potentially includes several new players who have been turning up to nets (Sarah Pelham, Tom Serby and Anil Waduge) as well as a few second-generationers such as Rob Harvey's son, Joe.
Daniel Mortlock greatly enjoyed his two years leading Remnants in its on-field endeavours (especially the second season, where we actually won a few matches) and is particularly appreciative of the club's approach of giving people who wouldn't otherwise captain a cricket side a chance to do so.
As Russell will only be able to play both matches every second week and Joe will be playing only once a week, we'll need another on-field leader for about a quarter of our games. In the past there's been a policy of this job being given strictly to those who hadn't previously captained but, with so many ex-captains in the team, this has been relaxed this year; in the absence of Russell and Joe, Geoff will appoint a day captain (but still with an eye to giving players experience in the role where possible).
The 2007 annual dinner was rather poorly attended and a discussion was had about whether this was due to timing or any unhappiness with price or venue. Most seemed to think that it was simply bad luck, although a few people thought the meal was too expensive and didn't represent good value for money. Further discussion of this was deferred 'til later in the year.
This year's nets have been very well attended; however, in combination with the fact that we only have two nets to use, this means that it is impractical to have Dave Norman attend for coaching sessions. There is the possibility of Dave attending an outdoor net at Fitzwilliam College in the last week of April.
The conversion of club notices (AGM dates, fixtures, dinner dates, etc.) from physical mail-outs and phonecalls from Geoff to a combination of web-site updates and e-mails seems to have worked well. However we don't have e-mail addresses for all club members, so please send your e-mail address to Daniel Mortlock if you think there's any possibility he doesn't have your address already and you would like to be included in any Remnants mail-outs. (If you'd rather not have your in-box filling up even more rapidly than it does checking the news page should be sufficient to keep abreast of any significant developments.)
The six-a-side tournament will again be held this year, most likely on Monday, May 26. Remnants will endeavour to enter a team.