Toad in the Hole - AGM minutes

LEWES & DISTRICT TOAD IN THE HOLE A.G.M.

Held at The Snowdrop Inn, Lewes

Monday 3rd Sept 2012.

AGENDA.

Apologies.


1. Officers Reports – Chairman (John W)
​ Main Events & Competitions (Paul H & Mike H)
​ Treasurer (Sally R)
​ Fixtures Sec. (Dave R)


2. Election of Officers - Any nominations from the floor? None.
​ The present Officers were willing to continue apart from Mike Hole who resigned as Main Events Organiser due to work commitments. The committee will undertake to organise venues after exploring suggestions made from the floor. It was agreed to look at venues specifically in Lewes and to have Finals nights & Xmas events on Monday nights.
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3. The following proposals have been put forward for discussion.​

1st Proposal. Addition to Rules – was 1 person 1 vote last year. To be added to the rules. Agreed – now added to the rules.

2nd Proposal. The Committee are planning to publicise & communicate via the Toads Blog Page. Proposal is to co-opt Roger Marshall onto Committee as Communications Officer. Roger to explain how publicity & communication would benefit Toad League. Agreed – Roger now co-opted onto the committee. Roger is setting up a blog page to show results and other information to help raise the profile of the game. Discussion again on sending in results, it was agreed to keep to the same format as in previous season (email Sally or Dave, text Sally or leave message on their answerphone.

3rd Proposal. Funds- Sally suggesting raising of league subs to £20 per team. Agreed- as only £163.74 left in funds, mainly due to expensive Christmas party.

4th Proposal. Scoring System. Adoption of the scoring system used in league last year. (Bonus points - 2 for Away Win & 1 for Home Win). Abolished.
After a close vote, the meeting decided to abolish the bonus point system so every league match will just consist of 7 individual games.


Four remaining proposals were received by the committee from the floor.


5th Proposal. That each division award an end of season shield/cup to the ‘pub’ who offers the best food during the season.
Each team to have a single vote with a restriction that teams cannot vote for their own establishment.
Proposer. Mark H. (Trevor Arms). Agreed.
Proposal for prize for best pub/venue food was agreed to incentivise pubs/venues to improve their provisions. One vote per team after last match of season. Will be awarded to all winner in all divisions. Teams to notify their respective pubs/venues of this award.


6th Proposal. Re Finals Night. Exclude anyone playing in cup finals from the draw. Also to make it more of an open evening competition and perhaps encourage more to attend, ballot all entrants then draw names to pair together. This would make for a more "interesting" competition. Last year was very poorly attended so something has to change.
Proposer Annette W. (ASBO’s) Agreed.
Proposal to exclude cup final teams from playing in draw on finals night as it caused major hold ups while waiting for cup finals to finish. This was agreed but no decision on format for doubles

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7th Proposal. How about a system that –

1. Penalises teams failing to give proper notice by deducting penalty points (I would suggest 7)
2. Expunges all results of any team guilty of no-shows who also fail to play all their games by the last Monday of the season.

No team can ever claim 7-0, and final league positions would be a true reflection of matches actually played between the teams.
Proposer. Andy B. (Laughing Fish B) Proposal withdrawn in favour of Proposal No.8



8th Proposal. PROPOSED RULE CHANGE – specific details to be discussed

AIM:
To, as closely as possible, have a system where positions are decided on merit and not on points awarded for games that were never played. Therefore… to punish teams for poorly excused late cancellations, without giving a big bonus to the other team involved and thereby punish all the other teams in the division who weren’t involved in the game.


CURRENT SITUATION:
This year we have at least one situation where a team lost out on promotion by a narrow margin because another team was awarded points for not playing a game against a third team. After a year of playing games it seems only fair for positions to be decided on how teams have played during the year. Any points awarded for not playing a game punish all the other teams in the division and make the end of season point totals slightly meaningless. Equally Teams who want to play a game but are prevented by the actions of the opposing team mustn’t lose out.

SUGGESTION A:
For a first late cancellation (time frame to be discussed) a 5 point deduction. The game must be replayed.
Any team who make a second late cancellation are withdrawn from that seasons statistics and all the results for all the offending teams matches in the league will be expunged.

SUGGESTION B:
For a first late cancellation (time frame to be discussed) a 5 point deduction. The game must be replayed.
For a second late cancellation (time frame to be discussed) a 10 point penalty.
The Game must be replayed.
Any team who make a third late cancellation are withdrawn from that seasons statistics and all their results are expunged.
Both these suggestions would mean punishing teams for cancelling… Seriously punishing teams for regularly cancelling… and league tables at the end of the season that were fair to all Teams.

NB: All punishments should be subject to appeal to the committee, as clearly there are situations where a late cancellation is totally understandable and shouldn’t be punished at all.
Proposer Ben W (DCC) Suggestion A.- Agreed.
In the discussion over late match cancellations, it was proposed that the offending team should lose points instead of other team being awarded 7-0, as the current system can distort final results.
The decision was to lose 5pts for the first offence, then to be excluded from the league for a second. All teams will be given the right of appeal to the committee. All communication with the committee/other teams MUST be via email and need to include copies to the fixture sec.


4. Any other business.

Remind teams of the need to be registered & payment made ASAP. Closing date for admission to the league is Mon. 17th Sept.

Season to start on Monday 1st October – no games to be played on 5th November due to Lewes Bonfire night!

Fixtures Sec. asked members of all teams present at A.G.M. that we look around for & encourage any extra teams to make contact with the committee in order to try & ensure we have 3 Divisions of 8 teams.

5. Close of A.G.M. by Chairman