SOUTH YORKSHIRE ORIENTEERS

							                          SOUTH YORKSHIRE ORIENTEERS

                                     AGM MINUTES

                                   20 October 2008
                    The Fat Cat, 23 Alma Street, Sheffield, S3 8SA

Present:     Colin Best                 Apologies: Kim Buckley
             Paul Bradbury                         Richard Buckley
             Gareth Candy                          Pete Gorvett
             Colin Drury                           Richard Guillaume
             Jill Gorvett                          Ruth Hambleton
             Jenny Johnson                         Neil Northrop
             Oli Johnson                           Sutherland Family
             Colin Lynch                           Ray Waight
             Andy Preston
             Louise Preston
             Melinda Riley (Chair)
             Arun Sahni
             Mike Sprot
             Brian Shaw
             Tim Tett
             Lesley Ward
             Martin Ward

1     Minutes of the AGM held on 15 October 2007

The minutes were agreed as a true record.

2     Chairman’s Report

The Chairman gave her report for the year:

The senior and international success notwithstanding, the Chairman concentrated her
report on our Junior successes and progress this year.

Most recently Louise and Michael Adams won their respective classes at the British
Schools Score event. In the summer Aidan had a great run at O-ringen, with a stage win
on day 3. It was also great to see Simon Bradbury being selected for Lagganlia and
running well.

We had a good showing at the Junior inter-regionals with Simon, Adam, Cari, Robin and
Aidan – and Aidan and Robin represented England at the Junior Home Internationals. And
we provided teams at the Peter Palmer and Yvette Baker trophies – all showing that the
junior side of the club is really beginning to take off.

We’ve been able to stage a wide diversity of events and had fantastic support from all the
volunteers: planners, organisers, controllers and helpers that have meant we’ve been able
to put on over 30 events – Ultrasprint; British Transplant Games, and a variety of urban
and traditional races. British Orienteering even described us as a community club.
We of course have had some great international success with Oli selected for the World
Championships, and much other international representation as well. Pete Gorvett won a
Silver medal at the World Masters orienteering in Portugal in both the sprint and the
classic distance. And of course we need to celebrate Jamie Stevenson – our overseas
club member for winning a gold medal in the World Championships relay.

In team competitions we won the men’s and the women’s relay league (beating the Scots
on their own terrain) – and the men’s class, the handicap class and women’s handicap
classes at the Harvester relays

Finally she congratulated Tim and all those who competed at the Compass sport cup the
day before – lots of junior competitors and we finally won the trophy again.

All is obviously back to the natural order of things – SYO win the Compass Sport Cup and
Tim mispunches again.

3     Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer introduced the SYO accounts for the year ended 31 July 2008 which
showed a small deficit of £750 for the year. However the finances of the club remained in a
healthy position with a club bank balance of over £7000. With big events planned for the
future there was no need to be concerned.

Net income from events was less than last year because only one Regional Event had
been held in the year compared to a National Event held the year before, including the
SHIs.

The club had continued to subsidise relay entries, Compass Sport Cup entries and help
with individual payments for those selected for JHI, SHI and VHI.

Some map updates had been completed during the year.

It was noted that the club would need to invest in Sportident equipment as old equipment
begins to age in the next few years.

The Chair noted that Mike would be stepping down as Treasurer later in the AGM and
thanked him for his work over the last few years.

4     Election of Officials

The following were proposed, seconded and elected to serve the coming year.

Melinda Riley – Chair
Lesley Ward – Secretary
Louise Preston – Treasurer

Also appointed were:

Fixtures – Brian Shaw
Membership – Jill and Pete Gorvett
Captain – Tim Tett
Equipment – Pete and Pauline Tryner
Newsletter – Jackie Butcher
Mapping – Ray Waight
Permissions – Rob Baker
Development – Colin Best
Publicity – Jenny Johnson
Junior Development/Team Captain – Paul Bradbury (exact role to be agreed)
Child Protection Officer – Janet Adams

It was noted that the post of SI manager should be added to the formal list of Committee
posts in the Constitution and that Martin Ward would be prepared to do up to another year
but would be looking for someone to take over after this.

5       Club Fees

It was noted that the AGM timing did not fit with the date by which SYO had to inform BOF
of the club fee levels for the following year meaning that SYO would have to agree 2010
fees at the current meeting if they were to change. However there was not sufficient
information available to do this. The ideal time to make the decision would be August
every year and a mechanism would be found in order to achieve this. However for this
year it was proposed that an EGM should be held in conjunction with the Awards Evening
in December specifically to agree new fee levels. The proposal was agreed.

The Committee discussed whether it was appropriate to maintain Club Only Membership
levels for anyone other than those who were BOF members of another club. There were
very few members who were members in this category and this level of membership did
not provide insurance, discounts at events and only provided access to the newsletter
which was available on line. It was agreed that this membership level should be
discontinued but all members affected by this change should be written to detailing the
change and explaining the options.

6       Club Development

Colin presented a report on his work in South Yorkshire over the previous year including:

       Increase in the activity of the schools orienteering in South Yorkshire and the YHOA
        including the development of a schools competition structure. It was important for
        SYO to target publicity at these events in a similar way to EBOR. The SYO A frame
        should also be taken to the events.
       Schools now had to include 2 hours quality PE in a week and offer 5 hours per
        week PE so orienteering was likely to benefit. EBOR had already seen this with
        schools asking them to put on coaching and events.
       Club and Coach initiative – it was noted that YHOA had been successful in its bid
        for this funding stream which would cover the cost of employing a high performance
        coach, a lead coach and the training of a pool of voluntary coaches. Sheffield
        Hallam students had also agreed to undertake coaching. Also included would be a
        programme of C5 events and Club Nights. The funding should be released in
        November when the plans from all the successful regions had been signed off,
        allowing a January start to the project.
       It was reported that it had been proposed (subject to the agreement of the new
        Performance Director and the associated new structure) that the UK should have 2
        orienteering centres of excellence where high performance coaching training would
      be available for developing talent. The likely locations were noted to the Sheffield
      and Edinburgh.

7      Any Other Business

It was noted that:

Events
A level 3 Controllers Course would be held on 13 December 2008.

SYO would be holding a number of large events over the next 2 to 3 years and members
were asked to suggest suitable new areas as well as new small ones which could work
with new format events.

SYO would again participate in Cliffhanger in 2009. It was agreed that a series of follow
up events should be planned which could be publicised at the event, with the first one
being in the same park a week later.

Members were asked to indicate their preference for Club Night - frequency, location,
activities etc.

Publicity
It was agreed that the content of the newsletter could be generated from the website if the
website regularly had new articles added. Members could be prompted to look at new
articles by email alert. Articles could be encouraged by nominating individuals to write
content at particular events. It was agreed that the Chair would speak to the Newsletter
Editors about possible options.

It was agreed that SYO needed a flier with a separate events update sheet which could be
regularly updated. This could be used to circulate at schools events, Cliffhanger etc.

If members were aware of newsworthy stories they should draft articles and send it to the
Publicity Officer who would then send to the local newspapers.