Fencing Committee Meeting Minutes - January 17th 2005

Present: Chris McConnell Zoë Neville-Smith Andrew Moroney Annette Chatterton Ben Rackham

Apologies: Zoë and Chris, for eating dinner during meeting.

Club Finances Are good, it has been revealed. We have £985.10 in our subs account, which is more than we expected to have left by now. Once the rejoining fees come in, we will have even more. We must take anticipated expenditure into account, including purchases and Andrew Sowerby’s third hour, which we pay. But even with this, a target of £300 or more to be left in the account for the next committee seems fair and realistic.

The treasurer was leapt upon to sign forms, which he did. Hurrah.

Union Matters (oh yes it does) Following an email from the Finance Officer over Christmas, we understand that the running of Sportsnights is to change. They will become a Union run night for which clubs are encouraged to sell tickets and retain a portion of the ticket price in order to generate funds. The committee is slightly perturbed however by an implication in the explanatory email suggesting that a club’s ticket sales for Sportsnights will influence how they are looked upon by the Union (favourably if the club is seen to be keen on working with the Union through ticket sales for Sportsnights) and will have the knock on effect of shaping the size of their Union grant at the beginning of the academic year. As a smaller club with less social emphasis (than say Rugby), we are concerned that our failure to persuade our members to stand around getting drunk in the Hive of a random Wednesday night might put us out of favour, despite our competitive record, careful financial management and general wonderfulness. A suggested line of action was a letter to the finance officer asking for clarification of the effect to which the new structure will effect our grant allocation, and asking when the consultation period for this change occurred, as this was the first we (and it seems, many others involved in Union sports clubs) had heard of it. It was stressed by the Armourer that this enquiry should be tactful and brief, and any attack should be gradual. The Social Secretary is to report back from Student Council to ascertain how many others were aware of the change and how it came to be. In any case, the committee felt that the new idea was a load of pants as sports clubs are likely to be less motivated to use Union facilities for social purposes if they are unable to organise the events themselves.

The Secretary asked if the President was likely to eat his lettuce, as she was hungry. He conceded his salad to her greedy claws. She attempted to transfer the food to her plate in one go, failed and laughed spraying the Social Secretary with potato and tuna.

Competitions We still await the completion of the BUSA questionnaire by Vanda Turrell, but as this has not been accomplished, we are tempted to provide this feedback ourselves on the quiet. The Armourer said this type of hoodwinking is common, as he did the same at Kings. We have one entry for the County Senior championships (go Abi!) and hope for maybe a couple more…? With regard to BUSA, Steve has been spotted and has voiced determination to attend all matches from now on and take us all the way to the top. Delight was expressed by the committee at this news. Our next fixture is 9th February, aiming for a 3pm start, against Loughborough. We shall kick arse. The local league was declared something of a failure as few clubs seem to be interested in keeping fixtures and we gain as much from the practice as we would from a few friendly matches every few months. Subsequently, it was agreed that this venture would be dropped for the rest of the term. The East Anglian Derby is to take place on 9th march this year, which clashes with the BUSA last four matches (assuming we get through to the last four…) Depending on our priorities by then, we may well submit one or two teams, possibly mixed. The Reading Novices competition was greatly advocated by the Armourer and we hope to send as many ‘less experienced’ fencers as want to go to that. We will keep our eyes and ears open for information.

Equipment We have beautiful new hats er… masks. They have blue bits and are wipe-clean and should fit everyone. We also have a few new foil lamés in sensible sizes. It was put to the Armourer that with our current budget he could just scribble down a list of what he feels we need, and we’ll see what we can do. His central concern seemed to be for the acquisition of a yellow wheelie kit bag to take to competitions. The colour was a surprise, and debated as being impractical for showing up scuffs. The Armourer asserted that he liked yellow, as it was cheerful. The practicality of various colours was argued for a while, and fantasies expressed of bags with leather or suede trims for a truly stylish (and retro) image. The Treasurer was sold on the idea. The AllStar box has been returned and is apparently fixed. About time. The Armourer commented that he’d been skipping through The Sword with a cup of tea and discovered that the FIE are holding another meeting at the end of the month to discuss their regulations. The Secretary and Social Secretary were in a fit of giggles by now, visualising the Armourer skipping with a cup of tea, and had to calm down. This took a while longer than most adults would require. It was decided to review the extent to which our kit conforms (or will conform) to new regulations once final decisions had come from the FIE.

Socials Week three sees us hitting Lazar Quest. The Social Secretary had organised the day, time and money required, and was to announce all of this at the subsequent club practice (Thursday, 6:45pm, £7 each for 2 games with NUS) .It is also the Social Secretary’s birthday in week three though she won’t tell us when. We shall go to the pub after we’ve all shot one another regardless and buy her a drink. As far as further socials look, another pub crawl may be a possibility while the weather is still miserable, but the Social Secretary seems keen on having a summery picnic barbeque type thing on campus when the days are longer and hotter. The end of term meal is planned to be in week 10 before the Easter break, and some suggestions are already coming in for the location. It was declared and agreed that we shall need around 30 places this time to ensure we accommodate all those who wish to come. The Secretary pressed for a location where helium balloons will be provided so as members so inclined can inhale the helium and talk in squeaky voices to amuse the others. It might make a change from getting smashed by the main course and embarrassing / insulting people at will.

Merchandising The President made it clear that this is the last time he will endeavour to bring this topic up, but it brought a surprisingly pro-active response with the Secretary composing a tally chart on the spot to assess demand. Armstrong UK, who we went with last time were quick and produced quality goods, though we had some confusion over the sizing. With regard to what type of merchandising we should press for, the Secretary is set on T shirts, the Armourer spoke from his position of team captain and demanded uniform-like track suits to boost team morale, and the Social Secretary piped up a vote for key rings. Watch this space…

Committee 2005/06 The new committee will begin to take over the club after the Easter break, with supervision and advice from the old. We aim to hold the elections in mid-March. So far we have received only one email from a club member willing to take on a position and are concerned that more people need to be encouraged in order to keep the club from folding after the President and Secretary graduate and the Social Secretary leaves the country, the Armourer ‘makes way for new blood’ and the Treasurer ‘hasn’t really thought about it’. The Secretary quietly suggested that the Armourer could stand for the position of Secretary for Good Looks and Sportsmanship, (and in this position covertly run the club) but wasn’t heard. Anyone wishing to run for a position should think about writing what was suggested to be a ‘statement of intent’ before it was realised that certain club members are too wrapped up in dissertations and then redefined as a ‘mission statement’. We shall do elections by a show of hands, unless there is a contest for positions.

1. O.B. Ladies Team! Next year we have at least three highly competent female fencers who could realistically make up a ladies team and prove a formidable force. This should be exploited, sorry, explored, the ladies in question approached and taken out for drinks (in the Secretary’s opinion) and persuaded / coerced into forming a UEA fencing competitive sisterhood. We also have a bunch of spongy sabres, and since the waterproof roof blew off the Presidential shed (and the Secretary repaired it with drawing pins) we are keen to get rid of them. It was decided to flog them to club members for a bargainous £1. ‘Not making enough effort to generate our own funds, are we…?’ the President mumbled, rubbing his hands together deviously. The concept of an independent website has been more or less abandoned as the Union ‘mini-site’ seems to be sufficient for our needs. A first aid course is coming up, we are allowed to put two people on it, preferably those who will remain in the club next year. It may be useful. And like everything else, look good on your CV.

And here the meeting dissolved in favour of mingling with other fencers, taking their money off them, predictably asking and being asked how their holidays were, and then beating the life out of them with metal sticks. Oh, how we love them all.