Committee Meeting Minutes - 9/3/05

Present: Chris McConnell Zoë Neville-Smith Ben Rackham Annette Chatterton James Berrill Dan Farnes Gemma Scurfield Steffi Wies Abi Fawkes Nick Dobson

Apologies: Chris, for forgetting to tell Andrew Moroney about the meeting. Zoë for the haphazard quality of her notes and consequential disjointed minutes.

The meeting was delayed by five minutes while lost committee members were found. The President apologised for the out-of-the way setting, but hoped the formality of the room would get the new committee members off to a good start.

1)Ongoing Financial Stuff The current subs balance stands at £1089.58, though we await quotes from LeonPaul and Duellist, plus a LeonPaul quote for the repair of one of the boxes. The most recent withdrawal was over £400 for the latest hoodie order, but due to the efficiency of the Secretary, most of this money has been collected from members already. We also have to foot the bill for Andrew’s third hour, which further depletes funds. We aim to leave between £300-£400 for the incoming committee, at which suggestion their little eyes lit up like children in a sweet shop with a whole week’s pocket money.

2)Competitions / Team News

BUSA is dead. Gutted. We wait with bated breath to hear about the Reading Novice’s competition, but as they’ve normally got their asses in gear by now and publicised it, we hold little hope. There is a Novice’s competition in Sheffield and possibly one at Warwick too; more details may follow. The local league is also very much dead, no one mourned its passing. The President recommended to the new committee that they stuff the local league and instead approach the clubs concerned for friendly matches. As far as next year’s BUSA entry is concerned, we shall of course be entering a men’s team, but have also been authorised to enter a women’s team too, to the Women’s Team Captain’s delight. However, the President was stern in explaining that we could not afford to give a single walkover (causes disgrace, shame, loses favour with the Union) so entering a girl’s team would have to be a full commitment, even if it meant getting inexperienced people involved. The Women’s Team Captain expressed her fears over the question of BFA membership for her team. It was explained that the regular team would require membership (around £40 each) but that the odd ‘reserve’ might be able to get away without it. Though the committee can’t advocate such policies, the Armourer exclaimed that if some of the people he’d taken on at BUSA fixtures this year had BFA membership, he’d eat his… bag. The Women’s Team Captain was given a copy of the BUSA rulebook so she’d know exactly what she was in for, with a post-it note stuck to the fencing pages by our wonderfully over-efficient President. The President went some way to explain how fixtures are arranged, the hospitality owed to visiting teams and the importance of Vanda Turrell in the whole process. It was remembered that a Men’s Team Captain is required and the Armourer suggested the committee nominated Adam Ferguson to take the position as next year he should have more time to be involved with fencing, he has plenty of competitive experience, and he is well acquainted with the Women’s Team Captain (not like that!). The committee was satisfied with this proposal.

3)Socials and Merchandising

The President appeared stressed by the thought of the social, but the Secretary assured him that all was under control, she and the Social Secretary were collecting money off people at the next training, they could chase up menu choices easily, she was getting an email out the next day and he had nothing to worry about. He sank back down in his grand chair, appeased (for now). The Secretary vented spleen about the hoodies for a couple of minutes until she felt better, but still picked up kudos from the committee for her efficiency and basked surreptitiously in the glory. Hoodies should arrive after Easter. The President has not forgotten that the Armourer owes him for a hoody. The question of further merchandise arose and was met by mixed reactions. The notion of track suits, though hilarious to some (the Secretary) were advocated by the Women’s Team Captain and Armourer as being good for team enthusiasm. The new Treasurer suggested the possibility of sponsorship to help boost funds and the idea was batted about. The Armourer voiced his experiences on the matter and advocated trying to blag money from the national lottery funds by neglecting to mention that the club isn’t open to all members of the public. The Secretary was horrified at such an attitude and will never trust him again. It was suggested that we should get sponsored by companies that would annoy the union, Nestle and Bernard Matthews as examples, though this suggestion was withdrawn on grounds of stupidity. It was then briefly explained how to withdraw money from our subs account to make purchases of merchandising or to fund socials, which leads nicely to…

4)Committee Handover Issues

The Secretary has issues with handing over the committee and nearly cried. The President had prepared an enormous file and CD for the New President containing everything from score sheets to a month-by-month breakdown of what needs doing, to graphics that can be used for publicity. He claimed this was 200 times what he got when he took over way back in 2003, and the New President was almost as grateful as he was overwhelmed. The current committee are not about to cast the new committee into the water and let them swim - that would undo all of our good work this year! We have carefully prepared not only a comprehensive breakdown of what needs doing for the club, but a concise job description for each of their positions (thanks to the Armourer). It was debated which committee members should be allowed key cards and decided that the New President, Team Captains and Armourer would be best off with them. With the Armourer in mind, Ben offered to continue his work next year if the new committee were prepared to nominate him for the position. This offer was greatly appreciated as to keep some old blood in is extremely valuable. The New Union Council Rep informed us that it is not necessary to sign up for Union Training this year, but just to turn up for sessions. This, along with completion of the Union’s committee take-over booklet must be completed before the end of term. The new committee show signs of supporting, sharing and socialising with one another, much to the delight of the old. The risk assessment and code of practice were mentioned, though it was pointed out that with so many careful reviews, they are near perfect. The Secretary asked if the fencing code of practice included ‘doing damsels, maidens and widows succour’ and was ordered purge her brain of Malory. The committee was, however, advised to keep seeing Vanda and Rachel to keep up our brilliant relationship with them. It was suggested that some committee members undertook minisite training to uphold the standard and informative nature of the website. Also, a paragraph needs to be submitted to the Union Handbook that is given to all first year students, but it was recommended that the paragraph written years ago by the Secretary be used unless they were particularly bothered to revamp the image. The Secretary basked some more. The Social Secretary was (we think) asleep by this point, the poor overworked thing. The new format of Sportsnight were explained and mocked as being a failure so far. The President described the nature in which motions through the Union and Sports Council are passed, expressing it to be a little covert at times and stressing the importance of the Union Council Rep and the usefulness of getting someone on the Sports Council too. A close eye must be kept on proceedings. The Secretary stole a mint from the New Social Secretary.

5)Training Sessions / Membership 2005-6

It was explained to all that seeing as Andrew is unable to coach for us after Easter, we will be unable to hold training sessions, though it was put to the New Social Secretary that he think upon getting the club together regardless, a favourite idea being a beach picnic in the summer semester. As far as training goes, we still have our 10 Norfolk Fencing Club places, which are rarely filled. These places should be publicised for the advanced and keen. As far as next year stands, a motivation was expressed to not waste the £600 we pay for the NFC spaces and ensure, some way or another, that they are all used. The running of our training sessions next year was discussed. The New President and Treasurer have been in discussion and plan to raise the joining fees to £20 to cover any shortcomings in our grant and prevent us from having to recruit more people than we can fairly cater for in order to keep coaching and kit at the standard to which veteran members have become so accustomed. The Armourer submitted a spending plan in which he had taken into account all usual annual expenditure with the increased membership fees, demonstrating how the money could serve us well. Very useful, thank you. As a saving measure, we are considering twisting the Union’s arm to persuade them to fund Andrew’s third hour (which we currently pay out of subs). Alongside this ran the question of beginner’s classes. As we are a Union club, one of their chief concerns is our equal opportunities policy, allowing as many novice fencers to join the club each year as possible. They are also our main source of income (the beginners, but the Union too, thinking about it!). As far as the coaching is concerned, it was suggested that the President and Armourer have a work with Diane Goodwin at Norfolk club to ascertain if she would coach for us as she is a competent and accessible beginner foil type person. News about room allocations was shared. It seems that the Sportspark are keen for us to give up the Barclay’s area, as these are their spaces for public use, and they are not currently meeting guidelines for the public / student balance. As such, there are rumours in the pipeline that UEA Fencing might be offered, wait for it, the dance studio. At this suggestion, the Women’s Captain did a little bounce and affirmed that we were indeed talking about the big glass fronted room at the front of the building on the first floor. She was clearly delighted. The Secretary offered to show new committee members where Rachel Tomes, space allocations lady lived, so they could all go in and be nice to her. The outgoing committee made recommendations as to how to run the training sessions next year; basically to keep things consistent as we have found a format that works well. Another training opportunity is that offered by the ‘Norfolk County Fencing Union’ who seem to exist in political antithesis to Andrew Sowerby’s coaching league. They offer a day of intense training, which though oversubscribed is well coached. However, the club feels uncomfortable publicising this on a large scale, as we have a loyalty to Andrew. The Armourer attempted to explain the politics of these loyalties to the meeting, which is far to complicated to go into here, but concluded that Andrew’s copy of plans sent to him by this ‘Norfolk County Fencing Union’ ended up shredded and then in a hamster cage.

6)Grant Application and Equipment

The question of washing the kit was raised, as this was a main point raised in the ingenious survey of a few weeks ago. Other short-term solutions to kit smell were proposed from hanging air fresheners in the lockers to dousing the kit in ‘Oust’ on a regular basis. The new committee plan to uphold some standard of cleanliness. The Women’s Team Captain was openly disgusted by the masks, proclaiming the dampness on the bibs to be ‘gross’. She then put in a request for team socks, starting a discussion about what the teams could be entitled to, the Armourer still vocalising his bag fetish and the Women’s Captain asking for a pink bag so as the men’s team would leave it alone. This conversation was carefully steered to the fact that with a Women’s team in BUSA, we could justify a request for more team equipment, especially sabres and epees. The Women’s Team captain offered an epee blade that she no longer requires on the ground that she feels it to be ‘unlucky’. We are not sure if this is a generous donation or not! With regard to filling out the grant application form, new rules say we need to attach website pages to illustrate what we are planning on investing in, which was recognised as a good idea as most grant rejections are on the basis of the Powers That Be not knowing a epee from a lame. It was suggested that most of the club equipment was in the bag of a Mr. Paul Southam who was caught with an entire piste on his person recently. Once all club kit has been accounted for, a clearer decision can be made as to which purchases are most pressing, but primarily any kit soon to be made redundant by FIE safety regulations needs replacing. Also, not too much further down the line, the absence of breeches will only be acceptable for the fencing of steam foil, and as such, the club would be wise to invest in some for club/ team use. We also have problems with electric kit; a spool fault, a busted bulb, and one three-weapon box to return to LeonPaul (once the quote comes through!) for a fixing and timings update. With all of this in mind, the grant form was left with the New President and Treasurer to fill out for ‘homework’ and bring to the final training session for approval from committee members.

7)Questions and Answers

This section of the meeting was basically the new committee asking people in the know within the old committee about everything from photocopying to minibus hire, making us realise how much we actually are responsible for and how much we’re going to miss the power! During this time, the Social Secretary made childish faces at the Secretary who made them back until both committee members collapsed laughing at the absurdity of it all. Following this, the President seemed to decide that two hours was a long time for such simple minds to pay attention, and adjourned the meeting. It had been a long but productive evening, reassuring all that UEA Fencing was going to prosper, revel and kick arse for yet another year…