SUSSEX SRA COMMITTEE MEETING

Weald SC

16/09/2008 7.30PM

MINUTES

Present: Simon Tunley (ST) (Secretary), Fiona Western (FW), Mike Tonge (MT), Paul Millman (PM) (Chair), Chris Markham (CM) Karl Manning (KM), Mick Sheeran (MS) Karla Pett (KP)and Ian Robinson (IR)

Action

1. Apologies for absence John Parr (JP), Justyn Price (JUP) and Mike Philips (MP) 2. Minutes of previous meeting/Matters Arising The minutes from the 10/06/2008 were accepted as an accurate record. KM to add newsletter to website as a PDF so it can be downloaded. MT did not manage to persuade Sarah Naish to take on the role of Treasurer. . 3. Newsletter KP to produce next newsletter for November/ December. Deadline to be the 31^st October 2008 for copy. ST suggested junior count closed and the county racketball as options for articles. 4. Senior/Junior County Closed ST is to meet MP in October to discuss options/format for the senior county closed in January/February next year. Chichester have kindly agreed to host it. Junior county closed going ahead on the 27/28^th September 2008 at Corals squash club. ST raised the fact there had been an email from West Worthing which implied they had been under cut by Corals on the cost of hosting the event. Even though WW reduced their quote to £100 to host the event Tim Vail decided to go to Corals SC. WW implied such decision would impact on any future offers to run events and even make them look at reducing the number of courts at the club. In this instant the committee agreed we need to keep clubs better informed of decisions made and also possibly tender three clubs for such events so they all have the potential to host and that it is more equitable. The issue of location was also raised based on the size of the county and accessibility for all. ST confirmed he had emailed WW on their concerns and also spoke to Tim on the issue. 5. Hon. Treasurer’s report JP sent updated accounts to ST, which were distributed to the committee. All ok and budget now in place for both the main account and the junior account. Subsidy from main account has been transferred to support the running of the junior county squads and these are all now tied in with the junior development account. 6. Senior and Junior League Reports CM confirmed men’s league now underway and all seemed ok. However only real concern is concerning Bexhill SC and whether they were actually playing in the leagues this year. Apparently teams have been turning up for matches to find no opposition. CM had tried various times to contact the club and club contacts but to no avail. Although he had spoken to Maureen Measures who agreed to get someone in touch; as yet no one had made contact He wanted advice from the committee on whether Bexhill should be pulled from the league. The committee agreed they should be excluded for this season. CM to contact Bexhill SC to confirm this. Discussions were had on re-looking at the pro-league as it was felt it was detrimental to Sussex squash in general. KP confirmed that her brother Ollie Pett was already looking to play outside of Sussex leagues, due to the poor standard. KM stated we should enforce promotion in future years to stop clubs dictating which leagues they wanted to play in etc; this would mean the premier would always have the right number of clubs. Par 11 scoring was also discussed as an option in the future, the committee agreed they would take the lead from England Squash on this. ST agreed to email Jim Lord at England Squash to find out the direction Sussex should take. FW stated all was going well with the ladies leagues apart form Chichester pulling their team from league 1. Horsham had raised the issue with not being able to play Rachel Wilmott. FW sort clarification of the pro rule from KM. MS confirmed he wanted to have the junior leagues in place by the 11^th October. Twenty three teams confirmed, although three clubs struggling. Looking to have five divisions of five teams. £20 entry per team and would play matches in a triangular format. 7. County Teams/ Organisers ST confirmed the relevant teams had been entered for 2008/09 and the captains agreed upon and informed. 8. England Squash JUP could not attend the meeting, however ST confirmed that JUP had sent around an email to provide an update on what had been happening in the county. John Millard’s new role seems to be having a positive impact county wide. 9. Junior Development/Leagues/County squads MT confirmed he had met with all the county squad coaches for the juniors and had also finalised a junior budget with Vanessa Prosser. He stated that Tim Vail and MP had agreed on the new coaching fees of £30 an hour plus expenses for lead coaches and £20 and hour for assistant coaches. They had also agreed to send all squad fees from each session through to Vanessa Prosser (VP) who would then pay all expenses from the junior account, making the process much more auditable/transparent. It was also agreed to increase squad fees to £5 an hour. ST did have concerns on potentially pricing juniors out of attending training especially when costs are looked at over a season. Discussions were had over Graham Stevenson and the fact he was not as flexible as the others on how the money was to be collected/distributed. GS implied he would want to be paid a much higher rate if he was to send fees to VP and not collect/pay himself. Concerns were raised about how equitable this was considering GS was no more qualified than other coaches, plus there were concerns about the fact it was not best practice for money to be managed outside of Sussex’s SRA finances especially from an audit process. MT agreed to speak to GS about providing more detail of finances from his squad sessions as there is a need for transparency. It was also raised that England Squash have no record of GS having a current England Squash coaching licence which is really a requirement of any coach working in a chartered club or for a county association. The committee agreed that MT should speak to GS and ensure he gets a license ASAP. ST mentioned the letter sent through from Mike Harris about hosting a coaches workshop. It was agreed we should try to host in Sussex and try and get as many coaches to it as possible. Feedback was received from the county that this would be a good idea as it would provide points towards coaching licence. ST agreed to host at the university of Sussex. And contact Mike to confirm date/time 11. Website KM stated website all set for the season and would include junior fixtures and rankings. KM raised the fact that par 11 can be added to the system and Hants are using it for their juniors on their system. KM asked about others loading info onto the web once he has sorted out relevant pages for each area. All agreed to learn to do this. Km to clarify rules for the men’s and ladies leagues on the website. 12. A.O.B Kevin Higginsons paper discussed and all felt it was a positive approach but would be good to include seniors as well as juniors. MT agreed more discussion was needed with KH to see where to take it. KM discussed adding date of births to players on the ranking lists, however all felt there were issues with the data protection act and we might need to get peoples permissions. It was agreed the info would be useful for selection for county teams. K2 looking to enter a team into the Sussex leagues next season. Dunnings Mill looking to develop a 5 court facility and at present are continuing to playing at their old venue. MT suggested we should look at trying to establish a racketball league. All agreed this would be a good idea but there was a need to try and get a person to set it up and organise. Date for next committee meeting the 16^th December 2008 at the Black Lion Pub, Patcham. ST to book.

KM All to note MP/ST CM ST KM MT MT ST ST