Forth Valley Area Annual General Meeting Minutes 2019
25th April, 8:00pm, Wallace Suite, Forthbank Performance Centre, Stirling.
Present:D.Westall, Falkirk, W.Beattie, Kilsyth, D.McKenzie, Kilsyth, Kilsyth, D.Young, Virtual, Stirling Curling Group, P.Beattie, Kilsyth Ladies, A.Wilson, FIRCC, M.Smith, Laurieston & Zetland, M.Duncan, Falkirk Ladies, M.Duncan, Grangemouth, M.Mauchline, Stirling Young Curlers, J.McLaren, Torbrex, Stirling Wheelchair, Forth Valley Ladies, S.Travers, Dollar Ladies, A.Cochrane, Abercorn, A.Christie, Blairdrummond, B.Scott, Denny, C.Mackie, Denny, A.Duncan, Bonnybridge, D.Hewitt, Abercorn, B.Strang, Scottish Central Province, Airthrey Castle, John Mills, Oldfellows, I.Keron, Oatridge, P.Carnie, Uphall.
Apologies: Marcus Wood, Joe Barry, Bridge of Allan CC, Drymen CC, Anna Burnside, Falkirk Ladies (1960), John Mott, Borestone & Stirling.
Chairman: Joe Kincaid, Sauchie & Bannockburn, Harry Brodie, Abercorn, Buchlyvie.
Secretary: Joe Kincaid
Treasurer: Ritchie Stewart, West Lothian Province, FIRCC
Minutes of AGM 2018: Sent out in April 2018 and on Forth Valley Area website.
Matters arising: None
Area Representatives report:
Joe Kincaid and Harry Brodie attended all the ASC meetings, minutes of which are published on Scottish Curling website.
Issues raised through the Area with clubs and Provinces included:
RCCC members without e-mails. This was resent to all clubs. The aim is for Scottish Curling to reach all members with communications. An e-mail was circulated to all club secretaries. There are still 4000 members without e-mail addresses logged. There was little change to the membership database.
Scottish Curling Team Shirt Sponsorship. No one at the meeting had responded.
Structural Review - Time for a Change? This was resent to all clubs through the Provinces. Most of the attendees indicated they had completed it. It was reported that under 1000 people had responded, that this was the biggest response ever received by Scottish Curling, yet 4000 people didn’t get the chance to reply because they didn’t have e-mail.
A.Wilson asked about timescales. It was reported that there is a plan for a simple change to be put before the RCCC AGM in June, with a full report and recommendations to be put at the following RCCC AGM in 2020.
Secretary's Report:
New Forth Valley Area website created at https://e-voice.org.uk/forthvalleyarea/ as Scottish Curling don’t support their microsites anymore. No one was aware of it so it must be assumed the Provinces didn’t forward the message to clubs.
Action: Secretary to resend the email so everyone will receive the link and view the site if they wish
In response to Stirling Curling Group requesting that all clubs create generic e-mail addresses for their officials, generic Forth Valley Area e-mail addresses on GMAIL and all documentation stored in shared Google DRIVE to which these e-mails have access.
secretary.forthvalleyarea@gmail.com
treasurer.forthvalleyarea@gmail.com
chair.forthvalleyarea@gmail.com
rep.forthvalleyarea@gmail.com
D.Young intimated that he didn’t think anyone from the Stirling Curling Group were aware of these addresses. Their secretary, M.Gellatly had been sent them.
Action: Secretary to resend them to SCG.
Submitted 3 area competition reports to Scottish Curling for publication in ‘Your Curler’, only one made it after the issue was raised with Scottish Curling President. The Area Bonspiel was published. Many attendees indicated that they had seen it. They responded that they did read ‘Your Curler’ and that this was a good way of publicising what was happening in the area.
Action: Secretary to submit area competition reports to ‘Your Curler’.
Competitions Report:
Knockout
Produced an 8 ender, two games going to extra ends. Oatridge eventual winners.
Bonspiel
West Lothian winners with 9 points, Oatridge had their best score on the night with 11 v 4.
Championship
Kilsyth won 10 v 2 against Blairdrummond in the rearranged final, delayed because of the
overrunning of the preparation of the ice after the World Wheelchair Curling Competition.
Treasurer’s Report:
A surplus was achieved by charging £10 per person per game while the Area was given a bigger discount than expected from the ice booking. This will decrease as the discount at the Peak decreases next year. The surplus will be used for helping to fund the cost of incoming tours and prizes.
Subscription for 2019/2020: It was agreed that the club subscription should remain the same as this year at £3 per club.
Area Committee and Representatives
Joe Kincaid has now served 3 years, 1 year remaining. Harry Brodie has served 1 year, with 3 years remaining.
Election of Secretary and Treasurer
Job description for Area Secretary circulated to Provinces. Posted at ice rink. No applications received. No volunteers from the members in attendance.
Joe Kincaid will continue as temporary secretary.
Ritchie Stewart indicated he would continue as treasurer for another year.
Election of Auditor
Ritchie Stewart indicated that the current auditor, Jim Marven, was willing to continue to audit the accounts.
10. Notices
a. RCCC Ladies Branch AGM –Inverleith St.Serf’s Church Centre, 1a Clark Road, Edinburgh EH5 3BD on Tuesday 7th May 2019 at 2pm.
b. RCCC AGM– Saturday, June 15th, 2019 – 2pm at Dewar’s Centre, Perth.
11. A.O.C.B.
A. There should be an Indoor Grand Match due in winter of 2020.
B. GoMembership application was launched by Scottish Curling and the old membership database has been locked. Attendees had used the new system, personally and at a club admin level but many issues were reported with the loss of administration rights being the most debilitating. It was confirmed that secretaries should contact Scottish Curling office e-mail office@scottishcurling.org to have their administration rights restored if they are unable to manage the membership of their club. All the data belonging to the club should be checked.
C. Supporter Membership launched recently. This is a new class of member, who will not play curling, but be a supporter, attending matches to support their team at national and international level. They will get discounts on tickets, alerts for games and other curling
information. It is designed to raise extra funds for Scottish Curling to enable it to fulfill its obligations and to widen the audience of curling and commit them to it.
Joe Kincaid as chair awarded the trophies of the Area competitions to the winners or their representatives at the end of the meeting.
The meeting closed at 8:30pm, with thanks to all those who attended.
