AGM

Forum AGM

What Happened at the AGM this Year?
The AGM took place at the Crown Road Pavilion last Thursday 24th June. Nine members turned up so we were just quorate. There were some things you need to be aware of as follows:

Success of Forum Teams
Forum “B” won the League this season with Andrew Flint, Ellis Bicknell, Greg Boone and Craig Campbell. Congratulations to them. Forum “A” was second with Karl Bushell, Fraser Harris and Jeremy Flint. Karl was top of the averages yet again! Who will depose this latter day Dorian Gray?
Forum “C” was the runner-up in Div 2 with Terry Ruane, Ross Henderson and Paul Casey who now have the pleasure of playing in Div 1 next season!
Forum “E” was runner-up in Div3 with John Duncalfe, Lorne Lonie and Alisdair Mac Pherson. Lorne was top of the averages.
Forum “J” won div 4 with Sindy Li, Darren Hunt and Tak-wa Yau.
Rule Change
At the AGM of the ODTTA this year there was an important rule change made. From next season teams needing a substitute may only get them from the Division below, the exception being, obviously, Division 4. This rule will affect the bigger clubs like the Forum as we will no longer be able to get strong substitutes from our other teams in the same Division. Division 1 will be most affected as the standard there is so high that subs from Div 2 are unlikely to make much impression. Div 2 players are free to prove this assertion wrong. It will mean that Div 1 teams, in particular, will probably have 4 man teams to avoid the possibility of having subs and to maintain a strong chase for the Championship.
Finances
The club’s finances are changing as a result of the move to the new Pavilion. Rent is higher but so too is income as we run more open nights. The balance is slightly up on last year and stands at £14400.71. The loss of the Forum building (see below) means some loss of income for next season. The Chairman, Paul Woodward, is therefore writing to the Parish Council requesting a rent reduction for the coming years.
Forum Building
The Forum building has been used for many years by the table-tennis club. The main activities were junior coaching on Tuesday evenings and Sunday morning practice. The Forum building has had some works done this winter, which has meant the activities were carried out in the new Pavilion. It was our intention to move those activities back to the Forum but the Hall now has Pool tables screwed to the floor and there are other furnishings which means the space left for table tennis is totally inadequate. The owners of the Forum building, the County Council, had neglected to tell the Club about these changes to the Hall. Both those activities will now continue at the Pavilion and the club will no longer use the Forum.
Coaching
Karl Bushell told us about the possibility of funds being made available from the ETTA to appoint a part time coaching officer (ten hours a week) for the Cherwell District. As a Premier club and the biggest in the District the coaching officer would lead coaching at the club and help develop it as a Premier Club. Following talks with Cherwell District Council Sports development officers it is expected that the post of coaching officer will be advertised in September. This post would help us to bring on more players able to compete at a higher level so that Oxfordshire can match other Counties better.
Membership
There are major changes to the way membership is to be organised from now on. The ETTA is introducing a system of personal membership for all players and non-playing members of clubs. They have produced a form ( either go to the ETTA website and look under "Membership" or click here ) which all players must complete if they want to play in the League or other ETTA authorised competitions. You can access and fill in the form on-line and send it direct to the ETTA. However, you can also down load the attachment, fill it in and give it to Aubrey Hughes, John Duncalfe or any other Committee member, together with your fee. We would prefer you did the latter as we would then have your contact details. If you don’t submit your form via the club you will need to tell us the ETTA membership number they will give you and contact details if you want to play in a team for the club.
The fees are as shown on the form. Adult players will pay £5.64 and junior/cadet players (born in 1993 or later) £2.64. Non-playing members are called Associate members and pay £2.50.
Why are they doing this you may ask? The reason is to know exactly how many players there are in the Country as that is the basis for getting Sport England to release funds to the sport. Previously the numbers of players has not been known as many players play in more than one League and were registered with the ETTA with each League. Now only one ETTA registration is needed to play in any number of Leagues.
You will also need to tell us that you want to be a member of the club. We must let the League know how many teams we are fielding next season by the end of July. Therefore, John Duncalfe would like you to reply, if you haven’t done so yet, to his recent email confirming that you want to play in a team and whether you would prefer to play in a 3 or 4 man team. Playing club members will pay £20 and juniors £5, same as last year. Payment would be appreciated at the same time as the ETTA payment.
Fund Raising
Once again the club is running a stall at the Kidlington Gala. This year it is on 24th July. The stall is the “guess the bottle of wine from all the other empty bottles” one. Therefore we would appreciate donations of bottles of wine to make the stall run well. Give your bottles of wine to Paul Woodward or to any Committee member. If you want to know how the game works come along to the Gala.
The club is also running table tennis events in the Pavilion so any volunteers for helping with this, especially our younger members as we will be operating the table-tennis robot and need eager ball gatherers, would be welcome. Volunteers for the stall are also needed. Please let Paul Woodward or John Duncalfe know if you can help.
We will be selling refreshments at the Pavilion as well. Last year we raised £480 from Gala day so it is a significant event for the club. Let’s see if we can better that figure this year.
Election of Officers
The following officers and Committee members were elected:-
Chairman – Paul Woodward
Secretary - John Duncalfe
Treasurer - Aubrey Hughes
Committee Members – Karl Bushell, Paul Whitford, Brian Rowles, Bob Hallett and Brian Jermyn.
Open Nights
Practice Sessions on Fridays 7 to 10 and Thursdays 8 to10 will continue for any players, whether they are club members or not, at least until the start of next season subject to the payment of a small fee. In addition, there will be Tuesday sessions 7 to 10 from 20th July to 24th August. All sessions are at the new Pavilion, all are welcome.
Monday nights are free for anyone who wants to organise a friendly match, please contact Aubrey if you want to do that and he’ll tell you what the fee is.
Table Collapses
There have been two incidents this year of tables falling on players when they are being moved and taken down. These have resulted in injuries, one of which might mean one player can no longer play competitively! Those of you who put up and take down tables must take care and only do it in pairs, as our health and safety policy says.
Sainsbury’s vouchers
Karl Bushell says that with the vouchers donated he has got a club bat and 18 match balls. He hopes we can do better next year. If you have any vouchers left you can still donate them as they are useable next year. Just put them in the Voucher box in the Store cupboard in the Pavilion.
Website
You may be reading this on the club website. You too can write anything on the website, as long as it’s related to table-tennis and not too rude. Match reports are especially welcome. Just send your copy to John Duncalfe electronically and he will get it posted on the Website. For those of you reading this as an attachment to John Duncalfe’s email you can access the website by going to “odtta.org” and clicking on Forum in the black box.