| 2011 AGM & Presentation
Night. The 2011 AGM &
Presentation Night was held on Thursday, 2nd June 2011, at Byker Union Club.
Present
:- East End Liberal Club, Leeholme SC, Britannia Hotel, Byker,
Washington CC, The Bene, Saltwell SC, St Teresas, East End Nomads, Byker Key Club, The Wolsy, Blaydon RFC,
Morpeth Harriers, Northern Rock, The Britannia, Coundon CC, Whitley Bay.
Apologies :- Gateshead Old Boys.
The
Chairman asked if everyone had read the minutes from last years AGM, and if
so, were there any matters arising. There being none,
the acceptance of the
minutes were proposed by The Bene and seconded by East End Nomads, and
carried unanimously.
Secretary’s Report
The Secretary began by saying that the season had been difficult on the administration front due to the congestion of fixtures meaning that there were no free nights after the Christmas break. Also the weather before Christmas causing the abandonment of two nights had made re-arrangement challenging. He said, though, that the continued commitment of all teams had meant that all the abandoned games had been replayed and thanked all teams for their flexibility in making sure they were available on the re-arranged nights.
The Secretary then thanked the Question Compilers for their work during the year without which there wouldn’t be a League. He paid special tribute to Jeff Coxon and the St Teresas team for compiling the Premier League quizzes for the last two seasons but announced sadly that Jeff was standing down and wouldn’t be setting the Premier League quizzes next season. On the playing front the Division B and C Leagues had been very competitive and the Secretary pointed out that all teams in the C League had averaged over fifty points during the season, an excellent effort from both competitors and compilers. The Secretary finally congratulated the winners of the various competitions and wished all teams well for the coming season.
Chairman’s
Remarks.
The Chairman endorsed all the Secretary’s comments about the competitiveness of the League, though he did state that the Premier League winners had won rather easily but that Division B and especially Division C, which went right to the last game before the League Champions were determined, had been tremendous competitions. He also added his thanks to the question Compilers. He went on to say how delighted he had been with Finals Night and the turnout of teams and the closeness of the various finals which had made for a very exciting night. He thanked Chris Bell, of the Woking Quiz League, for setting the KO Cup quiz though he had felt, and also had received various comments, about how different the content of the KO Cup quiz had been this year. The Chairman said it had been a bit disappointing that a couple of League fixtures had been unfulfilled but that was due to one team having problems with travelling arrangements and hopefully all would be well next season. He thanked the Committee for their work and especially Paul Davison and Dave Westerby for their work on the website. He finally reminded all teams that a raffle would take place after the buffet and wished all teams well for next season.
Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer asked if everyone had seen the Balance Sheet and pointed out that the extra £20 expenditure for the buffet had been because last year’s price for the buffet had gone up from £70 to £90 but this hadn’t been reflected in last year’s balance sheet so it was on this year. He also explained that the Committee wanted to spend some of the League’s money on software for the website which would make the administration of the site easier. The Treasurer asked if there were any questions or comments and Morpeth Harriers congratulated the Treasurer and the Committee for managing to make a profit of £55 and said this showed that the League was in a very healthy state. There being no more questions on the Balance Sheet it’s acceptance was proposed by East End Nomads, seconded by Morpeth Harriers and was unanimously accepted by the floor.
Web
Masters Report
Paul Davison began by saying that last summer he redesigned the web pages, partly because we had had a few problems with people being able to access it and partly to try and improve the design, one that could be easily maintained for a number of years. He hoped that everyone would find accessing and navigating the site straightforward. Paul went on to say he had been surprised to find a grand total of 79 screens available to view, and also 38 sample quizzes to download. Paul then said that according to the statistics we get from the server, since the start of 2011 we've been getting, on average, 1100 pages 'hit' per month, from about 550 users and himself and the Publicity Secretary are going to investigate whether we might be able to use that number of hits to benefit the League - for example advertising possiblities.
Paul then said he had a computer malfunction during the last few weeks of the
season, which meant that he was not able to update the website as quickly as he'd like, but with help from Dave Westerby he was able to keep everyone informed of what was going on. He thanked Dave for his assistance. He then said he would like to get some web design software that we could put on a couple of peoples PCs, this would
provide a bit of contingency if for any reason he couldn't update the website.
Paul said he always tried to update the website within 24 hours of quizzes taking place and stated that he had received good support from teams for almost all the season - he’d only had to dish out three ranting Emails to teams during the season, and one of those was a misunderstanding as the result had been sent in. He asked all teams to keep up the good work and he’ll endeavour to keep the web site up to date. He ended by asking if anyone had any suggestions relating to the site, to let him know and he’ll attempt to implement them.
Election
of Officials
All of the
current Officials had indicated that they were happy to carry on and there
being no applications to become an Official from the floor, the Officials
were re-elected unanimously.
Election
of Committee
All of the
current Committee had indicated that they were happy to carry on and all were unanimously accepted by the floor.
League
Structure
The Secretary said that there may have been a problem with the current structure due to Jeff standing down as Premier League compiler but some volunteers had come forward so the current structure could stand. Therefore, the only proposal relating to the League Structure for 2011-12 was from the Committee and it was a structure based on this seasons. There would again be three Leagues with six teams in the Premier League and the C Division and seven in the B League. The structure was proposed as :--
Division 'A': East End Liberal Club, Leeholme SC, Byker PTE,
Britannia Hotel, Saltwell SC and The Bene.
Division ‘B’: Washington CC, East End Nomads, The Brit, St Teresas,
Byker Key Club, Philadelphia CC and Whitley Bay,
Division ‘C’: Gateshead Old Boys, Wolsington Hotel, Blaydon RFC, Morpeth Harriers,
Coundon CC and Northern Rock.
The proposed League format was accepted unanimously.
Whitley Bay stated that they would be playing at Bebside Welfare Club but still wished to be known as Whitley Bay.
Proposals
for Rule Changes/Amendments
There was only one proposal and that came from the Committee and was introduced by the Secretary. He said that there had been problems with there being no free weeks during the season and that a number of teams had expressed their concerns over the Challenge Cup format. Also there had been problems this year with finding sufficient Question Masters for the regional nights. Therefore after much deliberation, the Committee had put forward the following proposal.
"The Challenge Cup is abolished in its current format and the competition will commence at the Semi Final stage and be contested between the three Handicap League Winners plus the defending Challenge Cup Champions. In the event that the defending champions are also handicap league winners, the team that finish runners up in that handicap league shall make up the fourth qualifier in the Challenge Cup Semi Final."
The discussion then passed to the floor and there were passionate voices raised both for and against the proposal.
Barry Wilkinson said that he didn’t believe that a knockout cup competition should be decided in the early stages by performance in the League and that the attraction of a cup competition was that teams battled their way through various rounds to achieve victory. Barry went on to say he had never been able to understand the significance of the handicap league anyway and that, in his opinion, it should be scrapped.
These sentiments were endorsed by Paul Lumsden who also made the point that often during the season, teams turn up with two or three players for League games so their handicap league chances are affected but that when they play in the Challenge Cup, a one off night, they can turn full and strong teams out. He also asked why there had been difficulty in finding Question Masters this season when there hadn’t in previous years.
The Secretary responded by saying he didn’t know why the Question Master problem had arisen but maybe it was because less people were turning up for the Challenge Cup nights but that at the Byker regional night, a Question Master had to come from Morpeth Harriers otherwise the night would not have been able to take place. He also said that whilst he agreed with Barry’s point about the significance of the Handicap League, this proposal would give it some significance as teams would know that winning the League would qualify them for the Challenge Cup Semi Final.
Mike Sowerby said that he felt the Challenge Cup was a good competition and the regional format ideal as it allowed teams from different leagues, who wouldn’t normally play each other to “get together” which was a good thing both in terms of playing the quiz and socially.
Further expressions were made about the significance of the Handicap League providing the qualifiers and Paul Lumsden reiterated his point that in his opinion it was unfair and favoured certain teams.
Both Barry Howbridge and Dave Morrison disagreed saying that this would lead to the Handicap League being treated as a “real” competition and that all teams had an equal chance of winning the Handicap League and therefore progressing to the Challenge Cup.
Martin Robinson asked why the handicap league route had been chosen and why all the actual League winners plus the defending champions don’t compete in a “Champions League” competition. It was felt this was unfair as invariably the same teams win the Leagues most years.
Both Steve and Dave Westerby supported the proposal making the point that it always fell to the same two or three people to actually compile the quizzes as invariably it was teams who were eliminated in the qualifying quiz who were expected to set the regional night’s quizzes. Also the lack of free nights was a concern.
Mike Sowerby stated that the qualifying nights were an issue and asked if it could be put on the website to see if any teams didn’t want to compete in the Challenge Cup therefore lessening the need for a qualifying round.
Kevin Turner said that Saltwell would be happy to set a quiz if needed.
The Chairman spoke in favour of the proposal saying that while he agreed with many of the points raised, it was felt that the competition was not working and the benefits of gaining extra nights meant he supported the proposal.
Barry Wilkinson and Dave Lowther both said the maybe rather than changing the format of the Challenge Cup, maybe it had reached the end of the road and should be abolished altogether.
John Swan and Paul Lumsden both said that they looked forward to playing in the Challenge Cup and it was a “different” competition allowing teams from lower leagues to play the top teams. The point was made that this happens in the Knock Out Cup as well.
The Secretary wound the discussion up and asked for a vote to be taken. The vote was a tie nine votes all. In the event of a tie, the Chairman has the casting vote and he said that the proposal came from the Committee and he supported it fully so would vote in favour of the proposal. It was therefore carried by ten votes to nine.
This means that next season the Challenge Cup will be decided at the end of the season by the three Handicap League winners plus the defending champions from this season.
Any Other
Business
Barry Howbridge asked, in light of the previous proposal going through, if a night in March could be set aside for replaying abandoned matches. The Secretary said that this would be arranged.
Chris Bone raised the point that due to the healthy state of the League Finances was there any scope for League Members applying for money to represent the League in quizzes away from home. Chris attended a Horse Racing quiz in Ditcheat in the week of the Cheltenham Festival and had previously asked for money to be provided for expenses. The Chairman responded by saying that this had been discussed at Committee meetings and it was felt that if money was to be spent it should benefit everyone in the league not just a select few. Perhaps giving all teams a subscription free season would be a better use of the money. Morpeth Harriers made the point that the League were going to use money for updating the website and that this was a better use of money than benefiting individual members in pursuit of their own interests. Paul Davison agreed and endorsed the Chairman’s comments about everyone benefitting from any money spent not just a few. The discussion ended at that point with the general agreement that if any money is used from League funds it must be seen to benefit the many rather than the few.
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting and the Presentation of trophies commenced.
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