|
Minutes
of Annual General Meeting held at Byker PTE Club 9th June 2005
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 Chairman asked if the minutes were a true record of the
meeting. Dave Gutteridge proposed the acceptance of the minutes,
John Doyle seconded and the minutes were accepted.
Secretary’s Report
The Secretary started by saying that on the quiz front, the
season had been highly enjoyable and as competitive as ever. He
reported that of the 182 League Games scheduled for this season only
one had not been played. Bearing in mind that at last years AGM it
had been passed that the night of the quiz could be changed due to a
UEFA Cup clash, the potential problems had not materialised. The
Secretary thanked all teams for their patience, understanding and
flexibility which ensured that the League was unaffected by the
upheaval of fixture changing.
Both Leagues had been highly competitive. East End Liberal
Club had to wait until the last game of the season before wrapping
up their 79th consecutive title, whilst in the ‘B’
League only 3 points separated the top 4 teams with the title being
decided on The Bene’s higher average score over Old Shildon.
The Secretary then thanked the Chairman and Committee for
their work during the year and paid special thanks to the Publicity
Secretary for his work in running the web site. This made keeping up
with results and League placings so much easier and the Secretary
thanked Dave Westerby on the League’s behalf.
Chairman’s Remarks
The
Chairman endorsed the Secretary’s remarks about the competitive
nature of the two Leagues this season. He thanked the Committee for
their work during the season and thanked Dave Lowther for compiling
the ‘B’ League quizzes. He also endorsed the Secretary’s
thanks to Dave Westerby for running the web site and also Craig
Simpson who had originally set the web site up.
He
thanked the Secretary for his work in compiling the fixtures such
that there was minimal disruption on UEFA Cup nights.
The
League was 30 years old this season and the Chairman mentioned the
celebration night recently organised at the PTE Club. He said the
turnout had been good but not as good as he had hoped but it was
good to see some of the original founders of the League there as
well as some ‘old faces’ and it had been a good and enjoyable
night.
He
went on to talk about the difficulty, yet again, of attracting new
teams to the League and how important this is for the League’s
future. On a positive note, an approach had been made by the
Sunderland Quiz League to arrange a friendly. The Sunderland League
is a General Knowledge League but the hope is that getting together
with them might create an interest from teams in each others
Leagues. The friendly will hopefully be arranged for sometime in
September. Finally the Chairman congratulated all the winners of
this season’s competitions and all teams for taking part. He also
wished all teams good luck for next season.
Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer asked if everyone had seen a copy of the
balance sheet. He stated that there were still a couple of League
fees to come in for this season. He reported that the only change in
expenditure from previous seasons was the money paid out for the 30th
anniversary celebration. He then asked if there were any questions.
There were none. The balance sheet was accepted unanimously by the
floor.
Election
of Officials
The Chairman stated that all four officials were prepared to carry on again next season and there had been no
names put forward for any of the jobs. Tony Kiddle proposed the
acceptance of the current officials to carry on and this was
seconded by John Doyle and carried.
Election of Committee
The Chairman praised the current Committee
members for their work and said that all had indicated they would be
prepared to serve again next season. There being no new names put
forward, John Swan proposed the current Committee continue. This was
seconded by Tony Kiddle and carried.
Proposals
for Rule Changes/Amendments
Proposal from Byker
PTE
The scoring for Round
4 be changed so that the team getting the most correct answers in
the round gets 3 points and the losing side get 0. If both teams get
the same number of correct answers, they get 2 points each.
Bill Stothard spoke in
favour of the proposal. He said that the current scoring method was
confusing and that many teams weren’t sure whether the gap between
the two sides had to be 2 points or 3 points in order that the score
was 3-1 rather than 4-0. Also a 4 point gap was too big for one
round. Trevor Ford suggested that the wording of the scoring rule be
written on the scorecard of every game and Barry Howbridge agreed
that if the wording was on the scorecards for a few quizzes, teams
would get to know the correct scoring method. This was countered
however by Bill who said that different people send the scorecards
out and sometimes there are no scorecards at all. Steve Westerby
said the rule could be written on the quiz itself. Mike Bateman
spoke against the proposal saying that the prospect of getting a
point and only losing the round 3-1 was an incentive to keep going
during the round and not give up if it was a sport the team wasn’t
very good at. Brian Hannaford stated that if the rule was changed,
teams must be informed before the first quiz or it would be even
more confusing. Finally a vote was called and the proposal was
defeated by 8 votes to 6.
League Structure
There were two proposals on the table for league structure,
one from Old Shildon and one from the Committee. They were :
Proposal of League Structure
by Old Shildon SC
The League structure to be of 3 Leagues
Premier Division
East End Liberal Club
Leeholme SC
Byker PTE
Gateshead Fell
Britannia Hotel
Kirk Merington
Castle & Anchor
Division ‘B’
Ovington SC
East End Nomads
Old Shildon WMC
Saltwell SC
St Teresas
The Bene
Division ‘C’
Wolsington Hotel
Blaydon RFC
Morpeth Harriers
Whitley Bay
Philadelphia CC ‘A’
Philadelphia CC ‘B’
Mount Pleasant
All leagues to play Home and
Away
And
Proposal of League Structure
by The Committee
The League structure to be of 2 Leagues
Premier Division
East End Liberal Club
Leeholme SC
Byker PTE
Gateshead Fell
Britannia Hotel
Kirk Merington
Castle & Anchor
Ovington SC
The Bene
Division ‘B’
East End Nomads
Philadelphia CC ‘A’
Old Shildon WMC
Saltwell SC
St Teresas
Wolsington Hotel
Blaydon RFC
Morpeth Harriers
Whitley Bay
Philadelphia CC ‘B’
Mount Pleasant
All leagues to play
opposition once only
The Secretary explained that upon examination of the Minutes
of the 2003 AGM, it had been passed that promotion and relegation
would be on a One up One down basis rather than the former two up
two down. Hence, Ovington SC would remain in the Premier League and
Old Shildon SC in Division ‘B’.
Old Shildon were not represented at the meeting so Vernon
Adamson spoke in support of the proposal. He
said that three leagues would be beneficial in that it would make
each league more competitive and would allow an easier standard of
question to be set for the ‘C’ league whilst the ‘B’ league
could use some Premier League quizzes thus preparing teams for the
standard if they were promoted.
Mike Hind agreed and said that he had worked out a schedule
such that there would not be a problem with fixtures. Indeed all
league quizzes could be fit in to roughly the same number of weeks
as is currently the case with two leagues. By playing Premier and
‘C’ on the same night sometimes as well as Premier and ‘B’
would free up weeks and there would not be a problem with Question
Masters either as the League not playing on a particular night could
fill in as Question Masters.
Mike talked of
his fears for the League, that the league consisted of the same
faces year in year out and that we needed new blood to keep it
going. He saw three leagues as a good move as it would allow an
easier standard of questions in the ‘C’ league which might
encourage new teams. A lively discussion ensued. The Chairman
expressed his concern that with additional quizzes, compilers might
be a problem. Dave Lowther said that this wouldn’t be an issue as
several people had volunteered to set quizzes. Chris Bone said that
he would be prepared to send a list of questions to anyone who is
set to compile a quiz and they could use whichever ones they liked..
Mike Bateman spoke in favour of the three leagues saying that
it was the only way to attract new teams as the current standard of
Division’B’ questions was simply too hard. He also asked if
there was a problem with fixtures if the Challenge Cup could be
abolished. The Secretary responded that as Mike Hind had said it
would be possible to fit everything in. Tony Kiddle and Barry
Howbridge both spoke against the proposal stating that 12 Premier
League games would be too many as both had other commitments. Tony
also stated that as he was the only driver for the Castle &
Anchor, fulfilling fixtures could be a problem.
Leo Ford also spoke against saying that teams who had been in
the Premier League and now found themselves in the ‘B’ League
would have to play some quizzes with much easier ‘C’ League
standard questions. This would put teams off competing as it would
not be enjoyable. Trevor Ford brought up the subject of four leagues
of five teams. The Chairman said that this had been brought up at
Committee but rejected for this season but could be something to
think about for next year. It was finally voted on and the Old
Shildon proposal for three leagues for next season was rejected by
10 votes to 9. The counter proposal of the Committee to keep the two
leagues was therefore carried.
Any
Other Business
Mike Sowerby asked if
question compilers could now be sorted out as the League structure
had been finalised. It was agreed that as in previous years, the
Premier league teams would set their own quizzes while Dave Lowther
would co-ordinate the ‘B’ League compiling.
There being no further
business, the meeting ended and the Presentation of trophies began.
| 
