Somerset Golf Captains Executive Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday, the 25th October 2021 at the Admirals Table
Present Roy Parmiter (Vice President & Chair), Bob Acland (Presiden), John Beer, Stephen Butterfield, David Andow, Rob Ford, David Bate
Apologies: Iain Robertson
The minutes of the meeting held on the 7th of September were accepted as a true and accurate record.
Matters arising:
Rob Ford felt that the Autumn meeting had gone very well.
Report from thePresident’s Committee on the 28th of September.
Roy Parmiter reported back on discussions held in the President’s Committee . Rob Ford felt it would be a mistake to base any decisions on this year – which was unusual in a number of ways. Stephen Butterfield felt that the dinner may give us an indication of support for next year. Rob Ford said we ought to think about sending out a notice to remind everybody to register for matches via email or even better through a series of emails. Roy Parmiter referred to the modelling which we are going to undertake to show the impact on match fees in the future. Bob Acland felt it should be the same for everyone and the initiative should come from us. David Andow also suggested that we ought to have details of the financial agreements we reach with clubs in writing.Decisions or whether or not to increase match fees will depend on the outcome of the budget modelling exercise. Next year’s fixtures are already done and we may need to have further discussion about fixtures for 2023 and beyond. We will need to see how strong the support from membership is next year. Action point: further discussion on these issues on receipt of the outcomes of the modelling exercise. The protocol for attending funerals was accepted. There was a discussion about progress with moving the website to a new hosting company and John Beer gave a full update, including the following summary:
- Following approval at Presidents Committee, “Publicity Matters” had been instructed to migrate the website onto their servers.
- . Publicity Matters will update all the software and keep the website running including regular backups and health checks, but Somerset Golf captains will still need someone to edit the content: e.g. upload photos and match reports, news items, team registrations and selections, shop and livery etc.
- Matt Wilkie has taken a copy and set it up on a development site. All seems to be working well – except for the plugin called ‘Lightbox gallery” which adds collections of photos to posts. Matt is still working on this but we hope that the site will go live in the next few weeks.
- We will also need to move the domain name registration from Laws Hosting to a separate company such as “Godaddy”.
- In response to questions about archiving; John confirmed that he has downloaded all the media (photos etc) and posts onto a local external hard drive. John has also used an app called ‘Sitesucker” to take a copy of the complete site which can be viewed on a local hard drive. John reminded the Committee that the old website (pre 2018) had not been archived so we have no copies of the previous website.
- In response to questions about use of the on-line shop, John stressed that only a very small number of orders were generated though the website. Most sales originated from the Spring meeting. All the inventory stock is recorded on an app called “Sortly”
CaptainsReport
Stephen Butterfield confirmed that he had attended the Sussex dinner with David Andow and the Surrey dinner with Iain. On both occasions the catering and the hospitality were very good. The speaker at the Sussex then was Adge (?) and in Surrey it was the son of Stan Boardman (Paul?) who is available for our dinner . The next one is Dorset.
Dinner planning;
Stephen confirmed that the venue for the dinner will be Somerset County Cricket club on Friday, the 4th of March 2022. There will be no hire charge. Stephen gave an indication of the possible menu including a cheeseboard on every table i.e. four courses plus tea and coffee. Bar will be open till 11.59 p.m. Tables can be arranged in groups of 8,10 or 16, or various combinations. There will be a separate area for VIP guests. The table plan will be on the TV. Currently planning on 200 people attending. There was a lot of discussion about the cost of the ticket. A vote was taken and it was agreed to set the ticket price for the dinner in 2022 at £45.. Action: Secretary to go ahead and invite guests as follows:
Hampshire x2 Sussex x2 Surrey x2 Dorset x2 South Wales Coast x2, SGU president. Stephen Butterfield to confirm the speaker and the masters of ceremonies. Treasurer to confirm profit from meetings and matches in 2021 by comparing balance in October 2020 and October 2021.
Golf has been arranged at Taunton & Pickeridge and it was agreed to charge a green fee for guests from other counties to play with members of the committee. If other captains travelling to Taunton wanted to play on that day they will need to make their own arrangements with Taunton and Pickeridge. The committee thanks Stephen Butterfield for all his hard work on these matters.
Finance report
Current balance confirmed. Treasurer will look at the budget figures and the budget modelling will be sent out in due course.
SecretariesReport
The committee discussed the stocktaking exercise and authorised the secretary to proceed with clothing and tankards orders.
Fixtures for 2022: The committee understood thatOake Manor had confirmed the date for the Captains Invitation Day and that Iain Robertson had confirmed that Brean would hold a fixture in 2023.
There was also some discussion about andhandicap allowances in mixed team match play events and Stephen Butterfield said that he would get a definitive answer from England Golf on the 1st of December.
Any other business
Rob Ford reported that St Pierre in Chepstow were offering to arrange an event to replace theSaunton Salver which takes place in September each year for 12 counties. This event would consist of six pairs from each county: 3 to play on the Championship course and 3 to play on the Mathern Course each day (Wednesday the 25th and Thursday, the 26th of September). The cost would be £100 per person including the golf and a gala dinner and prizes. Action: Captain to decide whether or not to enter.
Date of next meeting next meeting would be held during the week beginning Monday, the 15th of December- ideally at a Somerset Golf course where we could play golf; have something to eat and then conduct business.