Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Markland Hill Tennis Club on Wednesday 10th January 2024 at 7.30pm.
Present: Mr M Pearson (Chairman), Mr R Caswell (Secretary), Mr D Saunders (Treasurer). 17 of the 24 clubs were represented. There were 22 votes available.
Minutes of the last meeting: These had been circulated online, signed as a true record and there were no matters arising.
Chairman’s Remarks: Apart from some wet weather on Monday evenings, the league had a good season. There were small increases in the teams entering the Men’s and Mixed leagues. Although these were small, the additional teams could not be accommodated within the 2022 league structure, so we had to introduce extra divisions. This inevitably means that some teams found themselves placed in divisions that they were not expecting but this cannot be avoided unless we do not accept additional entries into the league. The Men’s league increased by 1 team to 58; the Mixed league by 2 teams to 42; the Ladies league by 1 team to 14 teams. The Junior league reduced by 2 teams to 16 teams. Finally, the winter league continues with 36 teams. I should like to thank all the club captains for their hard work and cooperation.
The Annual Tournament in July was again a great success. The weather was not particularly kind, but the events kept on track to be ready for completion on Final’s Day. Then the heavens opened and, for the first time in many years, we were forced to move the finals to indoor venues. A series of long matches further disrupted the scheduling on finals day but, with one exception, the tournament was able to be completed as planned. A big thank you to all who were involved and especially Andy Taylor chairman of the organising committee and tournament referee.
On the administration side, there has been a significant development - the winding up of the Bolton Sports Federation, which was the body overseeing the running of the tennis league and some other sporting leagues in Bolton. In practical terms, this will have little impact on the running of the league. A few of our rules are to be amended to remove reference to the “Sports Federation”. The league’s title will now be “The Dunlop Bolton Tennis League”. We have received a windfall from the Sports Federation on the winding up of its finances as you will see in the accounts. The Sports Federation website has now been taken down but our own website continues to operate as before.
I should like to give a big thank you to Roy Caswell, who commits a tremendous amount of time in his role as General Secretary. I should also like to record special thanks to David Saunders, who stood forward to take on the role of Treasurer and has done a great job - well done David.
All our committee members make a contribution (big or small) to the running of the league, so I would finally like to offer my sincere thanks to them all. As always, we would welcome any additions to our number. We meet 7 times a year and we have roles within the committee that we are looking to fill. If you can commit this evening that would be great, but, if you want to know more about how we operate, please speak to me, Andy Taylor, or any committee member for more information.
Treasurer’s Report:
Guarantee Fees: The treasurer said that since we were not making a considerable loss we would keep these the same. These are £20 per senior team; £10 Cecil Cup; £8 per junior team.
Payment of registration fees: Provisionally this should be Friday 19th or 26th April 2024.
Business from the Notice of Motion Meeting: This was carried out.
Election of Officers: The existing officers were re-elected en-bloc.
Election of Administrative Committee: The existing Committee was re-elected en-bloc.
Questions/Comments: The Secretary of Winton said that they had had their courts resurfaced. He also mentioned that Phil Green had passed away a couple of weeks ago,
The meeting closed at 8.15pm. CHAIRMAN