Committee Meeting

1. Apologies

KS welcomed everyone to the meeting.

KS then explained that John Clarke, the Bronco Team Rep, had not contacted him during the last three weeks.
The Committee agreed that this did not constitute a resignation and KS was tasked with sending a letter using recorded delivery to determine whether John had resigned his committee position. KS/0505-01

2. Voting on Senior Team members

KS officially welcomed the Seniors Team to the club after the acquisition of the MK Hitmen.

The induction of a new team into the organisation has formed two new committee positions. The existing Committee therefore co-opted two new members to fill the vacancies.

Rob Norris offered himself for election as the Seniors head coach.
The committee agreed and welcomed Rob to the group.

Nick Russell stood as the Seniors Rep, unopposed.
The committee agreed and welcomed Nick to the group.

3. Bronco Team Report

KS reported that as the Bronco coach he was happy with the current state of the team.

NS then asked what the procedure for children playing up from Bronco into the Pony league would be in 2006.
KS stated that he did not foresee any of the current Bronco players being ready to play up in 2006.
AS suggested, that he believed that a player should be offered the challenge of higher-level baseball to help them develop as a player.
DOS then asked whether keeping siblings together so that they can travel as a family would be grounds for playing in the Pony team.
KS repeated, that he as the Bronco coach, was not expecting to have any players in the Bronco team in 2006 that would have developed sufficiently to play against 16 year old children. RN added that he believed that the Bronco coaching staff was in the best position to make the decision on whether a child was ready to play in the higher age group.
NS then continued by asking whether any players would be available on a single game basis.
TD expressed that it could be very intimidating for a smaller player playing against some of the stronger teams in the Pony league. KS said that the Bronco staff would have to consider this at the time of the fixture, but would certainly be open to approaches from the Pony team if they needed players because they were short.
AS then spoke about how hard he had found it to retain Pony players while he has been a youth coach.

KS then conveyed to the committee how impressed he had been with the MLB envoy, Jamie, arranged as part of the BSUK coaching development programme. KS explained that the Bronco sessions that had included Jamie had been really enjoyable for the children, and very beneficial to the coaches.
KS also added that the envoy had been such a success, he would encourage the committee to take advantage of this programme any time that it was available to the club.
NR said that Jamie had proved to be very knowledgeable when he worked with the Pony team, and it was a shame that there had not been more time available for practical work.

KS then explained that during the hour long school sessions that had been run, Jamie had also shown a great ability to engage and teach younger children about baseball.
TD then asked whether additional school sessions should be arranged as this may lead to increased recruitment of new players. RH responded, stating that he and KS were working in a number of schools on a weekly basis, but this was not leading to increased club player numbers at this time.
RN pointed out that not only was it important to involve the children, but also their parents must make some commitment which was often the more difficult part of recruitment.
KS stated that he hoped with the additional PR, relating to the Knowlhill and the Radcliffe School developments, more children and parents would be introduced to the baseball opportunities offered by BaseballMK.

RH then asked why the Bronco team did not have a useable catchers glove, which was resulting in the entire team borrowing and playing with a glove that belonged to one of the players.
KS agreed that this was not an ideal situation but explained that he had not felt as if he was in a position to buy any new equipment until the committee had agreed the clubs financial state.
RH then requested that a catchers glove be added to the Bronco shopping list as a matter of some urgency and the committee agreed.

4. Grounds Report - Knowlhill

KS stated that he was in the process of arranging a meeting with Milton Keynes Council that would be taking place in early July, so that the new design drawings could be examined and discussed. KS/0505-02
KS explained that he would be taking Jamie, the MLB coaching envoy, as Tom Gillespie, the BSUK game development officer, was not going to available until much later in the year.

5. Grounds Report - Radcliffe School

KS explained that he had not had any recent communication with Bob Fromer, and he assumed this was probably related to the upcoming London 2012 Olympic bid.
AS then offered that he knew that the development was definitely taking place with work being completed in 2007, as this would be part of the Upper Heyford Olympic training facilities being decommissioned.
KS concluded the update, by stating that because BaseballMK now offered baseball opportunities at every age group with the acquisition of the Senior team. We, as a club, are now closer to meeting the requirements to be the resident team, with access to the new national baseball facilities.

6. Grounds Report - Super Centre

KS said that based on his current information it was likely that Milton Keynes would be developed as a Baseball Super Centre in either 2006 or 2007.
AS added that he believed this was due to the work that had been done by the club towards receiving the BSUK club accreditation.

7. Grounds Report - Woughton

KS said that the infield marking was only going to be marked as 70ft and 90ft by Woughton this year.
AS said that the Pony team felt they would like some rebate if they do not get some markings at 80ft.
RN explained that Woughton would not be flexible with regards to payment and highlighted how long it had been since the infield had last been resurfaced.

8. Senior Financial Matters - Pony Players

KS suggested that Pony players should have their Seniors fee waived for 2005.
RN and NR both agreed that this would be acceptable to the Senior team.

9. Senior Financial Matters - Current Fee Status

NR gave a brief update to the committee regarding the current state of fee collection from the Seniors team.
RH then requested the Seniors roster information so that he could update the BSUK web site. RN/0505-01

10. Pony Financial Plan for 2005

NS reported back to the Committee regarding the Pony financial state following a query from RH at the previous meeting. NS said that according to his revised spreadsheet the Pony team would no longer have a deficit at the end of the season.
RH then queried whether the Pony plan included end of year awards. NS then pointed out that his Bronco plan did not include awards either. AS then stated he was only making an allowance for outstanding achievements awards.
RH then asked whether the financial plan included reserve fund considerations. NS concluded that this had not been agreed by the committee and therefore did not appear in the plan.

TD then asked whether the Pony team had any ideas on how they could raise additional funds.
DOS said that it was harder raising funds in the Pony team because the parents were less involved because the children were older and did not need to be supervised. AS then said, in his experience, based on 10 years of attempting to raise funds, he had tried everything and not found any reliable method of increasing team income.

11. Cost Centre Profitability

NS raised the question of whether a teams financial viability should be the sole factor in determining whether a team should exist.
KS stated that it was not, but explained that every team should be financially viable.
NS suggested that perhaps it should be acceptable for a team to make a financial loss.
RN added that he believed it was a clubs responsibility to carry an underperforming team.
NR reminded the committee that a super centre was expected to provide a team for each age group.

RH then expressed his concerns that if one team continued to underachieve eventually it could drain away the club reserves making it difficult to pay annual registration fees at the beginning of the season.
AS stated this would not be a problem as we could rely on BSUK to offer a favourable payment plan if the club was in financial trouble.

NS then asked whether the financial reserve used to pay for BSUK registration should be a club or team reserve and how it would be contributed to.
TD then offered to write a report comparing the concepts of running club versus team budgets.
KS then suggested that the reserve fund payments could simply be based on a simple percentage of profit.
KS added that he did not believe that any reserve fund should be used for equipment purchases.

The committee then agreed that a budget for 2006 should be agreed this December, and KS offered that the team finances should be based on having 13 players.
NS then added that he expected that Bronco and Pony fees would always be the same. This would mean that the Seniors team would be financially penalised for using Pony players which would promote the Seniors to recruit adults.

AS reminded the committee that it was important to keep subscription fees low to encourage participation.
KS then proposed that the club promotes a club ethos which should include an understanding at least one team may financially under perform.
AS suggested this discussion was deferred to an electronic discussion so that a more coherent policy could be proposed. AS/0505-01

12. Publication of Minutes

NS stated that he would like the committee to vote on whether the meeting minutes would be published on the internet again.
NS explained that when he originally voted for the minutes to be published on the web site, he had not expected that committee discussions mentioned in the minutes could potentially not show the club members in the best light to outsiders.

NS then proposed that a different procedure should be used to manage the club minutes. The minutes should instead be agreed by email, before a final version of the minutes was distributed to the committee with a hard copy being stored in a folder. The membership should then be advised that new minutes are available upon their request.

KS then asked NS why it had taken four meetings and published minutes for his concerns to be raised, and NS responded saying it had been an accumulation of his knowledge based on the each of the previous meetings.

DOS then asked whether other baseball clubs published their minutes, and AS responded saying they did not.
KS then pointed out that BSUK, did make a point of publishing their meeting minutes.

KS, as the meeting chairperson, asked whether anyone was willing to take the minutes if they were going to be managed according to NS's new proposal.
RH explained he would not continue as meeting minute taker if the minutes were not being published on the Internet as he was only doing the minutes due to the benefits he perceived he was getting from working transparently.
NS then stated that he would be willing to take the minutes of future meetings if his proposal was agreed.

The committee then voted on the proposal and it was defeated, meaning that minutes will continue to be published on the club web site.

13. Andy Simmons Resignation

KS stated that as the chairperson for the meeting he had received an e-mail from AS offering his resignation at the end of the season.

As part of the resignation, AS had offered to continue coaching the Pony team until the end of the season. KS reported that he had checked with all of the relevant members of the club and it had been agreed unanimously that BaseballMK would like AS to continue coaching as long as possible.

RH then asked whether there was an official reason for Andy's resignation and AS responded that there was not.
RH then asked for clarification as to whether AS would be resigning his committee position before the process of creating a new constitution. AS responded that he would not be taking part in the creation of the new BaseballMK constitution.
AS then confirmed that he was happy for the decision regarding his honorary presidency to be taken by the committee after he has left his position.

NS then asked whether AS will be attending the end of year award ceremony. KS included the fact that the club would like AS to present the pony team awards.
AS said he would be happy to be included in the presentation.

The committee then discussed the candidate for Pony coach for 2006, and RH pointed out that until some constitutional changes had been made it would be difficult to announce a new pony head coach for the next season.

14. AOB - Senior Web Update

RN asked when the Seniors team would be updated on the web site.
RH explained that he was working on the changes and they would be included in the next web update.

15. AOB - Cubs Coaching

RH asked whether AS was still planning the cubs baseball day as talked about at the beginning of the season.
AS confirmed that he would still be running the two Wednesday sessions with the cubs, and requested that he could borrow the club tee ball equipment. The committee agreed that the tee ball equipment could be used.