2. Amendments to the Constitution
3. Team Reports
4. Financial Reports
5. Woughton
6. Emerson Valley
7. Committee Elections
8. Committee Positions and Roles
9. AOB – Web Links
10. AOB – Team Connections
11. AOB – Wooden Bats
12. AOB – Herts Falcons
13. AOB – Missing Jerseys
AGM
| Robert Hodgson (Non voting & minutes) | Keith Sherman (2 votes & chairman) |
| Debra O’Sullivan (2 votes) | Darrin Ward (1 vote) |
| Ian Robinson (1 vote) |
Keith Sherman read through the list of apologies that he had received from the following club members.
| Pete O’Sullivan | Nigel Sheppard |
| Yvonne Perry | Yvonne Ward |
| Nick Russell |
Keith then added that the committee had received an e-mail from Yvonne in which she had resigned her position on the club committee.
2. Amendments to the Constitution
No proposals for amendments to the constitution have been received.
The team reports can be found elsewhere on the website.
Bronco Team Report
Pony Team Report
Senior Team Report
a. 2006 Accounts & Current Balances
Keith presented and explained the 2006 accounts and the current club balances.
Everyone present at the meeting agreed the figures and said they were happy with his explanation.
Keith then requested that the accountants that had audited the accounts were given a link on the website.
Robert Hodgson agreed to make the update when he next changed the website.
b. Registrations for 2007
Keith explained that every player had to fill in a registration form prior to be allowed on the playing field otherwise they would not be covered by the club’s insurance policy.
There was then a short outline of how many registrations the club would require to break even based on the current cost predictions for the upcoming season.
c. Grant Applications
Keith Sherman explained that he was still working on the “Awards for All” grant, and how now reached the stage of asking three companies to supply quotes for the equipment that the club needs.
Darrin Ward then suggested that the MK Dons could be approached to find out whether the club would be able to rent their dugouts for game days.
d. Sponsorship
Darrin Ward went through a number of ideas.
- Local Newspaper Adverts
Keith explained that the paper already print game reports every week - MK Lightening Shop
Keith said that he had already asked the Lightening to display a BaseballMK recruitment poster, but explained there was no sponsorship opportunity - Bowling Alleys
Darrin pointed out that Milton Keynes has a number of bowling alleys and suggested they should all be approached - Suzuki
Darrin highlighted Suzuki as a possible sponsor and also suggested that they were a possible recruitment target - General Sponsorship Letter
Darrin explained that he thought that sending a letter requesting sponsorship to all local businesses which had links to countries with a strong baseball background could result in some sponsorship offers
Keith explained that the company that manages Woughton playing fields had finally responded to his requests for information regarding the 2006 invoice. He said that he was not happy with their current response and would continue to negotiate the matter with the new contact at Woughton.
There was then a discussion regarding the 2007 season and as usual everyone agreed that the company that managed Woughton needed to do a better job of maintaining the field to warrant the fees that they are suggesting for the upcoming year. The problems of double bookings and obstructions in the outfield were also highlighted as unacceptable considering the high costs of playing at Woughton.
Keith Sherman made a presentation of the third version of the drawings of the proposed club house and diamond that will be erected at Emerson Valley.
Three committee position elections took place.
Treasurer
Ian Robinson received 6 votes.
Hurricanes Head Coach
Darrin Ward received 6 votes.
Hurricanes Team Rep
Yvonne Ward received 6 votes.
According to the BaseballMK Constitution (section 10.6) Yvonne is excluded from holding a committee position but will still be the team rep for the following season.
The new BaseballMK Executive for 2007
| Treasurer | Ian Robinson | 2 years of term remaining |
| Hurricanes Head Coach | Darrin Ward | 2 years of term remaining |
| Hurricanes Team Rep | Subject to section 10.6 of Constitution | Subject to election at next AGM |
| Spitfires Head Coach | Vacant | Should be co-opted Subject to election at next AGM |
| Spitfires Team Rep | Debra O’Sullivan | 1 year of term remaining |
| Warhawks Head Coach | Keith Sherman | 1 year of term remaining |
| Warhawks Team Rep | Vacant | Should be co-opted Subject to election at next AGM |
Robert Hodgson then suggested that Pete O’Sullivan should be co-opted at the Spitfires head coach.
Robert explained that Pete had coached all of the children in the current Pony team, in some cases for as long as five years.
Robert finished by stating that although Pete had not taken a leadership role previously, in his opinion Pete had all of the skills required to be an excellent head coach and should be encouraged to try something new this season.
Darrin Ward agreed that he would approach Pete and ask him to be the head coach of the Spitfire team for the 2007 season.
Keith then spoke about his experiences of being a youth head coach and the difficult balance of getting parents involved, while still maintaining control of how the team play each game.
8. Committee Positions and Roles
Keith explained that all clubs affiliated to the BBF were now being required by BSUK to have a Welfare Officer.
Debra O’Sullivan agreed to take on this job for the following season.
Keith then stated that he wanted to step down as a Club General Manager.
Keith believes that the club will need to find two volunteers to do the administration work required to run the club.
Darrin Ward asked whether the club should run a recruitment advert on the BSUK website.
Robert Hodgson explained that previous adverts on the BSUK website had not resulted in players, as the majority of people using the site where already active members of another club.
Keith Sherman agreed that he would contact Tim Stride and ask for BSUK to add an article on their website.
Darrin Ward then highlighted a baseball web directory which did not include BaseballMK.
Keith said that he thought that Rob had done a good job getting the clubs website on the most important search engines at the top of most relevant searches.
Robert then explained that getting listed on minor web directories was often far more trouble than the value of the link.
Darrin Ward raised his concerns that the club had not worked well together in the 2006 season. Keith and Debra explained that the youth teams had not had any organisational issues.
Darrin then went on that he thought that the whole club should use the same third base signals and that he would work on this during pre-season practice. Debra said that she thought this was a good idea due to the number of players who played in both youth and senior games.
Darrin stressed that he still had concerns that the club would be playing in a wood bat league however the club does not have any bats with only a couple of months until the start of the season.
Darrin Ward said he had received an invitation from the Herts Falcons to play a pre-season friendly.
Darrin explained that he would like to take 20 players to the day including a number of pony players so that he could play one strong team and one development team in a double header.
Debra stated that 4 club jerseys had not been returned from the adult team following the 2006 season.
Darrin Ward said that he would follow this up and get the jerseys back for the club.
