Copyright 2011
B & D Golf League
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Minutes of The Bristol and District League

Annual General Meeting 2011

Held at Henbury Golf Club

Friday 11th November 2011

Present: R. Bennett (Long Ashton – Chairman), A. Shore (Wells – President), Mrs. B. Bennett (Secretary/Treasurer), A. Hands (Match Secretary), R. Webb (Committee - Saltford), T. Glossop (Committee - Mendip), M. Downs (Committee - The Players Club), P. Mason (Chipping Sodbury), W. Rowlinson (Clevedon), A. James (Cumberwell Park), K. Brimble (Farrington), R. Pell (Henbury), R. Coles (Knowle), N. Pirie (Lansdown), H. Purvis (Long Ashton), C. Fallows (Saltford)

Apologies for Absence: M. Priest (Committee), A. Hannan (Committee), M. Oliver (Bath), D. Morgan (Cumberwell Park), W. Hole (Shirehampton Park)

Absent: Bath, Bristol & Clifton, Filton, Kingsdown, Lansdown, Mendip Spring, Tall Pines, The Bristol, The Kendleshire, Thornbury, Tracy Park, Weston-super-Mare, Worlebury

Meeting opened 8pm

2) Minutes of the 55^th A.G.M held at Shirehampton Park Golf Club Friday 29^th October 2010 were approved:

Proposed: W. Rowlinson (Clevedon)

Seconded: P. Mason (Chipping Sodbury)

3) No matters arising from the Minutes

4) Chairman’s Report

“Congratulations to all the Divisional winners with a special mention to Saltford 1^st Team who were Division 1 winners and I personally wish Saltford the best of luck when they represent the Bristol and District League in the Annual Inter-League shield to be played against the North of the County winners.

I would like to apologise to any Clubs who were lucky enough to win their Divisions last year but, on League Finals night, did not receive their cup because the previous year’s winners forgot to return them.

I would like to thank Henbury Golf Club for the Hi/Lo Competition in May and Chipping Sodbury Golf Club for the League Finals in September. Both courses were in excellent condition on the day and the catering and bar facilities at both venues were also of a very high standard. I would like to thank Mike Downs who organised both events on behalf of the Committee.

As ever, I would like to thank the League Committee for their hard work over last season, but I must give special thanks to Adrian Hands, our Match Fixture Secretary, who works very hard throughout the year keeping the Web-Site up to date with results, League tables and the Games Played page.

I would personally like to welcome Farrington Golf Club who join the League next season and who I’m sure will quickly establish themselves as a very formidable team.

Bearing in mind that the League is still running without any form of sponsorship and bank interest rates are very low, the League is in a very healthy position.

As last year, with my wife being the Secretary & Treasurer, I have seen most of the Income and Expenditure as it happens during the year, so if anyone has any questions on the Balance Sheet I will answer them now. ”

5) Secretary’s / Treasurer Report

There being no questions regarding the Accounts:

Proposed: N. Pirie (Lansdown)

Seconded: R. Pell (Henbury)

6) Election of Officers

All incumbent Committee members were unanimously appointed by those present.

Proposed: W. Rowlinson (Clevedon)

Seconded: C. Fallows (Saltford)

7) League Fixtures

The League Fixtures meeting was held at Knowle Golf Club on Thursday 29^th September 2011.

8) Foursomes Championship (Hi-Lo)

To be held at Clevedon Golf Club on Sunday 13^th May 2012.

9) League Finals

To be held at Bath Golf Club on Sunday 9^th September 2012.

10) New Clubs

Richard Bennett, the League Chairman, welcomed Farrington 1^st Team and Filton 3^rd Team to the League for 2012.

11) Annual General Meeting 2012

The Annual General Meeting 2012 will be held at Filton Golf Club on Friday 9^th November at 8pm.

12) Cups

Richard Bennett, the League Chairman, expressed his disappointment at the poor returning of trophies over the last couple of years and has emailed Clubs to check their trophy cabinets.

13) Any Other Business

RB (Richard Bennett, League Chairman), AS (Alan Shore, League President), HP (Hugh Purvis, Long Ashton), RW (Roger Webb, Saltford)

RB invited HP to address the AGM and talk through the Rule Change being proposed by Long Ashton Golf Club, seconded by Cumberwell Park.

• In Rule 6(d) the final sentence (“Players must be members of the Club”) should be deleted in entirety.
• In Rule 6(g), the current wording (“All players must be playing members of a member club and affiliated to the English Golf Union”) should be deleted in entirety and replaced by “A player may only represent the Club which is his Home Club for handicapping purposes, which will be determined by reference to the EGU’s Central Database of Handicaps (CDH)”
• In Rule 7(a), the sentence “Before commencing Match each Team Captain must provide his opposite number with a list of Team pairings in order of play” should be extended by adding the words “with forename and surname and the CDH LifeTime Id number for each player; lack of this information shall render a player ineligible“.
• In Rule 9(c) the words “and CDH LifeTime Id number” should be added after the existing words “forename and surname”.
• Additional Provisions
• The Results sheet on the BDGL web-site should be amended to include space for the CDH LifeTime Id number of each player.
• The “Games Played” records should include the said reference number for each player (note: this should also help to eliminate confusion where players may be listed under two entries because of errors in spelling).
• The League Secretary should not be required to check the CDH to determine the Home Club of any player unless it is brought to his notice that a player appears to have represented a club which is not his Home Club (thus, the onus falls on an aggrieved club to raise the issue).

Having spoken through Long Ashton’s proposal, HP welcomed any questions. NP questioned why this Proposal and, in particular, use of the CDH Id would be an enhancement to the League. HP answered that it would be desirable to ensure that players are not “bought in” simply to win the Bristol and District League.

RW pointed that such a rule change would potentially affect the League being open to certain groups of people such as University students who may wish to take the opportunity to represent their Local Club in the BDGL but may wish to retain their “Home Club” status as their club in whatever part of the country they live.

NP expressed concern that it is unlikely players will know their CDH number and that it would be an extra unwanted burden on Team Captains to have to write out CDH numbers at every match. NP further added that supplying a list of CDH numbers to a stand-in Team Captain could be difficult and that, often, this kind of thing as well as replacing a player at the last minute might cause unwanted problems.

AS read a response from the English Golf Union regarding use of the CDH Id. The EGU pointed out that accuracy of Home Club details within the database will depend on the system’s use by Clubs. For example, a player who is a member of more than one club could appear as having a “Home Club” for all of the clubs of which he is a member. The EGU also pointed out that disclosing a person’s CDH Id by listing it on our Web-Site would be a breach of the Data Protection Act thus rendering the additional provision of adding the CDH Id to the Games Played page impossible.

With reference to Long Ashton’s proposal to remove the wording “All players must be playing members of a member club and affiliated to the English Golf Union” from Rule 6(g) , AS pointed out that the wording “affiliated to the English Golf Union” was there to ensure that only male golfers were eligible to play in the League.

AS also pointed out that smaller clubs in more rural areas often rely on using “away” players and that such clubs may struggle to raise players for BDGL Teams if the proposed rule change were voted through.

RW also pointed out that, with the CDH database being easily accesses and easy to amend, the rule proposal could in fact be abused as a player could very easily change his “Home Club” prior to a match for the purpose of complying with the rule and then change it back after the match.

HP acknowledged that he was unaware of the implications of the Data Protection Act and displaying CDH Id’s on the League’s Web-Site and that he was also unaware of the purpose of the wording within Rule 6(g) “affiliated to the English Golf Union”. HP asked that should the Long Ashton proposal be accepted that the Committee amends the proposal in light of this.

There being no further discussion, RB asked for a vote to be taken:

For:  4 votes

Against: 8 votes

The Long Ashton rule change proposal was not accepted.

There being no other business the chairman closed the meeting at 8.35pm

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