Agenda

1. Apologies
   

   Jen
   

2. Minutes of previous meetings
   

   Matters arising (not addressed below):
   
   Hall of fame idea
   Chris Dore is keen to help. We need to come up with some basic criteria (e.g. having left the league 2 years ago, should we keep stats?). We should appoint Chris Dore as chair of a subcommittee that can do this. ACTION ROGER to start this. Sub committee to come back to Exec with a set of criteria (both playing/technical and character/work for the league) and try to come back to us before the captains meeting.
   
   Umpire Course
   Definitely some Sundays available at the Harlequins Rugby club. Stella has to put some dates forward to BASU very soon (and will be before May). ACTION ROGER - liaise with Rugby Club. ACTION STELLA - to
   put the dates from Roger to Cedric McLendon at BASU.
   
   League Heads forum - Stella did send our apologies at the time.
   
   Finances Signatories. No progress. Need to add (at least) Stella and Norm. However, it will be useful keeping some old names on for convenience. ACTION JEN.
   
   Finances - unexpected invoice from Rover Jen sent some details even though she couldn't make the meeting. At the meeting, we counted up the weeks that we played: 15 weeks (commencing 16 May - late due to seeding and rain). We paid: £800 @ £50 per week (so we paid for all the weeks we paid, plus £50 for the first rain out week).
   
   The unexpected invoice from Rover was for the end of August and into September. This is wrong. We have paid in full - no doubt. ACTION JEN to speak to Rodney Smithson to clear this up. (Jen has emailed but
   with no reply).
   
   Development Grant - been applied for £250 but nothing heard as yet. (£200 towards umpiring and and £50 towards coaching of women and possibly juniors). Sent off by Stella on 13 February 2007.
   
   

3. Moving from the Rover club?

   A discussion was needed as we are continually being overlooked by them and they have not been very helpful in planning our season (not giving us clear dates). The arrangement for the possible start of our season (after the football posts are taken down and the re-seeding done) have been difficult too.
   We're paying well but getting a poor service (wrong invoices, unclear slots in the calendar, poor assistance/co-ordination in field marking etc. etc.). ACTION for later in the season to look at other options. We should look into moving to Cherwell School and Oxford Harlequins club. Maybe we will move
   next year.
   
   

4. News from BSF AGM in February

   Stella and Norm went. Stella represented the league and Norm ended up representing the Angels (in case they need to send a team to the nationals this year).
   There is a report written by the BSF on the BSUK web site (see that page for details of discussions etc. including the new fee structure for teams).
   BSF fees have increased by £5. Agreed that we should look into adding up to £50 to each team's fee (over the absolute costs) to build up reserves, pay for some of the end of season party, teams defaulting, unexpected costs etc. ACTION JEN to detail and make proposal.
   
   

5. Start dates and League divisional structure for 2007

   Start of season issue:
   Regarding the daylight, we could start on 1 May. However, the football posts are probably coming down that week, so this may be a problem. If the first league game is 8th May, we have 17 weeks to 28th August.
   
   Norm and Stella presented ideas for league structure based on 9 or 10 teams. However, it seems that there could be an issue that we could be down to 8.
   
   If 8 teams: the Exec recommends that we have a situation where everyone plays each other twice in 2 divisions (14 weeks + rainouts).
   
   If 9 teams: the Exec recommends that we play everyone in our own division twice, but also have twice the interdivisionals (so each team plays every other team twice). This adds up to 16 games over 17 weeks
   (meaning that we finish on 28 August).
   
   If we play until 28 August, then we will need to change the rule so that games in the last 2 weeks must start by 6.45. Rainouts will have to be played on Thursdays in August.
   
   Either way, Oddsox must go up and Devils should go down.
   
   If we manage to get another team in Div 2 (making 10 teams in total), then Devils should stay up and Oddsox are promoted.
   
   

6. Rule changes proposed

   The deadline for suggested rule changes had been given as 8 March (the day of the meeting). We had had only submissions from Chris Dore and Norm.
   
   Chris Dore's proposed changes/clarifications:
   Should metal baseball cleats be allowed? Exec. recommends NO as we should try to keep with the ISF rule book.
   Should we extend further the benefits of swapping players between club teams? Exec recommends NO (these rules have been debated a lot in the past).
   What if an opposing team forgets or doesn't nominate MVPs in a timely fashion? The Exec recommends that It is the team captain's responsibility to obtain the MVP for their own team from the opposition captain. There should be no option to appoint your own MVP. The team who fails to appoint (an) MVP(s) for the opposition will have their stats for that week refused by the stats officer.
   Clarification on calling on base coaches for 'close call' umpiring decisions or when the plate umpire was unsighted.
   ACTION - put reminder in the captains pack that the base coaches can be consulted by the umpire on close calls or something that the plate umpire could not see.
   
   Special rules for a lower division Scratch Team - Norm has consulted with the Windsor League and the Exec agreed to propose these rules to the captains. The wording of the rule was thought to be OK, but we decided to add that when playing against or for the Scratch Team, statistics do not count for the end of season total.
   
   New Lightning Rule Norm had proposed some wording. This was put in to be in line with the BSF recommendations to leagues (voted on at the BSF AGM).
   
   All draft rules are at the draft rules page on this wiki.
   
   Head injury rule Anyone with a head injury, however minor must go to A&E (again coming from the BSF AGM). ACTION STELLA to add this into the rules on the wiki.
   
   Returning the trophy. Last year's winning team must return the trophy by the last competitive game of the season (not including rainouts). If a team doesn't return the trophy, then none of that team's players will be considered for awards that year.
   
   

7. Captains pack

   Norm agrees to do it again. ACTION NORM - have a demo for the full committee meeting on the 28th March.
   
   

8. We need volunteers

   Organising cup day/tournament
   We don't know the free Sundays yet (being messed around by Rover). ACTION ROGER to phone Pete Patten and to try to re-visit Rover. ACTION STELLA to pick 3 dates out to put to Rover.
   
   Stella needs help with female Single Sex team
   There's a BSUK single sex tournament in May. ACTION STELLA to send an email out to try to get another organiser. Maybe one for a C team if we can get two teams entered.
   Thinking of running some women only practices too.
   
   Pitch marking at Rover
   When? Anytime after 1 May (last football matches are the 28/29 April. We need to do the marking in the week of 1 May. Try to get 10 volunteers. Each team sends 1 person. Proposed date: Tuesday 1 May. ACTION STELLA to email the teams to ask for this. ACTION NORM to buy pegs and wire to assist with the marking out.
   
   To be Weathermen
   ACTION NORM to ask Jem again and one of the Angels.
   
   Web master or publicity writer
   We need an information officer - at least someone to look after producing text for the web site, but we probably also need someone who can (occasionally) look after the technical side. ACTION NORM to ask around for candidates.
   
   
   

9. Marketing assistance/planning to recruit new members

   Dates for open days
   Open days/grapefruits on Sun 22nd, Tues 24th April, Sun 29th, maybe Tues 1 May. Suggest that we get volunteers to run the different days. Allocate 2 people per open day.
   
   Mechanism for assigning to teams or to 'scratch team'
   Stella has had 3 people contact her so far. ACTION STELLA to ask teams to tell her if they are short of players. Stella will allocate people alternately to teams, objectively.