Committee minutes 2nd September 2024

Wimbledon Windmilers Management Committee Minutes

Date:  Monday 2nd September 2024

Start time: 19.30

Finish time: 21:23

Venue: Zoom online meeting

Attendees

  • Claire Morgan (CM) President and Membership Rep
  • John Gorst (JG) Chair
  • Anne Davies (AD) Secretary
  • Dieter Schlegel (DS) Treasurer
  • Richard Cohen (RC) Welfare Officer & Men’s Team Captain
  • Shirley Twist (ST) Welfare Officer
  • Simon Wright (SR) Men’s Team Captain
  • Ella Waddingham (EW) Women’s Team Captain
  • Bernadette Maher (BM) Women’s Team Captain
  • Sally Bovill (SB) Membership Rep
  • Sally Windle (SW) Events Rep
  • Duncan Newbury (DN) Events Rep
  • Peter McCloskey (PM) Coaching Rep
  • Lindsay Doy (LD) Multisport Rep
  • Kate Carter (KC) Comms Rep
  • Mia Lockner (ML) Comms Rep
  • Hannah Carr (HC) Social Rep
  • Jack Derges (JD) General Member

Apologies

  • Diane Carter (DC) Coaching Rep
  • Isabel Gwyther (IG) Multisport Rep
  • Caroline Ferrari (CFe) General Member
  • Andy Tan (AT) Multisport Rep
  1. Minutes
    1. The minutes of last meeting were approved: Yes x15, No 0, Abstain x 1
  2. Action Log
    1. VOTE: A vote was conducted by email in between committee meetings for the following changes to the Monday swimming arrangements. It was agreed:
      1. to continue the external Monday swim coaching at £40 coach fee per session (£1,600 per year for 40 sessions), paid for by members as part of the swim fee. Yes x12, No x0, Abstain x3.
      1. to introduce block booking for 10 of the 20 Monday swim slots, at a price of £7.50 per slot, one block including 14 swims (£105.00 per block). Yes x12, No x0, Abstain x3.
      1. that the club will continue to pay the online booking fee for the remaining 10 swim slots available per session for online pay-as-you-go booking. The price to members will be £8.00 and the club will pay the £1.38 Eventbrite fee per swim, amounting to £552.00 platform fees per year for 40 x 10 swim slots. Yes x9, No x3, Abstain x3.
    1. ACTION: AD to include a discussion of club surveys in the October committee meeting agenda
  3. Welfare, Health & Safety – no welfare or safety issues reported. RC & ST noted the following points arising from their recent Welfare training updates:
    1. Code of Conduct: All members are required to agree to the club Code of Conduct. CM noted that the membership form requires new members to sign their agreement to abide by the code of conduct.
    1. Attendance registers: England Athletics advises that it is best practice to take an attendance register for each session. This protects the coach as well as the attendees.
    1. ACTION: PM to work with Welfare to support coaches with completion of attendance registers at all club sessions
    1. Run&Talk: World Mental Health Day is on Thursday 10th October 2024.
    1. ACTION: AD to obtain details of the next Run&Talk event from the Mental Health Champions, to be shared with Comms & Coaching Reps.
  4. Finance
    1. Prize budget proposal: SW proposed to add £72 to the prize budget to cover 3-mile handicap prizes, since these had not been included in the 2024 budget. A wider review of the prize budget will be undertaken for the 2025 budget, which will resolve some inconsistencies in the overall prize-giving rationale.
    1. SW proposed to remove the age-graded prize budget for the club championships, which currently require 16 prizes. The consensus was that this would not be welcomed. LD proposed instead to use certificates to recognise age-graded performances, which was agreed.
    1. Charitable donation 2024: It was agreed to postpone the decision on the recipient for this year’s £750 charity donation to the October committee meeting.
  5. Race events
    1. Forthcoming events: SW noted that the next club race events will be the Club Championships (6th October, moved to just before the cross-country season), Darkness Dash (21st November) and the Windmile-on-the-track is proposed for December, pending confirmation of the Awards dinner date. CM/PM/DN will communicate the date.
    1. Grand Prix feedback for next year: CM shared participation numbers which showed that the first year of the Grand Prix the older age groups in both genders tended to show a higher rate of participation in these races than the younger age groups. DN and SW intend to conduct a member survey to gather feedback on the first year of the Grand Prix. DN noted that the Grand Prix is managed by a team and needs an overall ‘owner’ to implement and manage any changes. CM reminded the committee that the original objective was to include appropriate multisport events as well as running.
    1. ACTION: DN/SW to create a Grand Prix sub-committee with the objective of making a proposal for next year’s Grand Prix, which will start in January 2025.
  6. Multisport
    1. LD noted that the new block booking option for Mondays has sold out, with PAYG slots remaining available. For Wednesday swimming the blocks also sell faster than the PAYG slots. Over the summer attendance is lower because members make use of open water swimming facilities at Shepperton.
  7. Coaching:
    1. PM reported that the coaching rota for Sunday socials remains difficult to fill
  8. Kit
    1. HC presented an updated portfolio of training and casualwear kit designs and a proposal for the supplier of casualwear.
    1. A discussion was held about whether an inverse version of the club race vest could be worn at races that require registered race kit. CM noted that some clubs make it clear that their alternative vests are for individual racing, not team racing. EW commented that the race official on the day is empowered to disqualify participants if they judge that their kit does not comply with UKA guidelines. KC and DN commented that the kit page of the club website needs to make it clear which is the registered race kit for team races and which is training kit.
    1. VOTE: Do you agree to proceed with crewroom.co.uk as the club’s casualwear supplier and to purchase an embroidery file for the logo at £75? Yes x17, No x0, Abstain x 1
    1. AD commented that her positive vote was contingent on the use of Crewroom’s online shop facility
  9. Comms
    1. Mailchimp update: It has been noticed that some new members are not receiving the Waffle newsletter. The web team is aware of the issue and will implement a temporary solution until it can be resolved permanently with the new club website.
    1. ACTION: AD to liaise with the webteam to reconcile the Mailchimp newsletter database with the EA membership database and add any missing members unless they have unsubscribed.

Next meeting: Wednesday 16th October 2024, 19:30 in person at the Dog & Fox Library

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