2002 Annual General Meeting

President's Report      Treasurer's Report

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Petanque Association Incorporated, held at the Masterton Park Bowling Club, Friday 29 March 2002, 6.00pm

Present:

Graeme Burnard, Alison Priddle, Ralph Priddle, Craig McKenzie, Neil Satherley, Chris Priestley, Gordon Dykes, Andy Gilbert, Louis Mesnage, Sue Neilson, Ian Baker, Jane Gilbert, Neil Dykes, Brenda Dykes, Barb Johnston, Elizabeth Rocks, Michael Rocks, Jacquie Hurst, John Maxwell, Bernadette Lawton, Tony Lane, Myrna Lane, Bethne Rouse, Kevin Rouse, Myles Cowper, Margaret Fleck, Pat Robinson, Daphne Hendrie, Janet Partridge, Shirley McCauley, Gwen Hill, Bill Lockwood, Peter Horgan, Geoff Greer, Denise Bavidge, Bill Billing, Ngaire Billing, Marie Fenton, Vic Fenton, Rolinka Fouquet, Wendy Greene, Christian Fouquet, Graeme Morris, Brian Smith, Barbara Whittington, Murray Porter, Steve Thwaites, Trevor Neilson.

Apologies: Terry Holt, Cam Calder, Rita de Beer, Peter de Beer, Peter Whittington.

Minutes of Previous Meeting:

Previously distributed; taken as read. Minutes adopted, moved Barbara Whittington, seconded Brian Smith.

Matters Arising: none raised.

Reports:

• President’s report

  Previously circulated; spoken to by Christian Fouquet; unanimously accepted by the meeting (moved Barbara Whittington, seconded Graeme Morris).

   

• Financial Report

  Brian Smith presented the audited accounts for the year ended December 2001. He gave an update on membership numbers under the new system and outlined the situation with respect to sponsorship from Peugeot NZ and grants from the Sports & Recreation Agency (formerly Hillary Commission).

   

  It was suggested that PNZ should write to the latter Agency and ask why the NZ Rugby Football union had been given thousand’s of $ of funding recently when smaller sports such as ours have been told we have to wait until the new funding structure is sorted out.

   

  There was a query from the floor regarding what items were included in publications other than the magazine. Brian answered that this category included publicity brochures and leaflets, and “Petanque the Game” booklets.

   

  The accounts were unanimously accepted (moved Brian Smith, seconded  Barbara Whittington).

   

  Brenda Dykes moved a vote of thanks to Brian for his work on the accounts.

Election of Officers:

President:

Nominated – Graeme Morris (Barbara Whittington/ Brian Smith). Elected unopposed.

Vice President: 

Nominated – Trevor Neilson (Graeme Morris/ Murray Porter). Elected unopposed.

Treasurer:

Nominated – Brian Smith (Barbara Whittington/Trevor Neilson). Elected unopposed.

Secretary:

Nominated – Barbara Whittington (Graeme Morris /Brenda Dykes). Elected unopposed.

Committee members:

Nominated: Murray Porter (Brenda Dykes/Steve Thwaites); Ian Baker (Christian Fouquet/Barbara Whittington); Terry Holt (Trevor Neilson/Graeme Morris); Steve Thwaites (Brian Smith/Christian Fouquet)

There being no other nominations, the above four were duly elected to the Committee.

Graeme presented a plaque to Christian, in recognition of his work on the PNZ Committee and as President over the past 3 years.  A plaque was also presented, in his absence, to Jorg Schulze, President of the Association from 1996-1998.

Appointment of Auditor:

Peter Whittington had advised his availability as auditor again, and was duly appointed.

Annual Subscription:

The Committee recommended to the meeting that annual subscriptions for PNZ for the year to 31 December 2003 remain the same as for 2002, ie $5 per Club member for general membership, to be paid through Clubs, $10 for competitive registration (for those club members wishing to compete in NZPA tournaments) to be paid on an individual basis, and $15 for individual membership.  (Moved Brian Smith, seconded Barbara Whittington).

The proposal was put to the vote and carried unanimously.

General Business:

• New draft constitution

  • Barbara Whittington distributed a new draft Constitution, and outlined the main changes from the current rules. The draft is to be distributed to all PNZ members with the June 2002 magazine, with the intention of adopting the final version at a Special General meeting later in the year.

  • There was a query as to the need to retain provision for individual membership, as this seemed to undermine the desired structure of having Clubs affiliate to PNZ and people needing to belong to clubs in order to participate in national championships.  Barbara answered that at the moment, there are a number of members who have no club in their area, but who still wish to belong to PNZ and play in tournaments. Provision needs to be made for such circumstances, but it was agreed that the way this is done should be looked at, to avoid the potential for abuse.

• Oceania team selection process

  • Louis Mesnage spoke to the letter that had previously been sent to the Committee. He argued that while the idea of having qualifying tournaments was a good one, the notice this year was too short, and was unfair to players who had been competing in national tournaments on the assumption that seeding points gained would be the basis for team selection.

  • Several points were raised for and against in discussion from the floor.

  • Graeme asked for a show of hands on the issue, noting that the vote would not be binding on the Committee. The vote was strongly in favour of the qualifying tournament process.

  • A further related issue was raised regarding having two North Island tournaments (preliminary and finals), and the effect on costs for South Island players wishing to participate.  This is a difficult issue, as there are not enough teams in the South island to warrant a separate preliminary tournament there, but it would not be fair to let SI teams go straight into the final. It was agreed that the Committee would consider the matter to see if a solution can be found.

  • Brenda asked, if a similar qualifying tournament process was going to be used for the World Championships, when would these tournaments be held, given that the 2003 Worlds are quite early (July). Graeme answered that this had not yet been discussed, but agreed that it would need to be early in 2003.

• Length of PNZ Tournaments

  • Neil Dykes noted that the 2002 National Doubles tournament is scheduled to be held over three days.  He felt that this was too long, citing cost considerations, endurance required, and effect on families of players being away/involved for this length of time. He suggested that other options be looked at, such as a different format with fewer rounds, or using lights and playing later on each day.

  • Neil moved a motion, seconded Daphne Hendrie, that PNZ tournaments (i.e. national Singles, doubles and triples), be limited to 2 playing days each. The motion was passed on a show of hands.

• Coaching

  • Andy Gilbert asked if the Committee could look at providing more structured coaching to clubs, to help people move from social to competitive players. He felt that for his Club, the gap between these two types of players was becoming too wide, to the detriment of the club.  Pat Robinson said that it seemed to be more of an internal club issue than something for PNZ to address – the competitive players should be coaching and supporting the “social “players, and also need to accept that there are some players who simply do not want to move on to higher, more competitive, levels. Graeme Morris supported this view, but also said that the issue of a need for more co-ordinated coaching programmes reaching into Clubs was on the Committee agenda for the coming year.

• Seeding

  • Kevin Rouse put forward that the current seeding system is not really adequate, and suggested looking at an alternative system, such as that used in squash, where all games at all levels are taken into account to come up with player rankings. Brian Smith acknowledged that the current system has deficiencies. The Committee agreed to look at others at its July meeting. Geoff Greer commented that we need to be careful about simply transferring a system from one sport to another.

• Honorarium for Editor

  • Michael Rocks asked whether the Committee had considered ways in which the Editor may receive some financial recognition from PNZ, as per the recommendation at the 2001 AGM. Graeme Morris said that this had not been discussed.

  • Graeme Morris proposed a vote of thanks to Brenda Dykes for producing such a continually high quality magazine.

The meeting closed at 7.30pm

Barbara Whittington

Secretary.