# **Mersham Sports Club** # **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** # **Mersham Sports Club Annual General and Trustees Meeting Tuesday 9[th] March 2021 Mersham Sports Club 7.00pm via Zoom** ##  **Attendees** Trustees: Kevin Burton - Jonathan Ambler - Jane Fagg – Lesley-Ann (Leigh) Lloyd - Malcolm Smithers - Geoffrey (Dick) Fagg - Robert (Bob) Beanie - Peter Turley (Parish Council) Members: John Southern - Debbie Southern - Trevor Dawes - Matthew Fagg - Ian Fagg - Steve Darlington - Lisa Webb - David Fletcher - Martin McDonough - Oli Mason - Peter Tomsett. ##  **No Apologies** ##  **Minutes of last AGM approved.** ##  **Chair’s report** Mr President, Trustees, members, thank you all for attending this evening. Let me open the meeting by saying how strange it seems to be holding an AGM sat indoors looking at loads of faces on a screen and not in the club house! This is a good time to thank Leigh for sorting out this Zoom meeting and making it all possible. Before we start, I would just like to say how strange and difficult times have been over the last year with very little sport on offer and the dreaded Covid. Restricting our activities massively. These have been worrying times and scary times but hopefully with the vaccine we are coming to the end of this nightmare and we will once again be playing sport at the MSG. It would seem that with the lack of activity at the ground and everyone confined to their own 4 walls Mersham Sports Club would be placed on hold until the Covid had passed. How wrong could we be!! The club has been busy, busy, busy. We have achieved CIO status; this is a new charity status for the club which will assist us for many reasons in the future. (More on that latter). We can safely say that the efforts of Sarah Hartels completing all the legal requirements for obtaining the CIO along with the back up from Leigh Lloyd and Jane Fagg, they have seen us **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** through all of the red tape to accomplish the club’s accreditation as a CIO. Sarah remains very much involved with not only the CIO but helping us with all the legal requirements for the Land registration, ground purchase and anything else we throw her way. She has been a blessing, dealing with all the legal stuff that would have cost a fortune to resolve if we had to do it ourselves. The club cannot thank her enough. I think it’s time to say a big thankyou to Leigh Lloyd who for those who don’t know her, works tirelessly for the good of this club. She has taken on many roles, secretary of the club, she is on the development committee keeping both Fred and I in check and doing all the work on our behalf. She organises all the football sections correspondence organising matches and match rota’s and keeps the Football section in order. Along with Steve Edge she is the on the social/bar committee the list is endless….. It seems to me she could do with some more jobs!!! Well done Leigh and thank you for all your devotion and hard work, the club can’t function without you. As we have mentioned the Development committee have been hard at work trying to achieve the goal of a new club house and additional land as set out in the club’s development plan for the long-term future of MSC. We will hear more about where we are with this in Fred’s report, but I would like to take the opportunity of thanking Fred for all he has done since taking on the role as Vice Chair of the club and Chair of the development committee. I know how hard he has worked on this project and how time consuming it has been, he also adds so much to the general running of the club and helps me with the workload as Chair I can’t begin to show how much this means and I can’t thank him enough, well until the bar is back open!! I’ve already mentioned Jane Fagg our treasurer and we have to take time to thank her for all the work she has done with the accounts over the last few years with not only the sports club account but the development account which is now of business proportions. Along with this her contribution to achieving the new club constitution and CIO status has been vital to the clubs success. We shall hear from Jane shortly and we can all appreciate the time and effort she gives to the club keeping the books straight! Many thanks Jane Finally, before we get into the meeting, I would like to minute a big club thankyou to Malcolm Smithers, who among his many roles on the football section, has sourced, arranged and delivered the new sales suite to the ground. This will prove to be an invaluable addition in the short term whilst the new club house is built. Whilst we prepare for the end of the football season and the start of a new Archery and cricket season let’s just reflect on how lucky Mersham, as a club, are to have such an abundance of members willing to help with the running, development and security of its future. I have mentioned just a few of the main committee but as we proceed through this meeting and we hear from the ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** various sections let’s take the time to sing the praises of all the members out there that are contributing their own time and effort, for free, making MSC the envy of all, and the club other clubs wish they could be!!! Here’s to good days ahead. ##  **Treasurer’s Report** CLUB ACCOUNT YEAR ENDING 28/02/2021 - The year started with £58,174 brought forward. - Membership of £6,722 was received, an increase of £200 over last year which is surprising given the year that it has been. - The 200 Club raised £2,700 and Bar and Social functions brought in £3,700. Well done to all those involved in raising these funds. The Cricket section transferred £2,000 and the Football section £2,500 of excess funds to the Club. - The EWCB Allstars programme and the summer Sports Camp unfortunately could not take place. - Mersham and Sevington Parish Council gave a grant of £2,500 towards the building of the new clubhouse and club development. Grants totalling £18,097 have been received as part of the Government’s Small Business COVID Support Scheme. - This is approximately the amount required to maintain the club; Insurance, Security, Admin, Utilities and upkeep of pavilion, ground and machinery being £17,953. - A grant of £2,500 was received from the Football Foundation and £1,500 from EWCB to contribute towards expenses for groundwork. - Thanks go to the Vice Presidents who made donations of £570, we are very grateful for their support. Hopefully, we will see more of them this coming year. - Match Funding of £1000 was received via The Charities Aid Foundation for last February’s Murder Mystery. The Savannah Trust supported our Golf Day giving us an income of £800, Kent County Cricket Club gave us £150 after using the ground and Amazon Smile passed on £12 from charity transactions. Thanks go to all those people and organisations that have supported us and also to those who have worked to secure the payments. - Particular thanks must go to Mr J. Burns who raised £1,393 for the Club by taking part in a charity bike ride. - Money received from the Recycle Bank was £330. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** - As a result of the County Court case brought against Mr I. Dunning the Club received £1,050 this year. This means that we have now received all of the £3,900 that was awarded to us and the case is now closed. - With our change to being a charity we lost our 100% relief on Business Rates so were charged £40 for the period ending 31March 2020. We would have had to pay £486 for 2020/21 but were given this as a discount as part of the COVID Small Business Support Scheme. We may be able to apply for 100% relief again if we meet the criteria required. - The insurance premium for this year was £3,266, the cost of security £805 and all other admin expenses totalled £505. - A refund of £1,000 was received from EDF for electricity, but general running costs for the year have been in line with that of previous years. - Utilities were £2,627 and £10,710 was for care and maintenance of the pavilion, ground, and ground equipment. - Groundwork expenses did total £8,529 but the extra expenses were offset by the £4,000 of grants received. - Replacement ground machinery cost £2,400 but sale of old mowers raised £1,967. - Club Development cost £913 for plans and £2,619 in planning application fees. - Report’s cost £2,010 for structural design, £1,020 for Quantity surveyor and £3,600 for an Agronomist. - At the end of the year the Club has £67,696 in The Development Account, - £9,072 in the Business Account, £42 with Santander and £47 in cash. - The old Santander Account has not yet been closed as it is being used by Ashford Borough Council to pay COVID Grants despite having been given our Barclays Account details. We end the year with £76,858 to carry forward. Jane Fagg Club Treasurer. ##  **Safeguarding Officer’s report** A busier than usual year in terms of welfare due to the amount of and everchanging nature of COVID 19 guidance and restrictions placed upon the club and its activities. I think all sections have adapted well to these and made the most of the opportunities we have had to play, ensuring that coaches and managers have provided a safe environment for all club users. Work on these will continue into the summer to ensure that we are able to meet requirements and provide as much activity as we can, as soon as we can. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** I am only aware of a few incidents during the year to report on. - One a COVID case within the cricket section that resulted in one of the teams being shut down shortly after we restarted in June, thankfully lesson was learned, and restrictions tightened. - An ongoing issue around general player behaviour within the senior cricket section, this will be addressed with the cricket section bringing in addition Player and Coach standard documents to go alongside the club codes of conduct. - An issue within the Junior football around a parent and non-club activities that I believe has been resolved by the football section. Thanks to all the section welfare and safeguarding volunteers who have waded through the mountains of information from governing bodies during the year to get activities going, and thanks to the coaches, players and spectators for all adhering to the guidance. ##  **Vice Chair & Development report** Good evening In what has been a difficult year the development committee has worked tirelessly to overcome the hurdles put in front of us. We feel that we are now in a good place and with many of the boxes ticked we will be able to progress. We are now a registered charity and the purchase of the land is progressing well with all the relevant surveys done and the ECB wanting to assist with putting a wicket in. We have at last got planning for the new pavilion which complies with FF ECB and Sport England criteria and we will be going for tender soon. Also, on Friday we got planning permission for the portacabin so that can now be used and gives us more options. On Thursday we have a zoom meeting with FF Sport England ECB and ABC to see where we are with funding. Sadly, our bid coincides with the worst economic downturn in a lifetime however we remain optimistic, and the government are pushing for more support for grass roots sport. I am sure there is still much work to be done to achieve our goal, but we will keep working hard to try and get there. Thanks to the development committee for all their hard work and to Sarah for her sterling efforts. Also, thanks to the Sports club committee for all their support. Cheers Fred ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** Concerns were expressed over the drainage issues on new land – currently the drainage ditches surrounding the grounds are full to overflow – how will this be managed on new ground? Trevor Dawes (U7 Football coach) – will pay dividends to undertake the drainage works properly eg the Ridgeway at Smeeth has been playable for almost all of this extremely wet season. The drainage is a requirement for any funding by the FF and we have sort quotes which are in the region of £160k to make the land fit for purpose – this includes the drainage system deemed appropriate by the agronomist who carried out land surveys etc. TD explained there are various things such as balancing ponds – deeper ditches etc which will hold the drained water and slowly irrigate to local water courses – seek advice from engineers. ##  **Ground’s report** Ground Report for Mersham Sports Ground, April 2020 through to April 2021 With the announcement of the national lockdown on March 23[rd] , 2020, that resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of the 2020 football season, and the delay to the start of the Cricket season, it gave us a great opportunity to do some renovation work on the sports ground playing areas. - The work listed below has all been completed during Summer 2020: With the assistance of a £2,500 grant from the Football Foundation, and a £1,500 grant from the ECB we used local sports turf company Judges and Son to firstly carry out scarification and overseeding of the football playing areas during May, then during September they completed the end of season renovations of the cricket square, that involved, scarification, seeding and topdressing. Also, in September they carried out Verti-draining of the whole sports ground outfield. Total cost of this work including VAT was £5,326, of which £4,000 was off set from grants received from governing bodies. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** Unfortunately, due to the extremely dry period that we had during the Summer months, we have not fully benefitted from the overseeding of the football pitches that took place, with there still being numerous bare areas following the scarification, where the seed has not germinated, despite valiant efforts by various members to get sufficient water onto the ground during the summer. However, I am pleased to report by employing Judges to do the renovations on the cricket square, it looks the best it has looked for many years with a very good grass covering. ## Work taking place during Winter and Spring 2020/21. In order to continue with the ground improvements, the following work is in progress through to April 2021 with costings as attached. 1. Apply Winter Fertilizer to Cricket Square £90.16 (completed) 2. Apply Winter Fertilizer to Football Pitches x 4 £924.00 (completed) 3. Judges to Verti-drain whole outfield during March / April £780.00 (completed) 4. Judges to Overseed Worn areas of Football pitches £720.00 (Booked for w/c 15[th] March 2021) 5. Purchase of 300kgs seed from Denne’s @£3.25 per kg for overseeding during April £975.00 (to be delivered 15[th] March 2021) Total £3,489.16 I have also requested a further follow up ground inspection by Scott Byers, from the Football Association but unfortunately these inspections are on hold at the moment due to Covid19. Differing from our earlier Lockdown, at the moment there does not appear to be any further grant money being made available from our governing bodies. So, at the moment the entire amount for the continuing Winter / Spring improvements will need to be funded from club finances. The above listed work will be carried out, in addition to the weekly routine maintenance of the football and Cricket pitches ie regular Slitting, Brushing, Mowing and Marking that is all carried out using Club equipment. Ian Adequate drainage on the new land is vital – the current field has been waterlogged for much of the last 2 months. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** Number of trees need felling. 27/28[th] March planned for works weekend. ##  **Football Chair’s report** I would like to thank the other members of the committee who have always been available for meetings and who make such an important contribution to the facilities we have provided for all our members. Especially Leigh who as secretary has to regularly stay on top of fixtures and the whole game system so our teams can take to the field and all the extra effort around Covid issues. It has been a difficult year with the stopping and starting, and the difficulties getting a midweek training venue for the whole evening. Ashford school have been very good once I established the benefits of one club hiring the venue each evening. At time of writing, we are awaiting an invoice. Membership has continued to grow with the U16’s staying on to play u18 football in the ADYFL, although we did lose the u15’s with the coach not continuing that was the only gap from U6’s to U18’s with 2 teams in the u10’s. (16 junior teams and 4 adult teams count the Valiants as 1) We did have to withdraw from Mersham School pitch (9v9) as it was unsafe due to extensive cracks creating a trip hazard over 1/3 of the pitch. There has been some limited work carried out with topsoil, but we wait to see if we can get back on there, the Head is happy for the club to have access during the weekends. The Farriers Arms pitch (7v7) proved to be absolutely invaluable during the spring and summer months. For several weeks we had teams using it every evening and most of Saturday with the Valiants there Sunday mornings which proved very successful. John the landlord was always helpful and the relationship clearly mutually beneficial. We did put fertiliser down and get a pump, to water the pitch during the heat wave but total cost was £100. This was so important last year in keeping activity at MSG to a minimum during the field improvements. Work is on schedule for April, which is slightly earlier than normal planned use till mid July. Sponsorship continues to come in for kits, Trevor Dawes secured a County Plumbing kit for his team with training top and then Roe Brickwork for next seasons u7’s. On top of that effort, he also spent a lot of time securing the donation of the new building from orbit homes which was delivered and installed. The only outlay was the temp road which was absolutely required during all the rain. That invoice was paid by the football section and was approx. £900. Work continues inside by me and Trevor but a ramp / hard standing needs to be agreed for the frontage. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** Ball Container Solutions came in again with a set of shirts for U16’s and Loftburgs Coffee a set for the U18’s, although neither set have seen much action. With 20 football teams I do not propose to mention them all, but I will say we have a great bunch of coaches keeping things going. Notable last season was Rob with the first team who did a great job of bringing in the youngsters from the junior section. Rob is also taking the U7’s next season, so weekends are sorted for him. The ladies team was promoted into Kent Div 1 and have played 7 games ending mid table, they were even invited to Maidstone Utd to play the first team just before lock down. The financials - We carried forward £4174 - Subs sept to Jan amounted to 14,290, out goings included £247 in fines most of that from one incident that we took to a panel. Equipment £2012.70 this included 2 sets of goal posts full size and 9v9 subsidised 70% by the FA. £2500 to club main account, that gives a current balance of 12,784.88. We await an invoice from Ashford school for £3150 and approx. £500 to Olorun for coaches’ tops. The club shop sale is still in the pipeline Olorun are finding out they cannot generate a code for a %, only a fixed amount off listed price. They are also operating on min staff. As a look forward to the immediate future a plan has been drawn up for midweek training from 29th March and league matches on the weekend covering April. Training venues beyond April still to be finalised and dependent on the state of the school field which I have earmarked for the 3 teams playing 9v9 football in Sept. That is a summary of the activity since my last report. Malcolm Smithers ##  **Cricket Chair’s report** Had a noticeably short season with no league cricket. Thanks go to Steve and the Southern’s for manning the bar, Ian for the ground’s maintenance, Matt for fixtures and organizing Junior cricket, Bertie & JC for ladies cricket. John Cunningham has taken on organising volunteering for the cricket section and is looking to get together a grounds work team together. Hoping for a full season this year! ##  **Archery Chair’s report** We have had a stop – start season and sadly had to cancel 2 winder tournaments and haven’t been able to host any corporate events. Expenses have been low – however have made a loss of £195. Few potential new members. ## **Mersham Sports Club** ## **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** Concerns over scheduling in the next few months. ##  **Bar & Social report** Obviously severally handicapped by loss of more than half of the adult cricket season and all social events due to Covid. Kids cricket was also severely curtailed, and local Bat and Trap league was cancelled. However, somehow we managed to sell £5416 of beer, soft drinks and a bit of BBQ food, helped by some well supported Bat and Trap evening friendlies. With a GP margin of c40% we made a profit of c£2500 which has been transferred to club funds, together with a further £1200 cash carried over from the year before. We sincerely hope Covid allows us to resume our normal cycle of events - Fireworks Night, Burns Night, Xmas Quiz and Murder Mystery, as well as ‘bar earning’ events such as football presentation and cricket week. Just on Fireworks Night, we still have safely in store and paid for the fireworks from 2019 so if we can go ahead it should be a very cash generative evening this year. I remain committed to trying to ensure the bar is open - probably again through the patio doors again - whenever adult or kids cricket is being played all summer. Thanks again to Debbie and John for their efforts last year in ensuring this was possible. Having maintained bar prices last year, I only anticipate a handful of price rises this, and these merely reflect small supplier cost rises I have been notified of already. During the winter months Carlsberg have renewed our beer cooler and compressor completely free of charge so we should be all systems go as soon as the government allows. Steve - 200 Club – now has 92 members. ## **Mersham Sports Club** **Flood Street Mersham Ashford Kent** ##  **Membership and Subs** Following a separate Mersham Sports Club committee put forward that membership should be maintained at the level of £30 adult and £15 annual membership fees. Put to vote – vote carried membership fees are to remain at £30 / £15. ##  **Election of Officers** No-one has put themselves forwards to stand for electable positions. All current officers happy to stand for another year. Kevin Burton – Club Chair Nominated by LA Lloyd – Seconded by M Smithers Election on block – Nominated by K Burton - Seconded by M Smithers Jane Fagg – Club Treasurer L A Lloyd – Club Secretary Jonathan Ambler – Club Vice Chair Steve Edge – Bar & Social Chair L A Lloyd – Bar & Social Treasurer Jane Fagg – Bar & Social Secretary M Fagg to remain as Welfare Officer. Representatives from each section will still be required and co-opted in when needed. ##  **Any Other Business** Panto was due this month but has been postponed until March 2022 – Dial M for Mersham. Trustee Accounts – these were seen and reviewed by trustees prior to AGM – show of hands approved accounts unanimously. Meeting closed 20.25. ## **- MERSHAM SPORTS CLUB CLUB ACCOUNT** ## **INCOME:** Balance B/Fwd |Balance B/Fwd
Membership:
Stripe Collections
Other Receipts
Club Sections:
200 Club
Archery Section
Bar & Social Functions
Cricket Section
Football Section
EWCB Allstars (Net)
Sports Camp (Net Proft)
Grants:
Mersham & Sevington Parish C.
COVID Business Support
Football Foundation
EWCB
Donations:
Vice President Donations
Charities Trust (Match Funding)
Savannah Trust (Golf Day)
Charity Bike Ride
Amazon Smile Charity Donations
Kent County Cricket Club
Other:
Sale of Mowers
Recycle Bank Receipts
County Court Receipts|£ 58,173.88
£ 6,647.28
£ 75.00 £ 6,722.28
£ 2,700.00
£ -
£ 3,700.00
£ 2,000.00
£ 2,500.00
£ -
£ - £ 10,900.00
£ 2,500.00
£ 18,097.29
£ 2,500.00
£ 1,500.00 £ 24,597.29
£ 570.00
£ 1,000.00
£ 800.00
£ 1,393.39
£ 12.09
£ 150.00 £ 3,925.48
£ 1,967.00
£ 330.00
£ 1,050.00 £ 3,347.00| |---|---| **###** ## **01/03/2020 TO28/02/2021** ## **EXPENDITURE** |Administration:
Business Rates
Insurance
Kent Playing Fields Subscription
Ashford Security
Website
Teamo Package
Barclays Bank Charges (Net.)
Postage
Utilities:
Electricity
Water
Cesspool
Waste Management
Housekeeping:
Property (Main. & Housekeeping)
Ground (Care & Preparation)
Ground Equipment (Repairs & Main)
Fuel (Mowers etc.)
Club Development:
Planning Applications
Plans
Structural Design Report
Quantity Surveyor Report
Agronomist Report
Other:
Purchase of Roller
Purchase of Cylinder Mower
COVID Banner & Housekeeping
Donation to Pilgrims Hospice
On Hand:
Barclays Bank Development Account
Barclays Bank Number 2 Account
Santander Account
Cash|£ 40.55
£ 3,265.82
£ 25.00
£ 804.60
£ 43.20
£ 299.88
£ 131.15
£ 5.78 £ 4,615.98
£ 1,112.45
£ 554.89
£ 440.00
£ 520.12 £ 2,627.46
£ 540.57
£ 8,529.12
£ 1,556.37
£ 84.00 £ 10,710.06
£ 2,619.00
£ 913.00
£ 2,010.00
£ 1,020.00
£ 3,600.00 £ 10,162.00
£ 1,800.00
£ 600.00
£ 182.12
£ 100.00 £ 2,682.12
£ 67,696.49
£ 9,072.26
£ 42.56
£ 47.00 £ 76,858.31| |---|---| **###** I have examined the books and vouchers of the Mersham Sports Club for the year to 28th February 2021 and confirm that the foregoing accounts are in accordance therewith. David C James 29 September 2021