Date: Thursday 23 April 2009 Place: 23 West Drive

Present: Keith Warrington, Frank Sheldon, Keith Butler, Graham Jeffries, Rodney Hall
Apologies: Andrew Webster, Ian McKenzie, Phil Herd, David Ternent

1 Chairman

FS took the chair.

2 Minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2009

Approved

3 Tournament Secretary's report

The use of a compere at Finals Night was agreed to have been a success and well worth the price.
J said that the conditions had not been good for the players. The floor had been slippery and the overall visibility of the ball had also been less than desirable.
Elton Vale was thought to be a good prospective venue but the lighting was poor. RH agreed to approach the sports club to see if improvements could be made. The League might consider making a contribution to the cost if it could use the facilities for finals.
FS reported that Maccabi would not be a suitable venue though it had been suggested in the past.

4 Match Secretary's report

Only two matches had been awarded during the season, after discounting the two involving Our Lady's who had to resign from the League.
Between forty and fifty matches had been re-arranged. KW will propose a change to the rule governing postponements. This would pretty much restore the previous rule, with some differences. He will explain his reasoning at the AGM and it will be up to the Clubs to vote on it.

5 Secretary's report

KB commented on the ETTA proposals to bring in individual registration.

6 Treasurer's report

KB had requested estimated figures for 2008/9 but PH had not had time to prepare these. It was thought that the audit for 2007/8 had been completed.
In the absence of any figures it wasn't possible to put forward any changes to fees and subscriptions at the AGM. KB thought that the League should have been able to show a good surplus during the past season.
Depending on when the ETTA changed the fee structure it will be necessary to change the League fees but the timing wasn't known at present.

7 Ramsbottom Academy

KW reported on a successful first winter for the Academy. There were twenty eight registered juniors using four tables every Friday evening, in two one-hour sessions.
Three people were doing Level 1 coaching courses, funded by the academy.
The Academy was seeking alternative accommodation as there were too many evenings when the Civic Hall was unavailable. More space and better lighting were also desirable.
There was some discussion about the relationship between the Academy and the League, and the League's desire to encourage and support the work being done.

8 Sam Hilton bequest

The League had used the bequest to purchase table surrounds for Finals Night. KB proposed to have the surrounds printed with a suitable reference to Sam.

9 Rule changes

Re-arranged matches - see above.
Rubbers - KB explained how the current League rule restricting rubbers to those approved by the ITTF contravened ETTA rules. No-one was happy about how the ETTA had dealt with this subject but it was agreed to amend the rule again.

10 Inter-league report

GJ reported that only one round had been played so far. The remaining round had been arranged for a weekend after the end of the season for some reason.

11 AGM

RH agreed to act as Chairman at the AGM. GJ agreed to take the minutes as KB will be abroad at the time.
The proposed agenda was discussed and approved.
The Committee will propose Bob Goodman as President.
KB will talk to Ken Crimes to see if he will accept nomination as Chairman.
KW will ring round a number of players to ask if they would consider standing for election to the Committee.

12 Next meeting

AGM on 18 May, then 29 June to form the divisions for next season.