TANDRIDGE YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUE

 MINUTES OF THE LEAGUES CLUBS MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, 12^th OCTOBER 2009 AT H.S.B.C. SPORTS CLUB, LENNARD ROAD, BECKENHAM, KENT

Meeting commenced at 8.37pm.

Apologies received from: Mike Gobel, Chipstead Youth and South East Elite.

1)       Chairmen’s Report                                                                          Alan MacIllvaney

a) Minutes League Committee Meeting of the 7^th September 2009 where accepted proposed by Old Coulsdon Colts FC and seconded by Wandle Wanderers FC, and accepted by the meeting there were no matters arising.

b) Alan MacIllvaney read out a statement prepared by Mike Gobel who is currently not to well and offers his apologies if anyone has been inconvenienced by late action or response on his behalf.  For the time being could you all please direct your enquiries through other officers of the League.

c) Alan extends his best wishes to Mike who has also to deal with the resent bereavement of his mother.

d) Three new teams not present at the September Meeting are recommended to the Meeting all are present. Axten FC, Tooting and Mitcham Stripes FC and Edenbridge Spitfires FC, Alan MacIllvaney asked that these are voted in on block if there are no objections, all three Clubs voted in with no objections, Alan welcomed the Clubs to the League.

2)    League President’s Report                                                            Alan Clarke

a) Alan Clarke mentioned the new Vunerable Peoples Act which will be explained in more detail later in the meeting,

b) Alan confirmed that he was running a Safeguarding Children’s (SGC) Workshop on Thursday 22.10.2009 and that there are still 8 vacancies. On Thursday 29^th October 2009 there is a Club Welfare Officers (CWO) Workshop where there are 6 vacancies the meeting was reminded that this Workshop was only for current CWO’s and that your are required to have attended a SGC’s Workshop and have an accepted CRB, both Workshops are FOC a £20 charge will be levied for non attendance.

3)    Treasurer’s & Fine Administrators Report                                    Steve Davis

                                                                                          Steve Davis said that we are know four weeks into the season and there has been a fair amount of settling down, Steve is about to Audit the records to ensure that all Clubs have paid the correct affiliation fees, within Mini Soccer there are also Clubs that will be waiting for a refund on the Mini Soccer teams deposits.

Sadly three Clubs will be served with suspension notices for non payment of League charges or Club Bonds: Beckenham Athletic FC & LSportsC FC owing subscriptions and Battersea & Wandsworth FC owe Club bond.

Could the representative from Edenbridge Spitfires please see Steve after this meeting.

4)    Secretary’s Report                                                                         Derek Harris

There has been a great number of teams withdrawing from the League this has resulted in the decimation of some divisions the result of which will require the restructuring of some divisions particularary the under 9s, the under 18s have ended up with one division of 15 teams.

There are a good number of teams that have not started their League programs yet, a decision on these teams tenure in the League will be made soon.

DSA Barriers Derek again apologies for the fact that the company responsible for supplying the DSA.s have again failed to make delivery we will now set up a meeting point when the DSA’s can be delivered and it is convenient for Clubs to collect.

Can all Clubs please ensure that where they have multiple teams in an age group that they are correctly identified with either an ABC Suffix or by adding Lions, Tigers etc after the Club name, also please ensure that this is the team name used when entering County Cup Competitions. There has been difficult this season in identifying teams in County Cup competitions.

Clubs may have received an E mail recently from Grass Roots Lottery this is not recommended by the League Committee, unfortunately we have no way of stopping companies from sending out E mail circulars so please be careful some of these E mails may well be scam.

Could all Club Secretaries please advise their under 7 and 8 managers that they should only be recording the match scores as 0 – 0, and must not put actual scores in it is against FA Rules.

We have know filled all the Fixture Secretary’s position with Michael Kiel joining the committee at under 12’s, Paul carter is now the under 13 &14 Fixture Secretary and Derek Harris is under 15.

Further to the earlier announcement regarding Mike Gobel could Club Secretary’s please ensure that Tan 5’s and all other League forms are now forwarded to Derek Harris until further notice.

5)    Registrations                                                                                  John Plummer

We are currently in a difficult situation with many teams not receiving registration cards, it would help if Clubs could hand deliver any further registrations but please do not ring doorbell just post them through letter box. Make sure you use the messaging system to keep in touch with your Registration secretary if you are waiting for cards or have queries, please do not leave it to Sunday morning to ask for registration numbers.

To clarify the Leagues interpretation of a signature, it should either be the player’s first name and surname or the player’s initials and surname.

Because of the postal strike there will most certainly be players without registration cards, however all players should have at least a registration number.

6)    Fixtures                                                                                          John Daziel

John Dalziel thanked every one for their co-operation and patience whilst the fixture department was getting to grips with new system and recruitment.

John Dalziel welcomed Michael Kiel to the Fixtures team and thanked Paul Carter for taking on another division.

Fixture breaks should be applied for on a Tan 9 form at least 21 days prior to the fixture and are only allowed for school and Club trips.

7)    Referee Secretary Report                                                                Alan Donovan

Alan Donovan thanked all Clubs for there co-operation in forwarding K.O. times and venues early which assists him in appointing referees.

Alan advised the meeting that as from this week he would be fining teams that fail to comply with notifying K.O. times and venues.

Alan also asks that you remind your managers/coaches to telephone referee’s to confirm match details.

If you are entitled to a League appointed referee but are not allocated a referee please contact Alan Donovan by E mail.

Referees may be appointed to younger age groups where available please contact Alan Donovan by E mail

Please ask your team managers to be honest and fair when marking referees please do not give a low mark because the referee awarded a penalty against your team or he made one mistake, for all marks under 60 you must complete a Tan 8 form.

Please also do not take the easy option of marking the referee with 61 points if you have concerns send in a Tan 8 so that the League can review the issues.

Please ensure that all match officials and supporters respect the referee.

Dave Letley addressed the meeting with regards to Tan 8’s which he is receiving in quantity, Dave Letley advised the meeting that it is the Clubs responsibility to ensure that where qualified referees are not available that a competent person is put in charge of games who at least has a good understanding of the rules and is reasonably fit. If you do not have a qualified referee please ensure that you offer the game to the opposition.

Alan Donovan adds that Clubs/managers should always enquire when fixture is confirmed if the appointed referee is qualified.

8)    Match Card Secretary’s Report                                                       Steve Davis

                                                                                         Steve Davis on behalf of Rose Davis informed the meeting that especially in the under 11 divisions all players are signing the Match card this may be because the team do not have their registration cards, but if this is not the case players only need to sign the Match card if they are not ion possession of a valid ID card or are asked to do so by the opposition manager to confirm validity.

       Sue Gill reported that there are a number of U7 and U8 fixtures shown on the Website, where she has not received a yellow match card. This suggests that the games did not take place, Sue would like these teams or Clubs to contact her and advise whether the team has withdrawn from the League or whether they still intent to start playing the friendly games in the near future. If fixtures are still appearing on the Website for a team that you have withdrawn please advise Sue Gill or Derek Harris

9)    Discipline Secretary’s Report                                                                    Derek Harris                

Derek Harris informed the meeting that we had two matches abandoned for adult behavior in the first two weeks of the season which is totally unacceptable, and went on to say that children should not have to be subjected to foul, abusive language and violent behavior and that it was up to everyone involved in youth football to ensure that we eradicate the game of these unsavory people.

Derek Harris informed the meeting that the League was doing all it can to assist in improving the standard of discipline within the League and that two Clubs where not accepted into the League this year due to  unacceptable administration and indiscipline within these Clubs, the two Clubs  where Palace Guard FC and Vale Youth Formally Raynes Park Youth FC (both Clubs interviewed last season regarding these issues) the latter actually appealed this decision to The FA who in turn placed the case with an independent arbitration company the League won the case, Vale Youth attempted to claim £10.000 in costs from the League thankfully this was also denied.

Alan Clarke addressed the meeting and explained the process that the League had to go through to protect its membership, also thanking Ray Ward the Secretary of the Surrey County FA for his help and that of Tony Sharpels of the London FA.

Tony Sharpelsand Alan Clarke took this up with the FA and attended a meeting which included the two gentleman who made the decision to put the League to arbitration, the outcome of this meeting was that the FA appointed arbitrator for this meeting  apologised for the way in which the FA had dealt with the issues.

10)   Interleague                                                                                                Derek Harris

       No further information                                                        

11)   League Welfare Officers Report                                                      Elise Payne

As well as the TYFL Workshops for Safeguarding Children and Club Welfare Officers, there has been quite a number of County FA workshops please remember that these do not have the TYFL funding.

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12)   Web Site                                                                                        Elise Payne

The Sunday before last (4^th October) the amount of hits on the website had caused it to run very slow so much that the Fixture Secretary’s could not complete the fixtures update. The Web site designers have sent this report relating to this issue.

Following the slow response from the OKS Website during the peak time of 6pm to 10pm on Sunday 4^th October 2009, we have spent the last week working on making changes to speed up the Website. These changes where implemented gradually throughout the week, with the largest changes saved until 7.30pm yesterday evening Sunday (11^th October). Whilst we found the Website changes made throughout the week had made a significant difference, we saw the largest change after the 7.30pm update, at which time Website performance for users that were not logged in seemed to be absolutely lightening fast, whilst performance for users that are logged in (who have to run on the encrypted server and have all the permissions checking every page they visit) still seemed very quick. We will continue to monitor the performance of the Website, but we feel the site is now faster than it has ever been.

This means that if you are just checking next week’s fixture or this week’s results it is better to do this without logging in. this will speed up the system for those that have to log in, in particular the Fixture Secretary’s, should you need to log in please try to avoid the busy time 6pm to 10pm.

The system has been updated to enable new users to verify that they accept the position before there details are released to the system. This is to ensure that others do not access the system by using another person’s E mail address.

I f your secretary steps down please ensure that you notify the League Secretary so these details can be changed on the circular address used by the League Committee.

County Cup result reporting did cause an issue which we are hoping will now be resolved, if you are having any problems please notify your fixtures secretary the result by E mail or through the messaging system, I would very much appreciate someone sending in a screen shot of the problem this would help in resolving the issue. Sue Gill the London County Football Association

Please ensure that you do not make any derogative remarks about referees on your Web sites

Sue Gill the LFA Welfare Officer explained the new government directive on Safe Guarding Vunrable Peoples Act 2006, which was bought in after the Baby P abuse issues, and explained who it would affect us within Youth Football, by 2.10 everyone who has constant contact with children will have to be CRB checked. It will be good practice if all Clubs start to CRB all new officers.

Everyone

13)   Roll Call

AC Paulista FC, Beckenham Athletic FC, Carshalton Athletic Juniors FC, Chipstead Youth FC, Coney Hall FC, Croydon Juniors FC, Elite FC, Epsom Eagles, Hamsey Rangers, Hampton & Richmond Borough FC, Mid Sussex Blues, Moonshot, QUWWA, Shirley Town FC, SE Elite FC, South Park FC, Spitfire Colts FC, Stanhope FC, Sutton United FC, Three Bridges FC & Warlingham Park FC.

14)   Any Other Business

       Would Tonbridge Angels please see Wilma Plummer after this meeting.

       Raffle winning tickets:  Blue 21, 26, 111, &141 White 421 & 491

·         Meeting closed at 9.58pm

Date of next meeting Monday 11^th January 2010