Minutes for City of Plymouth AC Annual General Meeting 24th February 2024 at Manadon Sport Hub 7pm
Attendees – Committee
Paul Crutchley Chair,
Steve Blackford Vice Chair,
Paul Wearne Committee member,
Simon Anderson Committee member
Members – approximately 50 members attended from all ages – Panthers to Seniors
Paul welcomed everyone to meeting at 7:35pm and proceeded to conduct the formal business of the meeting.
4 motions were presented and approved unanimously
- Finance report – agreed and accepted (see attached)
- Tamzin Gribble voted in as Treasurer (to take over from Fiona Crutchley)
- All current Committee members, as identified on the attached organization chart were approved. There were no new nominations and current committee members were content to continue in their roles. Simon Anderson will be added to the organization.
- Trustees for the club were agreed as the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. (namely Paul Crutchley, Steve Blackford, Jeff Walsh and Tamzin Gribble)
On completion of the formal business Paul continued to present the Chair message with a specific detailed update on the proposed Brickfields development (see attached)
Paul brought the AGM to close at 8:15pm and the buffet was opened.
Presentations and awards ceremony commenced after light refreshments at 8:40pm.
Presentations were completed at 9:25pm and the event closed.
COPAC AGM and Presentation Evening – Chair script
Good evening and welcome to the COPAC AGM and presentation evening for 2023 at Manadon Sports Hub, for the third year. Ultimately we are here to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our athletes, helpers and volunteers.
This year has been a year of change. After nearly 41 years in the dockyard I have taken early retirement, we have a new treasurer in the making, a new minors lead, there is no more free kit, ACT have taken over management of the Brickfields site; Jane qualified as an athletic coach and has taken the lead with the Panthers and I’ve finally discovered where the water leak is after nearly 2 years of looking. On the down side we competed in the SAL for the last time as we have pulled out of the league for 2024. I intend to cover more of these in detail later in my talk and will prompt taking questions at the end of each part so please bear with me.
At last year’s presentation I said that I was standing down from my COPAC duties – specifically minors lead and Chairman. Your committee convinced me otherwise so I’ve agreed to remain as Chair whilst the ACT planning and development progresses but did walk away from minors and thankfully Jai took on the minors lead with good support from a few new volunteers to support which can only be a positive for the kids.
This evening is also the clubs AGM so as we are quorate I want to ask for your help to ensure the clubs constitution is adhered and support the Argyle discussions by confirming you are content with the clubs procedures, policies and elected officers.
- Firstly on your desk is the finance report for 22/23. You’ll see we just about broke even, most significant cost >£24k is sports hall and track hire. Committee have agreed that membership fees will remain the same for now but as always if expenditure increases then we may have to review. Can I ask for a show of approval the accounts are ok – Against. I’d also like to get agreement that we are content for Tamzin to take on the treasurers’ role from Fi. All those in favour – Against
- Secondly – the club has a lease until 2027 with PCC for the land on which the old clubhouse stands. The original lease was signed in 1985 and there was a variation of deed in 1995. Both documents were signed by the club trustees namely the Chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer. I’d like your approval that the current personnel in these positions are effectively the current club trustees i.e. Tamzin/Fi, Jeff, Steve B. and I. All those in favour – Against
- Finally on your desk is a sheet that shows all the current committee members and their roles. Great to see some new young blood on here. Thank you to all of them for their continued support to the club. Please could I ask that you show your appreciation for their efforts. I’d like you to acknowledge that you are content that these personnel represent your interests within the club. All those in favour – Against
Thank you for your support with that. Does anyone have any questions? The boring bit over I now intend to add a bit of detail to the changes and developments that have occurred over the past 12 months.
I need to make you aware of some significant England Athletics (EA) policy changes coming in the next few years. Firstly EA will be requiring clubs to meet their club standards in order to gain affiliation from 2025. There are 7 standards to achieve and we are probably ok as we already have 6/7 currently and are working towards achieving the 7th. This may have an effect on many road running clubs but it is just something you may hear about.
Secondly EA are proposing changing age group categories from U11, U13, U15 etc. to U12, U14, U16 etc. from the start of the 2026 season. This will affect our younger members here and will be an administrive nightmare for the club as it’ll mean for example, all new club records etc. Please look out for a number of webinars that will be posted by EA for athletes, parents and coaches. Between now and implementation they are hoping to work out barrier heights, track distances and throws weights. Again you need to be aware of this significant change coming our way. Any questions?
Thank you from to all our paying members without whom the club would not be able to function. One of the major problems the club has is recording who attends training sessions and whether they are paying. It has always been an issue and one that we always struggle with. This year we have moved away from the Wildapricot system that worked really well during the pandemic and created a new web based membership system. Coaches want to coach and don’t want to take registers so we are very reliant on your honesty. Ideally an electronic system with a turnstile would be great. You all have electronic membership cards with a QR code on that can be accessed within your profile area of the website. We have considered a way of using this to record attendance at each session but again would be reliant on register takers to administer it which becomes very difficult. On a positive note the last time I did an audit of the minors about a month ago I can report 100% success rate. All 50+ were either monthly paying members or were on a free trial. So thank you. Any questions?
At the end of 2021 we conducted an athlete participation survey. There were some areas identified for improvement to do with communication. A couple of newsletters were sent out by Tamzin but this has fallen by the wayside now that she has taken on the treasurer’s role. I have kept the notice board (to the right as you enter the new clubhouse) up to date with new club records and competition dates etc., however very few use the room anymore! Devonport Sharks Junior rugby club no longer share it so we are sole users in the evening although pilates class on Monday for which we get a small financial income. Last week Max from Albion informed me that he had been made an offer to use the room from 9 – 5 and as such there is a possibility we will lose this facility. Max is currently in the negotiation phase so I wait for his update, but clearly this is not good and we may have to find alternative solutions for the trophy cabinet and kit storage. Any questions?
Very reluctantly we have pulled out of SAL for 2024. The distances we had to travel to away matches meant very few athletes were willing to commit to the league so the committee have decided to pull out and save the transport costs. We currently have 4 planned competitions at Brickfields in 2024, all on a Sunday. The Spring Warm Up on the 7th April; a Devon open on the late May Bank Holiday weekend 26th May; and as a compensation for the loss of the SAL to our senior athletes we are looking at putting on a couple of local senior only, U17 upwards, competitions on 09th June and 14th July. It is also worth noting the SWAL timetable at Exeter has now also been improved to cater for more completion at each event for this senior age group, although it’ll mean the day is longer. Any questions?
We would like to hold more local competitions but I think we need to recognise that all events are totally reliant on volunteers. It takes about 40 officials to make a track and field event work. The average age of our current timekeepers is about 75, one is in his 90’s and without new blood coming forward these events are simply not sustainable. So if you want more local competitions we need more volunteers. We got some really good feedback from parents and athletes for the event Jaime organised for the minors Dec 19th and we’d like to build on it. To that end I’d encourage anyone interested to sign up to the Officials course at Exeter Arena Saturday 23rd March. The club will reimburse you for the £30 it’ll cost you to book which includes a safeguarding course. There are Level 1 track, field, photofinish and timekeepers courses and I’m intending to support a starter’s workshop should anyone be interested. Please consider signing up and supporting. Details are on the website calendar 23rd March at Exeter. Any questions?
In September 23 Argyle Community Trust took on the management of the Brickfields site. ACT and PAFC are different entities. ACT are the community trust charity of PAFC.This is the first part of the overall planned Brickfields development which I hope you are all aware of. This has caused us some issues. The Brickfields sports hall is the first major construction element of the plan and PCC have approved this part of the development. The sports hall itself is having a 4m high mezzanine floor installed to accommodate a new community hub above which includes an enhanced gym, a kids play area and café. This has meant we have had to move our winter minors training to the City College sports hall. This has meant additional administrive controls for our coaches as it is a college not a recreational facility – specifically restricting access for all and safeguarding policies have meant a register is required at all sessions and must be presented to reception. Not all of our sportshall equipment was moved over as there was very limited storage space available. Despite assurances that all equipment would be transported each week the coaches have made best endeavours with what was stored over there and I believe this has had a detrimental effect on the sportshall training usually conducted to support the sportshall league. Competitor numbers have been low this year specifically the older U13 and U15 age groups, as a result Erme Vally Harriers will win this year’s title.
All clubs in the league have had reduced numbers this year and this morning I attended the DCAA AGM at Exeter and the sports hall league was discussed. It was suggested the format may need to change and a meeting will be arranged for further discussion with all interested parties. We will of course brief you on the outcome as and when this happens.
On your table is a copy of the master plan for the site which was included in the planning application submitted for approval on 1st December 2023, it has been up-issued last week but is essentially the same for the purposes of this brief. Currently planning has not been approved and there are a number of issues the developers need to resolve.
From a COPAC stand we have a lease from PCC until 2027 on a piece of fenced land where the old club house is. We have been asked if we are prepared to surrender the lease early to support the development. In principle the committee have said yes provided we get the same functionality on site as we currently have. PCC are paying for our solicitors, GA, to ensure that we are legally covered and we have been getting excellent support from them.
With our solicitors I have been developing a Service Level Agreement document that was presented to ACT at the end of November 23 at v8. This document asks for 3 key deliverables before we would be prepared to sign up to surrendering the lease early.
- Firstly the DHaN food bank needs to be re-homed to their total satisfaction. For those that don’t know Jeff is now part of their committee and I have regular communication with them. The current proposal puts them in the modified toilet block that will be converted into a café and potentially our new club house. There are many issues with this proposal and the developers have this week re-presented some ideas on how it may look and work. Like all good projects they started the conversation with ‘this is an idea we don’t have funding for it yet’! So we think there is quite a bit of work still to do on this. Any questions?
- Secondly the containers that are currently on our site and their functionality needs to be maintained. The current proposal is that the containers will be repositioned along the fence line that runs behind the stadium stand. Our containers although functional are old and could not be repositioned. We are waiting for feedback from the developers on how this can be resolved and this week they are proposing putting regular weekly meeting with me to progress the clubs concerns. Questions?
- Thirdly as you can see from the sketch the proposal is planning to put a football pitch back on the infield of the track. After many years of us fighting to get a pitch removed from the infield this is significant concern for us and will have a significant impact on our throwers if the management of the infield is not fully understood. It must be ACT responsibility to ensure the infield is fit for football to be played on it; we can’t be responsible for management of divots etc. Therefore the management of the infield needs to be fully understood.
Last week ACT presented a different document for us to review which changes the goalposts in my opinion. This proposal has ACT managing the track and PAFC managing the infield. I am not happy with this at all and only wish the club to deal with a single point for all our maintenance and management issues. My latest strongly worded comments have been sent back via our solicitors. It is extremely disappointing that after 9 months or more ACT/PAFC are doing this. Questions?
If you look in detail at the plan you will see,
- Rugby training pitch to the north will be transformed to an artificial pitch supporting both rugby and football training
- Current 3G hockey pitch turned through 90 degrees to allow for another artificial football pitch and a 2 storey academy building opposite track – that’s why they want our land.
- There is a covered 3G area behind the toilet block – I’m told the only one south of Bristol in the SW, although we asked for an indoor track it isn’t big enough.
- 2 new grass pitches on the Kings Road one with a 500 seater stadia.
- Car park – reduced spaces (119) more electric charging points. Plan to use Stonehouse creek as additional car park.
- Play zone by start of 100m. This is as a result of local Devonport community group comments of ‘fine for football what about other sports’. It will support netball, hockey and football and will be surrounded by a 4½ m high fence. Access was originally via the Cumberland Centre car park but one of the updates to the plans is now showing a permanent pedestrian footpath with a 1.2 or 1.8m high fence running behind the stadium stand with access gates along the walkway to access the track and containers. It will change the dynamic of competitions especially the start of 100m and 110m races
- The containers have been repositioned along the fence line. This could include our gym and weights room which would enhance the coaches ability for rehabilitation and training of athletes but as I stated earlier this will require ACT to agree to refurbish the existing huts and provide new. Again this is intimated on their latest updated plans, all of which you can see if you visit the PCC planning application website.
- Toilet block – club house food bank and changing rooms. One of Plymouth Albions biggest concerns is the loss of changing room facilities to support this element of the proposal. Many football and hockey pitches and only 2 changing rooms! Questions?
Although in general the committee support the £21M development we believe there is a long way still to go before we will be content to surrender the lease on our land early. There are plenty of rumours going around that development funding is still to be secured and that the apron strings are very tight.
The current planning application has had a number of responses from other sports governing bodies that have been brought together by Sport England. Sport England currently does not support the application and require more work to be done. The Cumberland Centre also currently do not support and have significant parking issues to be answered.
I’ve covered a lot of information there. Looking back and to be honest I’ve been very surprised at how much of my time has been spent supporting the clubs interests and in some ways it’s just as well I retired I think, my leave card wasn’t that big! Over to you – are there any questions on the Argyle development?
Thank you for bearing with me I am happy to take questions afterwards if anyone has any?
So to the real reason we are here. Jaime has organised tonight with support from Kelley and XC parents and SB. It is a bit different this year as the trophies have not been engraved yet but we’ll announce winners and then pass trophies over to the winners when they are complete. Tonight we still have English Schools, Power of 10 and club record trophies to award. Please can I ask you to thank the organising team in the usual way Thank you.
Without our volunteer committee members, coaches, officials and helpers our athletes would not have the great platform they have to achieve the best of their potential. It is imperative that we continue to recruit and train new coaches. 2 of our current coaches are in their 70’s, Others are in their mid 50’s and early 60’s. Most of these volunteers have more than one role so as always a plea that if you are interested in supporting us please come forward and let us know. Please join me in a round of applause to all those that carry out their fantastic roles.
So to our athletes: Another year of some amazing achievements. Soon we will be celebrating the 10 T&F and 10 sportshall club records broken since last presentation evening, the 10 athletes who have finished in the top 10 of the Power of 10 and those that reached the English Schools finals. It was great to see club athletes at last weekends’ UK indoor champs in Birmingham, Henry Curtis, Dave King, Poppy Tank and Ethan Glyde (Toby Clayden). We have a National Champion in Poppy Tank 3000m Steeplechase, David King has qualified for the World Indoor champs in Glasgow and is, I believe, attempting to qualify for the Olympics again whilst Ethan Glyde cleared 2.15m at high jump last year.
SWAL Armada team finished 3rd overall with the U20/senior men winners in their age category and our youngsters won the Devon sporthall league. Big thank you to all athletes and officials that supported Steve/Jeff/Tamzin/Steve Burns/Steve Blackford.
Probably rabbited on too long, thank you for your patience and enjoy the rest of the night.
Food.