Lockdown gave us another first last week with over 60 members joining us for our 132rd Timperley Hockey AGM on line and with folks tuning in from near and far ! The support and interest in how we run hockey at Timperley Sports Club was very much appreciated and it was really uplifting to have so many people engaged doubling are average attendance over recent years! Emma Bartlett and M3 Captain tuned in from a tent in Cornwall, Nick Burnett from his car (a relief to all when confirmed he was a passenger) and others from the full range of zoom settings!
We’ve summarised some of the questions asked and thank everyone online for the fine banter ….especially about Kieran Jeffery’s new headband look and questions.

If you missed out you can still access the AGM Pack (log into Pitchero or see you emails or if you didn’t get it we can send you a copy), The Review of the 2019-20 Season and the annual Video is also now available too !

Huge thank you to our outgoing committee for all their hard work to help make hockey happen for so many along with all out coaches and volunteers, captains, parent managers, academy coaches, umpires and all the other unsung heroes.

Our new Committee for the 2020-21 was elected and our Club Captains and Academy Co-ordinator will be finalising the team captains, parents’ managers / coaches for academy over the coming weeks.
Chair: Shelagh Everett
Vice Chair (THC Activity): Kieran Jeffery (includes fixtures, match days etc)
Vice Chair (TSC Activity): Haroon Bangee (new post, Hockey Nominee to be a Director of Timperley Sports Club Ltd. Shelagh is also a Board member but in one of the TSC elected posts)
Secretary: Rob Judd
Treasurer: Malcolm Tucker
Fundraising and Sponsorship Co-ordinator: Jackie Lord
Academy Co-ordinator: Anna Mawby
Men’s Club Captain: Colin Taylor
Women’s Club Captains: Jo Robinson

Thank you to the committee in advance and our other non-committee role holders:

Umpire Co-ordinator: Will Reynolds
SilverFX Player Order Kit Liaison: Sarah Williams

We still have vacancies and will be sharing these next week with more details and hope that folks may step forward to assist making the 2020-21 a success.

The Financial Report for the 2019-20 was accepted and looking forward the challenges for 2020-21 outlined including the loss of c£15k fundraising from Tournaments, Summer League and the Dinner during lock down and the challenges of not knowing when or how the 2020-21 season will work. There were good exchanges on match Fees and we confirmed that we were looking at the practicalities of moving the option for online / app / contactless payments for Match Fees to help us address Covid restrictions on cash and growth in use of cashless payments. Its not as easy as just having card readers as we need to ideally link to that makes the admin easy for our 12-15 senior captains and 12 -15 parent managers and can be linked to squad selection / payments due etc. On an average Weekend we have around 250 players who need to play match fees so reconciling payments v whose played will be part of the option we progress.

There were also a range of views on Match Fees and do we increase of not linked to the impact of lockdown on our 2020-21 income and potential impact on other fundraising and sponsorship. The options will be reviewed v the budget when we hopefully know more over the next week or so.

#OneClub: Its now five years since we merged the Three committees that used to run hockey at Timperley – mens, womens and academy. Shelagh reminded everyone the ethos we have created is based #oneclub – embraces all ages, genders, teams and abilities and maintaining the balance across all elements of the whole hockey section was a driving factor for the committee.

There were a couple of questions about the composition of the committee and merger. The committee comprises a number of #oneclub roles that cover all teams / ages /genders covering the Academy, Seniors and Masters. The different cohorts of players / teams are represented by:

- Club Captains – one for women and ne for men – responsible for all aspects of the ‘playing’ side of things, selection, feeding in ideas, feedback etc and acting as the conduit between the committee and players on many matters. So if teams / players have concerns, feedback it should go via their team captain and or via the Club Captain
- Academy Co-ordinator – is the equivalent role with oversight and responsivity for the academy including channelling feedback in / out etc and from parents

When we merged we did a major project to create a BluePrint (attached) to set out our aims and principles. One thing we build in was that we would try to always manage that if the chair was one gender the vice chair would be the other. Our First Chair was Mark Andrews and Shelagh Everett was Vice, now the Chair is Shelagh and Vice Chair Kieran Jeffery. These roles are not to formally be the ‘voice’ of the mens and women players (this is done by the Club Captains) but add balance to how we do things.

This season we have added a new role – Vice Chair (TSC). The way the TSC Board appointments work is that each section can nominate a person on the committee to be a Director of TSC Ltd. There is a hockey vacancy as Shelagh is already a Director and Society Secretary and is one of the Directors elected by the whole TSC Ltd membership. The new role helps share the workload for hockey on the TSC Ltd side of things. It is not do with gender balance but the practicalities of how hockey are involved in the running of the overall club TSC Ltd. Directors also have to meet specific criteria. We believe the split across the two Vice Chairs will be provide focus and manageable workloads for our volunteers with one vice chair focused on internal hockey stuff and the other on our important role within the running of the wider club.

There was also a question about a review of the ‘gender merger’ it was clarified that it wan’t a gender merger as it included the academy. A copy if the blue print we based the merger is attached and we agreed we will do a review during the season to identify whats gone well, could be improved or new area. It was also noted that we also follow that EH guide on what makes a great club and EH are clear strategically how multi-sports clubs and merged / single hockey sections are advantageous to how clubs develop and survive in a rapidly changing world. We are also an asset owning club (ie have own pitches) which is also one of the key characteristics of what makes a great club.

The meeting closed with the video to remind us all about the positives from the 2019-20 season and an apt reminder that it’s the people and what we do together that helps make a great club, win lose or draw !

We have a challenging season ahead but also many opportunities – a brand new second pitch – and if we can take into the new ‘normal’ world some of the kindness and positivity lockdown has brought out in folks !

Onward to the new season and we await announcements from England Hockey over the next week about moving to Step 3 / 4 of Return to Play!

Thanks again for the support from everyone who was able to join us