ROYAL CALEDONIAN CURLING CLUB

MORAY PROVINCE

MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE MEETING

 Held at the Newton Hotel, Nairn

On Sunday 19^th February 2017

 PRESENT

N Durno, M Pickthall, A Maltman, W Jaffrey, R Pottie, M Pottie, G Millar,

M McKenzie, S Howie, A Fraser, D Duff, E Milne, G Valentine, L Hardie,

G Macarthur.

1. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Mark Fraser, Moira Clark, Hamish Clark and Linda Thomson.

2. CORRESPONDENCE

There was no correspondence.

3. MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 21^ST FEBRUARY 2016

The Minutes were approved by Neil Durno and seconded by Alastair Maltman.

4. MATTERS ARISING

There were no matters arising.

5. FINANCIAL UPDATE

The Treasurer gave a brief breakdown of the current financial situation. The current balance stood at £4292 and he was confident that the Province was on target to end the financial year with a balance in the order of £3400 after all expenditures. The Development Group currently holds a balance of £5900. Appendix 5: Income and Expenditure Account to 31 March 2017

6. MATCH SECRETARIES’ COMPETITION PROGRESS REPORTS

Bill Jaffrey delivered his report for the East and in the absence of Moira Clark, the report for the West. Appendices 1 and 2.

7. AREA 10 REPORT

There was no Area 10 report.

8. MORAY PROVINCE CURLING DEVELOPMENT GROUP REPORT

Alastair Maltman read the Development Group report on behalf of the Convenor, Campbell Ross. Appendix 3.

9. PROVINCE WEBSITE UPDATE

Mike Pickthall read the Website report on behalf of Bill Nicol. Appendix 4.

10. NOMINATIONS FOR VICE PRESIDENT

Neil Durno announced that Stephen Rankin has agreed to stand for election as the next Vice-President.

11. UPDATE ON RE-LOCATION OF PROVINCE WINNERS’ BOARDS AT MLC

Neil stated that he had spoken to Angela Fraser, the ice rink manager, but had not made any progress with re-siting the boards which were at risk of damage from the atmospheric conditions in the ice rink. He undertook to continue to press the Leisure Centre for a satisfactory solution.

12. CANADIAN TOUR 2018

 A Canadian Tour Sub-Committee is to be set up, chaired by the President, whose task will be to co-ordinate arrangements with Area 10 and the RCCC. David Patterson, who has participated in a previous Canadian Tour, has offered to assist and sit on the committee. Provisional details for the tour have already been circulated to the Province.

13. PROVINCE EAST CLUBS’ CURLING STONE SPONSORSHIP

The curling stones at the Moray Leisure Centre are coming to the end of their useful life and will need to be replaced within the next two years at an estimated cost of £35000 pounds. It has been proposed that sponsorship should be sought to help fund their replacement. After a demonstration and meeting with the manufacturer at the MLC, it was decided that the Province should set up a sub-committee to explore the best way forward. Alan Campbell and Stephen Rankin have agreed to take on the task and report back to the Province once the committee is up and running.

14. PROVINCE INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION

The Secretary explained that there was an on-going problem with clubs not responding to information which was being distributed on the one hand and a dearth of information emanating from Area 10 on the other; the lack of an Area 10 Report being an example. The result is that involvement in Province business by the clubs is disappointingly poor. It is suspected that some club secretaries are not forwarding information on to their members. Mike Mckenzie suggested that the Junior Club members should be more involved. Alastair Maltman pointed out that attempting to get more involvement from the junior members was probably a non-starter; Sandra MacIver, in any case, did sterling work organising the juniors and keeping them informed. The Secretary undertook to write to all club secretaries to ask that they make every effort to keep their members informed about what was going on.

15. AOCB

Eddie Milne pointed out that it was very disappointing that the winner’s club had not been included on the engraving of the trophies last year. It was agreed that if this was the case, it was an oversight and would be rectified this year.

16. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next Committee Meeting will be held on Sunday the 22^nd of October 2017.

There being no further business, Neil thanked everybody for attending and the meeting closed at 7.40pm.

M A Pickthall

Province Secretary

APPENDIX 1
MATCH SECRETARY EAST REPORT

There have continued to be challenges for the match secretary during the season. Quite a number of Province matches have required to be rearranged due to a number of reasons.
These include an ice plant breakdown in December and the occasional overbooking of ice. This has also happened on a Tuesday, and so MLC ice booking arrangements have been seen to be less than perfect. Communication of game changes has sometimes not been picked up by skips in time.  Also, there has been some unhappiness amongst several skips over late changes and frustration for the match secretary. Hopefully things will run more smoothly next season.
However, the leagues are progressing to a conclusion and their competitive nature is underlined by the fact that thus far only Division 3 has been decided with Howard Anstruther promoted as winner. In Division 4 Molly Keen’s Juniors are all but champions.
Whilst Division 1 is headed by Alan Campbell, 2 by Gavin Nicol and 5 by Mike Mckenzie, none of these are guaranteed to be champions yet, with 2-3 games yet to be played.
In the Ladies Knockout, Louise Marshall is champion, winning a one sided final against Ann Munro.
In the open knockout , a freezing, gridlocked semi- final night in Inverness had to be cancelled, Ryan Mackenzie reaching the final with a replayed win over Kenny Oswald in Elgin, whilst Andy Cameron and Ally Fraser were due to replay in Inverness with the final rescheduled for February 28th.
The Province points is to be held on Tuesday 7th March, and the mixed pairs draw has been made and sent out for Tuesday 14th March.
Thanks again, to Bill Nicol for continued support and technical expertise and to Alastair Maltman for filling in with scores and press reports when I have been away.
Bill Jaffrey

APPENDIX 2
MATCH SECRETARY WEST REPORT

With only the final round of league fixtures remaining Neil MacArthurs rink from Dalcross, which has been skipped by Ally Fraser this season, are already the Division 1 Champions, for what I believe is the fourth time.  The relegation battle to see who will be joining Ross Fraser’s rink in Division 2 will be decided on the final night of play. 

Rob Craigie’s Cawdor team are the Division 2 Champions, having not dropped a point all season.  Their last game is against Fiona Steel and the Nairn Ladies rink will have to pull off a shock result in order to avoid joining Jamie Cattell in Division 3 next season. Either Dean Clark or Ian Thompson will be promoted to the top Division depending on the results in the last round, they are currently on the same number of points.

Seamus McArdle and his Nairn rink are the Division 3 Champions and will be promoted along with Michael Green’s team.

The Grant Cup between Moray and Grampian Provinces was played at Inverness Ice Centre last month.  Moray won 2 out of the 3 games and Kenny Oswald had the best score of the night so was the overall winner.

Ally Fraser from Ardclach will be skipping a team including fellow club members Ruaridh and Callum Greenwood in the Scottish Men’s Championships this week.  Blair Fraser from Dalcross will also be playing in this competition so hopefully they will all have a good week. Amy MacDonald and Eilidh Yeats are taking part in the Women’s Championships so best wishes to them also.

APPENDIX 3
MPCDG Report 19 Feb 17

The MPCDG continues to encourage new participants to the sport whether it be young, middle aged or elderly and we see opportunities for all to come and try curling in a manner suitable and adaptable to each individual.
We have encouraged a growing number of school children to the sport through the Curlings Cool programme run by Sandra McIver and her dedicated team. These are not only the possible potential Scottish Royal Academy players but the very life blood of our sport and it is seen at our own ice rink during Province games just how many youngsters are filling the sheets.
We have also been very successful with the Virtual Club which has grown from strength to strength and is also a feeder line into the Province Clubs. With the continued coaching from Sandy Howie, Gordon Fraser and Sandra McIver, these curlers will soon be putting pressure on other teams in the Province as they gain more experience.
I again however, feel disappointed that very few existing curlers within the Clubs have not felt the need to have free coaching by the MPCDG. I stated in my last report that any curler can contact us and when sufficient numbers are available, we will organise a coaching session.
We were successful in receiving funding from Awards for All in 2016 and equipment has been purchased to help coaching. You may also have seen the coaches on the ice with required RCCC coaching jackets which was also part of the funding.
My time as Convenor of MPCDG comes to an end in April this year and due to family commitments, will result in even less time for me to coach next season. However, one item that I will complete before my term ends will be a Try Curling stick event. This will be aimed at those within our community that have difficulty bending or sliding on the ice. Advertisement on the date will be issued soon.
As always, I record my grateful thanks to all those coaches and helpers the come along each week and it is wonderful to see their coaching skills give rise to 3 Scottish Slam teams entered in this year’s Calendar. They should also take immense pride to see Amy MacDonald, Elidth Yates, Marren Nicol and Molly Keen all playing in the under 21 Scottish finals.
MPCDG do not rest on their laurels and look to see more youngsters going that extra mile to represent Moray in major competitions in the future. The coaching offered on a Monday night through Andy, David, Cameron and Gordon plus the junior clubs own coaches will ensure our presence will be in the Slams for years to come.
Finally, I urge each and every one to seriously consider giving back something to curling which was given to you, time and experience. Giving some help to coach once a week or once a month will allow others to achieve their own goals.
Should you think you could help, please contact anyone in the Committee, you will be most welcome.
I wish the Moray Province all the best in the future.
Campbell Ross
Convener

APPENDIX 4
WEB MASTER’S REPORT

As web master I am pleased to report that the site its self has had no major malfunctions throughout the season.
I have as web master also being feeding Moray Province Facebook to a considerable extent purely as that is the fashion right now, for how long no one is sure so the history side of the Web Site is of great importance and I will keep it up to date as much as I can.

I appreciate very much the input I get from the East and West Match Secretaries Bill & Moira it’s a pleasure to do business with them both. These two are the only contact I have had from any curler in Moray Province as I cover the East Development Group (a subcommittee of the Moray Province) myself for the East but never hear any information that I could distribute for those involved in Coaching and Development in the West., in saying that it is probably down to Highland and Moray who are the Constituted body.

I would ask you put out an appeal from anyone who would run the Province website. They would be required to be versed in WORDPRESS or willing to learn.
End of Web report

Bill Nicol

APPENDIX 5

Moray Province, Royal Caledonian Curling Club
Income & Expenditure Account for year ended			31st March 2017		AS AT 17th FEBRUARY 2017
INCOME					EXPENDITURE
	Balance B/fwd		£3,330.36			Engraving & Certificates		£202.90
	Province Levy		£879.90			National Championship		£200.00
	Area 10 Levy		£113.60			Area 10 Levy		£113.60
	Province Entries		£1,062.50			Boards		–
	Sale of Badges		£36.00			Web Site Exp		–
	Bonspiel Income		–			AGM Exp		–
	Tour Income		–			Competition Ice		–
	Donation – Indoor Grand Match		–			Prizes		–
						Insurance Prem		£156.93
						Bonspiel Costs		–
						Pres Exp		–
						Sec Exp		–
						Tres Exp		–
						Badge Purchases		£456.00
						Tour Exp		–
						Misc.
								£1,129.43
						Balance C/fwd		£4,292.93
			£5,422.36					£5,422.36
Development Group
Income					Expenditure
	Balance B/fwd		£7,214.83
						AGM & Meeting Expenses		£135.60
	Curling’s Cool		–			Equipment Grant		£1,791.45
	Coaching Courses Grant		–			Equipment		£442.00
	Come & Try		–			Coaches Exp		£11.80
	RCCC Funding		£1,576.00			Curlings Cool		–
	Tactics Course		–			Coaching Courses		£380.00
*	Christmas Bonspiel		£319.00			Come & Try		£72.00
*	Net Weekly Coaching		£324.00		*	Christmas Bonspiel		£92.00
	Fleeces		–		*	Ice Costs		–
	Other Groups Coaching		–			Prizes		£18.20
	Donations		–			Sponsorship		£540.00
						School Travel		£49.00
								£3,532.05
						Balance C/fwd		£5,901.78
			£9,433.83					£9,433.83
	General A/c closing balance		£4,292.93		Represented by Current a/c			£10,313.81
					Add funds received but not yet banked			–
	Development A/c closing balance		£5,901.78		Less cheques issued but not yet presented			£119.10
			£10,194.71					£10,194.71
Alastair Maltman, Treasurer			/     /		Cheques issued but not yet presented
							414	£19.10
							10571	£50.00
							10572	£50.00
*	For both Ice and Christmas Bonspiel inc & exp is a mix of cash and cheques –
	Net figures are shown above, full information will be shown in the year end accounts.
								£119.10