East Midlands Hockey Umpires Association
Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the 12th Annual General Meeting held at West Bridgford HC Clubhouse, Nottingham on
25th April 2006
The meeting was delayed as the President had unfortunately had to submit last minute apologies due to
unfortunate circumstances. The meeting opened at 7:42 pm with the President Elect in the chair.
Attending were 27 members with 34 apologies.
1.
Presidents Address (given by Tony Gerrard president Elect)
The President Elect welcomed members and congratulated David Kingston on his appointment to the 4
nations Boys U 16 tournament in Germany and Martin Twist achieving the indoor level 3 award.
He extended his thanks to J Hayes for his work as both President and Treasurer and stated how he would
be missed at this AGM.
Officers were thanked for their work during the season and the work Council did was commended to the
membership. David Hourd as EMHUA rep to the Men’s league committee had been co-opted on to
council to enable better communication. Indoor Hockey was being resurrected in Nottinghamshire next
season offering local opportunity for development in that area.
2.
Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from K Senior, C Bull, B Scott, D Wood, C Harrison, C Gough, C barker,
M Allen, B Forrester, R walker, J Barnes, M Bull, J Brocksopp, D Onn, M McLoughlin, J Archer, K
Leeman, D Grace, C Dennis, Ch Dennis, A Linsdell, S Lodge, A Willey, G Berman, R Entwisle,
S Armson, D Preite, P Danson, P Macleod, K Moughan J Straw, D Hourd, P Leigh, J Hayes
3.
Minutes of the 11th AGM Meeting
The minutes of the 11h AGM were circulated prior to the meeting to all members. These minutes,
with no amendments required, were proposed as a true record by Jerry Yates, seconded by K
Kilpatrick and approved by all present. The President elect then signed the minutes.
4.
Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
5.
Reports
a) Honorary Secretary Report (A Barnes)
On April 20th the Association had a total of 4 life members and 168 ‘paid up’ members, with 5 umpiring
at National Programme level (1 from the women’s game), 8 umpires on the Midlands Panels, which
includes 2 umpires from the women’s game and 19 umpires on the EMHUA neutral Panel. 4 umpires are
on the National programme Indoor panel.
The Association Executive met four times during the season and the grading committee twice. A change
in venue to West Bridgford Monarchs Club house was forced by a requirement for more space and I
thank this club for their welcome. We decided to run only two members meetings concentrating on club
umpire activities and requests. These were in September and February and were both well attended (40+).
As indicated interest was high we are planning an ‘out of season’ early summer members meeting, subject
to ongoing interest shown at this AGM. My thanks go to all involved in the presentation of those events.
There have been a high number of members (~30)
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EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
who did not renew this year but about 15 new members, mostly from the women’s game have joined.
Action will be taken to rectify the fall off; as only 2 resignations were received, I believe forgetfulness
has played a major part. We will improve our ‘reminder system’ next year. I don’t think those forgetful
ones were aware they were not carrying umpiring insurance!! I will also recommend we do not send any
automatic communications to any member who has not renewed by end of November 2006.
 There have been 2 issues of EMU news distributed to members in July and December. Jerry Yates
puts in a phenomenal effort to produce these and needs you, the members support to keep it of a high
quality. Jerry welcomes articles, points to ponder or any item of general hockey value to our
circulation. One day, his major contributor John Gawley will run out of stuff!!!!
 Like my predecessor I have continued to utilise email extensively to circulate newsletters, flyers and
general information and the AGM papers to members. With 4% more of the membership on E mail
this year and no rule books to post out in January communication issues become easier but the
volume of information from the revamped Regional office and EH HQ will keep increasing as
Hockey fights with other sports for pre-Olympic profile. I hope all members continue to be happy
with this method of communication. I have written to the 21% of our membership without email
proposing a ‘buddy’ scheme and hope to reduce to almost zero use of the post for everything but rule
books. The considerable savings in printing, copying, stationary & postage (and time) are passed on
to the membership by our low and unchanged membership fee.
 The MRHUA AGM is on the 9th May @ Old Silhillans Sports Club. ALL of our members of the
Midlands Panel should attend. Please make every effort to attend and support EMHUA.
 This is my first AGM as Secretary of this Association, I thank Jerry Yates for his support as after
6½.years in the post he was a hard act to follow and much information was embedded in a CD and of
course in his brain. I would also like to thank the Executive of the Association led by your outgoing
President (who has also fulfilled the superb role as your Treasurer) for their work on your behalf and
those members who have taken time out to point out errors, make constructive comments and reply to
my correspondence. With such a large membership there are inevitable ups and downs and I must
thank Josephine Barnes (umpiring wife) for her patience and support reading and back checking lists
originating from our membership Sec. David whose support in this important area cannot be
discounted.
Report proposed by A Lamb and seconded by A Roberts and approved by all present.
b) Honorary Treasurer Report
In the absence of the Treasurer Accounts for 2005/06 and the budget proposal for 2006/07 could not
be presented. John Litchfield summarised the report given to the March Council meeting where the
Treasurer had outlined proposals to the AGM:
Membership fee for 2006/07 to remain at £5.
Match Appointment fees to remain at the same level as last year for League, Friendly and
school and Youth appointments.
Mileage rate to increase to 18p per mile
All above proposed by John Hayes and seconded by J Litchfield, with all present in favour.
A copy of the 2005/06 accounts would be placed with the minutes after scrutinizers and
Council had approved them
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EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
c) Outdoor Appointments Secretary Report (B. Workman)
Once again we are at the end of another long and hard season, and the same old battle cry not
enough umpires to go around. Although we have had two new umpires this season in Simon Brown
and Neil Stevens, We have also lost Adrian Mansfield to Midlands. That leaves us with approx 15
umpires per week and we need 26 most weeks.
That’s enough of the moaning, I would like to thank all those umpires who have doubled up or
swapped games at the last moment to enable teams to have a game of hockey. I personally would
like to thank John Litchfield, Kevin Ronson and John Hayes who have helped me through this
difficult season, and anyone I have forgot Sorry.
And lastly may you all have a quiet and rest full summer and I will see you all again in September
fit and well.
Report was proposed by B Workman, seconded by R Kirk and approved by all present.
The President Elect proposed a vote of thanks.
d) Honorary Chief Coach Report (J. Litchfield)
Members Coaching Meetings
Tuesday 20 September 2005, West Bridgford - The Cooper Test was completed by a number of
members. We need all our neutral panel umpires to commit to keeping fit enough to look after the
games we are asked to umpire. No umpire is now eligible for recommendation for a Level 2
watching unless they have completed a Cooper Test. The meeting commenced with a report back
from the NPUA Conference. A DVD had been produced by Richard Ford (Chairman of NPIA
Selectors), Jason Lee (England Coach) and Nick Thompson (Senior National League player) called
“Towards Understanding and Consensus”. This attempted to give a greater consistency among
NUPA umpires and reflected interpretations from the Continent and in International matches.
These would be reviewed during the season and shared with the Regions when agreement had been
reached. Any Rule changes would be introduced on 1 January 2006. We had decided to include a
topic of interest to Level 1 Club umpires at each of our member’s meetings this season. The first of
these, “Obstruction Re-visited” was presented by John Litchfield. We discussed suitable topics for
future meetings. The meeting concluded with a short humorous DVD “The Gay Umpire”.
Tuesday 7 February 2006, West Bridgford – There were no significant rule changes this year. We
watched a DVD Presentation by Steve Brooks on “Body Language”. After a break, the second of
our presentations for Level 1 Club umpires was made by John Litchfield on “The Lifted Ball”.
Individual Coaching and Watching
We have 19 (21) neutral umpires on the East Midland list operating in the Men’s game. In addition
to these there are 9 (7) umpires on the Midland and National list. Of the total 28, 6 are over 60. This
year, 44 (31) “coaching watchings” have been done; some of which have been carried out from “the
other end” or by Coaches from outside our area. Our thanks to everyone who has helped with
coaching and advising others, in particular to Ken Stanyon and Dave Hourd who have sent in 21
reports.
Our thanks are also due to Andy Barnes, Bill Workman, Kevin Ronson, Chris Gough, Ann Bradley,
Alan Foster and Peter Leigh who have worked again with young umpires during the season.
Captains Report Cards.
295 (116) Captain’s Cards have been received this year. This increase is again due to Peter Bell
(BCHUA) who has chased Clubs to submit reports using the new electronic reporting system. A full
breakdown is shown overleaf.
Our thanks to those Clubs who have taken the trouble to send cards in regularly. The quality of the
comments has mainly been constructive and this is a help to our umpires.
The Club who sent in the most cards was Barton with 22. Runners up were Soar Valley with 19.
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EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
Development of Umpire Coaches.
Congratulations to Margaret McLoughlin (Leicestershire) who completed her Level 2 Assessment
in March. Two umpire coaches are still registered on the Level 1 Assessment process, Kevin Senior
& Charlie Harrison but sadly, neither has progressed to accreditation. John Litchfield completed his
Level 3 Coach Accreditation in October.
Grading Committee.
The Grading Committee has met twice this season on 6 Dec and 7 March under the Chairmanship
of our President John. Congratulations to Dave Kingston who has been promoted to the National
League (Level 3) onto the “A” Panel. During the season, Martin Twist & Adrian Mansfield have
progressed to Level 2 and are now Midlands umpires. Several umpires have retired or become
inactive since our last AGM. We are pleased to welcome Simon Brown and Neil Stevens who have
joined our neutral panel at grade “B”. End of Season reports will be sent shortly to individual
umpires. A full list of grades is attached to this report. We urgently need to find new umpires
during the summer to help Bill Workman who has done a wonderful job trying to cover as many
games as possible with the limited number of neutral umpires available.
Level One and PUA Courses.
Several have been run by Kevin Ronson and Chris Gough and Kevin will report on these.
Report proposed by J Litchfield and seconded by R Kirk and approved by all present.
Jerry Yates highlighted that John Litchfield had achieved the level 3 Umpire coach award during the
season. The President Elect added his vote of thanks and the meeting applauded.
The President Elect presented the captain of Barton HC, who was in attendance, with a litre of malt
whisky in recognition of the returning of most captains’ cards during the season.
e) Honorary Assistant Secretary Report (Level 1’s) (K. Ronson)
Faithful readers of my column will be expecting me to begin with the same sentence as previous
years about it being a good year in terms of candidates passing the theory examination. It would not
be true this year as far as I know. Only three courses were run under our auspices with 42 people
passing the theory paper and 9 turning it into the full Level 1. Our numbers were swelled slightly by
two members joining from other areas.
Other courses continue to be run in Leicestershire and Derbyshire but we rarely know of them
officially. One further course may run before the start of the new season. One course turned out to be
a farce not of our creation when it was advertised by the hosts as a hockey course for primary school
teachers resulting in teachers travelling from Leicester to Nottingham for the wrong kind of course.
Maybe I should have spotted it but my own personal difficulties have made it a difficult season for
me. The expense of running a course seems to have put off more than one club this year. At £75 plus
£22 per candidate it is expensive. Funding is available but rarely taken up.
On the positive side West Bridgford and Mike Drinkwater, remains the model for others to follow
with brilliant organisation and a system that rewards the progression to full Level 1. Thanks should
be recorded to them.
Now to be negative again. The “blue card system” worries me. I sent out a total of 175 cards over the
season. To date I have received 31 completed cards from our members and 5 from non-members. No
one seems able to tell me why we have the cards and members of EMHUA seem to send less and less
of them in. I received 101 in 2004 and 79 in 2005. I have no solution to offer. I would yet again like
to finish by thanking Alan Foster, John Hayes, John Litchfield, Andy Barnes, Peter Leigh and Mike
Drinkwater for their help.
Report proposed by K Ronson and seconded by B Workman and approved by all present.
The President Elect proposed a vote of thanks.
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EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
f) Youth Development Officers Report (A. Barnes)
The Association has supported the County youth games across all 3 of our counties.
Some of these umpires were selected to umpire at County Mini finals and the best of these umpires
to the Regional Mini finals in April.
Several PUA courses have been run by Margaret McLoughlin, Chris Gough and myself. I am aware
Beeston, Newark and Ashfield have run courses with 20 new PUA made in Nottinghamshire.
The County Youth games, which are normally held in July, will give us opportunity to get these
new PUA umpires into action and into our development system.
Last year I alluded to “the EHA plan,” well we have seen the fruition of that work and we have
formed a Regional Young Umpires Action Group (RYUAG) which will undertake a two to three
year plan to improve all aspects of young umpire identification, opportunity to umpire and progress
if desired. The Region will be given 5 automatic places on the National Young umpire challenge.
EMHUA are well represented on the steering group, and we will be communicating our plans and
activities to all clubs through the Regional office. This will not work without the clubs, schools,
County and regional school & youth committees pulling together, let’s hope we can make this work
and keep Midlands at the forefront of young umpire development.
I thank all the coaches and mentors who have worked with these umpires this season.
My congratulations go to ‘former’ young umpires Hannah Sanders (Leics.) and David Kingston
(Notts.) who have achieved Level 3 this year and Philip Webb (Notts.) who is now umpiring on the
BCHUA neutral panel. JDL welcomed a young umpire to our own neutral panel earlier, in
anticipation of more to come over the next 5 years.
Report proposed by A Barnes and seconded by A Roberts and approved by all present.
The President Elect proposed a vote of thanks.
6.
Members Meetings
Council had recommended continuation with 2 meetings per year
There were no objections raised. John Litchfield pointed out that these were indoor meetings and
enquired if in clement weather an outside event could be considered. The meeting agreed for John
and Council to decide a course of action, venue and content.
7.
EMHUA’s “Top Club”
Was awarded to Worksop Hockey Club. This is the result is the collation of the umpires Club
Report returns from both EMHUA and BCHUA umpires on East Midlands clubs where more than 8
returns are received. Representatives from Worksop were present and in recognition received a
framed certificate and a litre of malt whisky from the President Elect.
8.
President’s Trophy
Was awarded to Bill Workman for his excellent work in handling the league and friendly
appointments with our scant umpiring resources whilst under some personal pressure and injury.
9.
Special Awards
This year your Council has voted to make one special award for service to the Association to:
Peter Thorp
10. Panel Badge Awards
Were made during the season at members meetings to Simon Brown and Neil Stevens
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EMHUA Annual General Meeting Minutes (continued)
11. Election of Officers
President:
Immediate Past President:
Life Vice Presidents
Vice Presidents:
Tony Gerrard was duly elected
John Hayes
No new nominations
No new nominations
All current Vice Presidents were re-elected
Honorary Secretary:
Andrew Barnes was re-elected unopposed
Honorary Treasurer:
John Hayes was re-elected unopposed
Honorary Appointments Secretary (outdoors):
Bill Workman was re-elected unopposed
Honorary Appoints Secretary (Indoors):
Andy Higgins was to be co-opted if required
Honorary Chief Coach:
John Litchfield was re-elected unopposed
Honorary Assistant Secretary (Level 1’s):
Kevin Ronson was re-elected unopposed
Youth Development Officer
Andrew Barnes was elected unopposed
Honorary Assistant Secretary (Memberships):
David Kingston to continue in co-opted post
Honorary Assistant Secretary (Events):
No nominations received. This post to be
filled by Council after suitable approaches made.
[Meeting after-note Adrian Mansfield co-opted]
12. Election of Representatives
To MRHUA Executive for 2007/08:
Andrew Lamb was elected. (Anticipated to
take over the role from June 06)
To DHA:
Tony Gerrard was re-elected unopposed
To LRHA:
Vacant due to no nomination
To NHA:
Andy Roberts was re-elected unopposed
To MRHA Men’s League Committee for 2006/07: David Hourd was re-elected unopposed
13. Election to Council
All Officers were appointed as per the constitution. Plus Alan Foster and Ann Bradley were elected
as members. One Representative from DHA, LRHA and NHA will be invited to Council meetings.
14. Grading Committee
President, Chief Coach and Honorary Appointments Secretary Outdoors were appointed as per the
constitution. Plus David Hourd, Kevin Ronson and Ken Stanyon were elected as members.
15. Scrutinisers
Clive Dennis and Mike Drinkwater were re-appointed.
Richard Kirk and Mike Drinkwater made reference to the Constitutional requirements that the
accounts had to be scrutinised by both scrutinisers and signed by both. The incoming Council were
asked to facilitate this with the Treasurer.
The meeting closed at 8:55 pm with the President thanked everyone for their attendance with special
thanks to West Bridgford/Monarchs for hosting the meeting.
Next Meeting: The next Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 24th April 2007 @ West
Bridgford/Monarchs Club House @ 7.30 pm.
President
Hon Secretary
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