FLORESTA PARQUE GOLF CLUB COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 1 February 2016 10.00am
Present: Rod Smith
David Haddon
Geoffrey Harnett
Ralph Griffin
Giles Fox
Michael Abbott
Linda Anthony
1. Apologies: David Walling
2. Company Matters
As this first meeting of the newly constituted committee following the AGM was called to concentrate on matters arising from the AGM, Company Matters were held over to the next meeting.
3. Approval of Minutes.
As there were no formal minutes from the last meeting held on 11th January a discussion took place regarding the actions captured. All items that form part of the agenda for this meeting will be covered at the relevant point. Open items not covered on the agenda are:
Honorary Member – Clarity of entitlements.
RS to speak with J Reid / G Harries ACTION – RS
4. Matters Arising
Qualifying competitions, particularly White tee or Medal – In adverse weather conditions Captain or Vice Captain to amend comp on day if appropriate.
ACTION – RS/MA
5. Treasurers Report
DH presented his report advising the committee that funds available at the date of the meeting are:
Comps & 2’s Account – Balance €15409.51 with an outstanding accrual of €5574.00 to cover the cost of issued vouchers not yet cashed, leaving a nett balance of €9835.51
FPGC Account – Balance €15198.69 with an outstanding bill of €5885.00 for Federation fees to be paid.
Charity Account – Now stands at €12.18
Membership 2016 – We currently have 116 full members for 2016
Bank Accounts – New banking arrangements have been put in place and signatories to the bank accounts are DH, GH, MA, GF & RS
Club budget deficit – Following the action placed on the committee by the AGM to address the potential deficit to club funds during 2016 a discussion was held as to the potential opportunities to address the shortfall.
It was agreed that there were sufficient alternative options to mean that both solutions discussed at the AGM – raising competition entry fees for members and/or asking members for a further membership fee now – would not be required in the short term. The committee agreed to inform the members of this decision as soon as possible.
A number of alternative solutions were discussed and will be fully investigated over the coming weeks, with a final recommendation being put forward at the next meeting on 1st March.
The committee felt it was important to retain the unique social atmosphere of our club and any solution must protect that as far as possible.
It was agreed as an interim step that Competition fees for non-members would be increased to €5.00 although non-members participating in the 2’s competitions would still pay the same €3.00 as paid by members.
ACTION – DH/RS
6. Roles and Responsibilities
DH tabled a list of the responsibilities he believed fell to him in his role as Treasurer.
There were a number of other responsibilities that fall into the general categories of Communication with Members, Social, Administrative, etc that it was agreed would be picked up by various Committee members to ensure that continuity was provided.
ACTION – ALL
Giles Fox to be responsible for communications. Immediate tasks to be undertaken, to generate a “blind” e-mail list for notices to members, to add any notices for members to the website and to contact Kelvin Whittaker to collect all previous posters in one place so they could be used if Kelvin was unable to produce them due to being away etc.
ACTION – GF
Social events, it was agreed these are best held Autumn or Spring time, Rod Smith and Ralph Griffin to be jointly responsible. Monies for such events will be collected on the night and the person who is organising the event is responsible for this.
ACTION – RS
Trophy boards, Ralph Griffin to liaise with Bob Hart about how they are updated.
Competition sheets, Rod Smith and Mike Abbott are responsible for these.
Charity Competitions, there are six of these a year, the entry fee is €10 of which €7 goes to charity. It was agreed that the format these should take would be competitions that do not involve ‘2’s’
ACTION – RS/RG
Minutes, Linda Anthony volunteered to take the minutes.
7. Handicaps
RG gave a brief update on the status of Handicaps, particularly following the annual review and the updating of the Federation system at the turn of the year.
All members must be responsible for ensuring that their correct handicap is recorded on the card especially in singles and pairs competitions and that they have checked that their card is correct as signing for an incorrect score can result in disqualification.
GH raised the possibility of members with handicaps over 28 playing off 36, as per a change in R&A rules. RG explained that this can be a local rule for clubs and that although the competition limit is 28 when the score is entered onto the computer the handicap is adjusted according to what it actually is.
8. Website Update
GF outlined some of his plans for the website, including a ‘Rule per Month’ section which our Professional, Ian Stallard, has agreed to supply. Also plans are afoot for a ‘Kids Morning’ at the range and a Fitness for Golf section which, it is hoped, will be provided by Ann De Jongh.
It would also be very helpful if those doing the cards at each of our competitions could email the results to Giles.
ACTION – GF
9. Events Planning
RS advised that he had spoken with David Spragg about he and Lorraine Bull putting together a Quiz Night in either Spring or Autumn as these were very popular with members and visitors alike. David has agreed to propose some dates.
RG has also agreed to propose some dates for a Bingo Night which are also popular, not least due to Ralph’s unique use of some of the more memorable number calls.
The next club event will be the Captain v Vice-Captain competition on the 22nd April, this needs to be publicised, also the Captain’s away trip to be publicised in February.
ACTION – RS/RG
10. Any Other Business
RS put forward a first draft of Competitions for the 2nd quarter and a discussion was held on formats that may prove popular. It was agreed to put at least one Greensome in the quarter and to introduce a Tri-Colour format whereby teams of 4 could play from 6 White, 6 Yellow and 6 Red tees of their choosing – 2 scores to count. Sounds both chaotic and fun.
Race to Budens – RS confirmed that he had presented the 2015 winner, John Brodie, with a bottle of Champagne and GF confirmed that the result for 2015 was on the website.
For 2016 RS has produced a spreadsheet which should semi-automate the production of the leader board each month. RS will operate it for the first couple of months before handing it to Barry Gordon who has kindly offered to administer the competition.
RS has put entry sheets up for both a Singles and Pairs knockout tournament for 2016, MA has confirmed that he will also continue the Knockout format in his year.
Competition (Honour’s) Boards – A discussion was held and it was agreed that, subject to finding suitable space to put them, a number of new Honour’s boards would be introduced for Race to Budens, Singles Knockout, Pairs Knockout etc along with the reintroduction of some previously ceased boards.
MA raised the subject of Cliq Cards, a system whereby the holder of a card (FPGC Member) would get preferential rates when playing other courses in Portugal, similar to the UK County Card scheme. This requires the owner of the course, GSA, to pay €1500 to the organising company – the business case being that GSA would get additional business from people coming to play at PDF under the scheme.
MA also put forward the suggestion that a number of local restaurants, who have formed a collaborative association, would like to sponsor a competition for Liberation day. MA will meet with Eduardo Martins of GSA to discuss and, hopefully, agree.
MA will also discuss the allocation of space for Honours boards and Cliq Cards with EM.
Trophies – We have many trophies on display in the Spikes Bar that are extremely dirty and unattractive. It was agreed to have them cleaned and brought back into use in our competitions.
Slow Play – It was felt that Slow Play was becoming a problem and that members were not following the R&A published etiquette of allowing following groups to play through if more than a full hole has been lost on the group in front. Members are reminded of the responsibility to follow this important principle.
PremierFX – RS and DW had been approached by this Foreign Exchange company to ask if they could attend and sponsor ‘nearest the pins’ etc on one of our golfing days. It was agreed to invite them to attend on the Captain v Vice Captain day
11. Next Meeting
Next meeting to be held on Tuesday 1st March at 10.00am ALL
