OOASC Full Committee meeting 24th May 2021 – Minutes

Minutes of the Full Committee Meeting held on Monday 24^th May 2021 at 7.30pm
in the Main Hall at Old Owen’s Sports Ground.

In attendance:  I.Breeze(IB), Richard Hattrell(Richard), A.Hunter(AH), T.Lane(TL), 
                         K.Rowswell(KR), V.Tanner(VT), A.Welsford(Anna), Lynn & Ed Clark (JLC)
                         (TL chaired the meeting with IB taking the minutes).

 1. Apologies:    Rob Hattrell, P.Kennedy(PK), P.Riley, D.Webb, A.Ward(AW)             

2. Bar and Catering (John/Ed/Lynn Clark)

• No actual trading figures produced (John to send out some figures). Weather pretty poor recently so Cricket matches have been cancelled, but when weather is good numerous customers have sat outside on the patio. JLC now using the “Square Space” booking app and are currently paying 50% rent to the Association.
• Forthcoming events – Mainly cricket at weekends and junior cricket sessions on Thursdays. Karessa fashion event is booked on Friday 11th June and a few functions are scheduled for July (1^st booking on 3^rd July 2021). Some private school leaving parties. Girls Fridays cricket festivals (JLC might need some extra staff for the functions, Anna will enquire at School).
• JLC are hopeful that the Euros (starts 11th June) will bring in more customers and are even more hopeful for June 21^st when all restrictions may be lifted!
• Ed Clark will be getting a DJ to play on some Saturdays. Thai food is available from Thursday to Friday and a website oldowensthai.co.uk exists for ordering & booking tables.

3. Matters arising from previous minutes 1st March 2021

• Patio has now been successfully extended and requires payment (£4,000) and a UPVC portable fencing has been fitted.

4. Finance (Richard Hattrell)

• The balance at the Bank is £70,902 (payments outstanding for patio, fencing, verti draining, catch netting and proposed pitch repair estimated at £6-8K). We received 2 grants due to the pandemic totalling £40,000 (No more grants are due). Rates relief kicks in 1^st July (0% except for the Bar).
• Richard confirmed that JLC to pay half the full rental in June followed by the full rental from July onwards,
• Alan Davison now removed as a signatory and replaced by Richard on the account.
• Richard will monitor the monetary situation in July with the aim of reimbursing Eamonn for the Pavilion windows project (£1,711). 

5. The Ground (TL/IB)

• TL is very pleased with the ground condition for Cricket although the weather has been wet.
• TL reported that the cull of Rabbits seem to be working. The 2^nd cull has been postponed for the moment. We also need to monitor mole activity.
• Football re-seeding and reparation work will be required (TL to speak to AW).
• AW needs to be made aware of timings for doing work when events are taking place at the Ground. 

6. OOASC Sports Clubs

 6.1 OOFC Football Section (Paul Kennedy)

• A messy season has now almost been completed (Only the Vets are still playing). PK to produce a report and send out to Committee members.
• The Football Club made a payment of £1,804 to the Association for players subscriptions (Thanks to the Football Club for payment in difficult circumstances this season).

6.2 OOCC Cricket Section (Tim Lane)

• The Saracens League matches for the 1^st XI, 2^nd XI and 3^rd XI started on the 8^th May but matches have been impacted due to the awful weather.
• Changing rooms and showers (max 6) can be used (Temperature of showers require checking – Too hot).
• Junior sessions take place on Thursdays (around 55 members) and 3 junior sides U9’s, U11’s and U13’s have played some matches.
• Need to review pitch hire pricing next year (currently £125 for 1^st pitch & £115 for 2^nd pitch).

6.3 Affiliated Clubs (Phil Riley)

• No report from Potters Bar United. 

7. OOASC Membership (Alan Hunter)

•  £4,307 (includes £1,804 from OOFC) has so far been collected for membership subscriptions as at 10th May 2021 (July 31^st 2021 is end of year).
• Approx 450 members in total (Anna is actively recruiting from PBUFC to increase immediate membership).
• TL to order via JLC, 100 plastic membership cards.
   

8. Old Owens Website (Alan Hunter)

• No problems with the website (AH is updating the website as and when necessary).
• AH provided statistics for the website as at 24/05/2021 as follows:
  Last 7 days there were 418 visitors with 1,483 visits
  Last 30 days there were 1,864 visitors with 6,646 visits
  Last 365 days there were 45,688 visitors with 232,404 visits.

 9. ZOO Club (Alan Hunter)

• At 24^th May 2021 there was a kitty of £595. Draw winners for May are as follows: £100 to RE and VM Cross and £50 to David Bent.
   

10.            Old Owenians Alumni/OOASC relationship (Anna Welsford)

• The plan to create Owen’s Members Club as a brand under OOASC Limited is well underway with Anna leading (with full backing from Hannah Nemko and Jackie Campbell)
• Legal approval / consent agreement from Solicitors now pending (School to update Anna when paperwork is ready – Will then be shared with OOASC). If the set up terms are agreed and consent order is signed by both parties, a separate ALUMNI FUND bank account can then be opened by OOASC (with two signatories assigned). Anna can then link this bank account to the back end of owenians.com, the brand new dedicated website / hub for Owen’s alumni and the wider Owen’s community, so payments can be taken for event tickets, donations, membership, etc, via Stripe or PayPal.
• Anna has been designing and populating owenians.com with original content for the last few months now, and it is almost there. The website is run by Toucantech at a cost of £7,000 a year.
• Anna is currently finalising the gallery and ‘interest hubs’ sections (e.g. with images from the archives) and also the news blog (with articles people have sent Anna and some written herself) which will replace the old style twice yearly newsletter. 
• The owenians.com shop, business directory and  members club sections will ‘go live’ once the site itself has been up for a few months (i.e. when numbers of active members have grown, and of course, we are able take online payments).
• Soft launch (for owenians.com with its initial features, i.e. News, networking, galleries, clubs and communications (via the attached database) is planned for w/c June 14th. Anna requested if a few Committee members can test the workings (i.e. TL/AH/IB/RH & VT).
• The shop will need to be virtually stocked before its launch (we currently only have the 400yrs history book to put into it, but Anna would like to add at least some tankards to the offering, i.e. once enough funds /sponsorship to purchase initial stock have been raised).
• Anna is currently looking for a main site sponsor (hoping to achieve £1,000 per year and is going out to breweries primarily in the hope, ‘one will bite’!)
• Launch event update (13th November 2021) all dinner tickets have been sold. One table allocated to OOASC and one to Derek Webb (still needs payment). Other sales revenue is sitting in the school’s account and  in a PayPal holding pool ready to be transferred out to the new fund account. Sponsors for remaining aspects of event being sought (e.g. Bar/ menus)
• Bar running needs to be discussed (offer to JLC Owen’s?)

  11. AOB

• Late news – 01/06/21 – Dishwasher in bar has broken down irreparably (cost around 2K).

 12.              Date of next meeting

• Meeting ended at 22.04 pm.
• Next meeting scheduled for July (TBC).

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