SUN-N-FUN LAWN BOWLING CLUB
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MARCH 18, 2011
. The Annual General Meeting was held on Thursday, March 18, 2011, in the Cypress Room with President, Martin Blakeborough bringing the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. with 57 members in attendance.
Reading of minutes of previous meeting was dispensed with and a motion to accept them was made by Jean Stuhlmueller. Pat Bonhomme made the second. Motion carried.
Information was shared regarding the new name tags which have been ordered. Martin has not heard from the company since placing the order. Tags will be passed out as soon as they arrive. He hopes to hear from them soon.
TREASURER'S REPORT----RON BONHOMME
See attached report. Moved to accept: Harvey Hyer. 2nd: Iris Sager. Carried.
SECRETARY'S REPORT----PAULA BOWERS
No report.
TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR/DRAW MASTER----FRANK STUHLMUELLER
REPORTING FOR WAYNE RIDDALL WHO WENT HOME EARLIER
As promised in 2009, we introduced a full committee to oversee the draw master's role for 2010-2011. This worked very well. The committee interacts together to handle all the various functions.
DAILY JITNEYS
With the co-operation of all members who signed up to handle this on a daily basis, we held jitneys most days, unless a full tournament or other function required the greens.
INTERCLUB MEETS
We held a very successful one day tournament challenge with Sarasota that should be continued. A meeting is being held to set dates. We tried to have interclub tournaments with Lakeland and Sun City which, for several reasons, did not work out, but can be considered for next year.
We held the usual well attended get together with MAPLE LEAF ESTATES.
I felt that allowing members, who made a significant contribution to our club functions, to select where they wanted to play went over well, and should be adopted for next year. A little more though has to go into the selection.
MONDAY COMPETITIVE LEAGUE
This was very well handled by Harvey Hyer. We had a few wrinkles that have now been ironed out and should continue in the same manner next year.
INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT
This also went very well this year with a couple of new suggestions and will be continued next year. A new chairman will be required as Harvey and Barbara have done this for the past few years in an exemplary manner with help of a capable committee, but feel they need a change.
JERRY'S FRIDAY LEAGUE
Jerry's Friday League went very well this year with few complaints of "no shows" etc. Also playing in the afternoon caused fewer problems. We have to look at the scheduling of games and opponents for next year as well as the play-off system. Jerry should be commended for a job well done.
WEEKLY IN- CLUB TOURNAMENTS
This year we held sufficient tournaments on a weekly basis with various methods to interest all of our members (i.e. Combo Fours, Australian Pairs, Valentines, St. Patrick's etc, etc.) These were all held and run by various members of the committee. Overall we held about 25 tournaments. We will continue this practice next year.
USLBA Tournaments
We held 3 tournaments for the USLBA. The regular Triples tournament and Australian Pairs went off very well with very few problems. The Ladies' Pairs Tournament had a lot of problems with entries. All of these tournaments should be looked at the next year. If the USLBA wants us to hold, they should take more interest in helping us do so. Whoever from this committee who acts as the USLBA representative should discuss this with them.
Overall, this committee made up of myself, Frank and Jean Stuhlmueller, Pat Bonhomme, Harvey Hyer and Janet Bunce worked very well together.
The strength of a committee is very well illustrated by the fact that the chairman went home early and the committee functioned without him. The member of the committee all had various individual duties but also jumped in to help whenever needed.
The success of this committee was entirely due to the willingness of these members to work together.
Harvey Hyer-as stated ran the Monday Competition League and International Day.
Janet Bunce was our USLBA representative and took entries for USLBA tournaments and attended their meetings.
Pat Bonhomme was our liaison with Donna McLeese on social functions as well as keeping us all in a good mood.
Jean Stuhlmueller was our secretary. She did all meeting minutes as well as all entry forms, signup sheets, information letters, etc. and kept the committee chairman on the straight and narrow.
Frank Stuhlmueller ran many of our tournaments but overall was a joint chairman who offered his usual astute recommendations.
Jean, Pat and Harvey have all indicated they will stay on the committee for next year. I will still act as the chairman, if elected, but do feel there are some areas that need to be refined.
The roles of the greenskeeper and the future draw master have to be discussed to cause less confusion in the inter-action. This could be handled by more significant discussions between them.
The whole USLBA role for our club has to be looked at by our executive and I would suggest a separate committee by struck to look at this.
I feel we should make a significant contribution to the work of the USLBA for our members who want to participate in more competitive competitions, but that shouldn't impact on others who just want to lawn bowl in our resort. We have enough spare time on our greens to do both and it is a great advertisement for the resort to hold outside functions.
Since the draw masters committee is responsible for drawing up a calendar of all functions on the greens, any suggested functions should be directed to them for approval and consideration.
Another area that should be looked at next year is the classification of our members into leads, vices, skips, etc. our handling of new bowlers. We recruit and do initial. training for a great number of new bowlers, but then we do little formalized follow-up.
Once they get their initial training, we need a "buddy" system to introduce them to the game, show the the "ropes", play their 1st and/or 2nd game, etc. Once that's happened, they are leads. In order to go beyond that we need a formalized program better our current one that is pretty"loose" as to how they qualify for vice and skip.
Due to severe cold weather this year, we did not use the greens at night. Next year, under better conditions, we will look at ways to use them as they are a great facility to have.
Our thanks for the excellent condition of our greens should be conveyed to Travis and his crew. Peter Bunce in his role maintained a great relationship with them and I hope our new greenskeeper continues this,
Stan Bowers should also be commended for the great job he did in maintaining the ditches and equipment on a daily basis.
I want to publicly thank all the members of the committee for a job well done and to thank all of the members of the club for their co-operation during the year.
Iris brought up the way the Club Championships were run. Frank replied that they were going to review the procedure before next year.
Motion to accept: Andre Girard. 2nd: Joyce Dewey. Carried.
PROPERTY DIRECTOR----PETER BUNCE
The green when I arrived in early October looked like a beautiful lush green carpet, bowling was slower than some would have liked, but this appears to be the way this grass is; the longer the season goes on the better it gets. This is mainly due to the efforts of Travis, Eric and his team who do a great job.
The green stood up well to the vast amount of bowling that has gone on during the season and still looks fantastic. Not using the big green mats appears to have had no adverse effects on the green at all.
The practice sessions have become very popular and we should look at making more time available when the green is not in use.
The Sun-N-Fun green is the envy of many and I had a lot of positive comments from some of the best and most experienced bowlers around who enjoyed bowling on our greens during our tournaments.
I would like to thank all those who have helped with the work carried out throughout the season, and to all those members who have taken on the task of opening up and setting up the greens. There are too many to mention, but we all know who they are.
I would however, like to thank Stan Bowers for all the hard work he puts in. He always seems to be doing something around the club and his efforts should be appreciated by us all.
On a personal note, I was asked if I could find some markers for the Southeast open at Sarasota in March and the response from Sun-N-Fun was outstanding.
So I would like to thank all those of you who gave up their time to mark the Ladies singles; your efforts were very much appreciated by the organizers at Sarasota and by the USLBA. Sun-N-Fun received a special mention for their efforts. Without people like you giving up your time, these tournaments would not happen.
Sun-N-Fun bowls club has come a long way in the last few years; I hope it continues to grow and move forward in the years to come.
Motion to accept: Barbara Hyer. 2nd: Bill Rankine. Carried.
SOCIAL/HOSPITALITY DIRECTOR----DONNA McLEESE
First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who welcomed me back for my second year as your social director. It was a very busy, sometimes stressful season but on the whole, a much more enjoyable one than the previous season. Things got much easier for me and I hope I didn't disappoint too many. I enjoyed being part of the executive and on the whole, even with three new faces this year on the board, I feel it was a very successful year. Things ran very smoothly this year from my point of view and I received lots of support again from the entire executive. Wayne and his tournament committee worked very well with me and there were very few problems. It was a very strong executive and I am sorry that some faces are leaving us when we only had one year all together. I will miss them and their support. From having a treasurer so diligent and willing to go the extra mile beyond his required duties and do things like sell tickets for me for every party to a property director who would be, many times. Over at the green late at night and in the middle of the night checking on sprinkler settings, cutting the grass an extra time for our tournaments, etc, to a president who was always accessible for me to call when I had a problem. I will miss Ron, Peter and Martin very much. All our USLBA events ran very well because of all this help as well and I think all entrants had enjoyable days here. I heard lots of praise from many, many bowlers who visited our club that things were run very well and they were treated well. Also, a special mention to Paula Bowers, who in her first year as secretary was amazing-not only with dealing with our messy reports etc, and typing us stuff for us, but being so on top of things, taking photos at every event and e-mailing them immediately to all the members, posting photos on bullet boards, getting new items in the Buzz etc, ---she was amazing.
Also, I would like to thank everyone who pitched in and helped me-from taking a turn on a Sunday to work in the kitchen all day at USLBA events, to helping organize the Christmas dinner to jumping in and helping serve drinks when needed at the clubhouse. It is very much appreciated and there are too many names to mention, but you all know who you are and again, I thank you. I'm told that the by-laws committee had decided that the social director should appoint a small committee next year to work together in order for things to run even smoother. I did not ask for this but will be happy for any extra help I get, so this sounds good to me-that is if I am still the social director next year.
I will give a very brief recap of what my job entailed this season-very brief as I already reported on most of this at the Information Meeting in January. The main events this year were: November 21, 2010---Australian Pairs USLBA tournament; December 12, 2010----Mixed Triples USLBA tournament; our Christmas Dinner; February 6, 2011---Ladies' Pairs USLBA tournament; February 13, 2011----our friendly Home and Away with Port Charlotte; February 23, 2011---the Sarasota Challenge. Still to come is the year end Awards Banquet.
Again, I would really like to thank my helpers as I had enough good help that I was able to bowl in almost all of those events myself, which was very nice. A special thanks to Pat Bonhomme and Jean Stuhlmueller for all their help, crossing over from Wayne's tournament committee to help me on the food side!!
I have to say a special thank you to Doug McLeese for all help and support as well, fro stocking the bar for me every week so well, serving a lot of drinks and helping out with tournament food preparations as well. I'm hoping he will agree to be on my mini-committee next year!!!
Back to the awards banquet, just a reminder that our dinner will be on Tuesday, March 22nd, in the Cypress Room. If you haven't bough your ticket yet, please see Ron today. Cocktails will be at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30. We have pre-dinner entertainment and Rick Flude will provide music for us during dinner and later more music for dancing.
In closing, thank you again to all who helped me and I look forward to many more bowling days with all of you.
Motion to accept: Iris Sager. 2nd: Joan Young. Carried.
VICE-PRESIDENT----LINDA STUBBS
I would like to first thank Doug McLeese who looked after all the training lessons for the 29 new bowlers. His main helper was Jim Olson but was also assisted by Harvey Hyer, Benn Cole, Don Andersen and Jack Quick. Doug has indicated that this is his last year for doing the training.
Vice and skip clinics were again offered by Ed Reynolds.
A very successful beginners Tournament was organized by Martin Blakeborough. This tournament helped new bowlers understand all positions of the game.
A special thank you to Barbara and Harvey Hyer for looking after all the sympathy and get well cards sent to various members of the club.
Finally, The Parade. . . . Once again we took 1st Place. Many thanks to Paul and Lucy Nathan who did the majority of the work on the float. Other members who loaned a hand were, Mick Fitzpatrick, Paul Surhoff, Elizabeth Lamond, Doug MCLeese and Linda Stubbs.
I would like to ask all members to think about next year's entry. The theme is a "Commercial". If you think of a good one, you can let the new Vice President know when you come back, or send an e-mail, so planning can start early. Let's make it a three-peat. . . Thank you, all for such a wonderful year.
Motion to accept: Harvey Hyer. 2nd: Chris Moore. Carried.
PAST-PRESIDENT----DON RICE
This may be the last Past-President report you hear since I have heard this position on the executive is being removed. I just want to say this has been a very successful year.
Motion to accept: Andre Girard. 2nd: Elizabeth Lamond. Carried.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT----MARTIN BLAKEBOROUGH
I wish to thank the executive for their support and dedication during the last year. We should all remember that these people five of their time that all of us can enjoy bowling. Do not hesitate to volunteer in some way, in so doing you lighten the load a little.
Thanks go out also to the two committees that are responsible for this year's elections and constitution and by-laws review. Elections committee was Len Mortson, Lois Ann Johnson and Fran Opiela. The constitution and by-laws committee was Len Young, Carol Jeffs and Patrick Heiser.
We have had a good year and I am sure that will continue with the new executive. Each of the executive will need members for their committees and I hope you will volunteer. This club is only as strong as the effort put in by the members.
Thank you.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT----Len Mortson, Lois Ann Johnson and Fran Opiela
For the Office of President, the Committee nominates Linda Stubbs. There being no further nominations from the floor for the office of President, nominations were declared closed and Linda Stubbs was acclaimed President for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Vice-President, the Committee nominates Harvey Hyer. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Vice-President, nominations were declared closed and Harvey Hyer was acclaimed Vice-President for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Secretary, the Committee nominates Paula Bowers. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Secretary, nominations were declared closed and Paula Bowers was acclaimed Secretary for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Treasurer, the Committee nominates Kathy Dolan. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Treasurer, nominations were declared closed and Kathy Dolan was acclaimed Treasurer for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Tournament Director, the Committee nominates Wayne Riddall. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Tournament Director, nominations were declared closed and Wayne Riddall was acclaimed Tournament Director for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Property Director, the Committee nominates Len Mortson. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Property Director, nominations were declared closed and Len Mortson was acclaimed Property Director for the 2011-2012 season.
For the Office of Hospitality/Social Director, the Committee nominates Donna McLeese. There being no further nominations from the floor for the Office of Hospitality/Social Director, nominations were declared closed and Donna McLeese was acclaimed Hospitality/Social Director for the 2011-2012 season.
BY-LAWS COMMITTEE REPORT----Len Young, Carol Jeffs, and Patrick Heiser
The committee proposed the follow changes to the by-laws.
A change that affects the whole constitution and by-laws document was to change all Roman numerals to regular numbers.
ARTICLE 3—GOVERNING BODY
(OLD) 1. The club shall be governed by the Management Committee comprised of eight officers as follows: President; Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Tournament Director, Hospitality/Social Director and Past President.
(NEW) 1. The club shall be governed by the Management Committee comprised of seven officers as follows: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Tournament Director and Hospitality/Social Director. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 3-5 (OLD)
All officers shall be elected to the Management Committee for (1) one year commencing on 1st of April. Officers may remain in office for multiple years if they are acclaimed or elected.
(NEW) 5. All officers shall be elected to the Management Committee for (1) year commencing on 1st of April. Officers may remain in office for multiple years should they be acclaimed or elected. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 3-6 (OLD)
A quorum of the Management Committee shall be four (4) voting members.
(NEW) 6. A quorum of the Management Committee shall be four (4) voting members plus the Chairman. In the event that a quorum is not present, the meeting will be rescheduled. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 3-7 (OLD)
The Management Committee shall hold monthly meetings.
(NEW) The Management Committee shall hold monthly meetings providing there is a quorum. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 4 (OLD)
CLUB YEAR - the fiscal year of the club shall commence on April 1st and end on March 30th of the following year.
(NEW) CLUB YEAR - the fiscal year of the club shall commence on April 1st and end on March 31st of the following year. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 6-A -7 (0LD)
THE PRESIDENT
Shall have primary contact with park management and ensure all pertinent information is provided to them in a timely manner. He/she shall provide all Part Management requests to the Management Committee and to the members.
(NEW) Shall have primary contact with park management and ensure all pertinent information is provided to them in a timely manner. He/she shall provide all Park Management requests to the Management Committee and to the members as required.
CARRIED.
THE VICE-PRESIDENT
ARTICLE 6 B 3 (NEW) by addition
Shall be responsible to appoint a committee of no less than three (3) persons to assist in these functions. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 6 B 3 (OLD) becomes the NEW number 4
ARTICLE 6 B 4
Shall be responsible to send Get Well and Sympathy cards signed by the members, as necessary. CARRIED.
NEW by addition:
ARTICLE 6 B 5
Shall be responsible for the Sun-N-Fun Lawn Bowling Website. CARRIED.
THE TREASURER
ARTICLE 6 C 9 (NEW) by addition
Shall be responsible for collecting tag fees and issuing tags. CARRIED.
THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR
ARTICLE 6 E 3 (OLD) deleting complete sentence
Shall develop a schedule of all tournaments and post it on the club notice board.
(NEW) by addition:
shall be responsible to appoint a committee of no less than four persons to assist in these functions. CARRIED.
THE PROPERTY DIRECTOR
ARTICLE 6 G 1 (OLD)
Shall be responsible for opening the clubhouse and making available equipment for jitneys and tournaments.
(NEW) by addition
Shall be responsible for opening the clubhouse and making available and maintaining equipment for jitneys and tournaments. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 6 G 4 (NEW)
Shall initiate discussion with Park Management in order to maintain green in good playing condition. CARRIED.
THE PAST-PRESIDENT
ARTICLE 6 H
BY DELETION ENTIRE PARAGRAPH CARRIED.
MEMBERSHIP
ARTICLE 7-2 (0LD)
Membership in USLBA shall be optional to those who wish to bowl in USLBA tournaments. Such fees to be given to the Treasurer.
(NEW) by addition
Member ship in USLBA shall be mandatory to those who wish to bowl in USLBA sanctioned tournaments. Such fees to be given to the Treasurer. CARRIED.
ARTICLE 9
VIOLATIONS OF RULES AND BY-LAWS
(OLD) change in the second sentence only
"Any continual violation of the rules or By-Laws of the Club, or continual behavior detrimental to the best interests of the Club, will be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including Club suspension. Behavior violations or complaints shall be in writing, signed and presented to the President. "
(NEW) by addition
"Any continual violation of the rules of By-Laws of the club, or continual behavior detrimental to the best interests of the Club, will be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including Club suspension. Behavior violations or complaints shall be in writing by the complainant, signed and presented to the President." CARRIED.
NEW BUSINESS
Ed Reynolds presented a proposal for movement of tag positions—from Lead to Vice, Vice to Skip. This proposal will be given to the Tournament Director/Draw Master for consideration.
The next meeting will be the Turnaround Meeting for new Management Committee members with the retiring members on Monday, March 21st at 11:00 a.m. in the Palmetto Room.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:35 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Paula Bowers, Secretary Martin Blakeborough, President