Paul spoke to a written report as follows. While Volleyball in Essex has undergone changes in the past season to try and arrest the decline of the sport being played recreationally within the County, I was very disappointed when I looked at the Essex Volleyball Associations Website to check out the final League placings.

The league tables showed that only 66% of all matches actually took place with the remainder of the fixtures either being defaulted or simply not being played.

The beginning of the season saw the introduction of a new league structure pitting teams with more equal ability together. While the new style league got off to a slow start and introduced additional pressure on team secretaries half way through the season, the concept of the league is good and I look forward to seeing its progress in the coming season with more completed matches.

At National League level the County is well represented with 4 teams currently participating and next season they are to joined by a fifth as the Brentwood Club continues to expand.

At Junior level Boswells and Tendring both have produced teams that can match any from all over the Country - and well done to all those involved with those teams. But it is with our own County Competitions that we must turn our attention and focus on commitment.

Your Coach takes on a commitment in preparing training sessions, your Club takes on a commitment to fulfil fixtures that they arrange and players must take on a commitment to support their team to fulfil these obligations.

If Volleyball is to survive and grow as a sport within the County, it is no good just relying on any impetus that the Olympics games might give to us. Clubs, Teams, Players, Coaches Officials etc must all understand that they take on responsibility and commitment when they enter an organised competition such as the Essex Volleyball League and it is that commitment that needs to be honoured if we are to show that Volleyball in Essex is well organised and ready for the future.

Chairman – Brendan Osborne

BO reported a year of more highs than lows. After a slow start the executive had been effective and he thanked all who attended their meetings. The competitions would be discussed later, but it was time to move forward and the problems over timing could be addressed. All 4 cup finals would take place later and he looked forward to some good games. All the trophies were back and he thanked MH for polishing the Rucanor Cup and updating the engraving. The new committee needed to consider trophies to cover the new competitions structure. Action KE. Cheques would be available today for all winners.

The Junior side was fantastic and growing; he commended both Boswells and Tendring Schools for their success in reaching and in Boswells’ case, winning at National Finals. The EVF regional junior squads were heavily populated with Essex players although regionally this was a concern. At the other end of the spectrum the Essex Veteran team had regained the Bob Luckin trophy at the Peterborough tournament. He had attended the Nationals and Big Bash and was proud to be involved with Essex. He noted that Paul Bohannan had received a 30 years service award from Volleyball England

He encouraged people to volunteer for JUVO on 24^th June. TP confirmed that there were more teams this year despite no U18 competition and was relying on the usual volunteer crew. John Ruggles is looking for cover on the BarBQ/Refreshments side and BO has someone expressing interest. Action BO/TP to liaise.

BO noted that Paul and brother Richard Bohannan had retired from refereeing this season and that lack of referees was now a wider problem. He expressed the view that there were many reasons and this had been discussed at the regional AGM. In his view we wanted to be closer to rugby than football in how referees were respected.

He expressed thanks to Alex and Sebastian for their work as Community Sports Coach in the Tendring School Sports Partnership noting that both they and Southend had block affiliated this season. He would like to see this extend wider across Essex reflecting the Development plan to be discussed later.

He congratulated Tendring and Chelmsford for attaining Volley 1 accreditation and said Brentwood were targeting this for the coming season. He mentioned that even clubs not working with juniors could attain Side-Out which had benefits.

BO was concerned at the rising workload on volunteers running clubs and the Association noting these were expected to rise yet further. Volleyball England’s expectations for delivery on both the region and county often fell on the same people. We need to bring more people in as at present when someone dropped out the gap was noticeable.

Essex VA had signed a Service Level Agreement with sportessex, the new County Sports Partnership committing each to do what they could to develop each others plans.

He concluded by echoing paul that this was a big year ahead with many opportunities and several challenges.

Treasurer – Steve Rosser

See Item 4

KE asked that we record our thanks to Alex Porter who was leaving the county and also the end of the playing career of our Pete Guernari, Essex VA Vice President.

KE noted that the level 3 coaching course had resulted in 4 Essex candidates passing but also that he had no intention of administrating further Volleyball England coaching courses.

The Executive had met twice with the main issues being
- competition progress and issues resolution
- the development plan annual review and new 2007-2013 plan
- the future of coaching and sitting volleyball

He had also met a number of Partnership Development Managers in School Sports Partnerships and interest in the game in schools appeared to be rising.

Partly as a result of experiencing the game during the Level 3 coaching course, there had been great interest in Sitting Volleyball and Tony Clark, Tony Wood, Brendan and himself had all been involved in running sessions.

He also noted that Volleyball England were increasingly bypassing counties and regions with their communications so that it was not always clear what was happening.

The web site continued to hold all the information advised but it was clear that both Ken and seb are not always told the results of matches leaving gaps in the records

KE handed out a sheet of 2006-7 results although some queries were raised.

SW commented that the scoresheets when submitted were not always clear and results and scores had to be inferred. Referees were asked to check before signature. He confirmed that next season he would handle player registrations.

BO thanked Sebastian for his work taking on a difficult task midway through the year. He apologized that there was not the level of support and direction SW could reasonable expect. He noted that previously a scoring tutorial had taken place at a finals day and perhaps could be repeated. Action KE.

(The statement of accounts is available as a separate document) SR outlined the accounts presented which show a separate General and development budget. This had been a good year for Development fund income with JUVO (£839) and the Level 3 course (£485) both generating surpluses, however this was not secure for following years. The main Development expenditure was the commitment for support for the Tendring Community Coach (£500).

On the general Fund all fees had been paid up and a surplus of £532 generated however this masked true costs of running the semi and finals as venues were secured at below market cost.

It was agreed that the development fund should be devoted to supporting the new Development Plan and clubs encouraged to bid for those resources.

It was confirmed that the independent check of the 2005/6 and 2006/7 accounts was outstanding due to an illness in Steve Peacock’s family. Action SR.

Although there had been teething problems, it was agreed to continue with the two phase season. It was agreed that January be set aside for cup games allowing some time for conference matches to be arranged. The idea of a single semi-finals day was supported. The new timetable is reflected in the proposed rules.

Suffolk had offered two possible formats:

- an intercounty cup where teams play from different counties in round 1. Possibly start with top 4 only
- a combined league where intra county games count for county league and cross county matches for an inter county league
There was a wide ranging debate where the following points were made

- all about getting more competitive matches at whatever level of game
- better teams don’t need this as they have enough games and play NVL at weekends
- so its really about lower level teams?
- but would Romford want to travel to Ipswich? Or vice versa – no. Middle venues?

- what about reintroducing the old regional top team competition
- which rules would the matches be played under

- regional league offers such opportunities already
- start small

- teams could always play friendlies anyway

There is an appetite to do this in some way and the matter was refereed to Executive for speedy action. We need to develop a rationale for why we want this. The idea of a joint meeting with Suffolk possibly at Tendring was suggested. Action KE

The rules had been revised to reflect the new structure and with certain updates and had been previously circulated. They were approved

BO returned to this topic which he had raised in his report. In a wide ranging debate the following points were made.
- there seems to be decreasing respect for referees across the country
- player conduct was preventing some from refereeing, but was only part of the problem of lack of referees
- if you get on the stand, you have to accept the hassle
- players/teams would get away with whatever they could to win – this was acceptable
- the rules already require that only the captain speaks to the referee
- children picked up what they saw and did not understand if different approaches were applied for adults and children.
- Tendring were planning to run a course for 12 older children but would feel lucky if one went on to actually referee.

BO summarised that whatever the views, there were not enough referees and we should all do what we can to make the role one people wanted to undertake or we would not have any.

Those present were reminded that this would not in future be a fixtures arrangement meeting but a confirmation and issues resolution where teams had not been able to agree against the proposed schedule. KE proposed a venue on the outskirts of Chelmsford which was accepted. Action KE

KE passed around the last two years review of the existing development plan. He went on to outline the key features of the new plan 2007-2013 and its vision for the future of sustainable, open, accredited clubs based as now on Tendring, Chelmsford and Brentwood complemented by new clubs in the North (Epping/Harlow) and South (Southend) areas of the county forming a core network. Each club will have close links into local education where volleyball is offered ideally within curriculum and compete in Essex competitions. The aspiration is for each centre to have a community Sports Coach. This core network to be complemented by other clubs or teams based on a common bond and by any clubs based in surrounding areas who wish to engage with our competitions e.g. Romford and Havering.

Focus areas would be Youth, Veterans, Higher Education and Sitting. All development was founded on volunteers and their availability would dictate the pace.

BO noted that such plans were of increasing relevance and use, informing work such as that on facilities available.

The following were elected for 2 years

Secretary – Ken Edwards (proposed TP, seconded TC)
Treasurer – Steve Rosser (proposed PB, seconded TP)

The following were elected for one year
President – Paul Bohannan (proposed TP, seconded KE)
Vice Presidents – Tony Pennock, Mark Harris*, Pete Guernari, Ken Edwards,. (proposed BO, seconded TP and elected en bloc) Amanda Pollard was also elected to that role subject to her acceptance. Action KE.
* Please note Mark has subsequently declined to serve due to pressure of work