MInutes of Committee Meeting 27th November 2022

Minutes of the Committee Meeting on 27th November 2022
Committee Present: Fred Swarbrick, John Powell, Andy Thompson, Paul Riordan, Peter Harrison, Peter Rhodes, Craig Hines, Craig Ross, Tommy Hughes, Ian Cousens, Greg King, Mark Ashley and Sarah Shackleton
Apologies: None

Matters Arising:

A discussion took place regarding allowing senior teams to postpone when the junior sides play. It was agreed that from now no senior side will be allowed to postpone their fixture (other than for weather) when their junior sides have fixtures

Fixtures:

JP produced some documentation for the play/concede ratios of the different leagues. Obviously the performance of the leagues that are at the lower end 5E, 5W, 3N and 3C was noticeable less than other leagues. These performance figures will be used to secure additional RFU funding but it was unsure if the funding was individual league specific or the leagues overall. At present the figures were quite promising but there were some teams who were struggling and already on 3 concedes. A discussion took place around those teams that were on 3 concedes and how best to keep them in the leagues. League managers were asked to encourage players sharing, notifying your opposition in advance if you are short and see what they can do to help, using social media to find players. FS to put something on the website about player sharing etc. JP mentioned 3C where there were 2 sides on 3 concedes and with earlier withdrawals would leave a 8 team league, so may have re-jig the fixtures for them to have a full season
Finance: RFU funding of £100 per league should be with us soon as it has been released to Lancashire RFU. Based on the figures provided by JP we should receive some additional funding for the league performance

Sponsorship:

Nothing new

Benevolent Fund: 

A player from Fleetwood suffered a broken leg last Saturday, and the player is on a zero hour contract so will only receive SSP. Committee agreed to support.
This again created a discussion regarding player insurance. Insurance is the Clubs responsibility and obviously the message is not getting out. A lot think that because they have RFU insurance everything is okay but the reality is that it is a long process and usually for more serious injuries. Clubs need to publicise the risk more amongst their players.
RFU have a medical emergency protocols that clubs are meant to follow. There is a checklist on the RFU website. SS to pull something together to put on the league website.

Cups:

The fixtures/draw for this season’s cup will be done in January. It was agreed that as per last year teams who have to leave the league due to concedes can still enter the cup competition.
Cup Venue: 13 teams applied to host the finals. Of those 6 had held the finals before so were excluded along with another club who had accessibility issues. So it was decided to award the finals for next 3 years to the remaining clubs. As there will be 7 cup competitions this year the first club drawn out will have 4 finals
22/23 Anselmians and Leigh
23/24 Kendal and Buxton
24/25 New Brighton and Macclesfield

A.O.B.:

A complaint had been received from Aldershaw that Christleton had played more than 18 players. Complaint to be investigated and if found to be true 2pt penalty against Christleton