Sporting Alfas Cricket Club

Please find below a copy of the 2009 AGM minutes and the auditor's report. A summary of the 2009 accounts can be emailed to members, by request, by emailing Tim Marshall at tim.marshall@hotmail.com.

Best regards,
John Howden
Secretary SACC


Sporting Alfas Cricket Club AGM

Albir Gardens, Friday 13th November, 7pm
1-In Attendance;
Ginny Munoz-Mills, Kevin Laundon, Tim Marshall, Graham Howe, John Howden, Jeff Bellis, Pat Bellis, Harry Marshall, Geoff Evans, Mark Spencer, Ray Robinson, Christine Gengelbach, Gary Crompton, Sue Crompton, Phil Pennick, Dennis Pennick, Ben Fletcher, S Cowley.

2-Apologies
Ian MacInnes, S Ali, C Munoz, A Dixon, D Howe, L Cowley, L Spencer, D Myers, J Morgan.

3-The meeting opened promptly at 7 pm with a minutes silence for Clive Woodbridge and Steve Lewis.

4-Chairmans Report;
Kevin Laundon (KL) opened by thanking Clive and Steve for their contribution to Alfas cricket club and added that their presence would be sorely missed.
He also thanked the directorate for their hard work this year, which he said had been difficult due to the mid season resignations of Phil and Claire Pennick. The EGM in May meant the new committee had to re-group and re-focus on the issues at hand.
KL also thanked Dennis Pennick for his continued work in the hut and putting up with the conditions during the building of the news premises. He also thanked Gary Roper, Jeff Bellis, Tim Marshall, Dave Myers, Ray Robinson and Ben and Gary Marriner for their contributions in building the new hut.
The Chairman continued his thanks by praising Steve Cowley and Dave Myers for their Junior coaching on a regular basis, and also thanked the Juniors for their continued enthusiasm and support to the Junior Development programme.
On the field the Chairman said he was disappointed that we did not win the league and regain our status of being the number one team in Spain. The reasons behind this were numerous but the main thing was the league became quite farcical by their handling of the league situation when Lanzarote pulled out leaving only three teams playing in the semi finals.
KL put forward the proposal to Cricket Espana that SACC travel to La Manga on the Sunday for the final to play the winners of the Falco v Cordoba game, as this gave one of the other teams the chance of playing twice, and allowed SACC to entertain the visiting tourists with a strong side on the Saturday. Cricket Espana declined that option, so the committee, by a majority decision decided against competing in the final stages of the league.
On a more sobering note, the Chairman said that the committee’s first year had also been a transitional one in the sense that their had been opposition to the formation of a committee, despite a huge majority vote to introduce a committee last year, and that he hoped that people who had put up barriers “towards a team of ladies and men trying to keep, this, our club, going forwards” should think deeply about their own commitments to this club and its members wishes.
This year SACC will continue to work on improving relationships with the local council and the golfers, and at this point the Chairman thanked Ginny Munoz-Mills for her fantastic work in building bridges between these areas. Her efforts during the international week were “at least, supreme” and the mayor had asked that Ginny be the official line of communication when dealing with council and golf related issues.
Finally, the Chairman thanked Gordon Leach for his sterling work in collecting match day fees, which was reflected in the subsequent rise in match fee income in 2009, despite there being no increase in match fees from the 2008 season.

5-Treasurer´s Report;
As well as thanking Steve and Lynn Cowley for acting as auditors for the 2009 season Tim Marshall also gave an overall summary of the accounts.
He stated that annual subscriptions were slightly down on last year, primarily due to the introduction of the family membership. Later on in the meeting he planned to propose an amendment to the family membership and also to propose that the auditor’s recommendations are imposed next year.
He confirmed, that as Treasurer he will be in charge of annual subscriptions next year and that Captains will be notified of any player who has not paid his annual fees by March 31st 2010. The Captains in turn agreed such players will not be selected to play until they become paid up members and this rule will be RIGIDLY ENFORCED next year.
Taking questions from the floor he explained Harpenden/Tottenhoe entries and said he would be liaising with Nicky Fletcher regarding hotel commissions. He added he would investigate further hospitality costs and to find out more about the “Captains account”.

6-Election of Positions;
These members were elected into the following positions;
President-Ginny Munoz-Mills
Chairman-Kevin Laundon
Treasurer-Tim Marshall
General Secretary-John Howden
League Manager-Graham Howe
Fixture Secretary-Phil Pennick
Playing posts;
1st team Captain-Kevin Laundon
1st team Vice Captain-Mark Spencer
Sunday Captain-Phil Pennick
Sunday Vice Captain-Steve Cowley
Midweek Captain-Jeff Bellis
Midweek Vice Captain-Ben Marriner
Other official posts;
Refreshments & Cabin Manager-Dennis Pennick
Groundsman-Jeff Bellis
Procurement of Advertising-Gordon Leach
Junior Teams Manager-Steve Cowley
Tour Manager-Nicky Fletcher
Website Manager-Greg Hopcroft
Umpires Secretary-Dave Myers
Social Secretary-Vacant.
The chairman thanked Sue Crompton for her great work last year in the position of Social Secretary.

8- Subsidy of Christmas Diner
The committee agreed to subsidize the Christmas Dinner by 5 Euros a person, in accordance with previous years.

9- Any Other Business.
Tim Marshall proposed the Family Membership only included one Senior player and not more than one as is currently the situation. This was seconded by Kevin Laundon and carried without contention.
Tim Marshall also proposed that the auditors recommendations, namely that full income and expense records be maintained for the bar so that the exact movement of monies through this area can be accurately verified. Also more generally, all goods purchased on behalf of the club must have valid paperwork. This is the only basis on which an accurate audit trail can be verified. This proposal was seconded by Steve Cowley and passed without contention.
Ray Robinson asked for clarification for club policy on players playing on consecutive days.
The Chairman iterated that captains would endeavor to put 22 different players out on consecutive days, but when that was not always possible some players could get asked to play on Saturdays and Sundays of the same weekend.
Mark Spencer proposed that SACC adopt the calendar year for annual subscriptions, and secondly the subscription deadline be sanctioned as 31st March for 2010. This was seconded by Tim Marshall and passed without contention.
Mark Spencer asked for clarification on how the bar takings were proportioned. Dennis Pennick confirmed that the club received 60% of any profit made, and the other 40% went to Dennis.
Tim Marshall re-iterated that he would investigate the situation regarding hotel commissions and the committee was directed by its members to look into the possibility of moving the current account into a higher interest account.
Sue Crompton asked if SACC could look into securing a better insurance policy in light of what happened this year. John Howden explained the current policy and stated he believed that Madrid CC had an insurance policy that maybe was more in line with SACC needs. JH is to look into insurance policies further and report his findings to the directorate.
Finally, Sue Crompton asked if it would be possibly for SACC to buy its own barbeque set for future social events. This proposal was seconded by Gary Crompton and was passed by the floor, with one person voting against, arguing it would be more cost affective to rent a barbecue set as needed.

With no further business pending the meeting closed at 8.30 pm.

Interim Auditor’s Report Sporting Alfaz Cricket Club
2008-2009 Season.
Preamble
“The main job of the auditor is verification of financial records. Auditors study various sources to find out whether the records present the true financial situation. They check the bookkeeping and accounting methods by analyzing its books and records. They compare the books with the records of the banks, creditors, and others who deal with the organisation”
Report
Although the above definition relates primarily to company or business accounts the principle behind it holds for all audits, including this audit of SACC’s accounts.
There were certain areas of the club accounts where we were able to operate under these guidelines and can confirm that the accounts are accurate and true. Specifically, this relates to the bank records, which reconciled with the book keeping and can be verified.
Beyond that it would be impossible to audit the accounts (in our understanding of the legal sense of the word) and sign off on them with certainty. There is simply not the transparancy, backed with a solid paper trail, for us to be able to do this with absolute confidence.
Please understand that we are are not aportioning any blame or casting aspertions on anyone’s character. This is very important point to bear in mind throughout these comments.
We are simply saying that we cannot audit the accounts fully as they stand.
We recognise that the club is not a business and operates on the goodwill and personal commitment of the few!
However, when you look at the amounts of money involved, SACC turns over more than many for-profit businesses! It is also dealing with members’ funds, which means it is in everyone’s interest to see exactly how those funds are being managed.
For these reasons we would strongly recommend that a more transparent system be put in place, and believe this would serve to protect everyone’s interest.
Specific Recommendations
1) The bar and food area is one of the main centres of profit for the Club.
We would strongly suggest that full income and expense records be maintained for the bar so that the exact movement of monies through this area can be accurately verified.
This need not be onerous. Simply keeping all receipts for expenses, and recording daily takings, would meet the requirements.
2) More generally, all goods purchased on behalf of the club must have valid paperwork (receipt, factura, purchase order, etc.).
As previously mentioned, this increased transparancy protects everyone, and is the only basis upon which an accurate audit trail can be verified.
Additional comments for consideration
We were puzzled why so much money was held in the operating account (current account) rather than being placed in high interest account.
If there are no strong reasons we would suggest an operating float of around €5,000 be held in the current account and the remaining funds be transferred to the high interest account.
There were certain issues surrounding debtors from previous years that we felt needed to be addressed. Action either needs to be taken to recover the money or they should be written out of the accounts. We have discussed these points with Tim and understand that they are being followed through.
Conclusion
The club is financially sound with a solid level of reserves behind it. However, we believe that a more thorough paper trail is essential if the accounts are to be accurately audited in subsequent years.
Lynn and Steve Cowley.
November 12th 2009.