Notts Cricket Cock-up Committee AGM

 

28/02

JAG was taking notes so hopefully a better form of minutes might appear here at a later date but...

After all the pats on backs for the on and off field performances cricketing and financial the night was dominated by constitutional correctness and corrections from the John Evans proposals, where little interest had been shown by members in the e-ballot or in its postal form with a turn-out of near 0% (if rounded to the nearest 10%) - none of Mr Evans', contested by the committee, proposals were passed, through some had a simple majority but not the necessary two-thirds majority.

Mick Newell told the gathered assembly that there might be another signing before the start of the season.

Chris Broad was made club President, in his absence (he's match refereeing in India), luckily the motion was passed by members as he'd already sent an acceptence statement which was read by Mr Moore.

Any other business:

A question was asked on Zoom about the dire facilities at Lady Bay but the CEO, who also happens to be a director of the company responsible, along with the Peter Wright, quickly brushed that area of conversation under the artificial turf, making all the correct noises but not giving their audience much confidence in their conviction to do anything to improve what could be a viable venue if investment was forthcoming.

The evening's highlight though was an electoral mishap, revealed by Ms Pursehouse, where an eleventh hour (last Friday) objection to the eligibity of the two former player candidates was brought into question by an unnamed member, which proved to be too much for legal advice to counter over the weekend and so the candidates were effectively disqualified.

The result of this cock-up meant a walkover election with Lehane, Gunn and Huggard being elected (or rather not elected) to the general committee. The fourth vacant position on the GC (from the Nominations Panel) still remains unfilled, which to me indicates that Huggard had been chosen to be NP's  committee appointment having not gained the support of the voting members (in the disqualified vote), so now the panel get a chance to nominate another, perhaps it should be one of those players that were disqualified from the election as player know-how and perspective is an area seriously lacking on the GC!

There was no suggestion that the unnamed member had any connection to any of the other candidates. 

The evening however ended on a huge downer! After the out-going chair had reminisced about his time as a member and then of his time serving the committee, almost as through rather than going on to be a vice president for a year, he was being put out to pasture and shot. Following Moore's speech, Peter Wright took the mic, he's another vice president for a year after being on the committee since 1665 (the max term is 9 years before rule bending). Wright took it upon himself to admonish the aforementioned unnamed member for causing trouble with the committee election, and the elements within the membership that don't blindly tow the party line. Of course, Mr Wright has the two former players on speed dial and he (earlier) had to relay the news of the clerical cock-up to them in person and then tell the gathered membership their reactions. Moore then chipped-in clouding the issue with hints that motives behind the unnamed members objections (by implication) could possibly have been racist (though the R word wasn't said, but was implied).

All very disappointing to cap off an evening that should have celebrated Nottinghamshire's promotion back to Division One but instead was evening of bitter squabbling over constitutional wording and regulations and another cock-up (following other cock-ups in previous years) by committee, although you would have thought that the paid staff would have vetted all applicants prior to the election paperwork being posted to members, especially after cock-ups in the recent past of a similar nature, so perhaps the buck should stop with the CEO.