Committee Meeting Minutes

Minutes for the Committee Meeting (12th October 1999)

The meeting was held at the Leather Bottle Public House, Leverstock Green, Herts. The meeting was opened at 10.05 p.m.

Present

Jason Fox (Chairman, Watford), James Lee (Secretary,St Albans), John Wyatt (Dacorum), Chris King (Dacorum)

Minutes of Previous Meeting

There were no minutes from the previous meeting.

Provisional Competition Dates

Jason Fox had received a list of Regional and National competitions for the year. The following dates were proposed for the competitions the 1999-2000:

Age Group Competitions (U20, U16, etc. Foil)	Saturday 27th November 1999	Alternatively Saturday 30th January 2000
County Championship	Saturday 12th - Sunday 13th February 2000
County Team Foil	Sunday 12th March 2000	Alternatively Sunday 26th March 2000

The dates for the County Championship and County Team foil would be checked for any clashes with Bank Holidays and any other significant events before being finally decided. The date for Excalibur in Bath (27th May) was to be added to the competition dates literature as Hertfordshire would be sending a team, and were guaranteed a place since they had been on the reserve list and did not compete last year.

The Eastern Region Individuals should take place the weekend of 22nd-23rd January.
The Eastern Region Teams should take place the second weekend in May.
The Eastern Region Youth Competions should take place on 5th December.

Courses

No courses were to be arranged under the auspices of the HFA this year. Watford would be continuing their termly masterclasses and these would be publicised to all clubs. It was felt that the HFA should not rely on the courses at Watford alone, and that other clubs or the HFA should consider running something themselves in the future.

Novice Interclub Matches

A discussion was entered into on measures to try to decrease the drop-out rate of new members at the clubs. It was agreed that the introduction of occassional novice interclub matches may increase the team spirit and retention of such members. The difficultly of the provision of a full team, especially on a non-standard fencing day was noted. As a result of this it was decided that St Albans and Dacorum will try to find a convient date for a novice interclub match in the near future. The coaches at other clubs would be approached to see if there was any further interest.

Age Group Competitions

This was hoped to be held at Haberbashers School on the 27th November. A letter requesting a booking on the venue had already been sent by the Chairman. An alternative location was to be sought if this fell through, probably the Grove School, Harpenden. The price of entry was to be held at the same level as last year. All participants must be members of the BFA, either Full, Junior or Associate. The Under 20's competitions were to be electric throughout, the U10 competitions would be entirely non-electric, with the intermediate age groups being as much electric as possible though not compulsory. The deadline for entries was to be 22nd November, with late entrants being charged double. Entries were to be sent to John Wyatt, 122 Tibbs Hill Road, Abbots Langley, Watford, Herts. WD5 0LL. The competition itself was to be run by the Chairman aided by any volunteers that could be found from the clubs.

Medals

Medals for the year were to be bought from Birkdale Promotions in Bricket Wood. The following order was to be placed by Jason Fox:

Age Group Competitions 1999 U20 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze U16 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze U14 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze U12 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze U10 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze

County Competitions 2000 Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze Epée 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze Sabre 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze Novice Foil 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze Team Foil 4 Gold, 4 Silver, 8 Bronze

All of the medals would be engraved with 'H.F.A.' followed by the title of the competition as shown above and the year on a third line. Cases would be required for all medals.

Any Other Business

No date for the next meeting was set. It would be discussed at the age group competition. The meeting was closed at 11.10.pm