Note of Cardiff City and Met Korfball Club Committee meeting of the 23rd September 2019.
Attendance
Kiera Evans – Chair
Matthew Morgan – Secretary
James Wilcox – Committee Member
Julie Prosser – Selection Committee Member
Jack Mitchell – Chair of Selectors
Alec Care – Committee Member
Cardiff MET Taster sessions
KE – Opens the meeting with a discussion on the structure of the Cardiff MET taster session on the 24/9/19. Believes it should be aimed at new MET recruits and less experienced members of the club. Asks for opinions on only inviting new members and MET students for the first few sessions.
JW- States that the session should be open to the whole club, with the focus on the MET students and newer members and that Experienced members should assist with teaching and leading the session where appropriate.
This is agreed by the committee as the structure for the MET beginner sessions going forward
Trials
KE – Brings the discussion to squad trials.
JW – states that they began on Wednesday 18/9/19.
JP – suggests that she was not aware that that session had been part of trials. Others agree with her.
MM – States that the start of trials has not been advertised as well as it could have.
There is general discussion about how best to run trials for the remaining weeks before the season starts. JM suggests that we have 3 weeks in which to run them as the fourth week will be the week of the first match and we should have a team selected by then.
The discussion turns to how best to run trials in the remaining sessions. It is decided that they will continue be run on Wednesdays with Beginner sessions on the Tuesday.
JW – suggest that the club run two further trial sessions.
JM – agrees with this put points out the need to advertise this to the club that night, to give as much notice as possible.
Training Structure Mid-Season.
KE – Brings the meeting to the structure of training for the coming season. A plan had been discussed of having a split session on a Wednesday. With 3rd/4th teams training from 7-8:30pm and 1st/2nd teams training the later slot, 8:30-10pm.
JW – is unsure that entering 4 teams is sustainable for the club. If a 4th team is not entered it will not be necessary to split the session at all
There is some discussion over the merits of entering a fourth team.
KE – makes the point that if we do not choose to enter 4 teams we can organise friendly matches throughout the season for any newer players who want to play. Creating an unofficial 4th team.
JP – states that some club members may be put off playing if they don’t have access to be part of an actual team.
MM – asks why we decided to have a split session in the first place?
JW – states that some club members had expressed concerns over paying the same as other members but not having access to squad training sessions. There were concerns over the fairness of the existing arrangement of membership fees and the amount of training sessions members were receiving.
Instead there is the suggestion that a new arrangement will be created where 3rd/4th teams have their Squad sessions on the Tuesday. And the 1st/2nd teams will train on Wednesday. This means all club members will have access to one training session a week.
There are a number of doubts raised about this arrangement. Including concerns over offering less than competitor clubs and having less sessions on offer for members compared to last season and the effect that could have on the club.
It is agreed to revisit this matter after trials and beginner sessions are finished. Then the committee will have a more accurate view of potential numbers for each team and can plan for attendance at training sessions. The committee will then be able to plan session structure accordingly.
Coaching
KE – brings the meeting to the Coaching set up for the season.
JW – states that the current plan is to split coaching for the club between himself and Alice Hunter, with coaching input from anyone else who wants to be involved.
KE – will be head coach for the Cardiff MET team (Cardiff City 4th team) and will coach the team on the Tuesday sessions.
There is discussion over whether she is expected to coach the entire session. The committee settle on Kiera coaching solely the MET team with other senior players in the club taking responsibility for coaching the 3rd team/beginners who aren’t MET Students.
This obligation will be filled by anyone who wants to coach but there are a number of Cardiff players who are in the Wales national squad. These players have an obligation as members of that squad to Coach a number of sessions as part of their personal development. These players are ideal candidates for coaching these sessions.
AC – asks what funding there is available for coaching? It is decided that this will be revisited at a later date due to other factors needing more urgent attention at the time of the meeting.
MM – Raises the possibility of having dedicated Coaches for each Team
There is some agreement that this would be a good idea, if the committee can find individuals who are keen to coach each team.
JM – is concerned that this will alter plans in place for the selection committee to be composed of team Captains who have responsibilities to organise teams.
There follows extensive discussion on what the selection committee should look like and its composition. Suggestion of moving away from a Captain role which was responsible for picking and organising their squad and using Team Managers (TM) in conjunction with a dedicated Coach to do this. The Captain role would revert to its traditional match day function.
Selection Committee
Some agreement that the selection committee would be composed of: –
– Chair of Selectors
– 1st Team Coach
– 2nd Team Coach
– 3rd Team Coach
– MET Coach (Would also function as the TM for MET)
– Cyclones TM
– Mavericks TM
– 3rd Team TM
Suggestion that Coaches would have the option to nominate the TM of their team, as their deputy, to represent that team in Selection meetings was raised.
The above structure may not be the final structure of the selection Committee.
KE – Raises an idea for Cardiff City and MET’s team selection process. It is centred on the status of fringe players. Instead of picking a large pool of players for a squad there would be a core of 6 players, 3 boys and 3 girls which would be named to those squads. There would be 1 further player of each gender named in the squad below However these players would be the first picks to “play up” into the squad above but shall also expect to play a large percentage of their game time for their nominated squad.
There is agreement from the committee that this plan could be implemented.
JM/JW – discussion on selection for the role of TM. JM has had some interest for all three Cardiff teams (The MET team would be covered by KE as MET Coach). It is decided to keep the posts open in case there are further volunteers.
KE – Sets date of October 7th 2019 for another committee and selectors meeting. As Chair she wants the TMs to be sorted and ready for election at this meeting.
Status of non-club players training with Cardiff City and MET
JW – raises the issue of players from different clubs training with us. There were concerns from club members last season that some players from outside the club were being invited to squad training sessions when new players in the club were not being invited to join these sessions.
KE – states that she feels it is necessary to clarify our policy regarding these players. The issue effects a small minority of individuals and in the interests of fairness all such players should not be invited to sessions if they have no intention of playing for Cardiff City and MET Korfball Club during the season.
JP/JM/AC– Discuss that it should only effect players who are in direct competition with Cardiff and MET squads that play in the Welsh National League and the Western Regional League. Players playing in a higher or lower league should be able to put their cases to the committee to be viewed individually.
JW – Thinks it would harm future recruitment if the club were to stop players from other clubs attending a limited amount of sessions to see if they preferred it to their current club.
JM – raises the possibility of these players attending Tuesday sessions rather than Wednesday squad sessions
MM – Agrees that players in direct competition with City teams should be barred from squad training sessions, but strongly disagrees with a blanket ban on all players especially those from higher leagues who would bring high quality opposition to the 1st and 2nd team training sessions as this is of an obvious benefit to the club. MM also states that if CCMKC want promotion for Cyclones and Mavericks; then keeping squad sessions limited in order to maintain a high standard of korfball for those in the 1st/2nd teams in going to be necessary in order to achieve this aim.
KE – points out that with the new training structure proposal, there would be no club sessions only a 3rd/4th team squad session and a 1st/2nd team squad session.
There is further discussion in that in the past (including last season) non-club players have attended Cardiff City and MET training sessions and trained inappropriately alongside new and inexperienced players i.e. not taking the session seriously and taking advantage of new players’ inexperience during training matches instead of being a supportive and guiding influence for them. This has sometimes verged on creating an environment that is unwelcoming to newer members.
MM – raises the possibility of locking again at a longer, split session on a Wednesday that would be split between the 1st/2nd team squad session and a club session for all players to attend.
It is agreed between the committee that it is a contentious issue and will need further discussion at the next meeting.
WRL – Home fixtures
JW – informs committee that all home fixtures for Cyclones will be held at HoS on Saturdays as it is the most appropriate hall for the team to be using going forward with plans for promotion out of WRL to the Promo-League.
JW will confirm with HoS and the Western Regional League committee when our fixtures are booked and they will be released to the club shortly.
Note from Chair
KE – States that from this season she will be taking over responsibility, from JW, as Chair of Cardiff City and MET Korfball Club. She also want’s it noted by the committee going forward that she expects the workload of the committee to be shared more evenly in previous years as JW has taken on the role of Chair of the Welsh Korfball Association and he will not be able to do the amount of work he has for club in the past.
KE makes it clear that everyone is welcome, and encouraged, to bring new ideas to the committee but they will be responsible for implementing these ideas. They will be given the committee’s full support to do so.