1 Jun 2008 - AGM Chairman’s Report 2008

The 2007/08 season has been a tremendous success both on and off the field. The committee has played an important role in making sure the club progresses and as we stand now we are the biggest Girl’s football club in Suffolk . At the last count we had nearly 100 girls involved in either teams or the Saturday club.

 

 

For next season we will have a team in every available age group from Under 10’s through to Under 16’s. This will be the first time our Club or indeed any club has done this and it is a great achievement and a testament to everyone involved in Copleston Girl’s Football Club.

 

 

Looking back over the season we introduced two new teams to our club, the Under 10’s managed by Johnny Coulthard and Daryl Gunn and the Under 12’s managed by Neil Green and Frank Newbigging. Both teams have been competitive over the season and indeed they both reached the final of the cup. I am sure you will agree that this is a tremendous achievement for a first season.                     

 

 

In fact the cup has seen the club achieve great success this season with all of our teams reaching the semi-final and four teams making the finals. We also won our first silverware this year with Paul Cantin and Paul Ryan’s magnificent Under 11 team completing the league and cup double. Rick Double’s Under 15 team also won the Girl’s Festival Tournament at Framlingham this year. We are finally putting silver ware into our locker and all the hard work that all the coaches put into the training field is paying off.

 

 

The success has enabled us to raise our profile in the media with our club receiving great coverage in the Evening Star Grass Roots section with three excellent features including one full colour front page. This coverage has brought in new players for various age groups.

 

 

Of the field the club is growing stronger too. We have had four coaches complete the FA Level One badge and well done to Johnny and William Coulthard, Frank Newbigging and Claire Williamson on successfully completing the course. Our ultimate aim is to have every single manager up to this standard. We currently have eight FA qualified managers and coaches involved with the club.

 

 

We have also successfully completed CRB checks on every adult involved with the club. This shows that we are a safe environment for parents to bring their children to. Thanks to Carl Berriman and Tracey Siggers, our Welfare officer, for their hard work in this area.

 

 

This year we received sponsorship money from Steve Mellor, A-Plant courtesy of the Offords, Purple Rhino thanks to Paul Ryan and my own company BT. Thank you to you all, for all your help in this area, it is much appreciated.    Copleston   Sports   College also deserve our thanks for the use of the facilities for training and matches.  Running a football club is not a cheap pass time and we are always looking at ways to raise funds to make sure we keep playing football, affordable to everyone.  

 

 

On the fund raising side we do try to keep the activities to a minimum so as to not place too big a financial burden on the girl’s parents. Our Christmas disco proved a big success this year with a fare bit of money being raised on the raffle. Thank you to everyone who donated prizes. The recent presentation night was another successful night for the Club with nearly all 80 players attending to receive individual and team awards for the season. Thanks to Helen Bass from the Suffolk FA for taking time out of her busy schedule to present the awards. The presentation night is not meant to be a fund raising night and we aim to break even on this event. It is a celebration of everything that is good about Copleston Girls and a chance for parents, players, managers, coaches and team reps to get together and let their hair down.

 

 

Talking of the Suffolk FA this year has seen our club forge very strong links with the County Football Association. We were involved in a Three Lions scheme with the FA and Copleston   High School to provide entry level training to primary school children and a route into Copleston Girls Football Club. Although not as successful as we would have liked it has helped the Club be seen as a progressive and forward thinking community based football team and has strengthened the links between us and the Suffolk FA. This can never be a bad thing.

 

 

Through Suffolk FA we also applied for and received a Football Foundation Football Kit Grant for £400 which is being spent on two new sets of Nike Woman’s Football shirts for next year’s Under 13’s and Under 14’s.  We are also in the process of applying for a small grant which will help with fees for the new Under 16 team.

 

 

Another initiative that has gone from strength to strength over the year has been the Saturday Morning Football Club. This has been the recruitment ground for our new Under 10’s team and provides an entry in girl’s football in a non pressurised, safe and fun environment. A lot of time and commitment goes into this and thanks should be made to Carl Berriman, Daryl Gunn, Amy Trentor, Sam Coulthard and Kaylie Gunn. Copleston   Sports   College also provide the facility free so we must also pay our thanks to them.

 

 

While the thanks are being mentioned I would personally like to thank Rick Double for his brilliant accounting over the past few years as Club Treasurer. Rick will report on the finances in a few minutes. He is stepping down from this role tonight due to personal and time commitments but I wanted to put on record our thanks and the fact that his efforts are well and truly appreciated by everybody at the club. We can now look forward to Sam Coulthard taking over the role of Treasurer and carrying on Rick’s good work. Thank you also to Ruth O’Reilly for auditing our accounts this year.

 

 

I would also like to thank Tracey Siggers for her work as Club Welfare Officer. This is a role that we hope does not involve a lot of work as this means we are doing things right. But we know we can count on Tracey should her services be required.

 

 

My last word of thanks goes to Carl Berriman , the club secretary and Lorraine Gissing. Carl does an incredible amount of work behind the scenes dealing with all the club admin, attending league meetings, ordering kit, fixtures, in fact you name it Carl does it, as well as managing the Under 13’s. Without Carl’s hard work our club would not be in the position it is today. Lorraine , as well as the Under 13 team rep, does an awful lot of work for Carl and myself and the club in general. The Disco’s and presentation nights would not function without her. So a big thank you to you both. Lorraine will be following in the footsteps of Sue Rutter as Vice Chair. Sue is stepping down after a few years service as Vice Chair and I would like to thank her for her hard work in the role over the years. The final thank you goes to all the team managers and assistant managers and team reps who put in hour upon hour of their time to make sure the girl’s football improves and progresses season upon season.

 

 

So looking forward to next year we hope to take the club even further. As I have mentioned we have a team represented at every level and one of our ambitions is to start a Woman’s team to allow the girls to continue football in the Copleston colours once they have gone through our age teams. This is something we are looking into at the moment. We also have a grant application in with the Football Foundation which we hope is successful and this is the year where Carl and Myself are going to push through our application to achieve Charter Standard. If by the time of the next AGM we are not a Charter Standard Club then I would see this as a failure.

 

 

We are linking into local schools and at the moment we are in discussion with Ipswich   High School for Girls regarding a possible link in with our club. I also hope that we get even more competitive on the playing field and achieve greater success although this is not the primary objective of Copleston Girls and our main objective is to provide a fun, safe, healthy and social environment for girls to play football.

 

 

So that is it from me, I am really proud to be involved in Copleston Girls Football Club as Chairman. It is a friendly, well run and progressive football club where a lot of people put in a lot of hard work and time to make sure the girl’s can turn out on a Sunday morning and play football.

 

 

Thank you.

 

Matthew Steward

Chairman