COLDWATER SHUFFLEBOARD CLUB 3RD ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 18, 2008 The final day of shuffling for 2008 was held on September 18th, 2008. We had about 70 people shuffling and some others arrived in time for the banquet at 5:30P.M. The banquet was catered by E L M Catering and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. President Gary Pipher called the meeting to order just before 4:00 P.M. President Pipher thanked Ella and Edward Smith for the great job they did on the table centre pieces at very short notice. The tables looked lovely. Message From the President: Let me begin by welcoming everyone here today and to thank you for being members of our Coldwater Shuffleboard Club. I will try to keep this short as possible so that we can enjoy the great meal that will follow the meeting and is catered by Larry Lalonde and his wife. I believe we can honestly say we had a very successful 3rd year of operation with our Shuffleboard Club. Our Coldwater Club is acclaimed to be the largest shuffleboard club in all of Canada and has become the envy of many other clubs. The Coldwater Curling Club is very well known across Canada with names like Glen Howard and Sherry Midaugh, and before long Coldwater will also be recognized for their Shuffleboard Club as well. We are planning to host the first ever Inter Provincial Tournament here in August of 2009. It should be a fun event and we are looking forward to it. We have a lot of people to thank for the success of the Coldwater Club and I would like to personally thank each and every one of you that made this all possible. First I would like to thank the Coldwater Curling club and their President Jerry Piitz, who is also an active member of our shuffleboard club. We are so fortunate to have a facility such as this for our games each week and we appreciate the great relationship built up between the two organizations. Ron Fawn has developed a superb web site for the Coldwater Shuffleboard Club that has been rated number one on the Google search, (this means we come up first when you do a search for Coldwater Shuffleboard Club, webmaster) and he is to be congratulated for his excellent work. The information found on the web site is a first for any Shuffleboard Club in Canada. I have had messages from several other Clubs congratulating Coldwater for sharing their information and making it public . Stan McCormack has always given our Club a great deal of attention on the Shuffler web site as well and the publicity he gives us is always welcome. Both Ron Fawn and George O’Reilly took professional quality photos of the Club members on our Fun Day Tournament and they were just super photos and one is hanging on the wall here in the clubhouse. “Thanks Guys” We have our disc cleaners to thank for their work each and every week. Leo Fowler and his wife Bev (the supervisor) In the past week or so Leo had a pace maker installed to keep his heart beating smoothly, and you know what his first question was to the nurse when he recovered from the operation? Do you suppose this will in any way affect me for polishing discs? Now there is a man with PRIORITIES. Bill Kinnear, Jake Dyksterhuis and Bill Pollock are always in the little room cleaning and polishing discs long after we have all finished and are enjoying our coffee in the clubhouse. The cleaning and waxing of the discs each week protects the running surface of the disc from being damaged through the constant travel over the glass beads, but what is probably most noticeably to everyone is how smooth they run. Thanks to all of you for the great work you do each week. Joyce Kidd has been washing down the scoreboards so we can have a fresh and clean scoreboard to write those winning scores. Sometimes she may have a little difficulty finding her way backing the dark, “ I have been known to shut the lights out on her.” Then there is Lorraine Pollock and her husband Bill who so capably take over and run the tournaments or cook hamburgers on the FunDay. “Thanks to both of you” It’s a pleasure to have you as club members here in Coldwater. Some of you may not realize how fortunate we are to have Lorraine as a member of our shuffleboard club. She is probably one of the most well known figures in shuffleboard, both in Florida and throughout Ontario. She is not only secretary of our Coldwater Club but she is also secretary of the Ontario Shuffleboard Association and the State of Florida Shuffleboard Association. She is the recognized tournament director in both Florida State and Central District as well as throughout Ontario and Internationally. Thank you Lorraine for all your help. Each and every week there is coffee and treats that we have become so accustomed to and must be looked after: There are several ladies who do this on a regular basis and I don’t want to miss anyone, and apologize if I should. But first I would like to acknowledge Barb Pipher who has looked after buying all the soft drinks and supplies as well as the many other things that she does for the club that go unnoticed. Each week she always makes sure there are plenty of treats and coffee and soft drinks for all to enjoy. Isobel Matthews is always there to pitch in and wash tables and vacuum the floors after every day as is Nancy MacLean, Doris Bumstead and Joyce Kidd. Ruth Addison remarked to me just last Tuesday how nice it was to see George O’Reilly running the new carpet sweeper around and picking u[ the crumbs on the floor. She was however, rather concerned that George may become somewhat domesticated if he kept this up, and his wife Carol might loose her house cleaning job. “FAT CHANCE EH GEORGE” . Joyce and Tom Kidd have always been available to look after the coffee and refreshments and help Ross and Isobel Matthews to open up and look after the club when we are away. We all appreciate what you do here at the club. Then there are those unnoticed people who donate items such as coffee / soft drinks/ cookies and cakes so w can enjoy our few minutes of socializing and get together after the games each week. I want to say thank You to these people and if you are one of these great volunteers who have donated food and other items, I am sure you will know who I am referring to. Thank you so very much. But then there are those who never become too involved and just come out to play each week, and that’s OK and is quite normal in any club or organization. It was however suggested at a recent board meeting that we put affixed price on the coffee and cakes rather than expect people to make a reasonable donation to the coffee fund. The average collected in the weekly donations pot has run somewhere around $30.00 and this works out to less than .50 cents per person when we have 60 members in attendance. If you were to go to buy a coffee and do-nut at a Tim Hortons the cost would be well over $2.00 and the executive didn’t think it would be too much to ask a $1.00 here at the club for the coffee and treats. 100% of the money collected from the coffee fund is turned back into subsidizing the banquet and the Fun Day Tournament that was so successful. While on the subject of money we have our Treasurer Barb Pipher to thank for looking after our finances. She is up many late nights counting and rolling the money, balancing the books and making bank deposits and just everything that is all a part of our Club’s daily operation. I know some may think these are simple tasks,”but” with the amount of money and general business that has gone through our Club’s books this year it is no small task. “Thank You Barb” I would also like to thank Keith Lawlor for donating the new chairs. It’s a pleasure not to have to sit on a bench down on courts 14, 15 & 16. Thanks to Tom Kidd and Bill Pollock for helping put up the new scoreboards at the start of the season and to Stan Mccormack for helping with putting the Nela Seal on the courts and for doing touch up painting on the lines that had become damaged. The list goes on and on and I hope I don’t miss anyone, but I know I will and I apologize. I might add that the Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant made it possible for us to purchase the new equipment we all enjoy using each week and on behalf of our members I want to thank our local member of Parliament “Garfield Dunlop” and his office secretary Mary Silk for their help and guidance in obtaining this grant. The Canadian National Shuffleboard is to be congratulated for recognizing the work our Coldwater Club did in hosting the 2007 International Shuffleboard Tournament in Midland. It was a big success thanks to the members of our Club who took part in the week long event. The skill level of our members has greatly improved this season thanks to the help of those who take the time to help others learn the game, and now we have players who can compete on a level with the best. Many of our players have begun to take part in Tournaments throughout Ontario this summer, and it’s so nice to see the number of Coldwater players competing in these Tournaments. Coldwater Shuffleboard Club has more members on the executive board of both the Ontario Shuffleboard and the Canadian Shuffleboard than any other single club in Ontario. We have Stan McCormack, President of the CNSA, and his wife Lois who is secretary treasurer.. Bill Pollock and I are Vice Presidents. Then we have George O’Reilly, 1st Vice President of the OSA, and Lorraine Pollock, secretary of the OSA and Ross Pipher who is a director. As you can see the Coldwater Club members are very active in promoting shuffleboard. It was great to see all our players sporting their new monogrammed shirts at the St. Mary’s tournament a few weeks ago and it makes our Coldwater Club the envy of others when they see just how great you look. The new Club Logo has been put to good use and I believe it is something we can all be proud of.  One of our Club members, Grace Pipher had a rather unfortunate accident this summer when she fell and broke her leg. That hasn’t stopped her from coming out each week to watch others play and socialize after the games. Grace and Ross were two of the original founders of this Club and we appreciate the work you both have done. There are 5 of our club members who are unable to be here tonight, but I know they are enjoying the land down under in Australia about now and Coldwater is probably the last thing on their minds. Stan and Lois McCormack, Peter and Erika Berg and Peggy House are members of the Canadian Shuffleboard Team this year and they are competing at the Internationals in Australia. “We wish them all the best” On a sadder note this summer, we lost Don Polkinghorne, one of our clubs more senior members. Don was a remarkable individual and I am sure that where ever he may be, he is probably playing golf, shuffleboard or curling. For those of who choose not to go away for the winter, I hope you can and will take part in the winter shuffleboard program here in Coldwater. The winter activity is being run and capably managed by George O’Reilly. I am sure you will enjoy the activity each Tuesday in the auditorium of the Community Centre, “Which is just next door” Minutes: Motion by Ross Matthews and seconded by Joe Morfitt to dispense with reading the minutes of last year’s Annual General Meeting. Carried. Treasurer’s Report: Motion by Beverly Fowler and seconded by Bill Pollock to dispense with reading the Treasurer’s report as there are copies on all of the tables. Carried. The Treasurer’s report will be filed for audit. Auditor’s Report: Joyce Kidd and Lorraine Pollock audited the books. Joyce reported that the books have been audited from May 2006 to September 1, 2008 and found everything in order and the balances agree with the bank statement. Motion by Pat Niepage and seconded by Lottie Bell to accept the auditors report. Defibrillator: The Coldwater Shuffleboard Club has agreed to split the cost of a defibrillator with the curling club. The total cost of the defibrillator is $3,100.00. Motion by Doug Bell and seconded by George O’Reilly to share this cost equally. Carried. Election of Officers: Lorraine Pollock, chairman of the nominating committee read out the slate of officers. President – Gary Pipher Vice President – Ross Matthews Treasurer – Barb Pipher Secretary – Lorraine Pollock Directors – Doris Bumstead - Joe Morfitt - George O’Reilly The chairman asked for nominations from the floor. There were no nominations from the floor. President Gary Pipher asked secretary Lorraine Pollock to cast one ballot for the slate of officers as stated above. 5. Thanks: Ron Fawns thanked our President Gary Pipher for all of the work he does to keep this club running and making it the successful club that it is. Gary and Barb spend a lot of hours here getting everything ready so that we may enjoy ourselves when we get here. Our sincere thanks to both of you. President Gary Pipher asked Lottie Bell to say the blessing before dinner. Motion by Beverly Fowler and seconded by Lottie Bell to adjourn. Carried. Respectfully submitted Lorraine Pollock – Secretary Coldwater Shuffleboard Club.