General Meeting

1. General Meeting 04/12/2012

2. Purpose of this meeting • Giving members the whole picture. • Showing where we have been, where we are and where we are going. • To open a dialogue between members and exec.

3. The Budget Breakdown Club£448 + £588 = £1,036

4. What’s Changed In The Budget? What you asked for as a club… • Petrol subsidies from us for lessons. • More ridden socials. • Clarity over where money has been spent. • More options for lessons in order to reduce overcrowding. What we’ve done… • Allocated money from Riding Club budget specifically to cover petrol for two cars per week on the trip to/from Elswick. (On the basis of a calculated £ per mile average.) *This will be paid to drivers before leaving and is based on an average of two cars or one mini-bus travelling to Elswick. • Allocated more money to transport fund to cover 19 hire cars over the course of the year in order to facilitate travel to lessons when drivers are available without their own vehicles. • Hacks and horsey socials planned for the beginning of second term subject to numbers. *Socials cannot run without your participation and we more numbers mean that we have a better chance of successfully being granted funding from LUSU to help subsidise, for example, a coach to get you all there. • Provisional lessons at Lanquestrian for beginners and jumping development classes for all. (See later slide).

5. How Money Has Already Been Spent* Club expenditure taken from start of year total Paid debt to LUSU @£250 Total = £250 Team Expenditure Debt to Eccleston @ £40 Team subsidy for lessons @ £45 Trial subsidy @ £40 Food for home comp @ £69 Whips for dressage @ £7 Hire of Judge @ £25 Total = £226 Transport costs Minibus hire @ £72 Car hire @£60 Repair of minibus @£36.07 Total = £168.07 Social subs Riding workshop @ £50 Total = £50 Club expenditure taken from ‘Remaining Credit’ Refund members at full cost @ £90 Refund to members at partial cost @ £40 Total = £130 Total spent* £824.07 *At date of meeting.

6. Elswick lessons • Exec were led to believe lessons were discounted for LUEC members • Upon recent investigation, this appears to have been a miscommunication and the Exec have learnt that the rates given to us would be available on certain off-peak days/times to members of the public. As this does not reflect the promise we make to our members that we will strive to offer them a good quality of lessons at the best price possible, we have decided that petrol subsidies would be very reasonable and will now be put into place. *This system now appears to be working well as of Dec ’12.

7. Lanquestrian • Due to high demand for beginners’ lessons, another session will hopefully be in place after Christmas at Lanquestrian. • A trial lesson will be held in week 10. • In addition, there is a possibility for a jumping clinic on Thursdays, which we are looking into for all members. *Note – this trial lesson proved very popular in week 10 and so we are going ahead with trying to put this in place for you. Bear in mind that we, your exec, will be giving up our time to chauffer members to these sessions. Our only benefit from this is to see you enjoying yourself as the majority of us do not ride with the club. There may be weeks when for personal or academic reasons, exec members will not be free to do this and we hope you as a club will understand this.

8. Socials • Ridden socials: • Hacks for all members planned for week 2/3 of 2nd term • Handy pony session at Elswick/Lanquestrian. This is basically like mounted games but you compete individually. Does anybody fancy this? • Natural Horsemanship will be rearranged for a later date as we did not have sufficient numbers • Non-ridden socials: • Film night with free pizza *Beth P suggested that we run this as a mixer event close to the start of term where you can all have another Freshers style ‘get to know everyone’ knees-up. We love this idea so thanks Beth for your input – everyone watch out in your inboxes for an invite soon! • Helen Wain workshop (ride with your mind) *Attendees of the last session reported back that they really enjoyed themselves and saw improvements to their riding, so we will be running another session with Helen in 2013. • Showjumping bar crawl… pub golf but with faults instead of pars, who can get a clear round I wonder!

9. Club History – how we have developed • Many club members will not remember, or were not here 3 years ago. At that point, the club was very small and run in a piecemeal fashion. Two years ago, lessons were virtually non-existent due to having no stables or transport, and majority of membership money went to the team. Also there was no consistent bookings system in place – something the current exec sought to change. Since then, lessons have become a large part of the club, and more available to all. In 2012, we also held a number of socials for the first time – such as treks out in the countryside and mounted games – and also a few nights out for good measure!

10. Club History • Demand for lessons has outstripped transport availability • Although the exec are aware of this issue, members need to recognise that transport is costly and is reliant on member input (we can’t hire a car or mini-bus without anybody willing to drive!) • Earlier, membership money went to the team • Currently, sponsorship money helps subsidise the team so the membership money can be focused on the club as a whole. • The club was originally set up to facilitate just a team to compete in BUCS. It is now much more than this, and team members want to be included in the club just as much as the non-team members. With this in mind, it would be great to see non-team members getting involved in coming to events and mixing with team members (such as the Plough after riding and in future years, the home competitions.) We believe this would help with club cohesion and somewhat dispel the myth that the team and club are, and want to be very separate.

11. Communication Facebook* • Adjusting the way we all communicate • Facebook posts are often lost or misinterpreted • This can lead to misunderstandings between exec and members, resulting in issues escalating unnecessarily New policy – 2 stage system 1. Queries and issues need to be sent via email to exec 2. Any issues or complaints relating to the running of the club posted on Facebook will be deleted and replied to individually and a exec statement will be posted and followed up by email if it is deemed necessary. This is not to censor members, but to aid communication and avoid upset. *Facebook can still be used socially to connect with other members, share photos and experiences or to ask each other questions, but is not an effective way to connect with exec members. Exec may from time to time respond to questions on Facebook in a non-official capacity, but this would only be in response to non-managerial posts.

12. The Role of the Exec • The exec are here to facilitate the club activities – our roles are voluntary • We do them because we want the club to succeed • The exec spend multiple hours each week on club matters • We are not denying accountability to the situation we find ourselves in now, but we would like members to understand our situation. We are not professionals, we are students here to complete our degrees. Sometimes we may not have time to answer a question or sort something out straight away, and this is something members need to think about before defaulting to the position that we are ignoring you or think your views are not important. This is not how we think or feel and the Exec rarely go a day without talking to each other about some new idea or how to solve an issue. Everyone’s club = everyone’s responsibility