World Croquet Federation
Minutes of the Management Committee Meeting
National Croquet Center
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA 10th November 2003

1. The Chairman opened the meeting at 3.12 pm and extended a welcome to those members of the Committee present and guests.

2. Members present were Tony Hall, David Openshaw, Gary Fox and Colin Irwin, forming a quorum. Also present by invitation were Charles Jones, John Taylor, Rhys Thomas and Chris Williams, Rankings Officer.

3 Apologises were received from Andrew Hope, Treasurer, Peter Payne, Graeme Roberts, Ahmed Hamroush and Amir Ramsis Naguib

4 The President advised the meeting that a vacancy on the Management Committee would occur with the election of David Openshaw as WCF President effective from 16 December 2003. The President proposed in terms of Rule 5(K) that Rhys Thomas from the USCA be appointed to fill the vacancy. The Committee agreed and the President welcomed Rhys to the Management Committee effective from 16 December 2003

5 Minutes of the meetings held on 2 and 8 December 2002 at Wellington, New Zealand were accepted.

6 Business arising from the Minutes

6.1 Newsletter Editor. Nerida Taylor has accepted the position of Newsletter Editor and is in the process of preparing a newsletter with a range of articles provided. The newsletter will be posted to Friends without email addresses and published on the Web Site.
6.2 France. Contact is to be made with the Dourthe brothers to follow up initial contacts.
6.3 India. Recent approaches from India have had no substance and will not be followed up.
6.4 Mexico. Active croquet playing groups to be followed up.
6.5 Hong Kong. Active groups in the New Territories to be followed up by Tony Hall when in Hong Kong
6.6 Golf Croquet Rankings. Australia, Egypt, New Zealand and the United States of America are not providing match results to the Golf Croquet Rankings Officer. The Secretary General will write to these countries to have this information provided.
6.7 Equipment. Standards for equipment to be followed up with the Equipment Officer.
6.8 Netherlands. The country is not currently a member. Tony Hall will follow up.
6.9 Slovenia and Lithuania to be followed up by Peter Payne.
6.10 Sponsorship. Tony Hall and Gary Fox to visit Cadburys when in Melbourne. Cadburys now own the brand name MacRobertson Chocolates.

7 Financial Accounts and Honoraria

The Committee:
1 approved the financial accounts and draft budget submitted by the Treasurer, and,
2 approved the payment of honoraria detailed in the budget approved future expenditure of up to £GBP1,000 per annum to assist establish a teams event between member countries other than MacRobertson Shield countries (see below), and
3 Noted that subscriptions have not been received from Austria, Palestine, Russia, Spain and Sweden.
4 A draft three year budget was considered and approved after some amendment.
5 The current balance of the cheque account in England is £23,925, including. £3,406 of Friends funds. There is £11,222 of Friends funds in Australia.

During discussion on Honoraria it was noted that the archives have been established by the Archivist, David Drazin. David has also completed a history of the WCF. A records management program has been agreed between the Archivist and the Secretary General and details of this have been forwarded to Management Committee members. A copy of this document will be forwarded to new members of the Committee.

8. General Business

8.1 Appointment of Secretary General
The Committee confirmed the appointment of Gary Fox as Secretary General. Gary advised the Committee that he was willing to continue in the position until August 2005. Commitments with the Australian Croquet Association would prevent Gary continuing in this position beyond 2005.

8.2 Schedule of Future World Championships

8.2.1 Association Events
The draft schedule of future world championships was discussed in detail. The Committee agreed that member countries bidding for events was not achieving the frequency or distribution of events required. Australia , England, New Zealand and the United States have all expressed interest in conducting Association 26 point and Golf Croquet events .

The WCF will now allocate the events between these countries evenly, taking into account the MacRobertson Shield schedule and the rotation of events between the northern and southern hemisphere. The Cheltenham 2005 event will be the starting event for the allocation process.

The USCA may be prepared to consider conducting an Association Championship in 2004. Rhys Thomas will come back to the Committee within a month with a proposal.

8.2.2 Golf Croquet
Egypt has expressed interest in conducting a Womens Golf Croquet Championships. Additionally Egypt is unable to confirm the Championship dates for 2006 until October 2004. Accordingly New Zealand will be allocated the 2006 event and Egypt the 2007 event.

The Committee confirmed that the event can be held each year.

8.2.3 USCA Rules
Rhys Thomas will investigate the options of an American Croquet event and report back to the Committee.

8.2.4 General
The Incoming President and Secretary General will compile a new Schedule of events and forward it to members of the Committee for input.

8.3 ILC

The Committee agreed in principle that the laws of Association croquet were properly a responsibility of the WCF. The Committee also agreed that consensus between the 4 governing bodies of Australia, England, New Zealand and the United States of America for the WCF to be involved was essential. This will be pursued within the next 12 months and after the Golf Croquet Rules Committee has completed the revision of the rules of Golf Croquet.

8.4 Rule Changes

8.4.1 Membership Information
The Committee agreed with the proposal for members to provide information on a regular basis to the WCF, with the deletion of the requirement for members to provide copies of national magazines produced.
8.4.2 Classes of membership
The Committee agreed with the proposal to amend the class of membership of the WCF
8.4.3 Membership Fee increase
The Committee agreed with the proposal to increase membership fees
8.4.4 Suspension of Members
The Committee agreed with the proposal to provide for suspension of members for non-payment of fees.

8.5 Conditions of 6th WCF World Golf Croquet Championships
Two issues of principal were discussed, they were

Costs and distribution of sponsor funds.
The Committee agreed that the WCF should continue to charge a licence fee of £GBP1,000 and receive all entry fees for events conducted. The host association should retain all sponsor funds, with no distribution to the WCF. This includes naming right fees obtained, equipment received and other sponsor funds received (WCF documentation on bidding and hosting events will be amended).

Allocation of places
The Committee agreed that the allocation of all places in a world championship event is a WCF responsibility.

Arrangements for the Championship have been agreed on the basis of reduced numbers in the event and without sponsor funds. With an increase in numbers in the event and sponsorship available these issues will be taken up with the CA Organising Committee.

8.6 10th WCF World Croquet Championships Cheltenham 2005
The Committee accepted the broad arrangements proposed by the CA Organising Committee. It was pleasing to have resolved so early in the discussions issues of significance., including the licence fee and allocation of places.

8.7 Website
The Committee confirmed the use of the Web site as a primary means of communication with members, within the Management Committee and with the public at large. The work being done by Chris Williams for the World Rankings is increasing and the Committee recognised the importance of this work. Chris will not have the time to redevelop the web site. Members of the Management Committee will canvass suitable people to assist with the development of the site

9. Other Business

9.1 Golf Croquet World Open. Presentation by Dick Brackett, President USCA.
Dick Brackett addressed the meeting on a proposal to establish an annual showcase event at the National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach. Mike Gibbons (Executive Vice President Estee Lauder New York is putting together the proposal). A Golf Croquet grand slam tour, including the major croquet playing nations could follow. The name of the event is critical to its success in the USA. Something similar to the US Open Tennis event, but with 32 seeded players, played over one week, 13 point golf croquet with a pro-am/pro-celebrity event. Potential to grow the event to 64/128 players. Prize money $US30/50,000 with a start date of November 2005.

Prize money would be tapered down with the total prize pool advertised.

Entrants would be selected from the total applicants.

The Management Committee generally supported the event as a sanctioned event of the WCF. The name of the event and selection criteria would need to be resolved, avoiding some of the issues raised by the Sonoma Cutrer event. Additionally mechanisms need to be established to deal with areas of potential conflict. The initial exchange of correspondence could deal with this.

9.2 Second Tier World Teams Championships

The Management Committee supported a proposal to establish a teams event for non MacRobertson Shield countries. The Secretary General will prepare a draft proposal for circulation to Management Committee members. Some of the proposals discussed included teams of 4, similar to Australia's Interstate Cup event, through to a MacRobertson Shield format. All members eligible will be advised of the proposal with specific requests for participation sent to Ireland, South Africa, Canada and for a European team (to be sent to the European Croquet Federation through Peter Payne). Some discussion ensued on participation by Scotland and Wales and the implications for the Great Britain MacRobertson Shield team. The individual members would address this issue. The first event is hoped for 2005, prior to the World Championships in England.

9.3 Handicapping Co-ordinator
Louis Nel, the Handicapping Co-ordinator has confirmed that a report on handicaps is near finality.

Gary Fox
Secretary General
11 November 2003