IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. Rule changes to improve running of the league including referees process and season start-up.

Dear Club Secretaries
This communication is extremely important as it covers some key changes in the way that the Chiltern Church League will be administered from 1 January 2018. These changes are being introduced to help the league run more effectively and to ultimately improve things for all clubs and team. You need to understand these changes because they WILL affect your club and you will need to communicate them to your managers following a League meeting that is being held in January (details at the end of this email).

It has become difficult to efficiently administer the League due to the number of teams and the erratic nature with which some clubs and teams follow the rules and procedures. This has particularly impacted season start-up and referee appointments this season. The League Committee met last week and have agreed the following improvements.

New Referee procedure.
Referees are now avoiding our league because of the high number of late cancellations.
The committee agreed that from 1st Jan 2018 a new rule would apply as follows: If the league has appointed a referee (as shown on Full-Time) and, after 8pm on the Thursday before the game the match is called off for any reason other than a weather postponement, then the referee will be entitled to half their match fee. This will be paid by the Treasurer and reclaimed from the Club causing the late cancellation or postponement of the game. Any Clubs not reimbursing fees within 14 days will be dealt with in accordance with the rules.

Referee appointment emails.
The appointment notification which comes via email from Full-Time sometimes contains the phrase “contact ref sec” which means contact Mark Stonehouse on 07799 767805 or mstoneys@btinternet.com, or “club ref appointed” which acknowledges the fact that the Club is taking care of their own referee appointment.
Please make sure your managers understand these terms.

Club Registration Secretary
We have discussed at previous League meetings the challenges that we have had in setting up the season effectively. In order to address these challenges we are doing two things.
- Firstly, we are providing clubs with notice that the deadline for registering with the league at the start of the season will be enforced. The deadline will be 31 July and will not be extended. All clubs or teams must provide all required information by this time.
You are hereby warned that there will be significantly less tolerance of late entries than there has been in previous years. This is because it is simply not possible to set up the start of the season correctly without having all the requested details. This does not mean that we won’t be accommodating when we can be but the emphasis will be League first, individual Clubs and Teams second. You might suffer exclusion, delayed entry, fines, etc.
- Secondly, to oversee this new process we have created a new role, Club Registration Secretary which will be active before the start of each season. This role will be taken by Vice-Chairman, Matt Walters, whose duties will include:
• Collect the Club registration forms (all the team details, coaches’ contact details, pitches they play on, etc)
• Produce the Coach Contact List
• Chase late entries, the agreed deadline for having all details will now be 31st July (after this date the Chairman will post a letter to the Secretaries of any offending Clubs advising them of their exclusion from the forthcoming season’s competition. Thereafter the Committee will meet to collectively decide what to do with any late entries).
• Pass details to the League Secretary for arranging teams into divisions and entering onto Full-Time and to the Treasurer for issuing of invoices.

Emergency Aid.
We feel it is important to have at least one FA qualified first aider per team. Charter Standard Clubs should already have this. Those teams who don’t yet have a first-aider have until the start of next season to get this sorted out as it will become compulsory from the start of next season and the detail will be collected on the team registration form. The course is £25-30 and lasts for 3 hours one evening and the qualification lasts for 3 years before needing to be refreshed. This doesn’t seem much to ask when we’re considering the welfare of children. The course books up early in Berks&Bucks area so please don’t leave booking too late. I’ve included several links below for various local County FAs.
Berks and Bucks https://eventspace.thefa.com/berks-bucksfa/participant/s.aspx?eventlen=55
Surrey http://eventspace.thefa.com/surreyfa/participant/s.aspx?eventlen=55
Oxfordshire https://eventspace.thefa.com/oxfordshirefa/participant/s.aspx?eventlen=55
Hertfordshire http://eventspace.thefa.com/hertfordshirefa/participant/s.aspx?eventlen=55
Middlesex https://eventspace.thefa.com/middlesexfa/participant/s.aspx?eventlen=55

Club Meeting
The next normal Club Meeting will be on Monday 15th January at Harefield United where the above can be further discussed.

Meeting for all Secretaries
To ensure we are perfectly aligned for the new season and that all Secretaries have every piece of information there will be a meeting for Club Secretaries on Monday 12th March at Harefield United, 8pm. Attendance is mandatory. If the Secretary cannot attend they must appoint a suitable deputy. This meeting is important for the successful running of the league going forwards. It also gives us an opportunity to understand your concerns and target help where it is most needed.