Surrey Playing Fields AGM 2016

 On the 11th October the Lord Lieutenant, Michael More-Molyneux, chaired the Annual General Meeting which was held at the Old Council Chamber at Reigate & Banstead Town Hall. As it was his first meeting as our President, he explained about his family's background in sport and his belief in the value of sport in the community.

The Chairman, Gerry Ceaser, welcomed him and thanked his predecessor, Dame Sarah Goad, for all the work she had carried out on securing the future of many playing fields in Surrey. He then pointed out that there is still money available from our Loans and Grant schemes – details of these are available on our web site. He also stated that our bursary scheme for young athletes and coaches is in its second year and some of the recipients have had success at high level sport.

The Director explained about the importance of working in partnership and how our purely voluntary organisation can provide local information to borough and county bodies.

We are approaching our 90th year and will invite people to a buffet reception on 27th February 2017. This will be exactly 90 years after our first meeting. In October 2017 we will be holding a Gala Dinner where we hope to have significant people in the sporting world and the playing field movement present.

After the formal part of the meeting was complete, Michael More-Molyneux presented the Fair Play Award from the P&G Surrey Youth Games to Councillor Rachael Lake, Deputy Mayor of Elmbridge. The award consists of a certificate and a cheque towards improvement of youth sport. This is the second successive year that the team from Elmbridge has won the award.

During his talk later in the evening Steven Day, the Chairman of the Active Surrey Board, mentioned that playing sport in a way that develops people and friendships is important. Elmbridge have produced teams that reflect this ethos and we were very pleased that Emily Lewis, a member of their Leisure and Cultural Services Department, was able to be present when the award was made. The Department's work and their volunteers deserve recognition.

Steven Day then talked about how being a voluntary Chairman of the Active Surrey Sports Board fits with his employment as Chief Executive of the Fulham Football Club Foundation. He then explained that playing sport for fun whilst still playing to win was an essential part of participating. He described a number of the objectives for Active Surrey. These include the Sport England aim of making us an active nation. Over the years there has been a concentration on youth, now there is a target for increasing participation for over 50s. He also talked about the need for activity to fit in with the health agenda.

We all realise that Active Surrey has an important role to play in assisting with funds and for that we are all grateful. There was some comment from the people present that the role of sports clubs must be recognised and helped to improve in the future.