Annual General Meeting

Nomination form. Print this copy or email the details to Pam.

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FROME CANOE CLUB
MINUTES of the 2009 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held at Clubhouse on Wednesday 18th February 2009. The meeting started at 7.30pm.
Present: 21 members attended.

The President, Graham Warnecke took the Chair.

1. Apologies were received from Jim and Catharine Croft, Neil Dixon, Steve Ellis, Pip Hallett, Hazel Murray and Martin Spurling.

2. Minutes of the AGM,13th February 2008
The minutes were accepted and signed as a true record of the meeting.

3. Matters arising – none

4. 2008 Reports
Chairman's report – Andy Bell
i. Andy thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.
ii. He said that last year had some exceptional events including the trips and competitions. Trips are a big part of what Frome Canoe Club does and it is important to maintain our varied programme. He said that he would like to see more young people on trips.
iii. We ran two slaloms in 2008. Langham Farm was a really good event and the short course slalom had been so successful that we were planning to run another this year. Andy said he would like to encourage more members to enter slalom competitions.
iv. The training programme was a bit confused last year and the committee intends to give clearer guidance this year, promoting the training more actively and with that we need to provide the support for the development of new coaches in the club.
v. Finally Andy extended a very sincere thanks to all the volunteers who support the club and who give their time so willingly.

Treasurer’s report – John Kent
i. The club is a charity and under the Charity Commission rules we have to present our accounts in a certain way. We have to submit these accounts to the Charity Commission along with the Independent Examiner’s report and the Trustee Annual Report. This is the first year we have submitted the accounts to the Charity Commission on time.
ii. An Independent Examiner is required if our income exceeds £10,000. Before that we only had to involve an Independent Examiner if our income or expenditure exceeded £100,000 and then for the following two years also.
iii. Our net current assets are £16,431which equates to £16,627 when creditors and debtors are allowed for.
iv. The total fixed assets are £314,998.which equates to the £327,314 cost of building the clubhouse, less 4% depreciation and adding the value of other assets costing over £500 (the two slalom kayaks)
v. John produced copies of the accounts which included the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet and from the cash book the sheet headed Receipts and Payments. A full set of accounts is available to anyone who wants to see them. The AGM must approve and accept these financial accounts.
vi. Receipts and payments accounts: There has been a reduced income from Membership, Coaching, Pool/Wednesday and Trips. The hire of the pool has increased significantly. Slalom is the only category showing an increase on 2007.
vii. The Clubhouse: The clubhouse is now completed and the budgeted cost was £336,000. The actual cost was £327,214 due mainly to construction completing under budget. The adjusted cost of running the clubhouse in 2008 is £3,307 and after subtracting income from hiring out the building, it comes to £2,877. Insurance costs £1096 and the electricity for the year has been £1609. The running cost is significantly more than the business plan prepared for the CCPD Award application.
viii. Estimates of typical incomes and expenditure show a surplus of around £1.500 but this does not include equipment. In 2008 we spent double that on equipment but fortunately the difference was largely made up with donations.
ix. Gift Aid: Our membership forms provide the opportunity for Gift Aid where, for members who pay tax, the club can claim back the basic rate of tax the member would have paid on the membership fee. We are now poised to claim back this tax back to 2004 when we became a Charity.

Andy thanked John for producing these accounts and said that John needed to be congratulated because the role of the Treasurer is now very different from previous years, with significant responsibilities attached.

Graham asked if the meeting approved and accepted the accounts. Vote taken. All in favour.

Secretary's report – Pam Dixon
i. New areas of development in the year 2008:

• Introduction of the new BCU Star awards
• Introduction of a short course, non ranking slalom at Market Yard in July
• Introduction of the Sunday Monthly Morning Paddles at Market Yard over the winter months
• Introduction of the Wednesday DVD nights to provide a meeting spot over the winter months
• Experimenting with running Wednesday paddling through September and into October
• A monthly calendar sheet was developed to keep members informed.

ii. Membership: a decline, returning to the pre-clubhouse figures.
iii. Training: Wednesday club nights went well. As before slalom and canoe polo were on offer as well as a youth skills/games sessions. We also provided an Adults-only session every week.
iv. Club sessions: Pool sessions were calm enabling members on most evenings to have two sessions per night making it good value for money for them. Wednesday sessions were changed to accommodate two training sessions, 7-8pm for youth/inexperienced paddlers and 8-9pm for more experienced paddlers and adults. In this way members were catered for more successfully. Of note was the more consistent and regular support from volunteers and coaches which made a big difference.
Non members continue to be able to try out canoeing both at the pool and on Wednesdays. We cater from them on Wednesday with a session starting at 7.30. We also provided sessions for other organizations on eight occasions during the year.
v. Coaching: A limited programme of courses was delivered so that the club could become familiar with the new syllabuses. A One Star course and a Two Star course were offered. Foundation Safety and Rescue and First Aid were also provided.
The Paddlepower programme, although popular with young members could not run as we had hoped because we did not have a Coach to sign off the Passports.
Two meetings of Coaches were held to discuss the new BCU courses and the format of the Wednesday sessions.
vi. Competition paddling: We had 25 paddlers entering our Langham Farm slalom. 16 members competed in other events during the year, which represents a significant increase on the previous year (which had 4 members competing in other events). We have three Div 2 paddles and eleven Div 3 paddlers. We held a non-ranking slalom for the first time at Market Yard and it was very successful: 28 members took part, 17 of whom were youth members.
vii. Trips: a similar programme as previous years with 17 river trips (25 in the previous year) and two social events. Biblins was very successful with 52 participants and Tiverton had 50. Actual numbers of paddlers on trips when added up over the whole year (358) were down on the previous year (387) due to fewer trips being run and possibly to falling membership.
viii. Club facilities: The clubhouse is 2 years old now and the programme of on-going maintenance has started. Problems have included a water leak outside, giving us two months without water. There were also some difficulties with the hot water system. Debate continued about whether to extend the boat store or develop the room upstairs. No decision was reached. Some work has been done to start fitting the floor upstairs. The river banks have been maintained throughout the year by Sally and Tim Smiles. As well as cutting the grass and removing litter they have developed a path close to the water’s edge at the polo section. Langham Farm has not been used so much and not been so well maintained in Pip’s absence.
ix. Club Mark: still working towards it. We have completed many of the sections.
x. Discussion from the secretary’s report: there was support from members for the introduction of the Monthly Sunday Sessions and the DVD sessions. Members also liked the idea of keeping the Wednesday sessions going on as long as light allowed.

Graham picked up on the decline in membership and some of the activities/participation figures. He said that this year should certainly not be looked at in terms of ‘doom and gloom’: Biblins and Tiverton were both well attended and very successful events. He said that it was important not to overload volunteers and rather we could look at the year 2008 as a ‘year off’.

5. President, Graham Warnecke, and Vice Presidents, Jim and Catharine Croft and Richard and Jane Arney, remain unchanged.

6. Election of Club Officials
Nominations for these positions had been received in advance of the meeting:

Chairman
Andy Bell proposed by Julie Middleton and seconded by Carl Gilder
Rich Carter proposed by Pip Hallett and seconded by Pam Dixon
Alun Jones proposed by Rich Carter and seconded by Jackie Lloyd
A vote was taken. Andy Bell was elected

Vice Chairman
Andy Bell rpoposed by Pip Hallett and seconded by Pam Dixon
Rich Carter proposed by Andrew Lyall and seconded by Andy Bell
Andy withdrew, having been elected as Chairman
Rich was elected unopposed

Treasurer
John Kent proposed by Pip Hallett and seconded by Pam Dixon
John was elected unopposed

Secretary
Pam Dixon proposed by Andrew Lyall and seconded by Pip Hallett
Pam was elected unopposed

7. Election of 2009 Committee
The following members were nominated for the committee:
Tim Cottle, Steve Ellis, Carl Gilder, Alun Jones, Gareth McGiveron, Julie Middleton, Hazel Murray, Martin Spurling, Sara Withall.

A proposal was made by Andy Lyall and seconded by Jackie Lloyd to vote these members en block. A vote was taken. All were elected onto the committee.

8. Proposals from the committee
That the course fees be set as follows: Passport £30, One Star £35 and Two Star £40.
A vote was taken. All in favour

9. Any other business
i. A rolling course: there was an enquiry. It was explained that the hire of the pool made it too expensive.
ii. Pool costs: discussion followed about the losses we sustain because of the pool costs. It was suggested that we operate every other week, but this could be complicated because people might forget whether the session was on this week or not. Instead it was proposed that we cut out December and January sessions which would give an equivalent reduction in costs. There was consensus for this.

President’s comment
Graham thanked everyone for coming tonight. He also wanted to put on record a huge vote of thanks to the committee members and other volunteers for the amount of work they do. 2008 had been a positive year with many successes alongside embedding good practice.

The meeting closed at 9.25pm