AGM MINUTES – FEBRUARY 6^TH FEBRUARY

Held at KSA Clubhouse at 20.00  

Apologies – Ian Dawson, John Baron, Chris Bell, Ian Downs, Maurice Burn, John Moor

2/ Last year’s minutes agreed and signed by the Chairman

3/ Matters arising – None

4/ The Chairman apologised that his letter had failed to be circulated but summarised the contents and promised a delivery with the new membership cards etc.  He emphasised the settling down of the new clubhouse and the good news that it had cost less to run than anticipated mainly due to the good offices of Geoff Pardoe and his regular visits.   There would continue to be a close monitoring of fees and expenses.

5/ Membership Secretary’s report – membership had fallen to the normal average of c.122 members of whom 15 were new members.  There had been very few day tickets sold this year (c.5).  There were 96 dinghy members, 59 Sailboards, 12 group memberships.  He finished with a plea for members to pay their new subs ASAP. 

6/ Treasurer’s Report – See attached A/C – (not attached electronically).  Finances of KSA are very sound and we are no longer in debt.  Sufficient funds exist for some further work.  Electricity costs had been lower than expected due to Geoff’s constant monitoring of prevailing temperatures and adjustment of the storage heaters.  All round a good year.           He proposed that the showers should become “free” for a trial period

Further that the launching area should be considered a priority for modification.  A sub-committee had been formed with Shaw as chairman to assess disparate needs and opinions, and to try and generate a compromise solution to all our desires.  A possible figure of £5000 was mentioned. 

7/ Constitution changes as proposed and circulated were passed   unaminously and are now part of the constitution.  Namely to reduce Clause 3 to a) organisations must trestrict the numbers present to those who are actively engaged in water activities.  And to delete b)

Secondly that there should be a new Clause 32/ to identify responsibilities of parents and guardians and to confirm that the club will only take responsibility for those minors who are engaged in club racing.

8/ Site Development – Launching access is a top priority.   There was a spirited discussion of the needs of disparate types of water user, much of which rehearsed the e-mail correspondence over the last few months.  The committee admitted that the southerly concrete jetty was an error which will be removed.  Before that removal, however, there must be an agreement about the replacement which matches our funding potential and as many concerned bodies as possible.   Shaw Brown agreed to try and research and explore this strategy. 

Other site issues included – the front door which may need replacement.

-        installation of racks by the outside WC for Toppers and rowing boats

Looking further ahead – Where do we want to go? 

What type of club do we want to try and establish?  It seemed generally agreed that the race series currently constituted were successful and popular and Ian had offered (possibly) to run something similar at weekends in the summer. In his absence, he was invited to develop this idea.  

A rota of OOD/steward was supported to various degrees – there was debate about whether it should be voluntary or compulsory; how to resolve difficulties of date clashes etc.  Shaw pointed out that he was almost embarrassed by too many volunteers for the winter series.  The presence of an OOD would allow summer series to happen more easily, along with admin of club boats.  It was decided to propose a voluntary rota initially. 

A further lottery bid and/or another bid to the Twiname foundation might be possible if we develop the club further.  It was felt both were more likely to be successful if we could point to tangible club activity developments since the last grants.  Eg more club racing might generate a feasible bid for a rescue bid.  We were very much in a chicken or egg scenario eg we need rescue facilities but couldn’t afford them, but couldn’t run more activities without them.  Myles Ripley offered to lend the club his “RIB” as a “seed” rescue boat to allow development, providing a berth with an unmovable object was provided to lock it to eg a tree!   Shaw pointed out that 2 or 3 windsurfers had been happy to sail due to the presence of a rescue boat during the winter series. 

Do we want to aspire to be an RYA recognised training establishment?  It was felt that it was too early.  What were the halfway stages by which we might progress towards this?  Possibly if a freelance instructor wanted to use Killington as a base, then this might help us along that route. 

There was unaminous support for the concept of rescue boat facilities being available on Sunday mornings. 

9/ Race Report – Wednesday night series had been very successful but turnover of personnel had been high.  There was a regret that a handicap fleet had not materialised. 

Winter series – There had been less support from other clubs than last year despite significant circulation of details.  But.. domestic KSA support had been good. 

10/  Elections – Jem Hart had not been heard from so in his absence he was not re-elected

Chris Bell had indicated his willingness to be re-elected and was elected  having been

John Baron had sadly tendered his resignation due to illness.   In recognition of his hard work for the association, and notably for his work on the Lottery bid, he was proposed for life membership. Proposed by Dave Barker and seconded by Shaw Brown – the vote was unanimous.  

11/ AOB – Ian Dawson had asked if there was a possibility of a family membership whereby he might be able to pay less than 4 separate boat fees when he was only ever likely to use 2 at once.  He was referred to the membership secretary.

-        NW UK watersports application to run an event - meeting agreed to their request to run an event on 15^th June, provided a fee was paid to KSA – a forwarded e-mail was circulated to the committee concerning this.

-        Meeting thought that holding an open meeting would be a good thing provided someone was prepared to organise it!  There were no immediate offers!

-        Dates for the diary – Work days scheduled for Sunday 9^th and 16^th Feb to re-park the dinghies on the new berthing area.    Also the next committee meeting was to be Tuesday 8^th April .

-        Myles Ripley agreed to run another Open day on August Bank Holiday. He was advised to try and get mentions on local radio. He had already organised to use the “bandstand” in Kendal in the w/e prior for publicity and was still hopeful of getting  another publicity venue. 

-        Notification of two school level events was mentioned – w/e of May 3/4^th and June 28^th.

 Meeting closed at 21.35.

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