Minutes of the 44th Annual General Meeting of the KSSA
Chipstead Sailing Club on the 19th November 2005
Present: Martyn Styles, Commodore in the chair
Committee Members: -
Frank Catt, Steve Restall, Jamie Blair, Mike Smailes, Dave Ellis, Dave Webb, Katie Restall,
Members and Guests: -
There were 55 attendees/members.
1. Welcome by the Commodore
The meeting was opened by the Commodore who welcomed everybody and thanked Chipstead for hosting the training earlier in the day and for allowing the KSSA AGM to be held in their clubhouse. Martyn remarked that most of the sailing in 2005 had been a mixed set of events with varied weather conditions, making training and sailing exciting.
2. Apologies for Absence
Elena Setterfield, Don Hall, Moya Large, John Hope, John Weavers, Charles Burnup, Jim Jeffery, John Martin, Jon Rowe, Tim Turnill, Debbie Thomas & family
3. Minutes of AGM Meeting 20th November 2004
The minutes of the 43rd Annual General Meeting held at Chipstead Sailing Club on Saturday
20th November 2004 were approved.
4. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
5. Commodores Report
The Commodore gave an outline report of the sailing during 2004. There had been much variety in the sailing by members of KSSA during the year.
· There had been 12 different events, with 35 days of sailing at 10 different venues. The commodore also thanked Whitstable Yacht Club for hosting the 6 Committee meetings during the year. Thanks also went the Medway Yacht Club who hosted the KSSA Annual Regatta in September.
· Turnouts have been average throughout the year. Numbers would have been better but for the clashes with Zone and Class training. It clearly demonstrates that we have produced sailors of good quality who find themselves drawn to other training. We need to encourage as many as we can to swell our numbers.
· Ed Cowell was the winner of the memorial race giving him the unenviable job of being the Race Officer for 2006 at the Sandwich Bay weekend. Another excellent weekend of training, racing and team bonding.
· Special thanks go to a number of helpers - Marion Smailes for her support as our First Aider. Jenny Catt, Fiona Blair and Judy Restall for on shore support on sailing days.
· Martyn recalled the receipt of a Volunteers award from the Kent County Council at their annual awards ceremony. This provided KSSA an opportunity to shine on a very different platform.
· The Commodore reminded all of the resources available to KSSA in a joint initiative with Downs SC.
· Martyn thanked all the committee members for their input during the year. Thanks also go to Katie Restall and Sam Rowe for their input on the Committee and hoped that new young members would join the committee for 2006. The “Major Incident Plan” masterminded by Dave Webb and Dave Ellis has become a major element of event planning – thankfully not tested in 2005.
· Jon Rowe promoted and provided the “Event Toolkit” box, which has been a successful addition to the event organiser’s equipment. The box needs more presence and is in need of a demountable flagpole, which would carry the KSSA flag. Martyn offered free entry to the Opening Splash for any entry to this competition and free entry to all KSSA events for the winner.
· Congratulations to Sam Rowe and Rob Waite who were awarded the Chairman’s Cup for 2005.
· Thanks to Mike Smailes for his work for KSSA to maintain our position with the RYA.
· Martyn offered sincere thanks to: -
Sericol for their help in printing
Our Web Master Frank Catt for the Website
Kent Schools Sports Council
Kent Sports Development Unit
RYA
NSSA – providing us with three events.
· Martyn reminded all present of the Memorial awards – Ernie Large and Nesham Driver, giving a brief description of what the awards can be used for, urging all the members of KSSA to put forward nominations.
· Thanks also went to coach Paul Lewis who had given KSSA some valuable assistance at a number of events.
· Martyn wished to record the death of Percy Baxter during the year – he was one of our founder members and as one of our Vice Presidents always kept abreast of the progress of the association.
There are many needs for 2006 –
· KSSA is for all the young in Kent and the promotion of the work of KSSA is a brief for us all. Please encourage new youngsters to join.
· Your comments from the questionnaire will be invaluable in providing a programme for 2006 and beyond. Your input is important.
· Is the programme of sailing and training what you want?
Let your committee know.
6. Annual Sailing Reports
Steve Restall commented that the number of youngsters involved with KSSA sailing was low. An improved future was evident with new faces in Stephanie Wicken, Richard Thomas and Peter Grey making an impact on the sailing scene.
Steve provided a summary of the Major events within the NSSA programme. Kent scored well at the Regatta in the Laser Radial fleet with Rob Waite 1st and Tim Ellis 8th. Paul Turnill did well in the 29er fleet as well as Ed Cowell’s 11th in the Topper fleet. We were third in the Team Prize. Highlight of this event was the Mount Haes Trophy race, which was won by Sam Rowe and Rob Waite.
2006 will see the NSSA regatta at Bassenthwaite and the May Championship will be at Farmoor, Oxford.
New for 2005 saw a match racing event at Farmoor in First Class 8 racing cruisers. A very steep learning curve seeing the Kent Team improve well throughout the weekend, finishing a very laudable second.
The Topper Team Racing event at Notts. County SC saw over 200 races sailed in the weekend. KSSA provided two teams with a third Kent representation from King’s School Canterbury. Both the Kent teams finished joint third.
Thanks went to the Team Captains and to the many adult helpers without whose support the team could not have been managed so successfully.
(A copy of the report can be found on the KSSA website http://www.kssa.co.uk)
7. Treasurers Report
A Report was handed out by the Treasurer followed by a full explanation of the accounts. Whilst income was lower than previous years (mainly due to a shortage of grants) the expenditure had been managed to give a break even position without hitting reserves.
Frank reminded the meeting that our venue costs were very low and if we had to pay commercial rates there would be a dramatic increase in entry fees. This was not seen as foreseeable problem and hence the subscription for 2005 would not be increased. There would, however, be a review of event fees. The Association also benefits from large amount of help given freely by others with no cost.
The accounts had been examined by our auditor and agreed as a true representation of the accounts.
We hope to have help from Kent Sports Development Unit again for 2006. Any help from other organisations would be greatly received.
8. Election of Commodore
Martyn Styles was proposed as Commodore and elected
9. Election of Flag Officers and Committee
The following were elected: -
Vice Commodore: Steve Restall. Rear Commodore: Rosie Tribe
Hon Treasurer: Frank Catt. Sailing Secretary: Not Appointed. Hon. Secretary: Jamie Blair.
Committee nominated at the meeting: Mike Smailes, Elena Setterfield, Dave Ellis, Tim Turnill, John Rowe, Anna Irvin, David Cowell.
Committee members to be approached not at the meeting: Those 2005 committee members who were not at the meeting would be approached.
Co-opted member: John Weavers
Young Members representatives: Katie Restall, Ed Cowell.
Event support Team: Debbie Thomas, David Turnbull
10. Election of Vice Presidents
Jack Aisher, Don Hall, Dennis Littlefield, Moya Large, Charles Burnup and Jim Jeffery will all be asked to continue as Vice Presidents.
11. 2006 Sailing Programme
As the committee wished to provide a programme which was inspired by the needs from the membership only a few events had been formulated for 2006. The content would be based around that of previous years and include: -
April Spring Training Bewl valley Sailing Club
29th April Opening Splash Wilsonian SC
20th May Topper Team Racing Redoubt
24/25th June Coastal Training/Regatta Sandwich Bay
September KSSA Autumn Regatta
Winter Training 1
Winter Training 2
18th November Winter Training 3 Chipstead SC
12. Any Other Business
Derek Crouch asked the assembled to congratulate Martyn, in particular and the Team for another good year.
The meeting was closed at 17.00 with the Martyn giving special thanks to Chipstead and wishing everybody a safe journey home, a good Christmas and let’s make 2006 an even better year than 2005.