Item 6: Secretary’s Report. AGM 2015
Committee Meetings, 2014
Feb 25 / Apr1 / Jun 3 / July 29 / Sept
16 / Nov 18 / Total
6
Laurence Oliver (Chairman & Team Manager) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / 6
Dave Mylett (Memb. Sec. ) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / Aps / 5
John Bannister
(Hon. Sec.) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / 6
Robert Guest (Vice Chairman) (H&S Officer) / Aps / Aps / Aps / Aps / √ / √ / 2
Vernon Jones
(Treasurer) / √ / Aps / √ / √ / Aps / Aps / 3
Gary Quittenton (Coaching Coordinator) / √ / √ / √ / Aps / √ / √ / 5
John Flavell (Asst. Treasurer) / √ / Aps / √ / √ / Aps / Aps / 3
Michelle Andrews (Jnr. Coordinator) / √ / √ / √ / √ / Aps / √ / 5
Ellen Doughty
(Asst. Sec.) / √ / √ / √ / Aps / √ / Aps / 4
Mark Griffin (Disability Officer) / √ / √ / Aps / √ / √ / Aps / 4
Connie Mills / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / Res / 5
Kevin Lack
(co-opted on Nov 18) / √ / 1
Members in
attendance / 10 / 8 / 9 / 8 / 8 / 6 / 49
Next Meeting: Tuesday 17th February 2015, 1930 at the Clubhouse
The customary table of attendance at meetings, whilst it is an accurate report of the committee’s formal meetings, does not do full justice to the work of the committee. The meetings provide opportunity for the essential sharing of ideas that result in plans for action, but most of the work is done between the meetings and throughout the year.
Lisa Sumner attended meetings along with Mark Griffin, contributing to the discussion and providing suggestions.
In order to foster the affiliation of the University Kayak Team, the committee invited their reps to attend the first meeting in their new academic year. Rachel Turner and Joshua Williamson attended the first part of our meeting on September 16th. This proved very worthwhile and we were able to clarify the arrangements for their use of the club’s facilities and share concerns and ambitions. They attended again on November 18th and will be invited to those meetings in 2015 that fall in their period of residence. Both Rachel and Joshua will be leaving in the summer, but we hope that their successors will continue the arrangement to the benefit of both parties.
Debbie Quittenton in her capacity as Competition Coach receives committee agendas and minutes and attends meetings at her discretion or at the committee’s request.
E-mail consultations between the club’s officers have become a matter for almost daily attention and other committee members and coaches are often also involved in discussions that result in immediate action or proposals to the next committee meeting. I pay tribute to the work and the achievements of all concerned as the club continues to flourish and develop. The constraints and demands involvedin running ‘an unincorporated voluntary association’ and the insatiable demand for documentation place a heavy burden on those responsible for providing satisfaction! The club’s success is proved as you have already heard in the Chairman’s Report, by the renewal of our prestigious certification.
At the last AGM I mentioned two ambitions for 2014. One was to achieve charitable status for the club as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. It has been a long and frustrating endeavour. It would be pointless to give details here, but I have to report failure. I believe that the club should still have this aim in mind, though at the moment we could not go any further without payment of very substantial legal fees and that without a guarantee of success. We await news of any club with CASC status like LCC that has managed to convert to CIO. Once there is a precedent, perhaps it will be easier!
The second ambition was to advance plans, along with the Brayford Trust and the University, for extended facilities involving a new, shared building, and/or extension to our clubhouse. This has been another long-running saga involving a series of detailed but from our point of view unworkable plans, much discussion and creation of alternative plans, and many meetings. I am much indebted to the Executive officers who were embroiled in this – Laurence, Rob and particularly Dave who joined me at several meetings. Alas, this has been another failure – there is no imminent development thatinvolves the club, but as Laurence observed, we do now have some ideas for possible future development.
Before Gary was engaged full-time by Canoe England (now British Canoeing), he had begun putting together an application to Sport England for funds to develop coaching at the club. I was happy to take over this task and happier still to meet with success for once!
Other targets in the 2014 Development Plan under the Management heading were
a)Updating and improving documentation. This was mostly done by the April target date, and more has been done since.
b)Improving the membership’s awareness of the management procedures and documentation. A club handbook was considered, with various formats including an updatable memory stick with club logos… but thanks to Dave Mylett’s continuing work on the website, everything is now available there and at no cost other than his effort.
c)Planning for retirement of senior office holders and increasing involvement of assistant officers, and sharing of tasks beyond the committee. There has been some success in this area, though the increased work of assistant officers and members beyond the committee has largely been new and additional work rather than jobs taken from the Exec.
d)Implementation of the Development Plan. A great deal has been achieved and there have been many exciting developments especially in coaching. The reports at this AGM give a measure of the club’s success and will point the way to the new 2015 Development Plan.
e)My enquiries about electronic registration of attendance and participation have not resulted in any action so far. The target date for this and related matters was Spring 2016.
I thank all those who have assisted in any way with the secretarial work that is my responsibility. Most particularly my thanks go to Dave Mylett who, as Membership Secretary already has huge responsibilities of this kind, but has made time to help me. Being altogether more methodical than me, he keeps the current version of all the documentation and makes it available on the website or whenever it is needed.
The committee already know that this is my penultimate report as Hon. Sec. I will retire from the post at the next AGM, or earlier if someone would like to take over!
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