Minutes of a Meeting of the Kent Boat & Ski Club

Minutes of a Meeting of the Kent Boat & Ski Club

held on Wednesday 1st January 2014 at 3 pm

Present: / Dean Frost
Claire Bailey
Steven Bailey
Don Cuckow
John Gibbs
Nick Humphrey
Daniel Lake
David Lake
John Scales
Kate Scales
Nicola Turner
Richard Turner / In attendance: / Paul Cuckow
Lyn Gibbs
Sarah Humphrey

Action

Minutes from previous meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed. Proposed Don Cuckow, seconded Dan Lake.
Correspondence
Nicola Turner had received an email from the BWSW concerning a basic guide to health and safety. She would print off some copies and bring them to the next meeting.
She had also received notification that the MPA fee this season would be £60.43 /

NT

Reports
Kate Scales reported that we had £5,770 in current account, £480 in the NatWest saver account, £400 in bar cash, and the £60,000 in the Nationwide accounts. £1,900 belonged to the gas section.
John Scales reported that we had spent £5,600 on the boat wash project, and that he had been surprised at how much it had cost. The area did need some more work at the beginning of the season to tidy up the grass and the edges, etc.
Don Cuckow was still waiting to hear from the BWSW about re-training etc. There were a few boat drivers in the pipeline for testing and he would liaise with them in due course.
He had attended the December meeting of the Medway and Swale Boating Association, which although not strictly relevant to our club, had given us a good foundation with other river users. He had been informed that the Deputy HM, John Gurton, was leaving in January. Don was planning on getting in touch with the other chap to discuss the signs that were to be erected, and to invite him to the club for a wakeboard session.
The Medway and Swale fee would remain the same for 2014. The next meeting was due to be held at Conyer on 29 April, and Don had offered the KBSC for the meeting on 22 September. Their AGM would be on 2 December at the Medway Yachting Association. They were looking for someone to give a talk at one of the meetings, and Don asked for ideas.
They were very concerned about effluent being discharged from houseboats, and they were looking for volunteers to investigate on behalf of the Environment Agency. Daniel Lake asked what would be involved, but Don was not sure. He would endeavour to find out at the next meeting. Dan’s opinion was that it would be good for us to participate if we had only to consider our own stretch of river. /

DC

DC

Cttee
DC
The Medway River Festival was scheduled for 12 July, and Don had volunteered our services. He thought that they would welcome our input in a water display to be held by Sun Pier. / Cttee
Any Other Business
Kate raised the question of the equipment Gareth Hopkins had donated to the club, and insurance on the garages where it is stored. She had intended to get the insurance file out to see how much we were covered for, but had forgotten. It was agreed that we did not need to worry about this because, firstly, there was a grey area as to whether or not it had actually been donated, and secondly, we would probably not claim for loss if the stuff were to be stolen.
She also reported that Jon Weston had still not paid his membership fee arrears, and there was discussion as to how we should handle this if he wanted to join this year. It was agreed that we should address the problem if and when it arose.
John Gibbs asked what was happening about buying another dumper. John Scales reported that he, Dean Frost and Gareth Hopkins had attended an auction of Hewden Hire plant in Dartford and had been shocked at how much the dumper trucks sold for. They had been looking from time to time on eBay and other sites, but had not yet found anything. He said that we would not be able to source an automatic dumper with a swivel bucket under 5-tonne. The 4-tonne one that we had hired for the boat wash project had been perfect, although this size was rare. Paul Cuckow pointed out that this meant that spares would be expensive.
The main problem that we were trying to overcome was the one with getting boats in and out of the compound. Paul suggested we consider changing the layout so that the boats were at 45º to make manoeuvring easier. There had also been a suggestion from Steve Bailey that we put an extra set of gates at the end of the compound.
The matter was left for future action. /

Cttee

Don suggested that we should resurrect the club trophies, which could be presented at the AGM. It was thought that they might be behind the bar, and we would have a look after the meeting. /

Cttee

Paul Cuckow reported that the final report on the incident at the Princes Club had been produced, and that the finding was one of corporate manslaughter. This was interesting in view of the new SBD2 requirement that no observer was necessary on a one-boat lake.
Richard Turner suggested that we should write to the BWSW to express our concern about the decision not to require an observer. Don would send them the details, and Nicola and Richard would put something together to send to the BWSW. /

DC

NT
RT
David Lake thanked everyone who had been involved in building the boat wash area.
This led to John Gibbs raising the matter of how we should handle large projects in future. Inevitably, it was always the same members who did all the work, and there had been a suggestion that payment should be made. The next job was to be the building of a smoking shelter and porch outside the club doors, which was too large to be done on a works party. No decision was made as to how we should handle this.
Nicola reported that the BWSW club liability insurance level of cover had each been increased from £5m to £10m:

• Club officials, directors and officers
• Public liability
• Qualified coaches professional indemnity
• Libel and slander

Employer’s liability had been added to a limit of £10m.
The AGM was due to be held on Sunday 23 February at 11 am. Nicola would email everyone with the agenda and proxy forms.
A vote would be included to increase membership fees by the rate of inflation.
Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting would be the AGM on 23 February.
The meeting after that would be held on Sunday 6 April 2014 at 10.30 am
Signed ………………………………….
Chairman