Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Devon Yawl Association 2024
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Devon Yawl Association 2024
Held on Saturday 17 February 2024 – By Zoom video conferencing.
Present:
Committee: Commodore – Michael Roberts (DY141), Vice Commodore – Andrew Matthews (DY100A), Web and Social Media – Philip Hawker (DY106), Steve Northmore (DY386) (Plymouth Fleet) – Second Hand Boat Register – Tim Petitt (DY186) – Hon Treasurer and Membership Sec – Ian Scholefield (DY310), Jay Williamson (DY391).
Fleet Reps: Mike Bennett (DY102) (Dart).
Other members: Peter Bowden (DY380), John Gregory (DY373), Jon Pegg (DY377), Ed Williams-Hawkes (DY351).
(12 members attending – the meeting was quorate)
The meeting started at 1330.
1 Apologies
David Bartholomew (DY78), Leigh Baxter, Derek Gouldsworthy, Rick Hanford (DY365), Sarah Muir (DY187), Elly Pegg, Ted Timberlake (DYs129 and 252).
2 Minutes of AGM held by Zoom video conferencing on 18 February 2023
There were no matters arising. The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting and were so adopted.
3 Commodore’s Report (see the Commodore’s Reflections in The Yawl 57)
Michael Roberts referred to his piece in The Yawl 57. Michael reported that, on behalf of the DYA, he had sent condolences to Leigh Baxter on the recent death of Leigh’s wife. In the early days of the DYA Leigh and his wife had been well known on the DYA Rally circuit with DY150 “Chiquitita” and had organised the annual event from the Royal Harwich YC. Condolences had also been sent to Gill Atkins (former DYA Hon Secretary) on the death of her husband, Keith. Gill had replied with warm thanks.
4 & 5 Membership Secretary’s and Treasurer’s Reports
Ian Scholefield had circulated the following reports with the Notice of the AGM:
Membership Secretary’s Report to the 2024 AGM.
I think this is probably my shortest report ever.
We have welcomed some 27 new members in the last year which, after the inevitable resignations leads to a current membership of 179. This is up 6 on the position last year.
During the year we undertook a straw poll to try to establish whether the calendar is appreciated to the extent to justify its continued production. About 20% of members responded to the request for comment and the vast majority of those who did so support continued production. At least for the time being I will go on gathering photographs from members, and assuming there are enough contributions another calendar will be produced for 2025. Getting it printed early keeps costs down, so the earlier photos come in the better.”
Treasurer’s Report to the 2024 AGM.
The accounts for the year ended 31 October 2023 show a deficit for the year of £317.05. This is a somewhat smaller deficit than was predicted at the start of our year. This was primarily achieved because of breaking even on running our National Championship though this did mean a somewhat higher entrance fee for participants than has been the case in recent years. Considerable efforts were made throughout the year to keep our administrative costs as low as possible though this is being frustrated by significant increases in the price we must pay for postage.
The cost of posting out a copy of The Yawl has increased from £1.65 to £2.40 over the last year even using 2nd class post for almost all our correspondence. This increase has not yet been reflected in an annual account, but it will impact on us in the current year. Inflation is affecting all our costs to some degree.
The accounts to 31/10/23 show funds in the bank totalling £9470 though the timing of our year end means that the accounts show the position after receiving most of the year’s subscriptions but before we incur some of our significant expenses. At the time of writing this report, in early January, our funds are down to £7676.
Your committee feel that we have reached the point when allowing a deficit to occur year after year is not sustainable. I’m not certain exactly when the subscription increased from £10 per year to £15 but it was certainly prior to 2008 so we have done reasonably well coping with the ravages of inflation for over 15 years. Having looked in some detail at our budget the suggestion is that to maintain our current level of activity the subscription needs to be increased to £25 per year. If approved this will apply to new members joining from today and to all members when subscriptions next fall due on 1 May 2024. I do hope that members will see £25 pa as being a modest cost for membership of the Association and support this change which is listed for consideration at point 8 on our Agenda today.”
Philip Hawker asked why The Yawl and the calendar could not be posted together. Ian Scholefield and Andrew Matthews jointly explained that this had been tried in the past, but unsuccessfully. The reasons were various but included that the timings of the production of the two did not coincide, the size of the resulting package and the logistics of moving one of the two across Devon.
There were no questions arising on the Accounts themselves. The Accounts were proposed for acceptance by Mike Bennett, seconded by Jon Pegg and approved unanimously.
6 Web and Social Media Update
Philip Hawker said that the Website was stable. Contributions were always welcome.
7 Election of Committee
Nominations had been received as follows:
Commodore – Michael Roberts (proposed Andrew Matthews, seconded Ian Scholefield)
Vice Commodore – Jay Williamson (proposed Michael Roberts, seconded Andrew Matthews)
Membership Secretary and Hon Treasurer – Ian Scholefield (proposed Andrew Matthews, seconded Michael Roberts)
Members: Builder – James Gough-Allen, Web and Social Media – Philip Hawker, David Langley, Andrew Matthews, Steve Northmore (Plymouth Fleet), Second Hand Boat Register – Tim Petitt (all proposed by Michael Roberts and seconded by Ian Scholefield)
It was proposed by Peter Bowden, seconded by Ed Williams-Hawkes, that the nominees be elected en bloc. That proposal was approved unanimously.
8 Membership Fees
The notice of AGM had set out a proposed increase from £15 to £25.
There was a considerable debate. However, feed back had been positive and none of those attending the AGM were against the proposal. The increase was proposed by Ian Scholefield, seconded by John Gregory and adopted unanimously.
There was some discussion about the best method of setting up recurrent payments. This discussion would be continued in Committee going forward.
9 2024 Nationals and 2025 Venue
The 2023 event on the Yealm had been blessed by sparkling sailing conditions and had gone well. The minimum boat entry mechanism had worked well and the event had been self-financing.
The Royal Western Yacht Club in Plymouth had kindly agreed to host the 2024 Nationals on 22-23 June. The Notice of Race had been posted.
Whilst it had been decided in principle not to offer the event in a venue without a home fleet, that subject and the venue for the 2025 event would be discussed in Committee.
11 Any other business
Dart
Mike Bennett was concerned that the boats based on the Dart did not merit “Fleet” representation. Everyone else disagreed! Mike was encouraged to continue.
The Builder
There was discussion on what could be done to help the builder and ensure a continuing supply of new boats. Many ideas were explored. However, it was agreed that the starting point was orders. It was hoped these would materialise at the forthcoming RYA Dinghy Show at which the DYA would be represented.
Michael Roberts thanked the members for attending and the Committee for their work in the past year.
The meeting ended at 1450.