RB&RNP Ass’n Committee Meeting Minutes held at SNCO’s Mess Southwick Park on Friday 8th November 2013

The Chairman opened the meeting at 1900 welcoming the committee members.

Eddie Widnall: Kate Widnall: Dave Lodrick: Colin Gent: Tony Hadley: Willie Dick: David Addis: Dave Cox: Steven Robertson: Michael Brown: Nobby Hall: Peter Davies:

Apologies: Chick Fowler: Tam Carmichael: Barry Edser: Henry Cooper:

Minutes of Last Meeting: The Secretary has distributed these minutes and they are taken as read.

Matters Arising: The Chairman asked if there were any matters arising, to which there were none. It was therefore proposed by Willie Dick and seconded by Kate Widnall that they be accepted as a true record and duly signed by the Chairman.

Welfare Report: Michael Brown reported that since the Reunion (which he thought was a fantastic success) he had been made aware that Jim Cunningham, Association Member, had Crossed the Bar and on behalf of the Association he had sent a condolence card and flowers to his widow Shirley.

He had also spoke at length to Tom and Jacqueline Rees who were grateful to the cancer services in Spain and that both his recovery and an injury Jacqueline had sustained, were progressing well.

Michael also said that he had tried to contact John Reidy with regards to his hospital admission for his operation, but had not been successful and at the moment could only hope things were going well.

The Reunion Memorial Service went well and Michael thanked Willie Dick, the Church Warden and Organist for their diligence.

Michael went on to say that he had had a conversation with the establishment Chaplain who had expressed his wish to have stone markers at the ashes plots and that he had a contact who was prepared to do them for approximately £30 each, which he thought was not beyond our reach.

The Secretary said that having had an agreement from the Regimental Secretary that we should be allowed to use our own markers as long as they had uniformity. It was for them to formally write to the Association if they wanted a change and then we could make a response accordingly.

Archie Dickie as Chairman agreed and said we would continue with our current markers until such formal notice might be given.

Treasurers Report: Kate Widnall was pleased to report that thanks to overdue membership fee's now being paid, the Association did indeed make a small profit of £155:62 in the last financial year.

Monies at the bank at present was £4663:58 with all bills paid.

A separate account had been set up linked to the Association account for the Arboretum Memorial Fund Appeal, which now stood at £728:50, thanks to donations received. The Account details for donations RBA(93)RNP ABF

Kate said she was also pleased to report that membership fees were now coming in nicely thanks to all the work that has been done.

Dave Lodrick said that he would personally like to put on record his thanks to Dave Cox, David Addis and all the committee for their hard work in the professional running of the Association.

The Secretary asked if any progress had been made on the appointment of an Auditor. A discussion ensued which concluded that Dave Cox would ask his wife (Pam) who is a chartered accountant if she would be willing to be considered for the appointment as Auditor of the Association.

Membership Report: Dave Cox reported that carrying on from previous meetings and the AGM he had now removed those members whose subs had remained unpaid for two years or more. This leaves the Association with 251 full members at present. However there were still 49 who have only paid £5 and he will be contacting them before the end of November advising that any outstanding subs not paid by 31st December would result in them being removed from the membership.

The total membership, including Honorary, Associate & Widows, stands at 319.

He pointed out that we still needed to get everybody to put their names, as a reference, on their Bank Standing Order to ease keeping track of the subs paid annually. He had three who had paid but had no reference to who the payment related.

Dave finished his report with the good news that since the AGM three life members had elected to pay the membership fee (£10) annually as a donation. They were John Reidy, Tansy Lee & Dave Cox.

Secretary Report: Colin Gent reported that he had had two pieces of correspondence. The first passed to him by the President which was a thank you letter from Myra White thanking the Association for the flowers she received for her work as the Auditor and that she had thoroughly enjoyed working with the Association. He had also had a copy of a letter sent to the Chairman by Dave Vidler with reference to the Arboretum Appeal Fund which he would deal with later in the Agenda.

He finished by thanking all for their reports both at committee meetings and in particular the AGM which he thought went very well.

Social Secretary Report: Willie Dick reported that he'd had some very good feedback from members during and following the Reunion. The extra entertainment by Shep Woolley made quite a difference to previous years. The buffet on the Saturday was still of a good standard although it had been reported that the quiche was very soggy. This will be rectified for our next Reunion.

Willie felt that the Friday evening at Southwick probably needed some discussion, although the bar prices were very good the venue, food and service was not positive in the feedback he had received.

He finished by stating that he had heard that some people would not come to the Reunion because of the £30 cost however he thought that was a very reasonable price and maybe a clearer explanation of the cost could be explained in our next Newsletter but stressed the Reunion must be self funding to sustain a good weekend.

Committee Review 2013 Reunion: The Chairman thanked everyone who had contributed to the success of our 20th anniversary Reunion, including the wives of members who worked very hard. He then invited each committee member for their comments.

The general census of opinion was indeed that the weekend was a success, however the Friday night and Saturday AGM venues needed to be looked at as Southwick Park, which was a distance to travel, the mess in general unwelcoming and the service provided, despite good bar prices, could and should be much better.

Willie said that even though he worked in Southwick park the organisation was difficult to work with.

Willie Dick as Social Secretary was tasked with looking into other venues within the Portsmouth area, including establishments and taking into account cost's etc, reporting back at the next committee meeting.

Colin Gent asked if Kate could also produce a full separate breakdown of this year's Reunion cost's so that ticket prices can be properly evaluated.

Slops Report: Nobby Hall reported that he had taken £120 in Slops over the Reunion weekend. He was also continuing to sell museum gifts in aid of the museum and all were available through the website.

He was also producing a photo on printed canvas at a cost of £80.

FNA Report: Tony Hadley said he had nothing to report at this meeting.

Website Manager Report: David Addis reported that there had been little change with regard to the Association Website. He was however still disappointed with the number of members who interacted on the Forum and once again asked committee members to set an example and become more active. He intended to sent a mass email from the Forum to encourage a more positive response.

He was also pleased to report that the museum web pages have been completed and gave a demonstration of the site from his laptop. He had received a positive response from Commander Moran PM(N) who has agreed that we have an entry in his Christmas Newsletter to the RN Police.

The new link to the museum pages are now available.

David went on to say that he had had a positive response to the e mailing out of the minutes of the AGM, however the Committee will have to bear with receiving a copy from Colin as well as one from him due to the mass emailing list he had have compiled, also other points of interest to members can also be included in the body of the email.

Serving Members Report: Steven Robertson said he had nothing to report at this meeting.

London & Medway Rep Report: Colin Gent said he had nothing to report at this meeting.

Arboretum Memorial Update: The Secretary on behalf of the Chairman read out the letter received by Dave Vidler. He has expressed his concerns that whilst the Association was struggling for funds the raising of £3000 for a memorial, which he felt was a well meaning idea, should have come from the serving Police organisation rather than the Association. We would then be in a position to make a donation as opposed to taking the lead.

The Chairman said that he would respond to Dave's letter following the report from the NMA sub- committee.

The sub- committee consists of:

David Addis - Association Link

Steven Robertson - Serving Personnel Link

Peter Davis - Arboretum Liaison

David Addis reported that the NMA have been very helpful in providing information both to himself and Peter.

The agreement of the subcommittee is that the memorial should be a York stone suitably engraved with the crest of the RNP and Association, with a suitable wording below, located in the Heroes area is the best avenue for our appeal and memorial

The cost of this will be £3000, it is normal that the total amount is paid when the application form has been submitted to the NMA

They do understand that the £3K is a large amount and would be willing to accept a deposit of £1K to reserve a stone. There is only going to be 3000 stones laid, what the take up will be is hard to judge, I would request the Committee authorise us to make the application as soon as the appeal reaches the £1K mark.

I have a suggested poster that we could use for the appeal and would welcome any recommendations.

Peter Davis said that the first stones will be laid in March 2015 and although the sum we were raising seemed large in fact the cost of some of the memorials at the Arboretum are considerably more.

Steven Robertson said that he had approached the RN & RM charity regarding the possibility of applying for a grant. The head of grants, Anne Carr, said that they look at memorials once a year at their June meeting and that we should submit an application form, copy of which he passed to the Chairman/Secretary which we could apply for nearer the time when we know how the fund raising is progressing.

Steven said that we had already received £200 in donations from the RNP officers and warrant officers following PM (N)'s appeal. He still knew of another £50 to come, furthermore PM(N) was currently looking into holding a fundraising event in HMS Nelson with a gig by his Rolling Stones tribute band (he is the drummer). Dates to be published when known.

Steven went on to say he had looked at the Just Giving/Virgin Giving sites but felt they were quite restrictive and not suitable for our needs as we would need to be a registered charity. He did however say it may be worth getting our appeal on Facebook as this would reach many Regulators/RNP, both serving and retired.

The committee unanimously agreed that this was indeed a worthwhile cause and it was clear it would be a joint appeal. To this end the committee had a spontaneous whip round and raised another £140 making the total raised so far £863.

Finally the sub- committee were asked for provisional designs for the memorial stone to be put forward at the next committee meeting.

Hon Vice Presidents Address: David Lodrick said that he thought the evening had been an extraordinarily productive meeting in that all that had to be discussed had been discussed and it was evident that all the hard work continues to go on. He wanted to register a personal thank you.

Presidents Address: Eddie Widnall echoed the thoughts of the Honorary Vice President. He went on to say that he and the Chairman had attended the funeral of Jim Cunningham, at which there were 4 serving officers, 2 serving MAA, 6 committee members, 4 retired regulating officers and 10 other retired Reg branch members. He had been proud to give a eulogy as was the Chairman who carried the Association standard.

Chairman Report & Address: Archie Dickie thanked all for coming out on such a horrible evening. He thanked each and every committee member for the effort put in over the last year which ensured we all had a wonderful reunion weekend and now let's work towards the 25th reunion weekend. He went on to say the advancement of the Association over the past 20 years was due to you and your predecessors commitment and enthusiasm . This is reflected in the fact that over the last 20 years we have organised successful weekend reunions, introduced the Association into the computer age and we now have an extremely professional website that we can rightly be proud off and now have the vision to have a permanent memorial at the National Arboretum.

A.O.B.:

Kate Widnall said that the Christmas Raffle had been very hard work this year, was down in sales from previous years which could mean we only just cover our costs. Any initiatives in selling more tickets would be gratefully received.

There being no further business the meeting was closed at 2120 until 14th February 2014.

Signed...... Chairman...... Date

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