Riviera Hash House Harriers

Riviera Hash House Harriers

2013 AGM Minutes

Meeting date:Jan 21, 2014 , as reported by Contessa

 *New this year: see ACTION tracking highlighted in red!

The Ambiance:

Similar to 2012’s RHHH AGM’s meeting,the efficient and detail -driven Farty Bum prepared her cozy downstairs apartment, Villeneuve Loubet to host the Hash AGM 2013. Seated at a table at the front of the room was Perpetch who chaired the meeting; Contessa sat nearby typing notes on her PC. Hostess FB offered tea to early arrivers, but being Hashers we were in great anticipation that Pedo would soon show up with some Hash beer to get the vibes moving. With the eventual arrival of Pedo 30 minutes late, we were 12 thirsty Hashers in total.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

At 19:30, Perpetch began by thanking FB and everyone present for turning up. He explained that our AGM, originally scheduled for November 2013 was postponed three times due to the absence of globetrotting Hashers or other circumstances that merited waiting as “we’ve got to have key people at these meetings”.

Perpetch took the time to refer to the Minutes of last year’s AGM, complimented reporter Contessa and said that writing the Minutes was more difficult than presumed; “…toconcisely report vital discussion without writing a novel” . Supermarket Trolley also complimented the Minutes as an accurate reflection of what was discussed. Contessa appreciates your compliments!

ACTION: Contessa to write and publish these AGM Minutes

Apologies not attending from: unlike the polite RSVP’s excusing no-shows to 2012’s AGM meeting, there were no apologies ..(or maybe they were just not announced?)excusing non-present Hashers. * Just imagine the input and Action follow-ups if we’d had 20 or 30 Hashers at these meetings! And why was this AGM meeting not posted on the RHHH website!!!?

In Attendance: Perpetch, Contessa, Coco, FB, Sadist, Cumalot, Leverette, Supermarket Trolley, Madame Mouton, Fairy Plunger, Padre and Pedo- 12 Hashers… and one full size skeleton for good measure!

Review of the year 2013

Getting down to business Perpetch revisited our successes and objectives for 2013. It was agreed that the 25th Anniversary Weekend was a success so focus was directed to 2013’s objectives needing attention:publicity and recruitment.

Accountable, Responsible and Action Tracking

Madame Mouton suggested that someone needs to be Accountable for Actioning the AGM plans. As many of us agreed, the main failure is not in the planning… but in the execution. For this reason Contessa suggested that these Minutes will include specific ‘Actions’with a ‘Responsible’s name, and Perpetch will be the ‘Action Master’ to track Responsible’s completion of the Action.

Publicity Flyers were created in 2013 and distributed at a few (?) or one Fun Run. Cost 50 € for printing 1000. It is hard to determine if these brought in new members. Perpetch suggested that we need to be more selective as to where we use these flyers. There are still some left. It was suggested we distribute them at expat shops and hangouts, such as to the yachting crowd, at Wedgie’s bar in Old Nice. SuperMarket Trolley took some to distribute to expat food shops Brittain’sHome store, Geoffrey’s of London.

Supermarket suggested disturbing flyers at organized races such as one coming up in Sophia. It was suggested that one person takes ownership of targeting Fun Run PR.

ACTION: Perpetch and Supermarket to distribute flyers at the run coming upt in Sophia.

Riviera Radio/WOG ‘Whats On Guide’

It was agreed that submitting our Run announcements to the Riviera Radio was a good idea to find new members, to keep our name in the local expat media and why not, as it’s free! . Most of us have heard the Run details announced a few times, although the number of times the announce is read does depend on what other events are also announced the weekend of a Hash. Instructions were given to keep your announce short, it is the responsibility of the Hare to send it to Riviera Radio WOFG, and get it to the radio one week in advance.In your ad, direct the interested listeners to the RHHH website (making sure your Directions are already posted, of course!) and if giving the Hare’s phone number, give the real name, not the Hash name!

ACTION: all Hares to continue to send in Run details to RivRads’ WOG

OtherRiviera-target EnglishPress & Social Media Channels

Leverette suggested RHHH use ‘Anglo Info’ to announce our Runs.Using the’ Riviera Reporter’ was also mentioned but as it is a monthly, we would need a long lead timeThere could be Run info sent through to the Riviera Reporter website. Our Communications Responsible should be doing this!The value of osting Hash info in French revues was mentioned last year y Max but there was no follow up.

Cumalot and Leverette then recommended using Social Media sites to connect with current and future Hashers. Info must be updated regularly and this will keep a constant ‘buzz’ going

ACTION: Leverette accepted Responsibility to develop our presence on Facebook.

ACTION: Never Cums who manages the RHHH website will give the Facebook password to Leverette.

Cumalot suggested putting Run Reports on Facebook, thereby attracting younger Hashers. RHHH needs to sign up for’ Notification’

Several older Hashers present do not use Facebook but rely on Yahoo Groups which RHHH will continue to use to distribute emails….it was unclear if Dingus is still responsible for the Hosting of the Yahoo Groups site. Pedo wants to orientate the membership drive to younger female runners…!

Review: Away weekends of 2013

Away Weekends last year were far from successful. ‘Extraordinary ‘circumstances came into play: the weekend planned for Bobio, Italy was cancelled when the hotel (difficult to communicate with) rented our reserved rooms to other customers. Also Perpetch was a ‘person of interest’ in a murder mystery investigation (!) and finally the away weekend to Corsica was too costly and there was not enough demand so it was cancelled.

In the end a weekend in Porquerolles did happen. Perpetch thanked Sadist, Padre for a “remarkably successful weekend,” with 27 attendees in total ‘included Visitors. Even though it was the same location for the 6th time, it was a well appreciated weekend.

But there are problems with Hashing in Porquerolles due to logistics. Restaurants on the island are too expensive; not an option. Therefore RHHH needed to prepare and transport a picnic. Due to high waves, this meant renting not a small boat but a large boat (pilot’s license required). Dark and Moistcaptained the 2013 picnic boat. According to Perpetch, had the sea been any rougher we could not have crossed waters with the picnic!”. Also this logistics problem increased the cost of the weekend to include a boat rental fee.

Planning: Away Weekends 2014

Coco’s planned Away Weekend in his home town of Perrero, Italie (Piemonte) to vist the Finestrelle military fort and crossing through the mountain chalk mines was cancelled due to ill health of his mother. Perhaps another time in the future.

Grand Hotel and Spa de Pigna, in Liguria was mentioned as a possible option, not so far away , 18 kms from Ventimiglia (above Dolce Aqua) We decided to get impressions from Confusion who went with Two Cheeky several years ago.

Another idea was going to the Gorge du Verdon. A great place for finding places to run and walk, needs some research to find lodging.

Levrette asked about the possibility of repeating the 2012 Italian spa weekend again, organised by Duchess of Cambridge. All who went agreed it was good value for money but the distance was too far too travel for only two days.

The idea of having an away weekend in Dublin was also discussed, to be coordinated with Wedgie and the Dublin Hash.

Another suggestion was to go back to Salerne and pass one or two days Hashing near to Wetspots’ domaine. Could we find lodging there? Do we really need two nights?

The discussion ended with a working plan to aim for a Salerne weeknd in May and a Dublin weekend in mid September/October.

ACTIONS: Perpetch to email Wetspot and ask abt having a Salerne Away Weekend in May.

ACTION:Padre to liaise with PHD… in an official capacity… and Wedgie, to see about organizing the Dublin Hash in September, and estimate costs for air fare, lodging etc

Presentation and Adoption of Accounts: RHHH pays no Wealth Tax !

Sadist distributed his balance sheet of RHHH Expenditures and Profits, comparing 2011 to 2012. He later emailed in the same for 2013. (see final page of these Minutes). RHHH is about ‘breaking even’ taking into account the costs to fund special Away Weekends, a Christmas Party , buy Hash mugs, monthly costs to buy beer, flour, chips etc. and Hares meals, etc.

Noted¨Run fees of 5 € pays meals for two Hares at 2x20€ =40€ needs to be collected in Run fees or 15 Hashers paying Run fees covers the Hares’ meals. A limit of 20 € was set to be paid for a Hare’s mealby RHHH.

Hush Mugs are getting to be expensive; a 200 Run mug can cost 60£ while 100 Run Mugs 30£.

A mention was made to sell existing haberdashery stock i.e outdated Hash t-shirt, sweatshirts, and even anniversary mugs. There is nota huge demand.. Sadist sent around a very clever sales pitch by Yahoo email to flog the leftover stock. Good try Sadist!

Keeping a few thousand euro on the RHHH bank balance is important. This assures we have enough to put down as caution when we book special restaurants and hotels for events.

Membership fees annually are 15 € per person or 23€ for a family.There will be no waiving of the membership fee for Founding Members (sorry Road Runner, this was stubbornly announced by Perpetch).

Padre gets free membership for Life as he did 500+ runs!

Changes in the Mismanagement Committee

Hash and Action Master: Perpetual Motion

Bean Counter: Sadist.

Hash Cash: Farty Bum (no deputy)

Religious adviser: Cumalot

Beer Meister: Pedo

RoadRunner self-appointed himself as Assistant Beer Meister… but Pedo says it’s not true!

Hash Publicity: Leverette who will also upgrade our visibility via Social

Networking sites.

Hair Raiser: Madame Mouton

Hash Haberdasher: Pedo (still flogging t-shirts as collector items!)

WebShite: Never Cums (we thank for loyally doing a consistent job when posting Directions and Run Reports)

Membership Recruiter: Decided that we should ALL BE DOING RECRUITING!

Virgin Greeter: Decided we should all greet Virgins and keep them in

the loop so they don’t feel ignored when they show upon their first run.

Lou Papier: Continue to share doing Run Reports.

Permanent SOTW: – FB (as nominated in jest by Coco!)

Any Other Business

Half dozen Hashers from RHHH will be going to Brussels Inter Hash, 23-27 July, 2014. but it was hard to get any news out of them!

Change venue for Christmas Party

Several horror stories about disappointing experiences at the venue of our last Christmas Party, Quai 06 (Mandelieu) confirmed that RHHH will NOT return there again! We did agree that the Accommodations were great and a good deal (60€)but the restaurant certainly was not! Rude staff, poor food, denied access to toilet after spending 1500 €, hiding /not serving the included coffee in the RHHH menu, changed their mind about the price of the wine, changed at the last minutes our menu selections, insisting everyone takes the same menu. etc.

Therefore RHHH is looking for new venue for the 2014 Christmas party.

Criteria: decent place with a good price and food, a place to dance, with atmosphere and hopefully accommodation, for about 45 persons, abt 40 minutes from Antibes.

Venue suggestions were discussed:

Strezilias JLP ? Atmosphere not good.

Montaroux? –accommodation lacks atmosphere.

Le Pont sur Loup? The heating went off, except for Perpetch who was the only one to have heat in his room!!

Lago Bin, Rochetta Nirvina- meals are expensive but they do have atmosphere, plenty to eat, good serviceand on-site rooms and free music- economize 400€.

Bistro de la Rague? – not exactly for a party.

Vallbone – in the square? a restaurant with a fireplace?

Use’ Trip Advisor’, suggested Levrette.

Comments overheard: “When women dress up they wantto go somewhere elegant.”

“We don’t want to be disco dancing in a stable!”

Why don’t we all look for somewhere and report back to whomever is in charge?

ACTION: Mme Mouton to lead the Searchfor new Christmas Party venue