Dolphin Rowing Club AGM

Minutes of the AGM Meeting held on 11 June 2017, Emsworth Community Centre, 17.00 hours

Present:
Jesse Loynes- Chair/Captain
Anya Loynes - Welfare Officer
Julia Rooke - Rower
Steve Rooke - Rower
Alison Kidd - Rower
Ian Maclennan - Rower
Steve Woods - Gen/Mem Secretary
Rachel Norris - Treasurer
Chris Partridge - Rower
Vanessa Brent - Rower / Apologies:
Gail Bingham
Sue Ramshaw
Jenny Neale
Mark ?
In Attendance:
Dee Pullen
Item No
1. /

The meeting opened at 17.09

Welcome and Apologies
Everyone was welcomed to the first Annual General meeting by the Chair person and apologies had been previously advised to the clerk as noted above.
The Chair tabled 2 documents namely the Agenda and the Treasurers report for the year ending 5th April 2017.
2. / Annual Reports
The Chairspoke to his report and restated the initial club objectives (which were included as part of
the agenda document), the plan for the first year and achievements to date. He wished his thanks to be recorded to all members who had been involved in supporting the club during its first year.
Treasurer’s Report. Membership fees. Current membership fees are £60 per year, with a £10 discount for paying the full year ahead. The Treasurer explained the increase in running costs of the club for it’s second year. Our first year has been generally supported by ERA grant of approximately £500 and Emsworth Yacht Harbour gifting storage worth over £1,000 for the first year. Chichester Harbour Conservancy also supported the club with reduced boat plaque charges.
RN explained there would be cost increases for the next financial year estimated to be in the region of £1000 and which included all running costs including a fee to the marina which would now be payable.
The club is a not for profit organisation and in it’s first year has run within it’s means and provides good value for money. The accounts will be audited annually by an independent auditor – Mr I Maclennan.
Chris Partridge arrived at 17.11pm
3. / Election of Officers
The captain explained that there were a number of roles that the club needed to be fulfilled and which had been mirrored from the British Rowing Club structure as it currently stands. There was discussion with regard to the consolidation of some roles given the number of available members to take up posts. The following roles were duly elected and agreed for the next year.

Chair: Jesse Loynes, Proposed Rachel Norris, Seconded Steve Woods,
Treasurer:Rachel Norris. Proposed Anya Loynes, Seconded Jesse Loynes. It was agreed that (Ian Maclennan would be the independent financial reviewer and would not therefore be proposed for any roles.)

Rowing Secretary/Competitve Secretary/On Line Content: Chris Partridge, Proposed Jesse Loynes, Seconded Julia Rooke.
Membership Secretary: Julia Rooke, Proposed Anya Loynes, Seconded Rachel Norris
Safety Officer: Steve Woods, Proposed Julia Rooke, Seconded Alison Kidd
Welfare Officer:Anya Loynes, Proposed Vanessa Brent, Seconded Chris Partridge
Bosun: Jesse Loynes, Proposed Steve Rooke, Seconded Rachel Norris
Secretary: Steve Woods, Proposed Anya Loynes, seconded Alison Kidd. * It was noted that the club would continue to seek a replacement Secretary for Steve Woods.
Clerk: Vanessa Brent, Proposed Alison Kidd, seconded Julia Rooke
Captain: Jesse Loynes, Proposed Rachel Norris, seconded Julia Rooke

A number of matters arose from the elections and are noted below.
The club felt there was a need to allocate a rowing rota for organising outings with special trips organised for novices or new rowers. It was noted that posting rows and filling boats had presented a challenge of late.
There is a need to arrange a coxing course for those who would be willing to join the current group of coxes in order to share the responsibility more widely.
It would be useful to adopt the Cutters approach to the forward communication of outings by posting and populating a rowing/outing diary a few weeks/months ahead of time to allow rowers to organise and plan for training opportunities.
It was felt that the club have lost some potential members due to lack of continuity and organisation of outings. The team agreed that this must improve in order to capitalise on interest shown by new members to the club.
Some members suggested that the club should work towards raising awareness of its existence by organising some fund raising activities and possibly advertising the club.
4.
4.1
4.2 / Policies to adopt or update
It was unanimously agreed to adopt the British Rowing Club policies as posted on their website unless there was a need to personalise a policy specifically for Dolphin Rowing Club. E.g. Child protection policy.
Membership fees. JL tabled the suggestion of an increase in annual membership fee to £80 to cover 2nd year costs. Discussions concluded that £60 would be sufficient and all current members play a part in advertising, recruitment , retention and the full disciplines of being a rowing club member.
It was proposed to increase the annual membership fee to £60 whilst also focusing on fundraising activities and increasing membership numbers. The Treasurer confirmed that 6th April is the start of the new membership year. It was proposed that the monthly payments can stand at £5 per month but that annual payments should be encouraged. It was proposed and agreed that a maximum of 2 sessions should be allowed by new rowers before they will be asked to pay the membership fee. The proposals as outlined above were put to a vote and unanimously agreed.
5. / Any other business
Ian Maclennan left the meeting at 18.13.
It was agreed that those organising the outings would be responsible for collecting the outing subs and informing Julia of who had rowed and who had paid. Julia would follow up on any outstanding payments and this would save interrogating the nabble site to understand sums outstanding.
It was noted that Waiver Forms were not being signed and it was agreed that this needed to be enforced as a matter of safety and protection for the club.
RN felt a lockbox at the marina was needed and would be useful.
The Chairman passed around some proposed rowing kit designs for the club.
The Secretary explained that the space at the Marina was the clubs to keep clean and tidy and that we could take some action to ensure we could always access the boats by posting some signage and preventing cars parking across the boats.
It was noted that the gate by the launch had been padlocked and the club needed to secure a key.
The Welfare Officer confirmed that she may have secured some storage racking for the boats and that there was a need to take some measurements in order to install it once acquired.
6. / Close
The meeting closed at 18.30 hours.

Signed:………………………………………………………………. Date:……………………………………...

Dolphin Rowing Club Minutes 11 June 2017 Page 1 of 3