03/11/2018 – Committee Meeting

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Minutes: 170 – 182

Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 3 November 2018 at Ventnor Marina

Present:

Ken Barnes (KB)
Michelle Barnes (MB) Treasurer
Robbie Barrett (RB)
Sue Barrett (SB)
Phil Boswell (PB) Chairman
Sue Boswell (SBos)
Gillian Chapple (GAC) Secretary
Roger Kennedy (RK)

 

170 Quorum

As more than four members of the Committee were personally present, the Chairman declared the meeting quorate.

171 Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence had been received from Georgina Hodgson.

172 Minutes of meetings

The minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 8 September 2018 had been reviewed by the Committee and were agreed as a true record of the meeting. The Chairman signed the Minutes.

173 Arrangements for Soup & Sparklers & Photo Competition

GAC advised that 46 people had advised they would be attending the breakfast (inclusive of Committee Members and Marina staff). She had made about 16 litres of soup, purchased baguettes, mulled wine, orange juice, milk and sparklers. There were tickets for the soup, sparklers and mulled wine for people to exchange in the evening.

Looking at the weather and the forecast for the evening, it was agreed that it was too windy to put the marquees up. It was decided that the soup, mulled wine, tea, coffee and hot chocolate would be set up in the kitchen and served on a ‘counter’ at the door between the lounge and the kitchen. Seconds of food & drink would be available at no additional cost if there was sufficient after everyone had been served. Everybody would be provided with 2 of the 18” sparklers and if they wanted more, there would be a charge of £1 for 2 further sparklers. It was agreed that if there was any soup left at the end, it would be sold off at £1 (GAC had a supply of containers which could be used).

MB and PB would deal with checking people in and issuing the vouchers. SBos and SB would serve the food and drink. GAC would heat the soups and mulled wine on her boat before transferring them to the serving slow cookers. RK had spoken with Steve Chapman and would be bringing his boat round to go on the services point in Sunset, in order to provide additional heating facilities through the evening. KB and PB would be responsible for lighting sparklers.

GAC had brought up a large supply of lights but it was agreed that, without the marquees, these would not be used. RB offered to create some lighting strings for the marquees for future use which he thought would cost around £30 and this was approved by the meeting. However, until the marquees were erected he wouldn’t be able to measure up. Action: RB

GAC reported that 26 entries had been received for the Photo Competition – these had been displayed on the VMMA website, the VMMA Facebook Group and sent be email to all VMMA Members who had chosen to receive Newsletters. The image would also be displayed on a continuous loop on the TV in the Woodland Loung after the close of the Committee Meeting until 8:30 pm. She said that email voting for the Photo Competition had closed and that there was currently one photo which was several votes ahead of the others. It was agreed that everyone who was eligible to vote who came in the evening (and who hadn’t already voted) would be given a voting slip and encouraged to vote. The slips could be handed in to any member of the Committee. At 8:30pm GAC and SBos would tally the votes cast.

It was agreed that the prize for the winning photo would be a canvas print of the image – available at a cost of £25 from Costco. GAC said she had spoken with Steve Chapman and he had agreed that a copy of the winning print could be hung in the Moorers Lounge. Action: GAC

All agreed that the Photo Competition had been a success and that it should be run as an annual event from now on, with Members being advised of the competition early in the season. The final would be at 2019 Soup & Sparklers. Action: GAC

PB had prepared the risk assessment for the evening.

PB thanked GAC for all the work she had done preparing for Soup & Sparklers and for organising the Photo Competition.

174 Membership Update

The Secretary advised the meeting that there were now 137 Full Members representing 76 boats. She was expecting 6 people (representing 3 boats) to join that evening.

175 Finance Update

PB advised that he had renewed the Public Liability Insurance at the same cost as last year (£79.80).

MB advised that all paperwork had been submitted to the bank for the change of treasurer and signatories. RK said that bank statements were still being sent to his address but that Michelle’s name now appeared on them instead of Mo’s.

176 Arrangements for year end

After some discussion, it was agreed that SBos would prepare a newsletter reviewing 2018 which would be issued to all Members at the end of the year along with the Membership Renewal notice. The newsletter would be used as the basis for the Committee’s report to Members which would be presented at the AGM. Action: SBos

MB noted that she would need to get the accounts prepared and examined before 1 March 2019, in order that they can be issued by the due date for the AGM paperwork. Action: MB

177 Arrangements for Wine & Cheese Evening

SB reported that someone from Friends of President would be able to come to speak about the boat at the Wine & Cheese Evening. SBos had also had confirmation that someone from the Astrological Society would be able to speak if required. After some discussion, it was agreed to go with the Friends of President.

SB was asked to confirm details with the speaker and find out what the audio visual requirements would be. Action: SB

178 Narrowboat Insurance and RCR

GAC advised the meeting that when she received her boat insurance renewal with GJWDirect, they had included basic RCR in the policy with the option to upgrade at a discount. There was also a discount for existing RCR members. She said that she had got a quote from the GJWDirect website which was cheaper than the renewal quote she had received and GJWDirect had matched the online quote. It was agreed that it might be useful to let Members know about this – possibly in the year end newsletter. Action: SBos

179 Cruising Map

GAC reported a Member had suggested that VMMA provide some sort of cruising map which Members could annotate in some way to indicate where they had been and offering Members the opportunity to ask advice if they were thinking about using that route. She said that she couldn’t see a way to do this on the website unless either individual log ons and passwords were used (which would mean reintroducing cookies) or Members submitted information to her which she then had to load on to the website (which she wouldn’t have the time to do). Alternatively, Members could be encouraged to post information on the Facebook group. However, a lot of Members were not members of the Facebook group. It was agreed that, for the moment, this would not be pursued.

180 PAT testing of electrical equipment

Now that the Committee had several items of electrical equipment, the question of whether or not the equipment needed to be PAT tested was raised. PB said that he would talk to Steve Chapman to see if the Association’s equipment could be included with the Marina’s when that was tested. Action: PB

181 News from the Marina Manager

181.1 New road surfaces

GAC advised that Steve Chapman had told her that he had received authorisation to replace more of the road surface – he expected to be able to lay the surface from Daffodil Corner to almost the dry dock. The work would be done in the New Year

 

There being no further business the meeting was closed

Following the Soup & Sparklers evening, the Committee reconvened for a short review meeting

182 Review of Soup & Sparklers

MB reported that 50 people had attended the evening. 44 Members, 4 Marina staff and 2 non-members had attended paying £6 in total and a further £5 had been raised by people buying cartons of soup. 6 people, representing 3 boats, had joined the Association on the day paying £30.

Supplies purchased for the event had been:

5 kg of frozen peas
2 kg of frozen carrots
1.5kg of frozen sliced onions
2 heads of celery
3 heads of garlic
1 kilo of dried red lentils
2 x cartons of Marigold vegetable bouillon
8 x 30g fresh mint
1 x fresh thyme
6 small white batons
6 small granary batons
Salt & pepper shakers
4 cartons of orange juice
12 bottles of mulled wine
Jar of cinnamon sticks
2 x 2 pints of milk
150 x 18” Sparklers

The butter left over from the last Moorers’ Breakfast had been frozen and was put out.

Unused and unopened were 2 small white baguettes, 1 x 2 pints of milk, 4 bottles of mulled wine, 2 cartons of orange juice, 65 sparklers. There had been some soup left – probably 2 rather than 3 lots of pea and mint soup would have been sufficient.

Ian Chapple had won the Photo Competition by 5 votes. Roger Kennedy was 2nd and Alan Rose was 3rd.

All agreed that it had been a very successful event.