STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Minutes: 099 – 112
Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 6 November 2016 at 10am at Ventnor Marina
Present:
Ken Barnes (KB) Chairman
Michelle Barnes (MB)
Peter Barnes (PeB)
Phil Boswell (PhB)
Sue Boswell (SB)
Christine Brown (CB)
Gillian Chapple (GAC) Secretary
Mo Kennedy (MK) Treasurer
Roger Kennedy (RK)
Jean Seagar (JS)
099 Quorum
As more than four members of the Committee were personally present, the Chairman declared the meeting quorate.
100 Minutes of Meeting
The Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 8 July 2016, having been circulated, were approved and signed by the Chairman.
101 Matters Arising
Min 082 – Moorers Breakfast Risk Assessment – KB agreed to provide the Secretary with a copy of the Risk Assessment for the May Moorers Breakfast for retention in the Association’s files. He said that this would be in electronic form Action: KB
Min 097 – Marina Barbecue – A donation of £46.09 had been received from the Marina from the profits raised at the Marina Barbecue.
Min 097 – Purchase of Cadac and accessories – Chris Brown had purchased the Cadac with the liner at a cost of £87 after discount. A regulator and hose was needed and Roger Kennedy was authorised to purchase these. The Marina had donated a bottle of gas. Action: RK
102 Review of Moorers’ Breakfast 18/09/2016
Gillian had provided laminated signs indicating which basin a Moorers’ Breakfast was being held in on the day and these are kept in the Marina office.
41 people had attended. Provisions had cost £46.72 with £37 being received from non-members attending and people purchasing additional bacon butties, making the net cost to the Association £9.72.
3 new members had joined the Association at the Breakfast.
Ken had done the Risk Assessment and agreed to forward an electronic copy to the Secretary. Action: KB
103 Review of Soup & Sparklers evening 05/11/2016
40 people had attended, although only 28 had indicated that they were coming (and some of them had not turned up). Gillian said that she had bought 200 sparklers because of the pricing structure making it cheaper to buy 200 rather than fewer. There were about 100 sparklers left and these would be kept in VMMA stock for next year.
Jean and Chris were congratulated on their soups and mulled wine which had been enjoyed by everyone. The sausages (which had been halved and sized to match the bread slices) were well received and it was agreed to provide these as well as soup in the future. It was agreed that butter and milk were not needed. Total cost for food was £36. A total of £74 was received, the Committee have waived the charge to Chris and Jean, and Steve and Karen from the Marina). Net profit on the evening was c£20.
Ken had prepared the Risk Assessment and would forward an electronic copy to the Secretary. Action: KB
It was agreed to repeat the event next year on 4 November 2017. Lessons learned from this year’s event were that we needed to manage the circulation of people better as with that many people access to the mulled wine, soup etc. had not been easy. Also, it had been noted that one person in particular had taken large quantities of the mulled wine and several people had not had any. Although the marquee had bee put up outside it hadn’t been used by many people. There had been difficulty getting the sparklers lit.
After some discussion it was agreed that:
The mulled wine should be served to people on arrival – possibly in polystyrene cups; Gillian is to look at cost of cups at Costco. Action GAC
After people had ‘sparkled’, hot chocolate should be taken round in jugs.
There should be some price differential between Members and non-Members. If the Association’s finances were still looking healthy next September, then no charge to Members, £2 non-Members or £2 Members/£3 non-Members.
A couple of garden flambes should be put near the marina edge to enable people to light their sparklers.
More carrot & corriander soup was needed.
104 Equipment Review
Looking back over all the events held in 2016, the Committee decided that the following additional equipment should be sourced:
A two ring gas burner should be sourced (by asking Members if they had an old one to donate or by purchasing one), together with regulator and hose. Action: GAC/RK
A gas lighter with refill, a 4 plug extension lead, 2 storage crates Action: MK/RK
2 pairs of tongs, a large teapot (or 2 smaller ones), a galvanised bucket/container Action: JS
105 Membership Update
Total membership was now 117 Full Members and 1 Social Member, representing 65 boats. It was noted that some of these members had pre-paid their 2017 subscriptions.
106 Finance Update
Ken had renewed the Public Liability Insurance for a year to 5 November 2017 at a cost of £78.37. There was some discussion regarding whether or not we should insure the equipment. It was agreed that, due to likely compulsory excesses and the most expensive item we have costing £100, the Association should self-insure for the next year.
Gillian reported that the domain name registration was due for renewal. Looking at the cost of 1 year, 2 year, 5 year and 10 year registrations, the Committee decided to renew for 5 years at a cost of £26.34.
Taking these transactions into account and allowing for the net proceeds of the Soup & Sparklers, Mo reported that the Association had about £325, not counting the pre-paid 2017 contributions.
107 Facebook Group
Sue explained that a closed Facebook group was completely separate from a person’s normal Facebook feed. She explained that,having used Facebook for work recently, she could see the power of it, the immediacy of it and the ability to interact with a group of people quickly. If you had maybe 50+ people in a VMMA members’ group and someone posted ‘Where’s the best mooring on the Ashby Canal?’, then you’d probably get a pretty instant reply as a lot of people tend to have Facebook on their phones and probably tend to be logged into that more than email.
Sue said that she had done some tests with her step-daughter, who couldn’t see any posts Sue had made in the current VMMA group and Sue could not see any posts her step-daughter had made in groups she is in. Also Sue can only see what Mo and Roger have posted in the group, not any other posts.
Sue said that there was no need to be friends with people in a closed group as the groups operate separately from someone’s Friends list.
After some discussion, the Committee agreed that it would be a good idea to have two closed Facebook groups, one for the VMMA committee and another for the VMMA members. Sue agreed to be the administrator of both groups. Action: SB
108 Newsletter for Members & Moorers
It was agreed that a Newsletter was a good idea but the costs of printing and posting one to all Moorers or even all Members was thought to be prohibitive. If it could be combined with a Marina general mailing then it might be possible. Otherwise, an e-mailed newsletter to VMMA members would be the best option and Gillian agreed to look into this and to produce the newsletter. Action: SB/GAC
109 Year End Arrangements
Mo confirmed that her colleague was willing to act as Examiner for the accounts again. It was agreed that all Members should be sent details about the AGM date and a request for any items to be included in the AGM at the same time as they were invited to renew their membership. All invitations would be issued by e-mail. It was also agreed that we should say that there would be an open Committee meeting immediately after the conclusion of the AGM so that Members had a chance to discuss any thing they wanted even if it had not been raised in time for inclusion in the AGM. Action: GAC/MK
110 2017 Social Events & Dates
There was a general discussion after which it was agreed that we would not look to repeat ‘outings’ of the Marina so would drop the idea of a trip to Helidon Vineyard.
Sue & Phil offered to organise a ‘Ramble’ starting and ending in the Marina going as far as Napton Post Office where people could stop for refreshments. The idea of a summer picnic with a quiz was discussed and felt to be worth trying, provided we can get enough people interested. It was agreed that we need a minimum of 20 people to make it worth the effort of organising.
The Wine and Stars evening following the 2016 AGM had been successful and it was agreed that we should repeat the wine & cheese type event but with a canal orientated speaker. Jean said that she would contact Chris at Willow Wren to see if he would bring his steamboat up and give a talk. Action: JS
Dates for 2017 were set as:
18/03/2017 – 2pm – VMMA AGM, followed by open committee meeting
18/03/2017 – 7pm – Wine & Cheese evening with guest speaker
06/05/2017 – 4pm – VMMA Committee Meeting
07/05/2017 – 10am – Moorers Breakfast
10/06/2017 – 10am – Napton Ramble
10/06/2017 – 6pm – Picnic & Quiz
08/07/2017 – Marina Barbecue
09/07/2017 – 10am – VMMA Committee Meeting
17/09/2017 – 10am – Moorers Breakfasts
04/11/2017 – 7pm – Soup & Sparklers
05/11/2017 – 10am – VMMA Committee Meeting
111 VMMA Logo
Sue said that she had a contact who was a graphic designer and it was agreed that she should get a quote for helping us finalise the logo design. Action: SB
112 Mooring Terms & Conditions
After a discussion, it was agreed that we would not take this further given that the new mooring terms and conditions were generally as restrictive if not more restrictive than earlier versions. The original concern had been that the new terms and conditions were less restrictive.
There being no further business, the meeting was closed.