STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Minutes: 269 – 280
Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 30 November 2021 via Zoom
Present:
Robbie Barrett (RB)
Sue Barrett (SB) Chairman
Gillian Chapple (GAC) Secretary/Treasurer
Karin Cotter (KC)
Dave Glover (DG)
Alistair Hodgson (AH)
Georgina Hodgson (GH)
As more than 4 people were present on Zoom the meeting was declared quorate.
269 Apologies for Absence
The Secretary reported that apologies for absence had been received from Jayne Glover
270 November 6/7 Events
It was noted that Soup & Sparklers and the Craft morning planned for the weekend of 6/7 November had been cancelled after a majority of the Committee felt that it was unwise to run them be due to rising Covid infections.
It was noted that via a 3rd party, Sue Barrett had been advised that 4 people had turned up for Soup & Sparklers because they had not been informed it was cancelled. Gillian Chapple confirmed that all Members had been advised by general email that the events had been cancelled and that those people who had booked were also sent individual emails. Posters had also been put up around the Marina. Gillian advised that, on investigation, it turned out that one couple had not booked for the event and were not members of the Association. One of the other couple had been sent an individual email on 1 November at 14:10 advising her that both events had been cancelled. The member also got the general email advising that the events were cancelled that went out on 1 November and opened it at 8:32pm on 1 November.
Gillian confirmed that voting in the Photo Competition was extended to allow those people who were planning to vote at Soup & Sparklers to make a digital vote. Jayne Wragg was the winner and had received a canvas print of her winning entry. Gillian has framed photos of the 2020 and 2021 winning images to go up in the Marina office.
271 Membership Fees for 2022
The Committee had before them draft accounts for the year to 2022 which the Treasurer confirmed included anticipated expenditure between the date of the meeting and the end of the year. It looked as though the Association would have about £880 at the end of the year. All agreed that existing Full Members of the Association would not be asked to pay a subscription for 2023, given that there had only been only limited VMMA activity during 2021. The Secretary was asked to include an explanation as to why no 2022 fees were being requested when she wrote to Members. Action: GAC
The Secretary explained that during 2021 a number of Members had left the Marina so were no longer eligible to be Full Members of VMMA and had been transferred to Social Member status. She was asked why the Association had Full and Social Members and explained that the category of Social Member had been set up for two reasons:
- To allow more than 2 people from a boat to join the Association – it had been thought that allowing more than 2 Full voting Members from any one boat to join could unduly influence voting on issues, particularly where a share boat was involved which could potentially have 12 ‘owners’;
- To allow anyone with an interest in the Marina (such as Marina staff) to participate in events and competitions.
Gillian said that 4 of the people transferred to Social Membership had resigned their membership as they no longer wished to receive information regarding VMMA. The question of whether or not to extend Social Membership for existing Social Members at no cost through 2022 was discussed and it was agreed that all Social Memberships should lapse at the end of 2021 unless the Members specifically asked for it to continue, in which they would be given 2022 Social Membership at no cost. Gillian said that she would ask the Marina staff to check the list of boats belonging to current Full Members to confirm they were still moored at the Marina. Action: GAC
272 Arrangements for 2022 AGM
The Secretary reminded the meeting that the AGM has to be held in March with the meeting paperwork sent out at least 14 days before the meeting. After some discussion, it was agreed to hold the AGM on Saturday 19 March 2022 – whilst it was thought advisable to hold it as late as possible in March, Mother’s Day was on 27 March and it was thought that might mean some people who would like to attend would have other commitments.
It was agreed that arrangements should be made to hold the AGM at either the Nelson Social Club or the Football Club in Stockton. The possibility of holding the AGM further afield was discussed but the consensus was that the closer to the Marina the AGM was held, the more Members would attend. Gillian was asked to look into the costs and availability of the Stockton venues. Action: GAC
Sue Barrett mentioned that there was a meeting hall in Napton and agreed to find out the hire costs of that in case the Stockton ones weren’t available. Action: SB
It was agreed that, in the event that Covid restrictions meant the AGM could not be held in person, a month’s Zoom membership should be taken out so that there were no time restrictions on the meeting. Gillian advised that currently a month’s Zoom membership cost £14.39.
273 Social events for 2022
There was some discussion regarding whether or not any events should be planned for 2022 in light of the possibility of continuing Covid restrictions. It was agreed that nothing should be done about Wine & Cheese on the evening of 19 March until we were closer to the date and knew more about possible restrictions. Sue Barrett had already booked a demonstration from Tradline for a Moorers Breakfast on 24 April and it was agreed to let Members know about this as it was close to Easter and might have an impact on some people’s boating plans. It was agreed to wait until March 2022 before setting a date for a second Moorers Breakfast in September. Soup and Sparklers would be on 5 November, Covid precautions permitting. The possibility of running craft events during 2022 was deferred until March 2022.
It was agreed that the Photo Competition would run in 2022. Following a suggestion from one of the VMMA Members, a discussion was held regarding whether a calendar could be produced using entries from the competitions. Some Members of the Committee thought this was a good idea and others didn’t. It was agreed that the suggestion should be considered further once the potential costs involved were known. Georgina Hodgson agreed to look into production costs. Action: GH
Gillian Chapple commented that if Members’ photos were used for a calendar, it would be necessary to get permission from the Members involved as they retained the copyright of the images.
274 Newsletter to Members
It was agreed that a Newsletter would go out to all Members before the end of the year, providing information about subscriptions, provisional dates in 2022 (with the caveat of changes due to Covid restrictions), etc. Action: GAC
It was also agreed that Members needed to be advised that there were likely to be a number of vacancies on the Committee; Sue and Robbie Barrett having advised that they would not be continuing as Committee Members due to other commitments. Gillian Chapple had advised that although she would be willing to stand for re-election, 2022 would probably be the last year she could be on the Committee as she and her husband were thinking of either selling their boat or moving to a different marina – having moored at Ventnor for 18 years. A replacement (or replacements) would be needed to take over her roles of Secretary, Treasurer and Webmaster and she suggested that 2022 was an opportunity for people to work with her with a view to taking over in 2023.
275 Ventnor Marina Ltd Accounts (Min 255 refers)
The Committee had before them the published accounts for Ventnor Marina Limited for the years ended 30 September 2019 and 2020, which are publicly available from Companies House. These appeared to show that profits to 2020 had gone down but the short form accounts did not provide detailed information which would enable an analysis of year on year expenditure versus income to be made or to verify the claims made by the Marina Directors in correspondence during 2020.
After some discussion, it was agreed that no further action would be taken by the Committee in connection with trying to get some compensation for moorers due to the Covid lockdown. It was felt that pursuing the matter further could be detrimental to cordial relationship which existed between the Association and the Marina staff – which was sadly not reflected by the Directors’ attitude of If you don’t like it, leave.
276 Minutes of prior meetings
Due to there having been only one physical Committee Meeting since the 2020 AGM and that being kept as short as possible due to people having other commitments, there were a number of sets of Minutes that have not been formally approved for signature. It was felt that approving and signing the Minutes should not be left any until March 2022 which was the earliest a physical meeting was likely to be held.
It was therefore agreed that this meeting would approve the Minutes and hard copies would be sent to the Chairman for signature and then posted to the Secretary for the Minute book.
The Committee had before them the following draft Minutes:
02 11 2019 – Minutes 224 – 241
14 03 2020 – Minutes 242 – 246
04 09 2020 – Minutes 247 – 253
27 03 2021 – Minutes 254 – 256
18 06 2021 – Minutes 257 – 261
12 09 2021 – Minutes 262 – 268
27 03 2021 – Annual General Meeting
12 09 2021 – Special General Meeting
These were approved by the meeting, subject to the correction of some typos which Dave Glover had noticed. Dave agreed to email the Secretary with the details and then corrected versions of the Minutes would be sent to the Chairman for signature. Action: DG/GAC/SB
The Secretary advised that Minutes 194 and 208 needed to be amended retrospectively. This was because following the handover of the Association’s financial records from the previous Treasurer, the financial summaries recorded in the minutes for two events were found to be inaccurate. The revisions were approved and it was agreed that the Chairman would sign toff in the same way as indicated above. Action: GAC/SB
277 Online banking
The Treasurer reported that the online banking facility with dual authorisation of payments was finally working and that most outstanding payments had been made.
278 Updated Constitution
The Secretary reported that the updated Constitution approved by the Members at the Special General Meeting on 12 September 2021 had been posted on the VMMA website.
279 VMMA Committee Private Facebook Group
It was noted that the VMMA Committee Private Facebook Group had been deleted as the only people who were members of it were Sue Barrett and Gillian Chapple, so it served no useful purpose. The private VMMA Members Facebook group was still operating with Sue and Gillian as the administrators.
280 Vote of Thanks
Alistair Hodgson proposed a Vote of Thanks to Gillian Chapple and Robbie Barrett seconded it. Alistair requested that the Minutes record the committees appreciation of all her hard work in organising matters and holding things together during what had been a very difficult two years; without her diligent and dogged approach, the Association could easily have fallen apart.
Gillian thanked the Committee for their kind words.
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting.