Minutes of the 20th Annual General Meeting of the CVRDA
Held at Roadford Lake on Sunday 25th August 2019 at 6.02pm
- APOLOGIES
Keith Rollinson, Roger Devereux, Tim Bury, Pat Kuenzler, Ed Bremner
- MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM
A few spellings of names were corrected only.
Proposed as correct by Gavin. seconded by Jon Rawson.
Unanimously accepted and signed by the commodore Pat
- COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Roger Devereux is stepping down as a general member.
All others are content to continue to serve.
Commodore – Pat Jones
Secretary – Pat Kuenzler
Treasurer and Membership – Lois Barlow
Webmaster – Pat Jones
Fixtures Secretary – Peter Vinton
Catamarans and Lost Classes – Alan Williams
Members: Keith Rollinson, Nessa Weedon-Jones, Chris Barlow, Ian Marshall
Proposed by Rupert Whelan, seconded by Andy Hayes
Accepted unanimously
- CHAIRMANS REPORT
Thank everyone who has supported us over the last twenty years and everyone who has come to this event.
Quiet year apart from the flurry of emails in recent weeks to organise this event for which Ed is especially to be thanked for his hard work and also Alan for publicity, sending details to clubs and classes.
Event attendance not helped by weather. It’s been a year of too much or too little wind on event weekends, but thank you to event organisers and please don’t be put off.
Thank you to Nikky and Nessa for organising clothing, both now and previously. Sandy’s polo shirt collection has increased considerably since they took on that role!
Thank you to Int Moth Lowriders for promoting CVRDA at dinghy show. We need to keep spreading the word and make ourselves known and introduce new people.
Take a moment to remember absent friends who have contributed to the tweny years of the CVRDA, particularly Bob Corfield and Giles Penfold .
- TREASURERS REPORT
Lois presented the annual financial statement on a separate sheet.
To summarise:
Last year income £390, expenses £430.40 loss £40.40
Total assets in the bank £935.38
A £20 donation had been received for old dinghy parts.
Pat Jones asked about membership numbers , Lois replied that at least nine new people had sent membership money online in addition to regulars throughout the year.
- FIXTURES
Peter Vinton lead a short discussion on the number of events we have had. Too many? Too close together? Etc. As we are invited to a club it is difficult to dictate when they want to put on an event and we have to fit in with their calendar.
(This discussion was also dealt with in ‘attendance at events’ , see below)
- WEBSITE
Firstly thanks to Neil and Ed for updating forum software and to our forum moderators who keep the spammers out.
The stats show that we have an average 700 visits per day that spend more than 2 minutes connected to site. The majority of visits are from direct bookmarks (returning visitors) but Google brings in nearly all the rest. Which tells me we need to keep spreading the word and get ourselves linked from other websites and forums so we get more new visitors.
The forum is still the most popular part of the site but other pages and the dinghy database are well visited. Facebook has been popular recently for discussions about restorations and the like, probably because it is a simpler place to post pictures. This does save our bandwidth though, so there’s a plus side, although Facebook is much harder to search and look up information a couple of years later. So if it’s worth keeping available, use the forum or even email the information and pictures to me as we have hints & tips and members projects sections on the main website which I’d like to expand.
I keep our web software up to date with each new release, as old software is vulnerable to hackers but there are still lots of hacking attempts – up to 1000 a day hence the security is set to allow only three login attempts before the IP address is blocked for some days. And when that happens I get an email and that can be 300 emails a day, seconds apart so it’s definitely automated hacking attempts.
Recently I’ve done a big web software update that you can’t really see, but which is plugin code I’ve written myself that enables us to integrate pictures from the gallery into the pages and finds relevant pictures, so when you look at a the classic wing page you get classics pictures or looking at a Fly dinghy on the database you get only the correct pictures rather than a Firefly or Flying 15 picture!
The main thing I need help with from everyone is content – pictures and write-ups from events and information and images for the dinghy database – there are so many classes out there. Peter wrote a couple of excellent articles on the Finn and the Mercury and I’d love more information like that, so if you have knowledge about a particular class or designer please share the information and pictures are always welcome, just email them to me or contact via the contact form on the website
- CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES (see separate sheet of the agenda for details)
At a previous AGM (2016) members had accepted some changes suggested by Neil Witt for a trial period. These points needed to be accepted now as permanent changes. Also it was proposed to extend the eligibilty dates and allow sub-division of wings if appropriate.
a) Extend the eligibilty date from “before 1985” to “before 1990” and adjust classic wing to “before 1970”.
Proposed by Pat, seconded by Peter Vinton
Accepted unanimously
b) Subdivision of wings.
Proposed by Pat, seconded by Ian Marshall
Accepted unanimously.
c)Extensions to Vintage wing
Chris Barlow asked whether Merlin 507 should or should not fall within the Vintage Wing if a date is the criteria, rather than constructional details, as it is from 1954. It races well with 1066 which was built in 1964 and would remain in the classic fleet. Pat answered that discretion was always there to be applied.
Proposed by John Wylie, seconded by Andy Hayes.
Accepted nearly unanimously with one abstention!
d) Old Wing to officially include the list of acceptable boats as specified.
Proposed by Neil Witt, seconded by Sandy Lavelle.
Accepted unanimously
e) Catamarans to include those listed.
A few questions because the wording suggested there was no upper date limit which would allow new boats. Add “up to 1975” as in the old wing.
proposed by Gavin, seconded by Rupert.
Accepted unanimously.
John Wylie pointed out that the date of 1965 is entering the GRP era and the definition only mentions ‘wood’ as the constructional material. Pat noted this and agreed the committee should look at that point and any other anomalies in the definition of wings in view of moving dates forward. Any proposed modifications will be presented at the 2020 AGM.
- FALLING ATTENDANCE AT RALLIES
Ian Marshall raised this point which lead to a discussion. The following points were mentioned as factors.
Weather. People do look at forecasts and decide if it is not worth attending if it is too strong or no wind. Bowmoor nearly cancelled due to bad weather but did hold the meeting.
If attendance is poor then clubs are unlikely to ask us back again in future years. However the Osprey sailors said they had talked about the same issue at their AGM and it had been pointed out that clubs do still want open events as their own attendance for racing is declining and this does help to boost numbers and income. Maybe it should not be an exclusive rally but join in club racing or other visiting classes.
Chris: Rickmansworth puts on a Firefly, Solo and a Vintage fourteen weekend which seems to work well.
We are limited to what dates clubs offer us. We can’t say ‘ the date is wrong’.
Nessa: Hunts works because they do manage to get many of their own old boats out. Some clubs don’t seem to manage that.
Generally people are not travelling so much for all dinghy sailing events, this is not unique to CVRDA. Cost, people working, other family commitments are particular factors for people of a younger generation .
Ian: what about an event in April to spread things out?
Gavin: sometimes choices have to be made between events that clash such as the Birkett Trophy.
Rupert: we need to find sympathetic clubs that may have their own old boats which will participate.
Blithfield has now turned us down.
Pat: if CVRDA travellers wrote about their activities to their own club’s magazines or news forums and actively encourage others within their clubs then word of mouth will help.
- ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Andy Hayes said the rescue/safety cover at Roadford was very poor. Saturday had been strong winds with quite a few capsizes yet there was no power boat manned and on the water at all times. There was general agreement and that some representation should be made in the morning with possibly a letter to SW lakes and a copy to the RYA.
John Wylie presented a note from a Roadford member offering the use of an old National12.
- DATE OF NEXT MEETING
At the nationals next year probably at Clywedog.
Meeting ended at 6.53.
Minutes taken by Chris Barlow standing in for the Hon Sec, Pat Kuenzler