As the snow falls thick and fast today they were justified in not coming along! The official bit of the meeting took just 22 minutes!
A Vote of thanks was proposed to Barry for all the fantastic work he did for us, to be conveyed to his widow Chris. Various suggestions were made on how to commemorate his life, we think we may have a gentle cruise in company to Maldon, maybe a pint in the Jolly sailor!
All the Steering Group and the new Webmaster, the coordinator and Fund Manager are re-elected.
A few good points came up in AOB which will be investigated and organised by the steering group, claiming expenses, increasing the quorum on steering group meetings and moving the Annual meeting to warmer times!
We had £72 in the Paypal, now it has increased as a new member has just donated for a CD! There is enough in the kitty for another years website, plus the purchase of another batch of burgees. the full accounts will be on the 'Accounts' page ASAP. Last years minutes will also be published, now they are ratified. we are receiving just more in donations than the website costs, we seem to have it about right. One generous member gave a £15 cheque, and I revealed that the sale of Antifouling had benefited the group by over £30 to date.
John Stevens the Database Manager, could not attend as he was working, he apologised for not having the finished Database program to show. (I have a version of it and it's great!). His PC's hard drive had crashed and he was reloading the data he had lost.! Thankfully not too much. Then he and Tim the Webmaster were to get together to amend the map page on the site.
Once again we have a full East Coast Calendar, and are seeking venues and dates for meets elsewhere, Isle of Wight? Skye? West Country? On the East coast we will have several 'new' craft afloat with us this season, including the new Riptide, but several Eventides that have been restored and maybe a Senior too.
All in all a pleasant meeting again, with conversation touching on boats but circling loft insulation and grandchildren of course!
On the e-mail front I have had a wanted for a GH31, that has gone on the pages, text for one of the hints and tips pages, been able to put a member in France in touch with someone he was having difficulty contacting re a motor for sale, another wanted advert for the pages and a very nice thankyou from a new registrant, saying our site is exactly what the www was designed for. We have had similar praise from another registrant, saying how refreshing it was to find a site with so many enthusiasts giving information so freely!
Yachting Monthly have arranged to come and have a sail with one of our members who is still in commission, to celebrate the 100 years of YM and Maurice's input. Trouble is I bet it's going to be cold!
And finally I have been in discussion with another new registrant in Australia who is completing an Eventide, re his engine and prop sizes. A promise of more pics from him soon.
On the subject of pictures, we are fast approaching the 1000 photos on the gallery alone! Who would have thought that? When we started 3 years ago we had just a few. A big thankyou to all of you out there who have given so much support to make this work. Think we have proved a point don't you? New registrants every week, many old 'friends', numbers up to near 350 now, well over 250 owners.
Busy here! Would not want it otherwise!
All the best,
John
