HCC Committee Meeting

Nemo’s Bar – Function Room, Stoney Cove, Stoney Stanton
5th August 2019 7pm

 

Attendees:

 

Paul Morgan (PM)

Lesley March (LM)

Neil Smith (NS)

Martin Stretton (MS)

 Dale Clarke (DC) Katrina Smith (KS)
Apologies: Robert Newitt (RN) Fraser Watson (FW) Liz Owen (LO)  
Visitors: Russell Smith (RS) Area Development Officer British Canoeing

 

Minutes & Matters Arising

Laura Sutherland has now left British Canoeing and Russell Smith has taken over this region.

RS introduced himself and explained his paddling back ground and the regions he is now looking after.   His role is finding out what we do, what our plans are and how British Canoeing can help us to achieve this.  He is also interested to know what things are holding us back.

RS organises local meetings in the East Midlands for Clubs to meet and offer each other support.  This could possibly include coaching / Leading. This was well received by the Committee as it was said that a shortage of coaches and trip Leaders was often an issue for HCC.

RS suggested that the Paddle Sport Activity Assistant Award may help. This is for 14 year olds and above and involves in house training.  It is a one-off charge of £50 and the person does not have to be a BC Member.  RS will send the link

RS advised that he has access to 12 SUP boards which could be booked for around £25.  There is also a trailer with sit on tops and a box with BAs which can also be hired for a small charge.  There will be a meeting to discuss the hire process & costs.  RS will email when the details have been agreed.

Satellite Clubs:  This is some annual Sport England funding where awards of £250 to £500 can be applied for in deprived areas especially for women & girls. If granted you would need to show 16 Juniors paddling progression.  RS would check if there were any left this year.  There may also be regional funds available for training or equipment.

 

RS was asked if there were any training available on how to engage with Youth.  RS may be able to organise a session.   RS was invited to revisit at a lake session and was advised that 19th Sept was the last lake session of 2019.  A link will be sent to give access to Youcanoe which had some good activities.

 

Apologies were received from LO, FW & RN

July minutes were approved.

 

Club Admin

KS advised that an email had been received from BC, stating Sport England have decided that it will cease the accreditation portion of Clubmark on the 30th November 2019.  For those British Canoeing clubs that have recently gone through the accreditation process their status as a Clubmark standard club will remain valid for a 12-month period (from the date of their latest accreditation).  As a result, KS emailed BC to ask for confirmation on how this affects us.  BC’s response was we can carry on with the process and on being awarded Quality Mark it will be valid for a 2-year period.

Second option is stop working towards renewal and wait for the new quality assurance process to be implemented.  The timescale for the introduction of this is, realistically, likely to be towards the end of 2020.  If we decide to go down this route BC & RS assured that, should we need any BC support for any grant applications or other matters that require some level of reassurance about the quality of our club activities, BC will fully support us and provide whatever evidence we may need.  BC may need guinea pig Clubs to trial out any new process.  It was agreed we would wait for the new process

and offer to guinea pig.  HCC will continue to update documents and processes in line with good practice.

KS has completed an A5 leaflet condensed information leaflet and is using it when replying to email enquiries.  Action:  KS to produce some leaflets for container and see if it can be added to the Facebook page somehow.

It has been noticed that when people ask to join the HCC Facebook page there is a question that asks if they want more information to give their email address.  This information disappears after they have been accepted and cannot be recovered.  You have to copy the info before accepting.  If wanting to accept when seen it is not always practical.  KS would prefer this question be removed so as people are not let down if this is missed.  Action:  DC to have a look & remove if possible

Finance

£5,533.47 in the bank plus £150 cash from a lake session. DC advised that £209.72 had just been transferred from the PayPal account.  There was also £224.33 from the lake.

This totalled to £6,117.52

Fees from £220 taken on Bookwhen in a month the charge is £10.80 for that month

Paypal fees on a £25 payment they take £1.63 which is just over 5%.

KS advised if it is felt the charges are adversely affecting us then membership or fees would need to be reviewed.

DC wondered about charitable status and whether it is worth looking into for the future.  RS advised that he would send some information on this.

Action: PM to send LM a receipt for padlocks and brackets for the steps.

Action: LM agreed to try and pay KS/NS money owed via internet banking.  Details had already been supplied with receipts.  LM advised that KS had only taken £10 x 2 for Bookwhen payments when it was £10.80.  KS advised to add it onto internet bank payment.  Action: LM to adjust payment

 

Equipment

NS reported that the insurance claim had been chased up.

The Insurers have asked for the costs of replacing items that we had not got receipts for.  Leam Boat centre had been asked if they could supply the information and had responded really quickly.  This information has now been emailed backed to the Insurers.  The total value was around £5K.

20 SUP paddle floats have been ordered.  Spares will be offered to members for £2

Mike Dallaway has been at the lake three times weeding.

Some Members have volunteered their services to help with this if another date can be given.

Action:  PM has offered to be at the lake on Friday 9th Aug to enable more weeding to be done.

NS has got hold of some Scaffold poles that could be used for canoe racking but would need to purchase some brackets.  Committee approved the purchase.  It will be a winter project.

 

Events

Nothing to report from FW

The first Club SUP trip took place on the Barrow Loop.  There were 6 SUPs, 4 kayaks. KS did a supervised lead and reported that it went really well.  Most of the group who had time did a second loop.  This is an ideal short trip to repeat.

The Tame Otter trip is on Sat 10th Aug and Mike Dallaway will do his first supervised lead with NS and MS supporting.

Another Canal trip will take place tomorrow night from the Lime Kilns on the A5

There is an Intro to white water on 17th Aug at Symonds-Yat plus a SUP trip from Lower Lydbrook to Symonds Yat.  PM asked if maybe we could camp and make a weekend of it.  This was the idea but could be difficult as a lot of campsites are fully booked.  NS said that Ben Hardy would like to help but will need a lift there and back on the day.

River Severn trip 15th September.

 

Club Development

10 pool sessions have been booked over the winter at Bosworth Pool the cost has gone up to around £74.25 an evening.  There will be two sessions at £5pp.  Times are 8.00-8.45 & 8.45-9.30.  If both sessions are full the income will be £100.  There was some discussion on how cancellations should be dealt with.

The pool dates are 4th, 18th, 25th Nov 2nd 16th Dec 13th, 20th, 27th Jan 10th, 17th, 24th Feb

DC is looking at Paddlesport Instructor courses

Young Carers group wanted a session on 19th Aug but there are no level 2’s able to do it.  Action: DC will ask if they have any other dates or if they can do a weekend.  He was also going to try a few other level 2s.

FSRT still needs sorting

WWSR course Action:  PM offered to get this event up and running.

Lake sessions is £70 per Thursday evening in order to cover costs based on 20 approx. people.

Family Fun Day we have run out of time for the original proposed date.  It was agreed to look at Aug 31st if the lake is available.  Action:  PM will look to organise it.

SUPs are now bookable on bookwhen, due to the amount of interest and so people don’t come down and be disappointed if they are not available.  It was agreed to put a note on Facebook to this effect.

Action: KS to add a note to Facebook

 

Membership

Membership total 113 consisting of

72 Adults

41 Juniors

21 of which are Families

Membership pack is now complete and a copy will be sent in the next couple of weeks.

Suggestion for next year is a temporary membership for a family.

Feedback from membership cards has been positive. The Yellow one was voted in.

It was agreed to buy the bespoke pouches to make it easier to put together.  Due to more feedback in the meeting about the membership cards KS suggested that being realistic maybe the cards should be introduced in April 2020.  Action: MS feedback to LO

DC suggested online booking could be used on bookwhen in the short term.  The membership form could be linked to the selection and then the membership type and payment could be selected.  It would be different each month to allow for the pro rata payment.

Action: It was agreed to trial it and DC will set it up.

 

Club Communications

RN reported that not much progress had been made to on line club membership but will have another look and report back.

The time on the website for meet time needs changing to 6pm, DC had attempted to update it but had not been able to access that part.  Action:  RN to amend meet time from 6.30pm to 6pm on the website.

 

AOB

  • KS suggested a certificate & badge scheme for Juniors. There would be a cost for the badges which would have to be passed on but specific topics from the Discover and Explore could be linked in and still carried on even if BC changed their scheme.
  • DC asked about the Membership list & who has got access to it. As an example, on a trip it had not been possible to contact a member who had got lost.  Action: DC to chat to LO
  • NS advised that Roger Hawes has indicated he would like to give something back to the club by doing internal water-based rescue training and is an active Fireman. He is also Interested in Leadership too.

 

Meeting Closed:  10.00 pm

Next meeting:  Monday 2nd September 2019 at Nemo’s Bar – Function Room, Stoney Cove, Stoney Stanton

 

Post Meeting Info received from Russ Smith 06.08.19 British Canoeing: