HCC Committee Meeting

Nemo’s Bar – Restaurant Area, Stoney Cove, Stoney Stanton

6th February 2020 7pm

Attendees: Katrina Smith (KS) Dale Clarke (DC) Paul Morgan (PM) Lesley March (LM)
Liz Owen (LO) Neil Smith (NS) Martin Stretton (MS)
Apologies: Robert Newitt (RN)
Guest: Ben Hardy (BH) Alison Hardy (AH)  Steve Jowett (SJ) Russell Smith (RS)

 

Minutes and Matters Arising –

Correct meeting date (year), page numbers, clarify award numbers & date (year wrong). Minutes approved with mentioned corrections. Action: KS to amend and publish.

Club Admin –

  • KS advised that a Bursary can be applied for from British canoeing EMRDT for Paddlesport Instructor Courses and Coaching courses but not Leadership Awards. The Bursary has to be applied for before the course takes place and if granted is claimed back after the award has been achieved.
  • Letter received from British Canoeing asking if HCC want to participate in Go Paddling Champion pilot. KS had responded that HCC would participate so now depends if selected. RS had requested at Head Office that HCC be selected.
  • British Canoeing Clubs First conference is at Eastwood 14th March.
    o Safeguarding workshop opportunity but will take the whole afternoon.
    o British Canoeing AGM in the morning and conference in the afternoon includes a lunch
  • EM Paddlers Tuesday Briefing on Trip planning skills 25th Feb Soar Bridge Inn Barrow on Soar open to all but need to book and let them know attending for catering purposes.
  • Stanton Lakes has passed an email on regarding hosting a Paddling experience for Students 8th & 9th July for 60 Students over two days.
  • Alison Hardy has been nominated for the Secretary role
  • Ben Hardy has been nominated for the Development Officer
  • Steve Jowett has been nominated for Communications Officer
  • Dale Clarke offered to cover Programme Coordinator as no one has been nominated.
  • PM asked if a calendar could be created to help with ensuring key items are addressed at the right time. Action: KS to put something together

Finance –

  • Bank Balance as of 24th Jan £8,795.22
  • £2,196 lakes fees and some bills to come out.
  • Cash handed over – Pool session £10 and £10 for kit hire from trips.
  • Books all done ready for auditing
  • Insurance will be due in May. Action: NS working on updating kit list.

Equipment –

  • NS showed the Committee one of the new spray decks which has HCC logo and contrasting colour. Red & black 6 have been bought, Orange was not one of the optional colours.
  •  6 Junior BAs on order from Leam Boat Centre cost £188
  •  NS has spoken to Mike Dallaway about the container roofs – ongoing.
  • PM has ordered 8 new kayak paddles and 6 canoe paddles.
  • Junior kayak air bags have been handed over to Neil.
  • Working party will be organised before lake sessions start
  • PM, LO and NS attended a meeting with Mick and Helen about next season and to collect the lake invoice.
  • Weed in the lake – Mick has plans to drag the lake with a motor boat and if it works HCC will offer labour to support. A working party would be organised at the same time.
  • Electricity – Mick is waiting for another quote for electricity bunker as they want to improve security for the lake in general. Even this doesn’t pan out quickly they are still willing to give us access to electric.
  • They are happy for us to do the work on the roof.
  • They have noticed the paint flaking off the container and would like us to repaint.

Events – 

  • DC advised the river dart dates have not worked out.
  • MS showed 2 examples of a responsibility table for the lakeside which could also be adapted for pool side use too. PM kept a copy of the list and asked what the criteria would be for the different sections. It was thought a skills matrix would be needed with Volunteer names so the Committee can sign off people for the different roles.
  • NS will look at trip dates after his weekend training course. Intro white water.
  • NS has organised a social for next Thurs 13th Feb to give Members an opportunity to suggest types of trips.
  • Skittle evening is booked and is now on the booking system.
  • KS is running a SUP rescue workshop on the second pool session on 17th Feb. If insufficient people come forward it will be changed back to a normal kayak session.

Club Development – 

  • Pool sessions – Doors will be locked so will need passes to get in. Passes can be got on Monday.
  • £110 down on pool sessions will get some more bookings but probably will not cover costs.
  • Warwick university has a new pool. There is still no available information on the new pool which will be opening in Coventry.
  • Coaches / Volunteers meeting to be organised before the start of the season.

Membership – 

  • Temporary trial membership form created with information required for BC portal. An A to Z card box will be used to keep the card at the container. There will be no personal data on these cards.
    Action: LO to email form to Steve Jowett and he will add boxes.
  • Membership – Membership mojo nearly ready to trial. Their membership cards are really basic and cannot include medical info. We could still do our own membership cards. DC advised the costs per membership 1.4% plus 30p. It was agreed to pursue the trial. It was agreed to have the preferred payment method as online payment. It was agreed to have a 10% increase LO to sort family membership rates.
    POST Mtg Note: Since the meeting it was proposed and agreed to postpone membership increase
    but advise at the AGM that pending a review there may be an increase for the 2021 season.

Club Communications – 

KS read RN’s status report on the website upgrade. The website will be out of action from the weekend while the new theme is installed. There will be a notice on the front of the website to advise that that members should refer to the Facebook group for latest information until it is up and running again. A link needs adding to Facebook so that Members can book onto pool sessions RB has also reached out to Martin Walker to arrange getting the domain transferred. Action: SJ to send receipt to LM for books purchased to help with running website.

4 Year Plan – 

The existing plan was reviewed and completed items removed and ongoing activities left on.
Removal of Polo activities. Addition to be added on:

  • Reach out to under privileged low-income potential paddlers.
  • RS advised there is an available grant for £500. Complete form and if the application is accepted get £250 straight away then after a period of time its reviewed and if on track, another £250 is given. Target 11-14-year olds. The money can be used for anything, training, kit, transport.
  • Create safe lakeside access suitable for all paddlers
  • The three-year lease with the is lake nearly up but looking at setting up another lease of three years plus. It was noted that to get grants for buildings we would need a 10-year lease. Need to wait for Mick & Helen’s circumstances to settle then this will be reviewed.
  • Create a calendar for admin / paperwork – Insurance, affiliation, AGM actions, lease etc
  • Continuing with technology improvements
  • Increase number of SUPs
  • Development of Junior programme
  • Floating slalom poles
  • Safeguarding – Course for the Club. BC can’t do till end of March. As March is not too far away it was suggested going ahead with a date anyway. Action: PM to organise

Action: KS asked DC to email a copy of the updated 4-year plan that he had

More Info from meeting with Mick & Helen

  • Fishing will only be available to those staying on the campsite
  • They plan to restock the fish
  • They would like to offer SUP to campers. Would need more SUPS. RS advised to speak to Craig Duff at British Canoeing if want to borrow SUPs.
  • If Sea Cadets get in touch then it will be a joint decision if they are accepted back.
  • Thursday 16th April will be the first lake session
  • HCC have 8 additional days. Any further days would be £60 per day
  • We will need to check the shower blocks to make sure they are clean after each
  • lake use.
  • Feather flag can be put at the front of the drive as long as it doesn’t block drivers vision, position to be agreed with Mick

KS offered to stay on committee to help handover with the new Secretary and liaise with British Canoeing. PM accepted the offer and thanked KS for the offer.
RS will ask if he can get any spare bibs from Lee Valley
RS to send details of link to cross stream info that shows how to make floating slalom.

AOB – 

  • BC consultation roadshow dates 23rd Mar at Ackers, 24th Mar at Nene, 8th Apr at HPP
  • School group Enquiry find out more detail. Action: KS to reply to ask for more information on numbers.
  • Posts made from cones with old paddles with numbers on for meeting points
  • Need to collect photos of Coaches to add to the meeting points. KS suggested getting any photos required at a Volunteer meeting. Action: LO
  • KS suggested that due to the number of times the Committee meet that the Club should be prepared to spend more than £10 on a meeting room to ensure it is well lit, pleasant and have suitable facilities.

Meeting Closed: 9.45pm
Next Meeting & Location: AGM Fri 6th March 2020, Function Room Stanton Lakes.
Next Committee Meeting Thurs 9th April 2020, Location TBA