HCC Committee Meeting

Nemo’s Bar – Function Room, Stoney Cove, Stoney Stanton

9th January 2020 7pm

 

Attendees:

 

Katrina Smith (KS)

Dale Clarke (DC)

Paul Morgan (PM)

Lesley March (LM)

Liz Owen (LO)

 

 Martin Stretton (MS)
Apologies: Robert Newitt (RN) Neil Smith (NS)
Guest: R Matthews (RM) Mike Dallaway (MD)

 

Minutes & Matters Arising –

PM wished everyone a Happy New Year. The minutes were approved for publication.

 

Club Admin –

  • Invoice has been sent for the Think Higher group session
  • Russ Smith from British Canoeing will hopefully attend the February meeting
  • KS has requested that the Club Mark logo be removed from the website
  • To date there has been no interest in the Child Welfare position & no nomination forms have been received. PM advised his daughter would be happy to do it if no one else would.
  • The meeting dates had been put on the Facebook page
  • Stanton Lakes have been emailed to confirm AGM booking is OK and to ask about food. LM been in touch regarding invoice for payment as it is normally required by the end of January. PM advised that meeting will be required Action: PM to organise
  • Mon 13th East Midland Regional Development Team meeting at Soar Bridge Inn, Barrow on Soar
  • Tues 14th An Invasive species talk open to all will be held at British Canoeing Nottingham

EMRDT Tuesday sessions count toward CPD for Coaches

  • PM asked about the EMRDT last Tuesday session and leadership remits were discussed. The session was good and all present have or had very similar issues.  Some paperwork examples were given of how another club use volunteers and provide training in order to sign off.

It was from this that MS has based his matrix sheet on.

 

Finance

  • KS handed over invoices for Bookwhen, a throw line and 12 new Junior cags. LM asked if the Cag invoice needed paying.  Action: KS to confirm with NS & advise
  • £9703.08 in the bank which includes the Think Higher fee
  • There was a lot of discussions on around memberships fees. The accounts won’t go to accountant until Feb so it may not be possible to produce a set of figures for the next meeting.  LM confirmed she had been in touch with the Accountant to advise they will be coming.  It was agreed a budget should be put together to get a clearer picture of planned income and expenditure this would give guidance.  It was stated that it had been some time since the membership fees had increased.  It was suggested that a small increase be made and then to do a thorough review during the year.  Mike Dallaway offered to help with this.  KS offered to put a spreadsheet together.  Action:  KS to produce a spreadsheet

If online membership can be achieved then in future the Club could consider changing to a rolling calendar membership

  • The Christmas flat water trip had raised £85 and the Club made the funds up to £150 which was given to Richard Matthews in aid of Macmillan care. KS proposed doing a raffle at the AGM Action: KS to organise

 

Equipment

KS read a report from NS

  • Roof Quote: NS tradesman was in the end unable to quote. Possibility of another quote but waiting for him to come back off holiday.
    • NS has a quote for metal roofing sheets 32 sheets for £512 + £50 delivery
    • Timber frame 20 lengths 4×4 treated timber (3.6m long) £14.90 each total £298 inc VAT
    • Same as above but 3×3 £9.24 each total £184.80inc VAT
    • There would also be delivery charges plus
    • brackets & fixings

PM advised that maybe fixing plywood to the roof and sheets on top which would mean a frame work would not be required.  Mike Dallaway had a different suggestion and is happy to discuss with Neil about it and also advised he would some have the time to do the actual work.  An appeal could be put out to the membership for help.  Action: NS to discuss with Mike Dallaway & price up.  It was agreed not to bother with any further quotes.

  • New equipment purchased:
    • A Peak UK 25m throw line £25 from the Peak sale.
    • 12 Junior YAK Cags at £14.99 each £179.88
  • Six pairs of air bags are required for the Dagger Dynamos Quote received from Desperate Measures £168.02. Richard Matthews advised he had bought a 20l bag for £12.  Investigate further so hold off on this.
  • Quote also received for six made to order neoprene spray decks with HCC printed on £47.99 each total £287.94. It was agreed to proceed with this purchase.  Action: NS to purchase
  • The club has 10 YAK junior BAs & 3 toddler BAs do we want anymore? It was agreed to purchase six more Junior BAs

Seven Ainsworth junior Kayak paddles plus one other how many more do we need? Yes, more are required but check size as some Junior ones are still a little big.  Action: NS to investigate

  • One Junior canoe paddle how many more? Action:  NS to cost up for six
  • It was suggested that we should have some dryland meetings in the Winter to keep interest. Investigate have a room to use for dry land meeting for Juniors and other activities.

Acton: LM to check out availability in Sharnford possibly Thursday evenings

 

Events

  • MS put together a draft matrix listing different skills that would allow volunteers to help out when there was a shortage of the appropriate Coach. Need to identify the skills required to do each role including bank safety.
  • MS standing down at AGM. Served 8 years and will be out possible for most of the year due to having a planned back operation.
  • Possible date for a Dart trip 8/9th Feb pending available leaders.

 

Club Development

  • PM advised Pingles have no availability for pool sessions, Dale will try a new pool which is being built (Alan Higgs Centre) on Allard way in Coventry.
  • Ben Hardy keen to do Paddlesport Instructor as is Alice Smith (who is available 2nd– 12 March)
  • Coaches meeting in January meeting. Acton: PM organising
  • PM is still trying to organise safeguarding training but is still waiting for British Canoeing contact to come back to him.
  • KS asked about what we should do about Facebook events and you cannot invite all only friends. This is due to rule changes and GDP as the Facebook group is not members only.   it was agreed to change the Facebook group to a closed group and have a Facebook Page which would be public.  This will mean non-members will have to be removed.  Action: LO & ask if Steve Jowett will help.

 

Membership

  • 137 members 26 family
  • Nomination Forms have to be in by the end of the month Action: LO will send out again asap. PM to put out a note on Facebook to highlight new Committee Members needed & the importance of keeping the club going.
  • LO mentioned an on line membership system that could be linked in to the HCC website for a reasonable fee.

 

Club Communications

  1. KS read out RN report.

With regard to the website I’ve been doing some further thinking and looking into other canoe club websites to ascertain what would be the best fit in terms of layout style. I believe we would be better off the with a move standard website style than the blog type which I suggested the other day. I have found another theme which I’ve sent via Facebook chat for you to take a look at.  Please bear in mind these are examples and I will be tweaking / altering it to give it a more HCC look with pictures and colour scheme etc.

If you can discuss and ok this at the meeting please as I would like to crack on with this, there is a lot of work involved and I want get this sorted in plenty of time before the AGM.

I will need some assistance with re wording and re jigging some of the page contents, can I please get some help from perhaps Kat and Liz on this? for example I’d like to put more information on the home page and need to put together some more content for an FAQ’s page.

I’ve also sent a proposed revised menu layout which I think will help with people finding the information they want/need. Let me know what you think and any other changes to the menu layout you feel would help.

With regards to the online membership – Liz got in touch the other day saying about an online membership she has come across on another Clubs’ website and would it be suitable for the club. I looked into it and I do feel this could be a good match for us. The service is called ‘member mojo’ its £75/year and they can also do membership cards (for an additional cost). This is really up to Liz how she wants to go forward with managing the membership. I think it would be less hassle to manage for Steve and Liz going forward vs the one I would build for the website as they automatically adhere to GDPR and keep the data secure on their servers. They do a 60-day free trial and I suggest Liz start this ASAP so it can be completely tested before member renewal time. If Steve is willing to assist Liz that would be very much appreciated so I can concentrate on the website refresh but I’m still happy to assist if needed.

The Committee agreed the new theme as suggested and the proposed layout.  Action: RN to proceed with LO & KS to help

There was a lot of discussion about the membership card cost but LO advised it was only an option but as we have already agreed to implement cards there will still be some sort of cost.  Despite the costs it was felt that the more cashless we are the better as it will be easier to administrate and also mean less queuing and form filling in on lake nights.   It was agreed to trial the on line membership.  Action:  LO & SJ to organise a trial

 

AOB

  • Advertising on Facebook group it was agreed there should be no private advertising although if odd fill in places at a reduced cost was being offered then that would be OK.
  • Skittles Ansty Club, Coventry. £50 room hire & skittles then £6.95 for pub meals

It was agreed to try for 21st Feb.  Action: LO to ask more about food options as a group.

  • AGM Awards – There are 6 award categories not including the Mick Smith Award. Action: KS to double check on quantity & email everyone a list of the awards
  • Trial Member passes & costs were discussed. It was suggested that we limit the number and that they book on.  Anyone turning up on spec do so but if too full would be turned away.  More discussion required. A temporary membership card could be issued and be hole punched each time they attend and the card be kept in the container as personal details would not be on these.

 

Meeting Closed:  22:02

Next meeting:      Thurs 6th Feb 2020

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