International Europe Class Association (UK)

Minutes from the AGM held on 9th November 2002 at Rutland Sailing Club

Approval of minutes for 2001 AGM

Proposed Bryony Percy
Seconded Steve Gill

Chairmans Report

RIB: Has been taken to each national ranking event.
Nationals went well.
Travellers have been poorly attended, for example at South Cerney, 15 attended last year, 4, this year. Restronguet had 7 this year, Highcliffe, 6 this year.
Rib charter has been disappointing. It has been chartered out 3 times. RS let us down for 10 days.

Website: A tremendous amount of work has gone into this by Liz Bonar and Roger Silk. It is an invaluable tool. Well done.

A big thank you for to Mike, Steve, Liz for all the help they have given this year.

Bob's standing down after 4 years of doing the job. His son left the class a year ago.

Proposed Liz Bonar
Seconded James Eynon

Secretary's Report

Membership: Dwindling with 65 new members, an increase of 4 on last year. Now in 2002 there are to date 53 members, a drop of 12 on 2001. But in this, there are 6 new members, notably from Bexhill on Sea.

Boats for sale: There have been lots of enquiries. We all need to think of ways to encourage people to the class. Also, keep pushing the website.

Jon Emmet: Is interested in coaching. Levels of ability need to be obtained prior to training, so that the training dates/groups can be split.

Thanks to Roger Silk for all of his efforts for the website. All he has asked for is his costs. We have also given him a token box of wine!
Every thing to go on the site is to go through Liz Bonar, as early on, some incorrect details were put on.

Keep email addresses up to date, please email one of the committee or post us a notification if yours changes.

A challenge is set, to increase attendance at events.

Thanks go to Bob for the last 4 years of service! Enjoy your extra free time!

Proposed Laura Baldwin
Seconded James Eynon

Treasurers Report

Subscriptions for the year ending 2001 totalled £1,534, an increase of £181 on 2000. £520 was a subsidy from the RYA to the Worlds places (this money goes straight out).

£830 is paid to IECU for subs(included in this is the RYAs money)

Training saw a shortfall of £185. 2 years ago it was agreed that the class would pay up to £200 for training.

£5,000 represents the RIB lottery money, however this is depreciated at £1,000 per year. This will therefore be written off after 4 more years.

Thus the real net profit for the year was £406. This is par for course after £407 last year.

For this years accounts(2002), we are running par for course, nothing major has changed.

Proposed Bryony Percy
Seconded Nicki muller

Election of Committee

Nominations received:
Chairperson Steve Gill
Treasurer Kirsty Bonar
Secretary Liz Bonar
Magazine Editor Laura Baldwin
Magazine Assistant Joan Brewster
Sailing Secretary James Eynon
Training Coordinator Chris Hughes
Promotions Coordinator Steve Gill
Committee member Bryony Percy

Block Proposal Nicki Muller
Seconded Bob Penfold

Promotions Report

A promotion was done for South Cerney and Weston Opens, as well as National Ranking events, however it was felt that there was still a poor turnout.

Europe logos have been made for the class Rib. Also, car stickers have been produced that advertise the class, and are to be given to all those members that join next year.

Steve has responded to enquires regarding membership and passed them on. He has sent articles to the website, newsletter and yachts and yachting. He also wrote an article for the newsletter regarding membership. The following points were raised from this:
1) The lack of publicity. Response: Very little money is in the class funds; and that yachts and yachting were given the class calendar, however have failed to publish it. This latter point will be sorted next year.
2) Was the membership fee of £19 too much? Response: the class provides 3 newsletters a year, a Yearbook and an excellent website, training events, open meetings etc. The fee hasn't gone up in over 5 years.
3) There is no local boat builder, so the public chose a more accessible class..

Magazine Report

Laura would like to put more effort in, and has started the Yearbook already for next year. She looks forward to help next year!!
If people could email her, or put articles through on disk, that would be very helpful. Any hand written text has to be typed up by her!!

Largs Sailing Institute and Youth Europeans 2003

It was thought at the end of the AGM 2001 that that was the end of the issue. However, in 2002 a call was received by the Scottish Sailing Institute, indicating that IECU had decided to hold the event in Largs. RYA Scotland would like to host the event, on the understanding that the UK Europe Class Association will not be involved.
No one disagreed and it was confirmed that the event would be held.

It was suggested by the floor that the event was an opportunity to publicise youth sailing in the UK, however this was answered that Scotland was too far away, that there were very few youth sailors in the class, and that the RYA did not recognise the Europe as a youth boat.

Sailboat 2003

In 2000, the show cost £250, this was a big investment from the class. Half of the classes liquid assets were spent in one weekend. A huge amount of members time was also needed.

Ideas were to put the Europe on the Rutland Sailing School stand with some literature, or on the RYA stand. Either way, literature would be sent there.

2003 Racing programme and Nationals.

The sailing secretary is to liase with the racers to get available dates for the Nationals that will work in the programme.
It is hard to find a location, as the Nationals is not a big money earner for clubs.
Therefore maybe combine the event with another class. Possibly approach the Finns/Oks/Splash/Bytes/SuperNova - James to sort.
Possible venues: Highcliffe, Hamble River, Restronguet?

In terms of open meetings, locations suggested were: Weston, S.Cerney, Bough Beech, Chew Valley. Maybe have fewer events, and then get more attendance?

Training Report/Programme

Jayne Singleton was the coach at S.Cerney. She did a good job.
Jon Emmett was the coach at Weston. He did a good job also, however, found he had a very large range of ability to deal with. From this training, the class was £60 in debt, as all sailors paid £10 each.
Suggested it would be a good idea that the overall cost should be split between the sailors, as £20 would still have been a reasonable amount to pay.

Olympic Development Squad sailors to run to a training weekend. Dates and venue to be decided.

Any other business

The breakdown was asked for the £830 bill that got paid to IECU.
Response: £250 to IECU for the UK members subscriptions (22 Swedish Kroner per sailor - we pay for 100 members, which is 4 places), and £580 from the RYA, this is the money that just comes in and then straight out to pay for extra places at the Worlds.

RIB: Bob would be happy to keep the RIB at his home as previous. However it was decided that the RIB would remain at Rutland, in a locked container, for use by the North Zone Talent Squad, at a charter rate.

The budget for the magazine editor , was set at as cheap as possible, as it is a major drain on the classes funds.

A vote of thanks from Steve Gill was proposed to Bob as the outgoing chairman.