International Europe Class Association (UK)
Apologies Kirsty Bonar
Introductions
Minutes from the AGM held on 1st November 2003 at Rutland Sailing Club.
Approval of minutes for 2002 AGM
An adjustment was requested from Fiona Barron
to Section 8 regarding The Youth Europeans. It
was the Scottish Sailing Institute that was approached to host the event
NOT RYA SCOTLAND
The SSI is not part of RYA Scotland, it is independent with it own board.
This amendment has
been made, recorded and will be posted on the website
Proposed James Eynon
Seconded Joan Brewster
Chairman's Report
2003 has seen the class participate in 5 RYA National Ranking events and
hold 2 Travellers
Trophy meetings each with very different results - no participants at
South Cerney and 9
attending Weston.
On the international scene we have been well represented overseas including
Miami, Athens,
Barcelona, Hyeres, Spa, Palma (Europeans) and Cadiz (Worlds). The highlight
of Cadiz was
Laura's success in qualifying us for the
2004 Olympics. Her task now and that of the squad is to
demonstrate that we have the ability for one of them to be confirmed as
the UK nomination for
Athens. Congratulations to Laura and good
luck to Andrea, Nicky, Lizzie and Natalie.
All of who,
have, in their own way represented the UK so well this year. Unfortunately
we have lost three of
our top Guns, Debbie, Kirsty and Bryony,
partly through injury, when it looked as if we would need
them most. However I sense that there remains plenty of talent in the
class to take it forward
internationally. Nor should we forget that Chris
and James participated in the Men's World
Championships in Cadiz in September.
We promoted ourselves well at Sailboat 2003. Thanks must go to Liz
and Andrea, together with
their willing helpers and the Rutland Sailing School who provided space
on their stand. At the
2004 event the RYA plan to have an Olympic classes stand and we expect
that they will be
looking to display a Europe Dinghy. Members will be asked to attend and
provide advice to
interested members of the public. Promotion of the class to clubs close
to the NR events
continued but the impact of this has been difficult to assess.
The long awaited training day took place in July but was affected by the
weather. Unfortunately
this meant that actual sailing other than for Andrea
and Al Green was curtailed. Despite this
fact, I
understand they put on a fine display of heavy weather sailing, and reports
from those who
attended, show that it was a very successful event.
Sadly our hopes of having a Yearbook and four newsletters were not achieved,
partly due to the
commitments of the Editor and to the small number of regular contributors.
So yet another appeal
for copy: the Newsletter needs articles, particularly from club sailors
so that the class can be
more relevant to them. Thanks go to Laura,
but particularly to Joan Brewster for the
work she has
done in producing the newsletters whilst Laura
has been abroad.
The RIB, which we acquired with Lottery Funding has not been utilised
as much as we had
hoped. Bob Penfold trailed it to a couple
of events whilst providing safe undercover storage for it
in Swindon. It was hired out to Rutland Sailing School, the Cadet Association
and Harlow Black
water SC for its children's regatta. Bob
has kindly offered to garage it over the winter and wishes
to hire it for events at Easter and during July next year.
Two initiatives this year have been the production of a class polo shirt
each of which now produce
a £5 contribution to club funds. Some 27 shirts have been purchased
so far. I will be happy to
take further orders this weekend! We also now have a Men's Trophy, which
is to be awarded
annually to the highest place male competitor at the National Championships.
In knowledge that there are to be major committee changes for 2004, a
start has been made to
develop a sailing programme for next year. A number of Travellers Trophy
events have already
been diarised in, with the prospect of more to follow. Attempts are being
made to fix a date and
venue for the Nationals, more of which we will discuss on the agenda item.
Our website continues to be developed by our honorary web master Roger
Silk whose excellent
work resulted in us being awarded 'highly commended' in the RYA Website
competition. As
always more contributions are needed if we are to keep it up to date and
relevant to the
membership and in particular the enquiring minds of Internet surfers!
Thank you to Roger.
For those of you who were here last year you will recall that when you're
past Chairman Bob
Penfold stepped down I was asked if I would take on a care-taking
roll for 2003. As many of you
already know it is not my intention to stand for re election for 2004:
I want to express my great
thanks to the committee and in particular to Liz
and Kirsty for their administrative support
in
keeping the Association alive in 2003. I sincerely hope that it will flourish
in 2003 and the years to
come.
Steve Gill presented Roger
Silk with a Voucher in acknowledgement of all his hard work and
effort
developing and continually updating the Europe Class Association Website.
Secretary's Report
We ended the year 2002 with 53 members a drop of 12 on 2001. Membership
for 2003 has improved by 3 to 56, surprisingly 21 of these are new members.
I am getting a lot of phone and email enquiries from youngsters who have
been sailing Laser Radials and have been encouraged by the RYA to head
the way of the Europe! I also gather from recent phone calls that there
is a shortage of Europe's for Sale. Please can you keep your adverts up
to date on the website and as soon as you have sold remove it!
A special thanks goes to Roger Silk for
all his hours of work developing and continually updating the website!
Please tell us if you want anything changed or included. If you don't
tell us we don't know! Please can you pass your ideas through us and we
will contact Roger. The Website contains
all information relevant to the Europe! If you have any comments we would
like to hear them, nice comments make it all worthwhile!
Email addresses always give problems…please email or drop us a line
if yours changes!
We have to set ourselves a challenge in 2004. We must actively increase
attendance at open meetings and increase the Class Membership. The committee
will need to be keen and active and all pull their weight to turn the
current situation round.
I have copied various bits that could be of interest please help yourselves!
Finally our Thanks go to Steve Gill who
retires as Chairperson. Steve took over
last year and now his son is moving on to bigger boats and like me is
retiring this year! Thanks Steve for all
your efforts this year and good luck for the future! My thanks also go
to all other committee members retiring today…thanks for all you
efforts enjoy your extra free time!
Treasurers report
Accounts for the year ending 31/12/2002
Subscriptions totalled: £1378, which was a £156 decrease on
2001, but included a £472 subsidy from the RYA, to obtain more places
for the Europeans and World championships.
Subscriptions to IECU were £ 789, and relative to last years to
obtain the extra places at the Championships.
Training covered its cost.
The RIB was depreciated by £1000 for the year (20% of cost per year).
This left us with a deficit of (£1079) The £1000 being the
depreciation of the rib and only a paper figure. Our actual loss was £79
The bank balance at the year ended 2002 was £2109 and currently
our balance is £2619 and the only outstanding account at the moment
is the Rib Insurance of £170. So far we have had extra income this
year for Rib Hire of £300
The costs this year 2003 will be roughly the same with the addition of
some advertising matter and the website costs
A presentation of wine was made by Joan Brewster to both Liz Bonar and Steve Gill and Thanks for all their hard work whilst in office.
Election of the Europe Class Association Committee
2003/2004
Chairman:
Robert Laurie
Tel: 01376 347366
Email: robert.laurie@lineone.net
Sailing Club: Harlow Black water Sailing Club
Proposed: Steve Gill
Seconded: James Eynon
Secretary: Pauline Baldwin
Tel: 01252 622443
Email: pipabaldwin@hotmail.com
Sailing Club: Spinnaker Sailing Club
Proposed: Joan Brewster
Seconded: Steve Gill
Treasurer / Promotions Coordinator: Colin Baldwin
Tel: 01252 622443
Email: pipabaldwin@hotmail.com
Sailing Club: Spinnaker Sailing Club
Proposed: Joan Brewster
Seconded: Steve Gill
Magazine Editor: Joan Brewster
Tel: 01428 712346
Email: andrea@stonehill.demon.co.uk
Sailing Club: Frensham Pond Sailing Club
Proposed: Liz Bonar
Seconded: Steve Gill
Magazine Deputy Editor: Andrea Brewster
Tel:01428 712346
Email: andrea@stonehill.demon.co.uk
Sailing Club: Frensham Pond Sailing Club
Proposed: Steve Gill
Seconded: Liz Bonar
Sailing Secretary: James Eynon
Tel:02380 406266 or 07796 953699
Email: jim.eynon@btopenworld.com
Sailing Club: Weston Sailing Club
Proposed: Steve Gill
Seconded: Liz Bonar
Assistant Sailing Secretary: Peter Ruff
Tel: 02380 253992
Email: pj_ruff@hotmail.com
Sailing Club: Weston Sailing Club
Proposed: James Eynon
Seconded: Alasdair Green
Exhibitions Coordinator: Alasdair Green
Tel: 07968 122760
Email: Club: alasdair@atwo.freeserve.co.uk
Sailing Club: Largs Sailing Club / Weston Sailing Club
Proposed: Liz Bonar
Seconded: Steve Gill
Training Coordinator: Chris Hughes
Tel: 07967 823253
Email: chris@bmtseatech.co.uk
Sailing Club: Weston Sailing Club
Proposed: James Eynon
Seconded: Alasdair Green
Scottish Representative: Brian Finnie
Tel: 01250 870232
Email:bfinnie@rya-online.net
Sailing Club: Forfar Sailing Club
Proposed: Steve Gill
Seconded: Liz Bonar
Promotions Report
As in the Chairman's Report
Magazine Report
Joan reported that the next magazine was
ready for members to collect that day. In future it was felt that the
productions would be as follows: 1 Year Book and 2 Newsletters. A plea
was made for more copy to be emailed to Joan
particularly from Club Sailors, their input is very important!
Thanks were expressed to Joan for all her
hard work.
A suggestion was made to allow advertising in the newsletters and charge
to help cover the costs.
Sailing Secretary/Training Report
The training day was very successful and hopefully to be repeated again
in 2004. 2004 race programme is well underway. People to watch the website
for further dates. A list of confirmed dates was handed out including
National Ranking Events and Travellers Events. The Nationals has yet to
be sorted, watch the website for details. Transport seems to be a problem
for getting to events. New members are to be given as much encouragement
as possible. Investigations are to be made into using events such as The
Bloody Mary for Europe Meetings, watch the website for further details!
Sailboat 2004
The RYA have requested help and a Europe Boat to be placed on an Olympic
Classes Stand. Alasdair Green to sort.
Holt RYA Series and National Ranking List
Current Ranking Lists were handed out and clarification given regarding
the Qualification for the Worlds in 2004 (it was also pointed out that
there will be no Europeans in 2004)
Worlds qualification will be taken from the Ranking List after the Weymouth
Ranking Event 27th / 28th March and calculated on the 29th March, the
method will be as usual 3 events from the last 5 to count. The RYA is
to be asked if they will fund extra places.
The Europe Nationals is to be reinstated as a Ranking Event.
The Rib
The general feeling was that the boat needs to be hired out more to cover
costs and to keep it in good running order. Bob
Penfold had ageed to get the rib serviced before the next hire.
The Rib Insurance needs looked into to check that we are covered for hiring.
The general feeling was that our premium was very low and perhaps didn't
cover hiring.
Website
Roger Silk thanked everybody for his voucher
and requested comments to be forwarded to him.
AOB
Nothing to report
Meeting Closed