PRESENT Terry Colson (Committee Member – took the Chair in the absence of John Mayhew), Laurie Bower (Secretary & Treasurer), Dennis Moss (Racing Secretary), David Andrews (Club Measurer), Peter Constable, Gordon Beddall, John Rowland, Tony Martin, Michael Aloof, Ray Pavey, Geoffrey Jones, Hans Neeser, Terry Binstead, Terry Kitson, David Sauerteig, David Mason, Tom Davies, Roger Thomas, Anthony Warren and Terence Turner.

APOLOGIES John Mayhew (Chairman & Membership Secretary), Rob Challis, Alison Palmer-Challis, Peter Townsend, David Mayne, Reg Gray, Nigel Hodgson and Colin Trower.

MINUTES OF THE 9^th AGM HELD 12^th NOVEMBER 2006 These were checked for accuracy and their adoption was proposed by David Andrews and seconded by John Rowland and AGREED unanimously; they were subsequently signed by the Chairman as a true record.

MATTERS ARISING Peter Constable raised the question of modifications to the rescue dinghy trolley (Item 12. AOB). He pointed out that it was still difficult to manoeuvre the fully loaded trolley. The Secretary pointed out that modifications had been made as promised but, in view of Peter’s comments, the matter would be looked into again.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT In the absence of John Mayhew, Terry Colson read out John’s report to the meeting which summarised the Club’s activities during the year.

SECRETARY'S REPORT The Secretary read his report which outlined the various aspects of the progress made to improve the Club and its facilities during the year including the recently completed upgrading of the lighting and power supply throughout the Club premises.

TREASURER'S REPORT & ADOPTION OF AUDITED ACCOUNTS The Treasurer read his report and outlined the salient features of the audited accounts. The excess of income over normal expenditure for the year was £988.20 but the total assets of the Club had decreased by £847.57 to £16,509.36 due entirely to part of the Weed Control Project expenditure falling to be paid in the accounting year under review – a factor fully anticipated in last year’s AGM Treasurer’s Report. Gordon Beddall queried the apparent fall in bank interest shown under ‘Receipts’ in the accounts and the Treasurer explained that to obtain a true picture, it was necessary to add in the interest earned on the Reserves Fund which had increased due to surplus funds on other Club bank accounts being transferred to it to obtain a better interest rate - in future annual accounts, all bank interest earned will be shown as a total figure as there was now no need to separate the Weed Control Project from other income and expenditure. Adoption of the accounts was proposed by David Andrews and seconded by Dennis Moss and CARRIED unanimously. The Treasurer proposed a vote of thanks to the Auditor, Roger Thomas which was AGREED unanimously.

MEMBERSHIP AND RACING FEES FOR 2006 The Secretary read out John Mayhew’s written report which summarised membership changes during the year. At the end of July, membership stood at a total of 68 (50 Full, 12 Associate, 3 Junior and 3 Honorary members). John’s report also posed the question as to why so few new members took up racing class boats. This prompted some discussion and a number of members present pointed out that, in their experience, this problem was not unique to HCMYC and applied to model aircraft clubs as well as sailing clubs. The Committee’s proposal that there should be no change to the current level of membership and racing fees for 2008 was seconded by Gordon Beddall and CARRIED unanimously.

RACING SECRETARY'S REPORT The Racing Secretary read his report which outlined the principal sailing events at the Club during the year. He also referred to the attendance levels for racing in the 3 classes and the 21 sailing days lost of which 11 were due to lake conditions, the remainder being due to poor attendance. He was pleased to announce 2 National and a number of District and Open meetings would be hosted by HCMYC in 2008. Roger Thomas raised the question of what was meant by the phrase "total skippers attending" used in the report and the Racing Secretary replied that these figures were, effectively, the total number of boat appearances on the water for the whole of the series concerned. David Sauerteig stated that he felt that some meetings of other clubs and sailing associations using the Rick Pond and the Club’s facilities were very poorly attended but the Secretary pointed out that HCMYC did not organise any of these events but merely made our facilities available for a small donation. David also asked for clarification on the use of the lake on racing days by non-racing members. The Secretary outlined Club policy on this matter – no sailing for non-racing members on Open event days but otherwise, on Club racing days non-racing members could sail but must keep clear of racing boats and ensure they did not cause frequency clashes. In answer to a further question from Roger Thomas, the Racing Secretary confirmed that discussions were taking place within the MYA on the future permitted length of RM fins. Gordon Beddall proposed a vote of thanks to Dennis Moss for all his hard work in relation to the Club website which he felt was the best of any he had seen for model yacht clubs. This proposal was seconded by David Andrews and CARRIED unanimously.

2008 SAILING PROGRAMME The Racing Secretary referred to the discussions at last year’s AGM concerning the allocation of racing days to each of the 3 classes and stated he had not received any subsequent comments on this subject and the composition of the racing programme for 2008 would, therefore, follow the same format as that for 2007.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS The Committee had proposed the following persons to form next year's Management Committee: SECRETARY & TREASURER - Laurie Bower, MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY - John Mayhew, RACING SECRETARY - Dennis Moss, MEASURER – David Andrews, COMMITTEE MEMBER – Terry Colson. As there were no other nominations, these persons were ELECTED unopposed. Under Club Rules, the Committee at their first meeting will elect one of their number to be Chairman of the Committee. Other non-Committee Club appointments are Roger Thomas and David Bell - Trustees of the Club and Roger Thomas - Auditor.

FUTURE PLANS FOR THE CLUB The Secretary outlined a number future projects to improve the Club and its facilities. These were the construction of a "natural" jetty for launching/recovering boats (if approved by the Palace Authorities), refurbishment of the Club’s toilet facilities and the installation of an electric self-priming water pump to replace the existing hand operated pump in the kitchen. It was hoped to progress these projects very shortly.

A.O.B.

a. Sunday racing start times – Peter Constable proposed that, starting with the 2008 season, Sunday racing should commence at 10.30am and not 11.00am. This was seconded by David Andrews and CARRIED unanimously. It was also AGREED that this change would not apply to Wednesday racing.

b. Racking of unused boats – Gordon Beddall raised the question of the current severe shortage of boat storage space, particularly for ‘A’ boats. The secretary outlined the steps that had already been taken to try and sort out this problem but indicated that there were still a number of members who had not replied to the two questionnaires that had been sent out and in consequence there were a number of boats whose ownership was still not known. Considerable discussion followed as a result of which the meeting instructed the Committee to arrange for the racking of all unidentified/unused boats on the grounds that the owners had already been given plenty of notice of the Club’s intentions in this matter. The Secretary indicated that the boat storage space thus released would only be available for use by members with the permission of the Committee following specific application by the member(s) concerned.

c. Improvements to the top end of the Rick Pond for Vane sailing – Anthony Warren raised the question of the offer made, about 2 years ago, by Chaz Howe (a Director of a large commercial landscaping company) to modify (free of charge) the top end of the Rick Pond to restore the viability of the lake as a vane sailing venue. Both he and Secretary outlined their understanding of the current position in the matter; the Secretary indicating that the Committee were still awaiting a response from Chaz Howe to the correspondence sent to him which contained a conditional "permission in principle" from the Palace Authorities so that matters could move forward. Much discussion followed and in order to unlock the current impasse the meeting AGREED that Anthony Warren (who has already agreed to undertake the drawing up of suitable plans) should contact the Palace Authorities and Chaz Howe to arrange a meeting, together with himself and the Secretary, to progress matters.

There being no other business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 12.00 noon.