Minutes of MPBA Fast Electric Section AGM 2010

Saturday 24th July Bridlington

1. Meeting opened at 7:05pm

2. Members present:

P Barrow, J Foster, S Bennett, B Barrow, D Harvey, G Roberts, I Phillips, C Ransome, F Richards,

L Burton, M Harvey, P Heaton, S Mitchell, W Hickman (late arrival), Paul Upton-Taylor (late arrival)

Apologies for absence from Mark Shipman

3. Minutes of 2009 AGM

The minutes of the last agm were passed round. There being no changes to the minutes they were put forward for acceptance.

Proposed by I Phillips and seconded by C Ransome. Carried unanimously.

4. Chairman’s Report

‘We have had a good number here today and generally we seem to be getting over all the issues that we had last year. Chris Osman worked it out that there were over 100 boats including the team racing for Sunday.’

5. Treasurer’s Report

‘There is no balance sheet due to so much money coming in late for the National entry fees. There will be one prepared for Peter Revill by the end of September which is the end of the financial year for the MPBA. A number of bills have been received today so a rough estimate of the amount held by the section is around £1800. This comprises £1111.22 held in central funds and the rest is held in our bank account. Entry fees for the weekend are about £500 with one team entry still to be paid.

Next year entry fees are going to have to be paid no later than two weeks prior to the event to enable a balance sheet to be prepared. In the past couple of days about £180 has been collected. If I am going to continue as treasurer next year this situation has got to change.’

A discussion then took place regarding methods of payment. The chairmen suggested opening a Pay Pal account for which there would be a fee. The secretary also asked what would happen when Cheques are no longer an option. Postal orders are also an option, and the web site already had this method of payment as an option. It was suggested that the entry fee could be increased to cover the cost of the Pay Pal transaction, but the secretary was not happy about having to pay the charges.

A proposal was made by David Harvey that next year all fees for the National were to be paid no later than two weeks prior to the start of the event. This was seconded by Chris Ransome. Carried unanimously.

6. Secretary’s Report

‘The only thing that has been going on this year is in relation to the electronic timing system that was purchased and the discontentment of a member who felt aggrieved with the MPBA. This member was banned from the MPBA as a result of this. An attempt was made by this person to enter the Naviga World Championships under the English flag as opposed to the GB flag. This request was dismissed by both the MPBA and Naviga.

The only other thing that happened in the year was the introduction of the Non Competitive events which due to the nature of our boats are not suitable for us to run.’

7. Election of Officers

The chairman asked if there had been any offers to take on a committee post, but there had not been any. Mark Shipman had given notice that he was prepared to stand as the rep for the Southwest. It was mentioned by the chairman that a Southern Area rep was needed as the incumbent officer had not been to any meetings in the past 18 months. There were no offers, although there were some suggestions. It was suggested that the current Southwest rep could become the Southern rep and that a new Southwest rep could be elected. This was not thought to be acceptable. The position of the Southern rep was to be left open. The existing committee were asked if they were prepared to stand for re-election. With the exception of the Southern Area rep (not present) all were prepared to stand for re-election. However the treasurer stated that the first thing that went wrong would cause him to relinquish the position. There being no other proposals for election, all were carried.

Committee voted in:

Chairman: Peter Barrow Secretary: Martin Harvey

Treasurer: John Foster South West Area Rep: Mark Shipman

Southern Area Rep: SAWS Officer: David Harvey

Nationals Officer: Ian Phillips International Rep: Paul Heaton

8. Proposals

The proposals that had been submitted prior to the meeting were discussed:

a) ‘That the lipo limit for mini classes be raised to 140gm. This will bring it sensibly in line with other classes making a 50% reduction in weight from Mono 1 which is in itself a 50% reduction from Mono 2’.

Proposed by – David Baker

Seconded by – Ian Phillips

Peter Barrow stated that in his opinion it should be possible to take one power source from one class and use it in another class within each class classification. Paul Heaton said that he believed that at the Naviga presidium meeting at the Worlds in September there would be a proposal to introduce a mini hydro class. Ian Phillips therefore proposed that this proposal a) be held in abeyance until it was known what the outcome was from Naviga with regards to the mini hydro class.

b) ‘That at the World Championships presidium meeting Paul Heaton propose that the cell counts and weights for Mono 1 and Hydro 1 be 2 cell lipo max 280gm; Mono 2 and Hydro 2 be 4 cell lipo max 560gm’.

For Super Boat class the cell count should be raised from 6 cell lipo to 8 cell lipo max weight of 1120gm.

Proposed by – David Harvey

Seconded by – Martin Harvey

Paul Heaton said that it was his opinion that the super boat class would not get accepted as feedback was that it would be deemed to be too dangerous as the Germans would be going 100mph. If the other classes went to 3 and 6 cells then there would not be a super boat class requirement.

The proposal was put to the vote on the basis that if it was not passed then we would need to have another section vote to decide what cell counts should be proposed.

The proposal b) was passed unanimously.

c) ’ That the MPBA FES stay with Naviga rules for all classes. Also that similar sized boats have similar sized cells, i.e. mini classes all have 110gm cells’.

Proposed by – Franco Scotto

Seconded by – Paul Wray

Ian Phillips suggested that as we had to wait until what NAVIGA voted for at the presidium meeting that the proposal c) be held in abeyance.

9. A.O.B.

a) The date for the 2011 Nationals was discussed. Ian Phillips asked when the Europeans would be in 2011 and Peter Barrow said that they would be some time in May. It was therefore suggested that the UK Nationals should be held on the same weekend as 2010, i.e. 23-24 July. This was proposed by Ian Phillips and seconded by Paul Heaton. Passed unanimously.

b) Peter Barrow asked what was going to happen at next year’s Nationals with regards to having a jobs sheet similar to what is used at NADS and ELECTRA meetings to allocate competitors to specific tasks. Peter suggested that if a competitor failed to complete the task then he/she should forfeit their previous lap score. This was felt a bit harsh. It was mentioned that it had fallen to a few people to run the meeting this year and this had made it difficult for these people to also run their own boats. It was John Foster’s view that there were enough experienced competitors capable of doing a duty. Peter said that with the number of competitors there today it would probably mean no more that 12 minutes of duties a day. David Harvey proposed that the duties be spread evenly across the competitors, seconded by Bill Hickman. Passed unanimously.

At this point Paul Upton-Taylor joined the meeting and was asked if he would be prepared to stand as the Southern Area rep. Paul stated that he was not easily contactable as he worked nights. It was suggested that he could be contacted via email to which Paul was agreeable. Paul was also agreeable to signing the MPBA form.

c) Peter Barrow said that he would like to go back to splitting the classes over the two days so that some classes had two rounds on the Saturday and one on Sunday, and some classes had one round on Saturday and two on Sunday. Chris Ransome said that he thought it better to keep to all two classes on the Saturday because it was not so important to finish on time on the Saturday as it was on the Sunday. Ian Phillips wondered whether it would be feasible to start at 0830 on the Sunday, but it was felt that this would create problems with hotels breakfasts etc. After further discussion it was proposed to leave things as they were. The proposal was passed unanimously.

d) The chairman asked for discussion on moving the AGM to a separate day. Chris Ransome and Ian Phillips pointed out that it was difficult to get members to the meeting on a day when they were racing let alone on a different day. Some discussion took place and a vote was then taken to leave the time and day as existing. Passed unanimously.

e) The chairman asked what the feeling was about setting up a PayPal account. It was generally felt that this was not necessary as it was always an option to send postal orders as a means of payment.

f) Bill Hickman asked about the level of the fee paid to the Bridlington club for the use of their lake. He was told that it was £200. Bill then asked for how long this had been the fee, pointing out that the amount of work that the Bridlington club members put in to get the water suitable for running the event was a great deal. Bill suggested increasing the level of the payment and the chairman said that it had been proposed last year to raise this to £250. The treasurer then stated that this was not what had happened. Bill suggested that £300 was well worth it and proposed this for future Nationals as the MPBA had enough money for this. It was mentioned that the entry fee might have to go up to cover this. The chairman pointed out that there were some members who would like to buy an electronic timing system. The chairman then asked what other expenses had been paid out in the past year and was told that there had been a few small bills but that £380 had been spent on trophies. Entry fees for this year’s event had brought in £550. The treasurer was asked what the level of grant had been received this year and he replied that he had received no grant. The treasurer informed the meeting that the MPBA had asked for surplus money to be returned to the main body, but it was pointed out to them that of the £1400 in the section account there were £692 of un-reconciled cheques and that the MPBA had no right to take that money. No money was handed back as the true balance was under the £1000 allowed to be held. There was £1111 held in central funds for use by the section. The secretary said that he thought that there was a £1000 grant available each year. Chris Ransome also believed that there was an annual grant available and that the grant should be used for running the Nationals event.

Bill Hickman proposed that the fee for the event be raised to £300

Seconded by Simon Mitchell.

Passed unanimously

It was agreed that the situation regarding the availability of an annual grant would be pursued before any decision was made regarding an increase to the entry fees for future Nationals.

g) Simon Mitchell proposed a vote of thanks to Peter Barrow, the Harvey brothers and the members of the Bridlington club for the hard work put in to running the event that day. Seconded by Ian Phillips.

The meeting closed at 7:50pm