Black Mountains Gliding Club
Minutes of the Annual General
Meeting
Held on Friday 14th April 2006 at
7 PM
Robbie
Robertson chaired the meeting with 41 members present. Apologies for absence were
received from Steve Thompson, Eric Lown, Alan Garfield, Alison Ladouarec,
Jeremy Anscombe, Patrick Haxell, Peter Turner, Simon Withey, Greville Earl and
Ken Basterfield.
The
minutes of the meeting held on 8th April 2005 had previously been circulated
and were approved with no matters arising.
Robbie
thanked all present for giving up their time to attend the AGM. He hoped that
they would find it interesting and informative. He noted that for the fourth
year in a row the number of launches had increased and that as a result the
club had enjoyed a successful year. He then summarised the agenda for the
meeting.
He noted that the club was
originally financed by Sport Lot, and a bank loan, together with members’
debentures and two private members’ loans. At the start total liabilities
amounted to £209,000. Since 1998 this had been reduced to £91,000; liabilities
had therefore been halved. In addition financial turnover had doubled so that
for the time being the club is financially secure.
The repayments by BMGC to
TAL were to be reduced so that they did not incur a new tax introduced by the
Chancellor in this year’s Budget. Monthly mortgage repayments to the bank have also
been reduced, so will now continue until 2018.
There
was a need to retain funds in the current account to pay for any urgent
expenditure such as a tug engine failure. The financial situation could however
change rapidly, if for example there were several unexpected debenture repayment
requests; so there remains a need for financial prudence. The treasurer
recommended that the club should undertake one major project each year and that
for 2006 the committee had proposed that the hangar extension should go ahead.
However initial estimates for the basic work in putting down the foundations
and blocks were much higher than originally thought so that this development
could only be achieved by member’s undertaking this work. This would keep costs
to a minimum.
Major
costs that have been incurred during the year include a major overhaul and C of
A for the tug, and the refurbishment of one of the K13s. There is a need to
keep costs under as tight a control as possible; for example switching off
lights and conserving heating.
The
accounts will be published on the web-site. Following the AGM in 2005 the
committee had taken the advice of the treasurer that he would be able to
provide monthly accounts together with the annual accounts for presentation at
the AGM. This would save the club substantial audit costs. The treasurer had
however experienced some difficulty in obtaining all the information necessary
in the preparation of this year’s annual accounts from the previous treasurer.
As a result he felt it necessary to submit the accounts for formal preparation to
the auditors, King Morter Proud, before being sent to Companies House in the autumn.
The auditors have however approved the accounts as they were presented to the
AGM.
Several
debenture holders in Talgarth Airfield Limited (TAL) had requested repayment
during the year. This trend may continue, although hopefully at a slow rate.
£9,000 has been budgeted for possible debenture repayments in 2006.
It
had been agreed at previous AGMs that no interest would be paid to any
debenture holder when repayment is requested. It was agreed that this would
continue for the future.
The
treasurer apologised for the late publication of the accounts. He thanked Don
Puttock, Anne Crowden and Liz Torrance for their support and hard work.
Peter Saundby reported that
2005 had been a bad year for accidents. Three privately owned gliders had lost,
although mercifully nobody had been hurt. He noted that this experience should
be highly relevant to the club strategy in terms of advanced training,
especially for those pilots with high performance single seat gliders.
Don Puttock reported a
successful year for his team, which included his deputy, the tug master and the
tug manager. Training achievements included several Bronze, Silver C and Cross
Country Endorsement completions. His hill soaring and radio routine notes have
been recognised for use by the BGA at national level. The former has already
been published in S & G, and the latter is due for publication in the future.
Don has introduced new training products including a “Get You Out Of Trouble”
instrument flying course. Don thanked Mark Fisher for developing the new web
site, which will provide an important marketing tool.
Don
detailed his second role as marketing and sales manager. Current club policy
required prioritisation of its activities. Top of these is to retain club
facilities for all members; next to attract visitors and lastly to generate
revenue from trial lessons, whilst keeping these between 400 and 500 a year.
The
number of instructors and tug pilots has increased and there is a need for two
two-seater gliders to be manned during every flying weekend. The club soaring scheme has increased in
numbers by 316% in the two years, andt there is a growing demand for better
quality equipment. To this end instrumentation in the Junior has been upgraded
to encourage cross-country flying and a new trailer has been bought that has
been fitted out for both the K6 and the Junior. Visiting expeditions have
numbered 12 in the first three and a half months of this year, but Don believes
that there is a need for more attention to be paid to advanced training. He was
getting very good feed-back from visitors.
Bookings
for 2006 courses were filling up and there is a need for additional courses.
Plans
for 2006 include access to a motor glider for field landing and cross-country
training, access to a glider that would allow spin training for heavy
instructor / student combinations and a smooth hand-over to the new CFI Martin
Langford.
It
was noted that neither Martin nor John Clark would be able to provided
instruction outside the weekend due to work commitments, so it would be
necessary to employ a full-time instructor and manager during the week. The
committee will consider this during the summer.
The definitive version of
the club strategy for the next five years had previously been circulated to all
club members by e-mail and by post. The
chairman thanked all club and committee members who had contributed to the
final version of the document. Robbie said that he believed that all discussion
that could take place had already taken place and asked for the endorsement by
the members of the document as it stood. Martin Brockington thanked all those
who had put a great deal of effort into preparing this strategy and proposed
that it should be accepted without further discussion or modification. Brian
Hutchins seconded this and the strategy was approved by all those present.
Robbie
Robertson, John Scott, Peter Saundby, John Horley, Clive Micklewright and Don
Gosden continue in office. Robbie and John Horley retire by rotation and wished
to be considered for re-election. Both were proposed and seconded and therefore
re-elected.
Don Puttock had arranged for
a special trophy to be made, which he proposed should be awarded to the member
who each year had in his opinion achieved the most in terms of effort and
progress. He nominated Tony Bartlett for the award in 2006. The meeting
unanimously supported this and the trophy was awarded to Tony.
Tony Burton
Trophy
Robbie
presented the Tony Burton cup to Martin Pingel, who won it with a wave flight
to 19,212 feet, a height gain of 16,997 feet and a confirmed Diamond Height.
Anne
Crowden presented a bottle of cleaning fluid to Martin to be sure that the
trophy was kept in pristine condition.
Robbie
then closed the meeting, and an excellent buffet was enjoyed by all.