Black Mountains Gliding Club

 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

 

Held on Friday 8th April 2005 at 8 PM

 

Robbie Robertson chaired the meeting with 19 full and country members present, several non-voting associate members and 5 apologies for absence.

 

The minutes of the meeting held on 17th April 2004 were approved with no matters arising.

The officers of the club presented their reports.

 

Chairman’s Report by Robbie Robertson

 

The chairman began by apologising for the inconvenience of having the AGM on a Friday night, about which he had received several complaints. The decision was taken because of the difficulty of booking a venue that allowed for the planned buffet and bar, but he assured the members that next year it would return to a Saturday.

 

Robbie offered thanks to various members who had given up their time to make the club run smoothly, mentioning several by name. He then re-iterated the priorities of preserving the current tremendous club spirit while expanding sufficiently to cover costs and upgrade facilities, especially by fine-tuning the balance between mid-week and weekend flying. Above all the priorities are firstly to look after the safe and enjoyable flying of our own members, then to encourage expeditions from other clubs and after those two to generate further revenue by providing trial lesson flights.

 

After listing the club strengths and weaknesses, he indicated various projects that the committee may consider including land acquisition, addressing trailer parking, T-hangar movement and a further hangar, glider purchase, clubhouse development and field drainage.

 

Treasurer’s Report

 

Don Gosden began by stating that the retained profit for the last two years amounts to £45,434 despite a very substantial, but well spent, outlay on the tug which as a paramount asset is vital to the club’s income. He intends to hold a contingency fund of at least £20,000 in a high interest account and is reviewing the current banking arrangements.

 

The flexible business loans have been repaid and after necessary expenditure, the priority is to clear the bank mortgage (over the next three years at current income) and continue the policy of repaying debentures on request. Once the bank loans are cleared the priority will change to repaying the debentures, after which TAL as a company will be shelved.

 

A long-term strategy is being worked on, with priority to be given to capital expenditure that progresses flying activities.  Budget control has been introduced to control revenue expenditure and grant funding will be investigated. Repayment by cheque will replace the crediting of accounts for expenditure by members on behalf of the club, to enable that expenditure to be properly tracked.

 

Don concluded by stating that the club is currently financially healthy with cash in the bank of £45,456 but with liabilities of £128.727. He invited questions. 

 

Treasurer’s Q & A

·         An interim increase to tow charges may be necessary as fuel costs soar, but will be held off as long as possible while a tow is profitable. A calibration charge of 10% is to be made on fuel as the pump is delivering 10% more than shown on the counter.

·         The charge for oxygen refills will be £10.

·         The TAL balance results from BMGC rent paid. TAL owns only the airfield. It was suggested that splitting assets could be advantageous in the case of a claim, so TAL need not be shelved after repayment.

·         The club income comprises:-

Launches £43K

Soaring £11K

Membership £12K

Trial lesson cash £5K

Trial Lesson vouchers £16K

Other flying fees £8K

·         The club would only just be profitable without trial lessons. Mid-week there is spare capacity but there is more demand at weekends.

 

Safety Officer’s Report

 

Peter Saundby had circulated the report prior to the meeting. He added that the club’s accident rate was in line with the BGA national rate, and that accidents upset business plans apart from anything else.

 

It was suggested that there was a pressure on duty instructors with visiting pilots. This is why the daily briefing at 10am was mandatory. Any visiting or inexperienced pilot not attending should receive a briefing from the duty instructor or his appointee before flying. The CFI is producing a set of briefing notes for less experienced pilots also.

 

CFI’s Report

 

Don Puttock sent his apologies for being unable to attend the meeting as he was representing the club at the London Airshow. His report was read out to the meeting.

 

He thanked all the ‘behind the scenes’ people as well as the frontliners who helped to make last year successful, and John Clark for a smooth handover of the role. He then emphasised that with a growing number of visiting pilots improved briefings and better supervision was required to maintain safety standards.

 

The Junior is to be made available for novice entries into the Rockpolishers competition with a low cost single seater such as a K6CR being bought to cover the gap when the Junior is x-country. The K13’s are to have some instrument improvements, 760 radios with boom mikes and fireglass panels. Longer-term plans will be cash dependent.

 

For the coming year

-          trial lessons will be limited to 400 with any increase in that number being directed to mid-week. Courses and visiting groups will be slightly increased with strict planning so that the airfield isn’t too busy.

-          annual flight reviews will be carried out where every member including the CFI is expected to have a 2-seat training flight.

 

Election of Company Directors

 

Robert Robertson, John Horley, Clive Micklewright and Donald Gosden continue in office. Anne Crowden and Michael Edmonds retire by rotation and do not wish to be considered for re-election.

There were three nominations: -

John Scott nominated by Anne Crowden seconded by Mike Hutchinson

Peter Saundby nominated by Don Gosden and seconded by Tony Crowden

Michael Codd nominated by Robbie Robertson and seconded by Keith Richards.

 

All three were voted on to the committee.

 

Duty Pilot proposal

 

A proposal that there should be weekend rostering of ‘duty pilots’ (who are not necessarily pilots) arose from the instructors’ meeting in January.  A duty pilot would not fly while making sure the flying log was properly filled in, organising the launch point, scheduling launches when busy and ensuring that membership forms were completed and payment made where appropriate.  There was discussion from the floor with no firm conclusion reached so it was agreed that the committee would consider the proposal.

 

Any Other Business

 

·         The committee was asked what the future fleet plans were.  Apart from buying an inexpensive K6CR it was intended to retain the Junior and proposals were made that the club should have a share in a motor glider for field landing training, buy a 2-seater for x-country training and an LS4 type single seater. All this would be reviewed as part of a new 12-year plan, which Peter Saundby has prepared as a basis for discussion. It was suggested that John Bally should be approached for x-country training.

·         Don Gosden added that there were many projects competing for a limited pot of money and that care should be taken with spending on many small items. He suggested (and there was approval for the idea) that the club should concentrate on one major project each year which could be completed and give a sense of progress.

·         The question of trailer parking space was raised and it was stated that various schemes were being considered such as re-locating the T-hangars.

·         Keith Richards who maintains the club glider fleet asked that duty instructors carry out or supervise the daily inspection of the K13s as some visitors were not familiar with handling wood gliders.

·         Grass cutting – the treasurer suggested that a tractor be purchased for the club to carry out its own grass cutting rather than paying an outside contractor.  The advantages would be that the grass could be cut more often, reducing the dangers involved when wheelboxes become clogged with cuttings and the tractor payback time would be 4 years. The feeling of the meeting was that finding volunteers to carry out the work would be difficult and the idea was shelved.

 

Robbie presented the Tony Burton Trophy to Tony Crowden who won it with a wave flight to 14,230 feet and a height gain of 12,369 feet. He then closed the meeting.