Persons Present
David Lloyd-Jones Chairman & Delegate/CCMAA
Mike Colling FSMAE Vice Chairman/Wigan MAC
Derek Gilbert Secretary & Treasurer/Sale MFC
Keith Barker PRO/Webmaster/ Rochdale MAC
Roy Allam Achievement Sch Co-ord/FCMFA
John O'Donnell Timperley MF
Tom Anyon Fylde Coast MFA
Gerry Ferer Timperley MF
Jim Radcliff Timperley &DMFC
Dave Cooper Bury Metro MFC
Jock Lindsey Bury Metro MFC
Phil Owens N W Free Flight Group
Frank Fletcher RAF Shawbury MFC
Wayne Pendleton Academy Flyers

10 voting

The meeting started at 8.05pm

Apologies for absence.
Syd Bostock-Lawton

Correspondence.
None

Minutes of the meeting held on 2nd June 2009.
Corrections
None
The meeting approved the minutes unanimously.

Matters Arising.
Gerry Ferer raised again the difficulty in accessing the BMFA Council, Areas and Technical committee minutes on the BMFA web site. The Chairman agreed to raise this again at the next Full Council meeting. The Secretary also agreed to include a link to the minutes in the next N W Area agenda, but found the minutes listed under "News" were very much out of date.
We therefore suggest that if members wish to look at the latest draft minutes of Full, Tech and Areas council meetings you source them through our own web site:
Bmfa-nw.org and click on the minutes you need on the left side of the home page.
The Treasurer passed a cheque to Bury Metro for support of the fly-in to be held on 19th September and the meeting was told by Dave Cooper that they have had a good response from the trade who have donated £500 of prizes.

Officers' Reports.
The Chairman reported that he had written to the CO of Chetwynd and received a firm refusal. It was thought that he may not understand we were willing to only fly quiet models and he tried to explain this in more detail, but the second letter was also rejected. It would appear that there will shortly be a new CO in charge and the Chairman of RAFMAA has offered to speak to the new CO, on our behalf, at that time.
The request for information on meetings and issues raised by our area clubs with head office staff was discussed again. It was noted that in Roger Bellingham's report he had contact recently with 3 of our area clubs. One was enquiring if there were any water plane sites in the north west other than Ullswater. Why did the club not contact us, and more to the point why did Rodger not pass this enquiry on to us as no doubt we could have helped.
The Treasurer reported that we had received the profit from the sale of goods at shows we manned this season amounting to £94.54. He noted that Cosford was the big event this year, Weston Park sales were down and Woodvale only contributing £20.94 which he believes is in line with the traders results.
The Achievement Scheme Co-ordinator reported that requests for examiner tests had picked up but noted that he still had not received the list of club examiners from the office. Frank Fletcher enquired if there had been any progress in the ratification of a lapsed examiner mentioned at the last meeting. Roy confirmed he would have to re-take the test and noted that he had not heard any more from him.

Council Agendas
Full Council 12 September
7( i) The appointment of an alternate FAI and CIAM Education delegate was discussed at length and the meeting agreed the area delegate should vote for the proposal.
9 (c) The meeting understood the problems the South West have with travelling but were concerned this would also apply to many areas and create a precedent resulting perhaps in many smaller areas being formed. The North West has many delegates who travel large distances to the area meetings, but the main reason for low attendance is felt to be lack of interest from clubs rather than distance to travel. The delegate was asked to listen to the discussion and only approve the proposal if it would not become a precedent.
10(iii) It was felt that the reference to "mid February" was too late, the amended rule books should be available on the first day of each year.
10(iv) The meeting felt that further discussion was needed regarding "Young Pilots". It was felt that we should not just be ruled by legal responsibility limits, it may well be that a 16 or 17 year old may not be sufficiently mature to make safety decisions regarding flying in front of the public and would the safety pilot be made aware of any possible personal liability?
11d(i) The use of surplus international team budgets caused considerable discussion and the meeting finally instructed the delegate to vote against the proposal.
11d(ii) The meeting felt the delegate should not vote for the anti doping rules without the rules being explained in detail , and presumably, confirmation that the BMFA are not looking to introduce tests at UK events?
Area Council Agenda 26 September
6(i) The current rules refer to a "suitable model" . The meeting felt that it was sufficient for the examiner to decide on the day if the model was suitable. The delegate was asked to vote against the proposal.
The amendments to the Helicopter "B" certificate were agreed by the meeting.
The meeting could not see the need for an A certificate before a B certificate was passed. The meeting asked the delegate to vote against this proposal as it was felt no change was needed.
7 The meeting was interested as to why there was a need for a discussion on the Area Chief Examiners' areas of operation. Roy Allam confirmed that in the N W Area we do not seem to have a problem and when an ACE is asked to test outside his usual area everyone seems to follow the rules and seek the approval of the relevant co-ordinators first.
Area Fly-ins
The Chairman felt the Eddie Riding went well, despite the windy weather. The number of entries was down, but he was going to write to all the Nationals entrants next year to encourage them to attend and publicise the increased prize monies. We are hoping to have two gala tents next year and use of own toilets.
Keith Barker confirmed that all was in place for the first Rochdale indoor meeting on 18th October.

AOB
None.

The meeting closed at 10.29pm.

These minutes are provisional until approved at the next area meeting.