Minutes of the Meeting of the BMFA North West Area
Held on 6th October 2009 at St Adian's Parish Centre,
Winstanley, Wigan.

Persons Present
David Lloyd-Jones Chairman & Delegate/CCMAA
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
Wayne Pendleton CCMAA
Syd Bostock-Lawton Macclesfield MAS

7 voting

The meeting started at 8.42pm

There was considerable congestion on the M6 and the meeting started late to give delegates time to arrive.

Apologies for absence
Mike Colling, Frank Fletcher and Dave Cooper

Correspondence.
The Secretary had received a telephone call from Dave Cooper thanking us for the donation and to let the meeting know that the event went very well and the club were expecting at least 5 new junior members as a direct result.

Minutes of the meeting held on 8th September 2009.
Corrections
The Secretary agreed that he had omitted to remove Frank Fletcher from the list of attendees at the meeting and at the foot of page 4 "Frank Fletcher" should be replaced with "The meeting"
The meeting approved the minutes with 1 abstention.


Matters Arising.
Gerry Ferer raised again the topic of the failed resolution asking for notice of senior office staff being involved with assisting clubs in our area. After some discussion it was agreed that the Area Chairman should write to both the BMFA Chairman and CEO explaining that the recent report by Rodger Bellingham referred to several points that, as an area, we could have assisted the club in question and explain how we feel that the area local knowledge is a resource that should not be overlooked.

Officers' Reports.
Keith Barker confirmed that E Mail reminders had been sent out for the first indoor meeting of the season.
Roy Allam noted that 8 weeks ago new forms had been sent out to examiners. 50% 0f the examiners are still using the old forms.
Can club secretaries please remind all their club examiners to destroy the old forms and start using the new ones please.
Any old forms will shortly be refused and returned the examiner.

Council Agendas
As there were no council agendas to consider, the Chairman reported in detail on the full council meeting of 12 September
The principal items discussed were:
It was noted that the fees for 2010 had been increased by £1 for senior members. Gerry Ferer enquired if there was a specific reason for this and Keith Barker informed the meeting that an insurance increase had been funded last year and this just catches up the cost increase.
We should soon be able to access a new club map next year which looks to be very useful.
The incident at the Weston Park show was reported to the CAA who we believe are very happy in the way it was handled.
The Chairman also reminded everyone that damage to cars is still the biggest claims experience and all clubs should look closely at their parking and overflying procedures.
The new Bingo Lotto is now in place and hosted by Ulrika Johnnson on Virgin 1.
The BEFA has been disbanded and the BMFA is looking to take over safety advice etc.
The S W Area split has been agreed, there are now two county sub areas with one delegate. It was felt this may be a solution to a local problem and should not be taken as a precedent.
The anti-doping policy was accepted as we needed to be seen to be complying with other sporting bodies, but we understand it will not be implemented in uk competitions.
Changes to the handbook regarding "competence" and under 15 year olds needing a safety pilot at shows were accepted.
Gerry Ferer noted that our comments that the rule changes should be published before 1 January seemed to have been ignored!
The reference to the CAA prosecuting a model flyer was discussed and this related to a forged LMA exemption certificate used at the Nationals.
John O'Donnel commented that he was not entirely happy with the voting process, in particular he thought individual CVs were to be limited to 200 words. Keith Barker agreed and understood next year any over 200 will be returned for amendment.

Area Fly-ins
The Chairman felt the Eddie Riding coverage in the AMI was excellent and hopefully will go a long way towards increasing interest in the event and generate more entrants next year. He has written to Alex Whittaker thanking him for his efforts.
The Chairman also wished to thank the Shawbury club for their efforts in organising the scale fly-in which had been a very successful event.
Keith Barker noted that all was in order for the first Rochdale indoor meeting of the season next week.

AOB
Timperly DMFC asked if the insurance company now insisted clubs had a child/vulnerable adult protection policy as it had been mentioned that they were likely to. It was confirmed that it was not yet a requirement to have one, but for their own benefit all clubs should draft one.
Timperley also asked why are not all of the Technical committee minutes available on the web. The Chairman replied that these were listed by the committees themselves and not the BMFA, but would raise the point as many would be of interest to some members.

The meeting closed at 10.31pm.

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