Persons Present
David Lloyd-Jones Chairman & Delegate/Macclesfield
Mike Colling FSMAE Vice Chairman / Wigan
Derek Gilbert Secretary & Treasurer/Sale MFC
Keith Barker PRO/Webmaster/ Rochdale MAC
Roy Allam Achievement Sch Co-ord/FCMFA
John O'Donnell Timperley Model Flyers
Tom Anyon Fylde Coast MFA
Gerry Ferer Timperley Model Flyers
Phil Owens N W Free Flight Group
6 voting
The meeting started at 8.07pm
Apologies for absence
Jim Radcliffe, Wayne Pendleton and Wayne Howman.
Correspondence
None received.
Minutes of the meetings held on 1st June 2010
Corrections
Under "Area Fly-ins" it was agreed to change "could not have
been used" to "should not have been used."
The minutes were unanimously approved.
Matters Arising
John O'Donnell asked if the under 16 ban at Sculthorpe had been mentioned. Keith
Barker replied that several people he had discussed it with felt that it may
be better if it was not officially raised as it could highlight the point and
cause further problems elsewhere if it became looked upon as the norm. Mike
Colling understood that David Phipps had it in hand.
John O'Donnell noted that although new archiving space had been allocated, this
was still not suitable for models. He believed that many models are available
to the society if they want them. This prompted a discussion on what the archive
should consist of and the Chairman suggested that perhaps we could approach
the RAF archive at Hendon where we could display a history of model flight and
at the same time have access to some of their storage space?
The methods of catapult launching jet type models for a new Eddie Riding class
were discussed and the meeting agreed that a 6 inch hand held stick catapult
with no limit on rubber size seemed appropriate and the Chairman agreed to produce
full draft rules.
The Secretary and Roy Allam noted that they had received a note from David Phipps
explaining the recent delays in the office issuing achievement certificates
and this problem should now be resolved.
Officers' Reports
The Chairman recorded the area's sadness at the loss of Ron Moulton and has
written to his son. The treasurer was requested to forward a donation of £50
to the charities the family wished to support.
Keith Barker confirmed that, despite it being an excellent day for outside flying,
the first Rochdale indoor meeting of the season was well supported and those
attending had a good days flying.
Roy Allam reported that he had received a telephone call from Bill Cowell (IOM)
that he had a request to take a heli B but there was no one in the IOM qualified
to act as an examiner. It was agreed that at the moment the candidate needed
to either travel to the mainland or pay the expenses for an ACE to travel to
the island.
Council Agendas
There were no council Agendas published to discuss.
The Chairman reviewed the Areas Council meeting of 25 September. This was an
unusually short meeting and the main topics of interest discussed at this meeting
were the changes to the A and B fixed wing certificates. Pilots will no longer
be allowed to stand behind models on the runway for take off and will have to
remain in the pilot's box and for the B, models will have to spin. The changes
also made to the Heli achievement scheme to allow further stabilising of fly-bar
less models were also discussed.
The Chairman also reviewed the Full Council meeting of 10 September. The meeting
was pleased to hear that there was to be no increase in fees for 2011. The main
item discussed was the reference to it being recorded that the BMFA web site
is to be considered to be one of the primary publication mechanisms of the society.
This raised several comments and the Chairman was asked what had happened to
the proposal by the area regarding rule changes. The meeting was told that he
had been recommended to withdraw the proposal as the point had already been
covered. Several present disagreed with this and it was agreed to consider another
proposal under AOB.
Area Fly-ins
The treasurer raised the point that the area had not considered the granting
of a donation to the Shawbury club again this year for assisting with the scale
fly in. The meeting agreed to make a payment of £100 to the club and again
thanked them for the way the event had been run.
AOB
John O'Donnell asked that the meeting redraft the withdrawn proposal regarding
rule changes as we must have a clear instruction to all members when a rule
book is delayed, i.e. published after 1st January, that publication has happened
and a date when the new rules apply from.
After lengthy discussion it was agreed that the only safe method of informing
all the members of such a publication date was to refer to it in the BMFA News.
Mention on the web site was considered not good enough as the members will not
know when to look for that message on the web site!
The principle points to include in the draft of the proposal were proposed by
Timperley and seconded by Sale and approved by the meeting unanimously. The
proposal forwarded for approval by the next full council meeting reads:
In General Rules, Section 2, Add to the end of rule 2.5.2. (d)
"Notification that an updated Contest Rulebook (or Amendment Sheet) is
available to the membership, is to be announced in BMFA News together with an
implementation date that is at least four weeks later."
The Chairman stated that the area had been asked to fund a trophy to be used
for the Velodrome meetings. In principle the meeting was happy to do this, but
in the absence of any details of the category it was to be awarded for and the
proposed value it was agreed to carry this forward to the next meeting when
more details may be known.
The meeting wished to congratulate Liam Swarbrick of Hindley Green MFC for gaining second place in the Fun Fly class 2 at the 2010 Nationals.
The meeting closed at 10.45.
These minutes are provisional until approved at the next area meeting.