Persons Present
David Lloyd-Jones Chairman &Delegate/Halton &DMAC
Derek Gilbert Secretary & Treasurer/Sale MFC
Mike Colling Vice Chairman/Wigan
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
Jim Radcliffe Timperley & D MFC
Clive Needham Oldham &DMAC
Colin Martin Wirral RCFS
Frank Fletcher RAF Shawbury MFC
Wayne Pendleton CCMAA
10 voting
The meeting started at 8.02pm
Apologies for absence
Peter Maw
Correspondence
None
Minutes of the meeting held on 22nd March 2011
Corrections
On page 4 Officers' Reports: "withdrawn at the Chairman's request"
changed to "withdrawn at the Council Chairman's request"
Page 6 Assistance for Clubs: "total cost" amended to "cost"
The minutes were approved with two abstentions.
Matters Arising
The Chairman reported that he had not received a reply from the council regarding
Wigg Island flying. He believed the department dealing with it had been disbanded
so it may take some time .
John O'Donnell raised the area proposal regarding rule changes again being unhappy
that our proposal had been withdrawn. After some discussion it was agreed that
raising the topic had perhaps brought about a timely publication of this year's
free flight rule book. It therefore appeared to be sensible for us to monitor
how well rule changes are communicated during the season and consider resubmitting
the proposal at a later date if needed.
The Secretary raised the reference to only 16 days allowed for clubs to forward
BMFA subscription renewals to the office to ensure continuity of insurance cover.
This is in fact only for the first payment at the time of re-affiliation, further
renewals can still be sent up to 2 months after payment by the member to the
club.
Clive Needham apologized for not bringing his frequency monitor to the meeting,
but will arrange to pass it to us for the Bickershaw fly-in.
Officers' Reports
The Treasurer reported that the draft accounts for the year to 31 March 2011
showed a surplus of £502. It was agreed to defer discussion on future
cash needs to the next meeting after the current years fly in costs and the
final costs of the first aid kits being sent to clubs to highlight personal
safety; is known.
Jerry Ferer raised the question of what committee minutes are available to members,
in particular Tech committee minutes. The Chairman offered to raise the point
and the Webmaster reminded the meeting that most are listed on the Area web
site, but they are often some time after the relevant meetings.
Roy Allam reported that he had received the first request for a "C"
certificate test.
Council Agendas
The agenda for the Full Council meeting of 21 May was reviewed.
The proposal to appoint Martin Dilly as Vice president was discussed and the
meeting unanimously supported the proposal.
The proposed amendments to the Council Handbook were discussed and several points
were considered unacceptable and the Delegate was asked to vote against them
by a unanimous vote.
The Delegate was asked to raise the comment that whilst electronic copies of
proposals should be accepted they must be supported by hard copies before the
relevant meeting including written signatures.
Item 10 relating to Technical committees inviting a representative of unrepresented
disciplines to attend meetings was discussed and agreed.
Item 15(1) regarding the purchase of a scanner was discussed at length. It was
felt that a suitable scanner needed a large computing capacity to record and
index the documents, may well be a very labour intensive and therefore, to be
worthwhile, may be very costly.
The meeting was not convinced this should be supported and voted against the
proposal unless more detail of equipment and costs are presented to the meeting.
It was not clear if the leaflet for farmers was a new leaflet or an improvement
on an earlier item. The meeting asked the Delegate to discuss the points raised
under 15 (ii) and vote as he felt appropriate.
Area Fly-ins
The Chairman reported that the paperwork for the Eddie Riding and registration
for Shawbury would go out next week. He went on to say that he needed to find
someone to organise both events next year. Whilst he was happy to assist that
person next year he wished to withdraw from the responsibility of organiser.
David Jones had kindly offered to provide a painting again this year and the
meeting agreed we could award a copy of the painting to all competitors.
The Secretary noted that the area was to fund the slightly dearer quote toilets
for Bickershaw to reduce the risk to the area of loss or damage to them. He
had eventually obtained an insurance quote from the BMFA brokers, but this was
likely to be too costly.
AOB
He Chairman reported that there had been a delay in posting the first aid kits
as the computer labels tried would not stick to the plastic first aid boxes.
It seemed likely that a form of self adhesive address pocket would work and
if these proved successful then they should be posted before the next meeting.
In general ACEs have not claimed travel expenses from the area, often accepting
some form of recompense from clubs who have asked them to attend their field
for tests etc. Recently they have been asked to travel some distances and it
has often been assumed by the member or club that the area would fund the travel.
As there is at present is no formal authority to pay such expenses it was suggested
that the meeting consider this. After some discussion Oldham proposed, seconded
by Timperly MF, that any member of the North West Area acting on behalf of the
Area Committee will be eligible to claim out of pocket expenses for travel.
The proposal was passed with voting 8 for and 2 against.
Shawbury offered to E Mail the area with details of Club 2000 pylon racing talks.
The meeting closed at 10.20