1. APOLOGIES

from: David Morl, Eric Scholes, Sophie Annetts. 56 members attended.

2. MINUTES of the 2000 AGM

There being no queries, their adoption was proposed by Peter Bick, seconded by Liz Baker, and carried unanimously.

3. MATTERS ARISING

None except those covered in the Agenda.

4. REPORTS BY OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION

4.1 President — Roger Barnes

A colour brochure to promote the DCA has been produced. New versions will be available with the new National Secretary’s address, and members can request quantities of the leaflets to give out to interested people, yacht clubs and the like.

A new member called Stuart Hill is planning to sail round Britain and Ireland in a 14 foot open boat in Spring 2001 — single handed and non-stop — and is seeking sponsors. On questioning him about the ‘non stop’ bit, it appears that he intends to anchor occasionally, so I am not sure how non-stop it will actually be. Nonetheless I am very concerned about the realistic chances of successfully completing such a voyage without getting into difficulties and bringing both the activity of dinghy cruising and perhaps the good name of this Association into disrepute. Although I do not feel that the DCA can take an official position on such matters, I did make plain that I personally felt that his planning and preparation appeared to be inadequate. Members with access to the Internet can make up their own minds by looking at Stuart’s web site: http://www.majorit.net/maxexposure/.

Last year the DCA again took a stand at the excellent Boats on Show exhibition at Beale Park. Not only is this a way of advertising and promoting the DCA to members of the public attending the show, but it gives us a presence at an event that is attended by much of the yachting press and by most small boat builders. This helps to raise our profile with these bodies, and together with the sterling efforts of our PRO Ted Jones, has meant that the Association seems to be much more on people’s lips than perhaps it once was, and we are regularly mentioned in the press.

4.2 National Secretary — David Jones

The routine work continued as usual throughout the year. At the last AGM I mentioned a wish to give up the job and in June I wrote to our President confirming my need to retire. I’m very pleased to say that someone has come forward in response to the appeals in the Bulletin and we will hear more about that later. The new incumbent should find the job more agreeable owing to a development which Peter Bick, as Bulletin Publisher, will be reporting.

From this rather tatty little book which is the DCA’s first and only Member Number Register, and therefore of some historical interest, I see that the first member I enrolled was ML Bossen, number 1757. The most recent was P Kelly, number 2455. So that’s 698 in just over 10 years or an average of about 70 per year. At the beginning it was less and a few years ago more than this average. My impression is that after several years of steady growth, numbers of membership inquiries and enrolments has plateaued, or maybe declined this year.

So in conclusion I’d like to say how much I’ve enjoyed my job working with the team that runs the DCA so efficiently and economically, and to thank my successor for volunteering and wish him the very best.

4.3 Hon Treasurer — Jeff Rogers

Hon Treasurer explained that as agreed at the last AGM, the new financial year will run from 1st October - 30th September. The reason for this was that all subscriptions should be banked within the DCA financial year, giving members a better chance to make comparisons year on year. Accordingly he would present six months accounts to Sept 2000, copies of which had been issued to members present.

At the next AGM he would present accounts for the twelve months to Sept 2001.

The DCA’s increased giving to RNLI (now £50 p.a.) enacted at the last AGM had been acknowledged by a very nice letter from RNLI.

The audio loop system procured by Hon Treasurer to help deaf aid users at meetings was in successful use now, including this AGM. The set is available on loan from Jeff.

Hon Treasurer’s proposal to make Frank and Margaret Dye Honorary Members was met with acclaim.

Adoption of the Accounts was proposed by Dave Morton, seconded by John Adye, and carried unanimously.

4.4 Membership Secretary — Roger Gingell

The Dinghy Cruising Association currently has a membership of 504, which compares with the figure of 502 members which I reported at the 2000 AGM.

During 2000:- (1) 76 Members did not renew their subscription or resigned (2) 78 new members joined the DCA.

From the above it will be seen that overall we can record a continued increase in membership although there is little change from the previous year. Over the last years an average of 51 members failed to renew their membership. On the plus side, we have gained an average of 71 members over the same period.

As in the previous year the majority of members renewed their subscription in time to take advantage of the £11 renewal fee, 93 members paid the £13 fee or included a donation. To try and reconcile the total amount of money received in subscriptions for a given year I have from the cash sheets I pass to the treasurer arrived at the following figures. These figures cover the last five years, 1995-1999, and represent the total amount received for the given membership year.

1995 Received from 399 members £4316 1996 Received from 407 members £4362.50 1997 Received from 428 members £4610 1998 Received from 464 members £5389 1999 Received from 476 members £5602.50 2000 Received from 479 members £5683.03

The accounting year was changed during 2000 at the treasurer’s request. As a result of this, my report of cash received during this year from the membership goes up to 30th September 2000. Any cash received during the last quarter of the year will be shown in the 2001 cash sheet. The figures include amounts from some members for more than one year’s subscriptions. They also include small donations.

Len Wingfield asked whether we knew why so many people do not renew after only a year or two. Since we do not, Membership Secretary will try appending a tear off returnable slip asking the question.

Replying to a question Roger confirmed that he chases up late payers with a letter to maximise the renewals numbers.

4.5 Editor — Joan Abrams

In 2000 in addition to rally reports, letters, and titbits, there had been 13 cruises, 8 technical, 3 places, 3 boat reviews, and 8 boat discussions. Hon Editor appealed for writers to be concise and avoid word processor induced verbosity and repetitions. Some letters were too long and should be turned into articles. A good idea, pioneered by Dennis and Ann Kell, was to write a comprehensive log of a big cruise and deposit that in the DCA Library. Then write a briefer version for the Bulletin.

Photos for colour reproduction must be of high quality.

During discussion of the report, David Morton asked for more recipes.

4.6 Publisher — Peter Bick

The big event this year has of course been the use of colour in the Bulletin for the first time. It has gone largely unremarked though I’m sure it has been appreciated. That we now have colour is really due to the member whose nagging finally got the last AGM to consent to its use. I mean Paul Constantine. He has recently been chasing me to include even more colour, but I am resisting this at present on economical grounds. The average cost of printing the Bulletin has risen by some 50% which amounts to about £1,600 per year. A possible £3.20 extra subscription per member being required.

One other improvement, although you may not see it as such, is the new way we will be posting the Bulletins. This work has always fallen on David Jones since he took over the Secretary’s job. Our printers have now taken over this task so you will be receiving the next issue in polywrap like this. The only difficulty has been the issue of the membership cards. It appears that in fact, few people require their cards. Accordingly we shall only be sending cards to those members who include a stamped addressed envelope with their subscription. If anyone objects to this they are welcome to raise the matter under Any Other Business.

4.7 Librarian — Mike Williams

In the 12 months or so since the last AGM, I have sent out 144 books, leaflets, plans, etc. and 126 copies of the Bulletin — a total of 270 publications borrowed by just under 9% of the membership. These 270 items however, represent a drop of nearly 30% on the numbers I mentioned at the last AGM. Postage over the period has cost about £180, and once again, I am pleased to advise that no publications at all have been lost — in transit, or otherwise — and that we have been able to reduce the missing books list from 22 to 20 since last January.

Some 50 books, pamphlets and leaflets have been added to the Library — all have been itemised in the Bulletins during the year.

As well as the continuing task of trying to keep the books in good condition, I have spent a fair amount of time during the year trying to find information on a variety of subjects for borrowers; this includes extracting all the articles I could find on the Roamer for a member who was building one (the resultant booklet ran to 50 pages and a copy is in the Library) and there were several requests for copies of single articles published over the years. I consider this sort of request to be just as much part of my job as sending out books.

4.8 Public Relations — Ted Jones

The Boats on Show event at Beale Park near Reading had been a great success again for the DCA in 2000 and volunteers were being sought for 10-13th May 2001. In exchange for a half day manning our display you earn free admission to the show. Good publicity had been given us by Practical Boat Owner and Sailing Today magazines, and on the WWW Sailing Now.

I have identified which sailing schools offer dinghy courses and will send them our new brochures. Likewise the more probable dinghy class associations would be targeted and Ted suggested DCA members in such associations send them material for their newsletters etc. A member suggested we place a DCA advert in such newsletters.

I suggest that when — assuming we ever do — visit a sailing club, we should write and thank them for their hospitality and enclose a copy of our Bulletin plus a few brochures. Hopefully it will mean a) we’re well thought of, and remembered for our politeness and b) we’re better known as an organisation and c) we get a few new members out of it all.

I asked Roger Gingell to let me have a breakdown of how members joined and had planned to bring that into my bit since it’s rather nice if people who give up their time can see some sort of result. It works out that, of the 83 members we took on last year, 21 (almost 25%) came to us through the Internet — bully for Johnny I say! — then 20 came to us saying they’d learned of us through magazine articles. A further 16 came to us from what we might call our own recruiting activities. They say they have a friend who is a member etc. Next there were 5 members who read about us in books such as Margaret Dye’s or John Glasspool’s. Then we recruited 14 from Boats on Show (almost 17% of this year’s intake). Finally, I like the fact that about 10% of new members came to us saying they didn’t know where they heard of us! I say I like it because it means that through all our activities, we’ve seeped into their subconscious — and that can only be good for future years as well!

4.9 Technical Adviser — Peter Bick

It has been quite a busy year for me. Starting last year the interest in Eric Coleman’s designs, the Roamer and Rebell, suddenly started to rise. I think that this was due, first of all to Jeroan Hoekstra’s website, on which he featured the Roamer he built and the cruising he accomplished in it. I followed it up with an article in the now defunct Afloat magazine. More recently Brian and Ann Main’s article in PBO awoke interest in the Rebell. The Editor of Practical Boat Owner rang me a couple of times seeking information on both these dinghies which I was glad to send him. This kept the interest alive. As a result instead of one set every two or three years we have sold 5 copies of Rebell plans in the last twelve months. Instead of one or two sets of Roamer plans per year we have sold 8 copies of Roamer plans. In addition to these I have sent out over two dozen sets of study plans. These orders have come from all over the world. Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland and the USA.

The usual queries have been received of course. Questions on anchor weights and warps, epoxy gluing techniques, rudder design, etc.

5. ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2001

Roger Howard had responded to the appeals for a successor Hon National Secretary and was nominated by David Jones, seconded by Peter Bick. There being no other nomination, Roger Howard was elected.

Existing office holders were willing to continue for all the other posts and there were no other nominations so Cliff Laycock proposed and John Adye seconded the motion that all the following be re-elected:

President Roger Barnes Vice President Joan Abrams Membership Secretary Roger Gingell Treasurer Jeff Rogers Technical Advisor Peter Bick Bulletin Editor Joan Abrams Bulletin Publisher Peter Bick PRO/Exhibitions Ted Jones Auditor Gerald Levenson South Coast Secretary Liz Baker North-west Secretary Brian McClellan East Coast Secretary Peter Small South-west Coast Secretary Roger Barnes DCA Shop Ken Brown Library Mike Williams

Ed Wingfield with Bill Jones agreed to be joint Secretaries of the North-east Area

Carried unanimously.

6. NAYLOR NOGGIN.

This trophy is awarded annually by the President to the writer of the best cruising article to appear in the last year’s issues of the Bulletin. Out of a very close field, and allowing for some ‘lifetime achievement’ effect, the President had chosen Alan Glanville’s ‘Cruise on the East Coast ‘Escalators” [166/27]. This covered an open boat cruise, well written in a laconic, laid back style. The Noggin was filled with Newcastle Brown by previous winner Ed Wingfield and passed over to Alan to loud applause.

7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

7.1 Peter Bick pointed out that by Rule 7 the DCA’s AGM’s should occur in January or February. Since Rules should reflect actuality it was time the Committee reviewed them. Which they will, and publish their proposals in the Bulletin in time for ratification at the next AGM.

7.2 Area Secretaries were invited to take away supplies of the new colour Brochures for use locally.

7.3 Non-members who had come to Rutland principally for the morning’s lecture by Frank Dye had to pay £5. This fee would be discounted against their first membership fee on joining. One at least took advantage of this.

7.4 There would be a DCA tent at this year’s Boats on Show at Beale Park to provide better cover for display and personnel. The DCA’s exhibition display boards would be required and the President appealed for fresh photos for the display.

7.5 Liz Baker proposed a vote of thanks to David Jones retiring Nat Sec, greeted with applause.

THE MEETING CLOSED AT 4.20 PM.