PLYMOUTH AND DISTRICT COARSE ANGLING CLUB (PADCAC)

COMMITTEE MEETING

9th July 2021

Agenda/Minutes

PRESENT

Mark Chanter, Brian Morrell, Arnie Harrison, Phil Hawkins, Gary Beasley, Richard Godward, Tom Dolman, Tristan Causer, Paul Bennett.

1. I,book / membership

Gary said that the cost of ibook had risen by 5 pounds a month which he felt was acceptable. 5 new members had joined online since the last zoom and Mark still had some shop sales to imput. We presently have 320 members not counting the ones Mark still had.

2. Facebook Pages

Bill said that the Facebook pages were becoming difficult to manage due to a small number of people who only seemed interested in stirring trouble and having a dig at the club and or committee. He said the pages were supposed to promote the club and inform and advise the members not for airing petty grievances or starting contentious discussions designed to stir the pot. At present there are at least 5 very active members of the committee who were seriously considering not standing again next year. Bill said he felt he did too much and spent too much time and effort on club business to take crap from members too tired to attend a meeting and do it face to face. A discussion took place in which most had their say. Paul Bennett a member attending said that he felt that more information about how and why decisions were arrived at would help to stop some of the contentious posts. So after everyone had spoken it was agreed that Bill would post the agendas of the meetings (zoom or Normal) on the members page 24hrs before they took place and then post the minutes within 48hr of the meeting taking place. That way members could see what was to be discussed and if they wanted to attend ask Bill for the link. The minutes will also be posted on the clubs website and Phil said he would set up an archive page so members could find them easier should they want to revisit something in the future. It was also decided that Bill would write to the people causing disharmony on the FB page and give them one final warning to post within the known criteria. One more breach they would be barred from the pages.

3. Membership fees

Mark and Bill said they had been discussing the present membership fees and both felt that they were too small especially considering the ever rising overheads we have. For example timber prices had more the doubled in the last two years and when you consider we use not hundreds but thousands of pounds worth of timber every year to keep the lakes safe we really would need to think about raising the fees. There was a discussion around this and all present agreed and felt that increasing the fee to 60 pounds per annum for seniors and 30 pounds for OAP’s was about what we needed and would still offer outstanding value for money. There was some discussion on whether to raise the junior fee to a tenner and whether to scrap the joining fee but since this would be an AGM proposal we decided to defer it until later in the year and give it some thought.

4. Work Partys

Gary said he had done most of the work on peg 19 and some of the work on peg 13 and would be able to do the rest with a couple of helpers so he thought it might be better to move the work party scheduled to St Germans. So the 7th of August Work party would now take place at St Germans. Tom also said that he and Tristan were doing some lily pulling at St Germans on Sat 17th of July and did we need to move any lilys anywhere else? Richard said he wanted some for Filham and Gary said he wanted some for the lower lake at Cadover. Bill said he would hitch up the trailer and pick them up and deliver them to the lakes in question. Arrangements would need to be made to plant them properly asap. We will put up a post on the clubs media sites and email members closer to the work party asking for volunteers.

5. A.O.B

A. Brian asked Bill if he could get hold of John Thompson and tie him down about the six weeks of coaching proposed for Friday nights at Filham during the school summer holidays. Bill said he would do this.

B. Phil said he would make an archive page on the site and also a dedicated club meetings minutes page to back up what were doing on Facebook.

C. Richard said he thought it was long past due that day tickets go up from the 6.25 its been for years. It was agreed that day and guest tickets be increased to 10 pounds for 12 hours and 15 for 24hrs.

d. Tom said he would try and get everything he needed for the work party organised asap.

E. Bill touched on the meeting he Richard and Brian had had with Ivybridge town council, not much that really affected the club but we agreed they could lay a section of the perimeter hedge as it was now twelve foot high in places and hard to maintain. Also they are going to improve the signage at their expense. They asked if we had any objection to them holding a biopix at the lake where they study the plant and invertebrate diversity. They asked if we had anyone who would like to attend on behalf of the club.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 20.02