AGM News - 2009

CPA moving to Monday nights.

After a unanimous vote at the recent AGM, CPA will be shifting to alternating Monday night pool and lecture sessions from January 2010.

The club will be sharing pool sessions for 2 hours every other Monday with Henley Sub Aqua Club at Crosfields School.

Lecture sessions and general club nights will be on the alternate Mondays at the Thames Valley Sub Aqua Club HQ, Palmer Park, Reading starting January 2010.

In addition, members will be gaining associate membership of the Thames Valley Sub Aqua Club thanks to assistance from Paul Fiander and the Reading BSAC committee members... Read the full story here.

New Committee

The new Committee was elected. Changes of note include:

David Jerram resigned as Diving Officer and handed over to Andrew Hepburn

Glyn Fox Resigned his position as Chairman and handed over to Mike Harrisson

Steve Howes resigned his position as training officer and handed over to Thomas Graham

The outgoing committee expressed their thanks to the club for their assistance over the last five years, and will be helping the new committee to establish themselves and to initiate 2010's diving and training programme.

The full minutes of the AGM are as follows:

Annual General Meeting 3rd November 2009

20 members present:
Martin Taplin, Kate Melville-Ross, Mike Harrison, Ian Andrews, Thomas Graham, Ian Dimond, Robin Cawsey, Peter Schroeder, Andy Hepburn, David Jerram, Bill Harrington, Glyn Fox, Steve Howes, Lawrence Tinnion, Ben Williams, Ian Mandrell, Chiara Livini, Keith Holland, Lee Holland, Paul Hopcraft.

Apologies:
Richard Webb, James Bury

Chairman’s opening: (Glyn Fox)
Minutes of last years meeting read through and agreed as an accurate record.

Diving Officers Report: (Dave Jerram)

We have done a similar amount of diving in 2009 as we did in 2008.

Dive sites visited in the last year included:

Plymouth

West Bay

Narvik

Numerous sites with the rib from Portland, Chepstow and Stony Cove

Plans for 2010 include:

Isle of Youth, Cuba

Blue Turtle out of Lyme Bay

Long weekend in Cornwall

Continued RIB trips

More hard boat trips

Problems in 2009

The Humber has had continued reliability problems, mostly with the fuel system, throughout the year.

The Tornado fuel gauge failed and remains to be fixed.

The weather, including tides, have been less than favorable and led to us doing less dives than we would have hoped for.

Once again we have been let down by the lack of training courses being offered by our SAA region and the new rep failing to turn up to visit us.

What needs to be different in 2010

More training development required

Hard boat sharing in order to ensure that we don’t lose money on bookings

Self motivated members both in terms of organizing dives and helping the club to run smoothly

What needs to stay the same in 2010

Continued financial control

Maintaining safety standards

Incidents

We have had one diver admitted to a chamber; however this was as a precaution and the diver was found not to be bent.

The Tornado ran out of fuel and required a Coast Guard call out.

The Humber broke down twice- fuel system problems.

There was a “near miss” when two divers had planned to tie the Tornado off to the shot line and leave it unattended while they went for a dive.

David then thanked the club for the years diving, especially Narvik which he described as one of the few places in the world that he would be happy to visit again.

Training Officers Report (Steve Howes)

Steve thanked those who had helped out with training during the year.

The club now has 13 Dive Leaders and 12 Club Divers, the rest of the members being Elementary Divers or Trainees

During the year Nitrox and First Aid courses have been successfully run. Rob Cawsey qualified as Dive Leader, Thomas Graham, Steve McSpirit and James Hogan became Club Divers, Ian Tyreman and Ian Mandrell passed their Elementary Diver.

Treasurers Report (Steve Howes)

The Clubs current balance is £3,507.53p this is a £497.53p loss on the previous year.
This includes a £400 deficit from Narvik.

Steve has a full set of financial records which were provided for inspection.

Equipment Officers Report (Robin Cawsey)

All the clubs reg’s are in service.

All the clubs cylinders are in test

The spread sheet system for tracking the equipment is working and is up to date..

New flares and radio have been purchased for the Tornado.

We need to purchase a DAN O2 kit next year.

Presentation by Paul Fiander of TVSAC

Paul gave a presentation of what TVSAC is, how it runs, the amount and sort of diving they do as well as giving us a tour of their excellent Club House.

MOTIONS

1. That CPA associates with TVSAC and forms an affiliation with Henley Sub-Aqua Club

That CPA relinquishes their Tuesday night pool and hall sessions. CPA will join Henley Sub-Aqua Club on their fortnightly extended pool sessions on a Monday evening.
That CPA will hold fortnightly lecture sessions at TVSAC on alternate Monday evenings at Palmer Park.

Proposed by Mike Harrison, seconded by David Jerram

Carried unanimously

2. That the Humber RIB should be sold as the amount of use it gets makes it not financially viable to keep it.

Proposed by Martin Taplin, seconded by Ben Williams

For 6
Abstentions 3
Against 11

Not carried

New Committee elected as follows

Chair: Mike Harrison
Diving Officer: Andy Hepburn (pending insurance issues being resolved)
Assistant Diving: Officer: Robin Cawsey
Training Officer: Thomas Graham
Equipment Officer: Robin Cawsey
Treasurer: Steve Howes
Social Secretary: Pete Schroeder
Secretary: Paul Hopcraft

Actions for the new committee

Get the Humber to a weighbridge so we know its exact weight

Ensure that proper insurance cover is obtained for the Diving Officer

Paul Hopcraft to liaise with Gareth Corfield from TVSAC to ensure a smooth transition when CPA joins them

Awards

Glyn Fox was presented with the Mick Mercado Award and made a Life Member of CPA in recognition of his sterling service to the club over more than 20 years.


Aquanaut of the year presented to Thomas Graham for his achievements and work for the club over the past year.

The Hughy Award was presented to John Brown for his services to UK Boxing during the recent trip to Narvik

Other Business

Bill Harrington volunteered to act as a point of contact and co-ordinate boat related work within the club over the next year.