AGM Results 2007.

CPA held its Annual General Meeting on November 13th at Woodford Park. The meeting was relaxed, informal and provided some excellent feedback for the committee.

This years AGM proved to be the most relaxed in many year, with little or no argument and a good report from each of the existing committee members. The meeting was opened by Chairman Glyn Fox with a good summary of the diving season in 2007.

Andy Hepburn admires his Hughey award at the AGM 2007

David Jerram provided the Diving Officers report on a slide presentation which covered the years diving activities - as well as the issues and incidents that the club experienced. The full report is available to review by clicking here: Diving Officers Report 2007. David expressed his desire to see the club invest in new equipment for trainees and club rental to members - but noted that this would require fund raising efforts.

Steve Howes provided an overview of the training that had taken place in2007, and credited club members for their excellent progress in Elementary, Club Diver and Dive Leader grades. Steve outlined the need to continue education and expressed his eagerness to get prospective Dive Leaders through the DL lifts and Diver Rescue courses.

Lisa Knibbs, Treasurer provided her apologies for absence, but managed to give an overview of the unaudited accounts for the year. The bank balance shows a small net gain which is very encouraging news.

Glyn Fox (Chairman) rounded the reports up with a request for more assistance on the committee, especially from anyone interested in helping as a club secretary. For the time being the committee will make efforts to manage the role of secretary as joint effort.

Election of officers:

The following people were re-elected / elected onto the committee for 2008:

Chairman: Glyn Fox (re-elected)

Diving Officer: Steve Howes (re-elected)

Training Officer: Steve Howes (re-elected)

Equipment officer: Richard Butterworth (unanimously elected) with Kevin Abley (re-elected)

Secretary: NONE

Social Secretary: Peter and Linda Schroeder (unanimously elected)

Awards

The end of the evening saw a great deal of fun in the form of the annual awards ceremony. This year the formal awards were a close run thing, with multiple votes for the Aquanaut and Mick Mercado trophies. The results are as follows:

Mick Mercado Trophy:

This award was given to joint winners Steve Howes and Mike Harrison for their dedication to training others during 2007, and for their excellent attitude to club matters, diving and dive organisation.

Aquanaut of the year:

The Aquanaut of the year was Robin Cawsey. Robin is a recent member to CPA, and has made really excellent progress in his training during the year, aceing his club diver exam and proving to be a good, reliable and knowledgable diver.

Hughey Award:

The annual Hughey award was given to Andy Hepburn for his two spectacular 'events' during 2007. Firstly Andy managed to enter the water on a dive at Plymouth with his dry suit completely unzipped. This resulted in him rapidly returning to the boat where he was kindly held upside down by his ankles to remove excess water.

In addition, Andy was noted for bringing an animal to the club (a mouse) which managed to leave his wet suit boot and dived into the club pool - where it did a full length in record time before being rescued.

Full minutes from the AGM will be made available to club members.