CLUB FEES FOR THE COMING YEAR We ended the season with a total membership of 149 which was made up of 143 adults and 6 juniors. This was 6 adults up on last year. This is a comfortable level of membership for us as long as all 149 don't turn up at the same time. This year we were £1195 down on our total funds from the previous year. We have been able to keep the club component of the subs at the same level for the past five years. We cannot let our total funds drop too much as we always need to keep sufficient funds available to cover large capital expenditure. In that I am thinking if we had to replace the tractor or the gang mower or pay towards road resurfacing. I hasten to say that none of those, to my knowledge, are imminent but we must be prepared. For these reasons I propose an increase in the Club component of the subs of £2 and £1 for juniors. Taking into account a £1 increase in the level of senior BMF A subs, that would mean that the subs for the coming season would be:-
| BMFA | Club | Total | |
| Adults | £27 | £37 | £64 |
| Juniors | £14 | £6 | £20 |
| Adults | Partners | Juniors | |
| BMFA | £27 | £17 | £10 |
| Club | £37 | £37 | £6 |
| Total | £64 | £54 | £16 |
Incidentally a junior becomes a senior on their 18th birthday. The committee recommends this level of subs for the season 2005/2006. I invite your comments. Barry Richards queried the need for a Club increase in the light of the existing funds. The Treasurer repeated that through expenditures our funds were down from the previous year and consequently our contingency fund was vulnerable. John Carpenter considered that regardless of the state of the funds the proposed new subscription was well below that of other Sports Clubs-try playing golf!
APPOINTMENT OF NEW COMMITTEE Robert Dudley stood down as Training Officer and Alan Green stood down as Newsletter Editor. The President thanked them for their contributions over the last year. The rest of the committee were re-elected en masse and John Thomas offered his services as Training Officer, if the members accepted him. This was proposed by Barry Richards and seconded by Ted Clapp. Passed unanimously. After the meeting Andy Semark offered his services as Newsletter Editor. He was formally co-opted onto the committee at the next committee meeting in January.
Club Charity for 2007 Last years charity was Warboys School, chosen by Steve Kessel. This years is no longer to be called the Chairman’s Charity and is to be MAGPAS, this was chosen by Tony Perryman. 2005 - The children’s ward at Hinchingbrooke Hospital – Ced Hughes making the choice.
PRESENTATION OF AWARDS Neither of the intended recipients was present. The Den Purser shield was awarded to Edwina Huckle in recognition of her determination to achieve her “A” certificate. The Chairman’s Cup was awarded to John Stokes in recognition of his long time work as one of the founding Club Members.
PROPOSAL THAT THE ANNUAL OPEN DAY BE DISCONTINUED Mike Luscome explained his reason for proposing this item although he was a keen supporter of the Open Day. Club Members had shown by their non appearance that they were not in favour of the occasion. Here was their opportunity to show their feelings by a show of hands. Mike stressed that he hoped the motion would be defeated and that those against the motion would follow it up by giving their support. Dave Beavour pointed out that the Open Day often clashed with other, National, events and people couldn’t support both. The question was raised, is the Open Day popular with the Public? There was general agreement that it was good P.R. Ted Clapp said that advance publicity governs the attendance and that publicity had been poor at the last O.D. Publicity is our lifeblood and must be improved. Several Members raised the point that as “A” licence holders they were unable to fly when the public was present, so what was the point of attending? It was explained that there was plenty of things to be done to run such a function properly, from setting it up, running it-and, very importantly, clearing up afterwards. The question of allowing experienced “A” certificate flyers to fly during the event was raised. The Chairman replied that there was an objection to this from the insurance angle. Ced Hughes repeated the importance of publicity in a wider area and the need for reliable catering. The Chairman replied that catering had been organised but the caterer had let us down. When a vote was called the motion was defeated unanimously with no abstentions.