Present : Richard Carrey, Joe Shieh, Tom Nunan, Michele Felder, Anne Ludlow, Wayne Smal, Peter Austin; total approx 15 members
Apologies: Steve Wallace, Jimmy Shum
Meeting opened at approx 7:15pm at the Residents Club, Discovery Bay
The minutes of the 2005 Annual General Meeting were read by Secretary Michele Felder and approved as an accurate record of that meeting
Commodore Richard Carrey gave a report on the activities that have taken place in the previous 12 months
Christmas Party 2005 at LRC, black tie, magician, tough to sell tickets decided next time to do something more casual ; New Year's Day: sail vs paddle new format race which worked well; sponsorship throughout the year from Lloyds TSB and new format races that drew good attendance- should repeat; Cheung Chau challenge 2006 we sent 11 boats and HKHC sent 10, HKHC won; Sokos sail with the DBYC with camping overnight successful; Sunshine Island event was cancelled due to rain but had food on the beach under the awning; Dragon Boat races we entered 4 teams but still had trouble getting people to practices, did well and even won a race;
Commodore's Cup new format as regatta in Tai Tam, LBC sent 9 boats, sail back to DB was very fast; Opening Day on July 1 was very successful, around 50 people were given rides, Lloyds sponsored; novice training was also popular, but weather was less than ideal; ABC regatta drew 13 boats from LBC; HAC drew 6 teams from LBC; LBC Regatta was very successful- more sponsors than ever, Lloyds and Links want to sponsor again, HKRI unclear due to a change of personnel; Around the Island drew 12 LBC boats; Brian Phipps training was more successful in terms of bookings than ever, fully booked for entire time, and added a couple days of kids training which was well-received- however the cost to LBC was substantial;
A suggestion was made to link up with international schools to expand training and possibly earning. Unclear how insurance would be managed and who else would teach along with him.
Club boat was accepted from Tom Burkhalter and has seen lots of use from members and training courses. Need to work out a structure to borrow boat, get fees, manage insurance and maintenance.
Emails, newsletters, web site, FH articles: take a lot of time and effort and has gone well
Beach: massive effort paid off to get new facility up and running in time for Brian's training and regatta; 2 new huts, 2 new canoe racks, got rid of trash on the beach, added beach cleaner and gardener, garden furniture; no known complaints from local residents.
Paddling Report by Peter Austin (on behalf Peter Lacoste)
2006 has been a exciting year for the many and varied paddlers at LOCC. As many of you are aware we have a good base of regular paddlers that train and compete together with regular paddling sessions on Saturday mornings in DB. This year we competed in both Outrigger and Dragon boat events locally and around overseas. Our paddlers were very proud of the achievements in the Dragon boat discipline with the open men's team narrowly missing out on a win in the Discovery Bay regatta. Our women's team stepped up and took the title with pride and power. Our Mixed and open men's settled for Second with a collision on the line. Several of our paddlers went on to the World Dragon Boat championships and came home with a Bronze medal in the women's category. An outstanding achievement for Bev Sinclar and Jane Austin. Our outrigger paddlers were equally active competing in world class events. At Hamilton Island, Australia one of the toughest multiday events on the international calendar we competed strongly in single, men's and mixed races. Whilst not breaking any records, Bev Sinclair, Peter Austin and Peter Lacoste were pleased with the performances and experience gained. Closer to home, we sent a men's team to the Sapan for were the team did well and with some top 5 finishes, congratulations to John , Ross Milne, Andrew, Scott , James Newton. At the Guam regatta Peter Austin had a successful regatta bringing home Gold 500 Mixed, Bronze 200 Mixed, Bronze 2000 mixed.
Closer to home, last week like many of you, several paddlers enjoyed the round the island race with perfect paddling conditions, leaving the sailor to ponder what could have been if only for the breeze, yet again the paddlers dominated! Is this pattern emerging? Ok, back to the cave.. The HK outrigger Association is still under development and over the coming months we hope to get a calendar of events established at in conjunction with other clubs in Hong Kong.
On December 2nd, we will be hosting our interclub race day with over 40 paddlers from across HK visiting us to compete in a day of short races, to further promote the social and fitness benefits to the Discovery Bay community. You are all welcome to come and watch the events, and for the adventurous, let me know if your up for a paddle! On a sad note, we have seen several senior paddlers relocating out of Hong Kong in pursuit of their personal and professional needs, we wish them all the very best success in the future. We are passionate about development of the sport or outrigger canoe paddling and welcome new members to join us and feel the physical and mental benefits that the sport offers, I can imagine the benefits to the sailors with the strength and conditioning adding to your preparedness, we look forward to building a deeper relationship with our fellow member at the LBC.
Treasurer's report by Richard Carrey (on behalf of absent Steve Wallace)
Accounts were presented and showed that with the expense of the club facility this year we now have very little buffer in the account. Some income is still owed by regatta sponsors, a payment is outstanding to Ah Wah. We are, however, expecting to begin sending out invoices for the coming year and bringing up the balance again.
Suggestion made to sell more sailing kit to raise money for the club; could include kit that is not purely sailing oriented; would need someone on the committee to handle this area, as well as more proactive PR activities.
Sailing Federation Update by Kevin Lewis
He attended 9 out 12 meetings during the year; HKSF has appointed a national coach, a Polish guy focusing on the 420s and the Optimists; Asian Games sponsors, have sponsored Tung Shing; Brenda Davies has pushed the HKSF to put together a strategic plan of where they are going; have a dingy instructed course; lots of politics, it needs more positive people and fewer complainers;
Kevin was voted in as the LBC representative on the HKSF for the coming year
Beach plan by Wayne Smal
Have added cleaning lady for the clubhouse, have added a gardener who also sweeps water off boats; want to treat it as home; boat park needs to be sorted out to determine which boats are being used and which ones are not, looking at some re-organization by type; need real tie-downs and project to sort that out; water main is going to be locked down with master combo; a cleaned up bell has been added; plan for flagpole to be added.
Suggestion to lock up wheels near the club to prevent them going missing or being broken by people at the beach.
Suggestion to add privacy curtain near showers, also inside for training.
Discussion about use of combination locks rather than keys, decision to wait for a time and see how it goes; need locking box inside hut for valuable items and kit for sale
Training Spending
Brian training: discussion about whether we should charge more for the courses to reduce the amount we subsidise as a club; offer to bring him here and pay for his housing, but leave him to book his own courses and be self-funding; concern about subsidising novices at such a great extent; courses were not full on weekends, but private coaching was fully booked;
Brian charges HKD6,000 per day for coaching.
Recommendation that we set a target of a maximum budget to be absorbed by the club to include airfare ; aim to reduce the subsidy significantly- an action item was given to the committee to review it and make a recommendation for changing. Motion was carried 14 to 1.Could look at alternative trainers for sailing, canoe members will submit a training plan for the coming year.
Membership and Fees
Motion to increase the fees was passed by a vote of 14 in favor and 1 against [Peter Austin on behalf of the paddlers]; an additional briefing will be done at the next paddler meeting
Justification included: adjustment to take into account increased operating costs; simplification of the billing structure to remove social members and bring boat parking fees into line; in relation to other boat/sailing clubs in HK it was noted that LBC is the cheapest.
Membership: Single $1,000; Family $1,500 per year – right to use the facilities, plus FH magazine.
Joining fee: additional annual fee based on membership class, one off
Boat parking fee (sail boat / OC6): $2,000 per year – right to park one sail boat plus either a small dinghy (<10ft) or a canoe/OC2
Canoe parking: $500 per year
Social: no longer available
Election of Officers
The committee stood down and nominations for replacements were taken. The following were elected unopposed
- Commodore : Richard (w/proviso of rear commodore elected by April 30, 2007)
- Treasurer : Steve Wallace
- Secretary : Michele Felder (w/proviso of a new secretary being found by April 30)
- Vice Commodore Regatta : Anne Ludlow
- Vice Commodore Training : Tom Nunan
- Race Officer : Joe Shieh
- Beach Master : Wayne Smal/ Neels Brinks
- Social Secretary : Vannetta Bertram-Grover
- Paddling Rep: Peter Austin (provisional until EGM)
Discussion around challenge getting members to volunteer for committee posts
Will schedule an EGM to elect a Rear Commodore post and a secretary as well as confirm paddling representative
Proposal to restrict the holding of any office to a maximum continuous term of 3 years- motion carried by all members present.
Any Other Business
Recommendation to change the time of the AGM so that it is a week day not a Saturday evening to encourage more participation
