These reports have been posted so that they may be circulated and read prior to the AGM and to give those attending to comment on them.

I have not published the Teasurer’s Report, this will be added under a seperate heading of “Treasurer’s Report” after it has been presented and accepted at the AGM.

Bob Hallam, our Cruise Manager is away in Australia just now but I understand that he will be presenting his report at the AGM. I will add that in due course

Ged

 

Commodore’s report for 2016

Firstly, let me again welcome all our new members, it’s really good to see the club grow and I hope that we may all get together next year during the cruising season at one place or another.

We have had two main cruises this year (South East Cruise & River Avon Cruise) which have both been successful but I think that as a club we need more; we need to look at the reason why we had limited time together and how we organise our cruises. Remember we are the club that cruises!

There was a long cruise to London and a shorter main cruise through part of the Midlands. During that time we also had visiting members down on the Gloucester and Sharpness several times. It was good to see them all and have some excellent evenings out at The Tudor Arms in Slim bridge, the Aroma and Vinings in Gloucester as well as the famous Dockers Club at Sharpness.

When we get together as a club, we really gel, enjoy ourselves and generally have a good time, so that is what I would like to see repeated next year.

The long cruise was enjoyed thoroughly by the two boats that took part but it was only two boats. Our Midlands Cruise effectively went on for six weeks or so even though only planned for two weeks.

We had various “get togethers” and in discussion with members it seems that most cannot attend very long cruises due to commitments with work, grand-children, family etc. They also felt that shorter cruises for a few days linked by a continuing longer cruise is the way to go as this gives the opportunity for members to opt in or out as they wish. It also accommodates more members as it meanders through the country.

It seems to me that is the way forward: a long cruise that suits the people who have the time and one which also takes in shorter cruises. On the shorter cruises a social program could be built in with a key event where all members may attend via boat, car, train or even walking!

Bob and I will give proposals for next years’ cruises at the AGM. I think you will find that we will put a cruise together that you will all remember, we will be campaigning, and might even get the attention of the media!

It is also great to see individual members giving reports of cruises this add interest and its what a club should be about. So if you’re out and about please send you reports either to the web or via email which leads to another point. Facebook is used by some members extensively and the club has its own Facebook Page but it seems many do not wish to use it. Please update us through the club Email so that we know where you are; this gives us the opportunity to meet up. This happened on the G and S this year a couple of times; you never know who might just be around the corner!

I thank all the committee members for their input , help and support; everyone is always available to talk and discuss things. Thanks to Bob for arranging the Long Cruise and Richard for taking over as treasurer.  Ged and Marilyn are an excellent secretary and membership secretary but have given notice that they will only do one more year.

As Commodore, I am happy to continue for a further year only – if requested to do so by the committee – so next year everyone, it will be time to look for new officers all round!

Our charity: Boatmobility has had an excellent year and is now going on to the next stage to raise money for a Wheeleyboat and become a registered charity. Please support us!

Here’s hoping to see many of you at the AGM. I sincerely hope that you have had a good cruising year in 2016. I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, I wish you all the very best for the 2017 cruising season.

 

Martin Turner
Commodore

Membership Sec Report

 I am happy to report that our membership continues to grow at a healthy rate and with the addition of 7 new members this year, the total now stands at:

65 Paid up members.
1 Honorary member.
2 Resignations

Sadly John & Margaret Gwalter resigned from the club (and from boating altogether) due to health reasons. I’m sure that we all wish them well for the future.

Paid up members have been sent AWCC membership cards which are valid until the subscription renewal date in April 2017.

As Richard Whitby will report that the 4C’s now has its own bank account and he will circulate details of how and when to renew member subscriptions.

Club and AWCC pennants may be ordered from me at a cost of £13 each (including p&p). Payments should be made to the club account and directly through Richard (this will save on postage costs).

I would remind you that committee posts all become vacant at the time of the AGM and if anyone wishes to take on the Membership Secretary post (which is not onerous), I will be happy to stand down. If there are no volunteers/nominations, I am prepared to help out again but I will be standing down at the earliest opportunity and due to a change in circumstances, I will be leaving the club by or before the AGM of 2017.

Marilyn

Webmaster’s Report 

Website:

The present website went live in April 2014. We determined at the outset that it should be interesting to members and gongoozlers alike. It should be informative and provide a platform to showcase the club and its activities. It should be regularly updated and contain contributions from the members as well as containing news items of interest to our members. I believe that we have achieved most of that although member contributions have been limited to a few stalwarts who have also been extremely supportive of the project. My thanks to them (they know who they are).

I still hope to encourage members to make more use of the Members’ area which is a private section only accessible to members with the password. There have been a couple of contributions this year for which I thank those concerned.

Repeating what I said last year (and possibly the year before): Within the Members’ area each member can be allocated a page on which they are able to describe themselves, their boat and perhaps a little about how they became involved in boating. Pictures of the personalities and their boats can also be displayed. I see this as a way in which we can introduce ourselves to each other, learn a little about fellow members and recognize each other when we are out and about. Being an internet based club, many of us have not yet met each other and we certainly haven’t all had the privilege of cruising together. You can’t simply open the page and load it with content though; you need to send the text (either as an email or Word document attached to an email) to webmaster or to my personal email address ged@rascal.org.uk I will be delighted to create or add to YOUR page. You can also post photographs on there.

My thanks to those who have submitted either content or pictures or both. Pictures need to be sent to me as .jpg attachments together with some information on what they depict
( a picture of your boat on a canal doesn’t tell me much other than you have been cruising so please add some information). Your email programme will (usually) automatically reduce the file size to whatever you select. Medium size works best for me and if I need to get better resolution, I can always ask you for it but don’t be too concerned with that.

Some of those member pages lie bereft of content as I await input. I have stopped publishing pages of newer members until I receive some content however brief, to put on them so my apologies if you have looked and can’t see yourself. As soon as I receive content, I will publish those pages..

The Club Cruises section describes all the planned cruises that have taken place since the formation of the club. They can be viewed in that section by looking up the current title page (Club Cruises) and following the link to “Older Posts”.

Finally, remember that it is your website – not mine. I hope that you are able to get a lot out of it and enjoy browsing through it but do bear in mind, it needs contributions from yourselves to keep it fresh and vibrant. Whenever I add anything to the site I always send a group email “New content has been added to the website” with a brief description.

Group Email:

Earlier this year, in order to reduce hosting charges, some changes were made and we  (by which I really mean my son Robin) moved the group mail to another provider. This gave us the option to change the address to cotswoldscanalcruising.club whilst maintaining a pointer to automatically shift mail using cotswoldscanalcruising.co.uk. Unfortunately the pointer didn’t redirect everyone and some of you had a little difficulty. This has now been resolved.

Finally, as I have mentioned before, please don’t send picture files by group email. Not everyone wants to see numerous pictures of unknown individuals* having a Pimms O’clock and some of our members are using mobile data which can at times be very slow and it may also cause heavy extra data use charges. Your pictures are very welcome and can be put on your Members’ page. Submit them to me and I will do the rest.

I have had some pictures sent by MMS text messaging but the resolution has been too poor to publish them so please, just email them as a .jpg file (with a description) to me. I will do the rest.This is another very good reason to use your own page to introduce yourself to everyone

Ged Layfield

Webmaster