Commodores Report 2020
2020 now seems to have seen the demise of everything, culminating with the Social.
All of our cruising plans, similar to everything else, has been cancelled. The Cruising plans for the London and Basingstoke group have simply been moved onwards to 2021, with a degree of hope, but no certainty, that things will be anywhere near normal again. But you have to plan.
Throughout the major lockdown period there has been a zoom pimms event held most Fridays at 6.00, organised through the Whatsapp group by those wanting to take part.
We have a reasonable bank balance sufficient to cover all eventualities as I am sure you will be able to see from the Treasurers report.
Because the Social has been a casualty as well as everything else we haven’t been able to offer any support to BoatMobility this year via our legendary raffle. The Committee has some ideas about this which will be circulated at the AGM in October.
I do keep trying to garner support or ideas for Cruises in 2021 and beyond and have gone into print. It does seem however that it tends to be the same people replying (and participating). That’s slightly disappointing but I will keep trying, as I am very keen to try and be inclusive to all members.
Hopefully everything will improve very soon!! Here’s to 2021 and beyond!
Ric Whitby
AGM Notice
The online AGM is going to be the weekend of the 10th/11th October, The agenda will be decided at our committee meeting the weekend before.
Membership Secretary’s Report Oct 2020
Our current membership is unchanged from last year at 51 paying members, plus 2 honorary life members. This is down to the fact that we had a subscription ‘holiday’ for the membership year running from April 2020 to March 2021 because of the Coronavirus pandemic. I haven’t had any enquiries from people wishing to join the club, presumably as none of our members are cruising as much, staying closer to home when they do and socialising less. I anticipate resuming membership payments next year, but who knows what will happen between now and then!
In response to requests to make sure that we have more information about new members and to ensure they share the club ethos, I’ve amended the membership form to give greater emphasis on how prospective members heard about the CCCC and why they would like to join us.
In my last report I asked for both partners in a couple to send me their email addresses so they could be added to the Mobilize system and be able to take part in the AGM voting. Most people have now done this so we have a more representative voting system. I’ve also amended the membership application form to specifically request two email addresses when applying for joint membership.
As always, could you please let me know if any of your contact details change.
Please remember that there’s a members section on the club website where you’ll find information about members and their boats. This helps everyone to get to know each other and to identify fellow members when cruising. Ged, our webmaster has asked that people supply a photo of themselves and one of their boat. Please send any contributions to:
Hilary Whitby
Membership secretary
Treasurer’s Report
COTSWOLDS CANALS CRUISING CLUB
INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT Year Ending 05 April 2020
To 05/4/2019 INCOME To 05/4/2020
£ £
282.00 Subscriptions 300.00
37.90 AWCC Books 0.00
0.00 Sundry Income 23.92
0.00 Burgee Sales 65.00
319.90 388.92
EXPENDITURE
60.00 AWCC Subscriptions 60.00
0.00 Burgee Purchase 0.00
0.00 Cotswolds Boat Mobility Donations 300.00
0.00 Website Fees 23.98
32.43 Postage 7.32
20.55 AWCC Cards/Books 0.00
40.00 Venue Hire 40.00
122.98 Gifts 0.00
23.79 Consumables 0.00
4.00 Sundries 0.00
303.75 431.30
16.15 Excess (Loss) of Income/Expenditure (42.38)
BALANCE SHEET
315.82 Bank Account 273.44
Represent by:-
Balance at 05/4/19 315.82
Excess (Loss) of Income/Expenditure (42.38)
273.44
Cotswolds BoatMobility Report – September 2020
Like everyone else we have had to adapt to the strangeness of our new Covid 19 environment. We shut down when everyone else did in March, just as the new season should have been getting under way but it became clear very early on, that for many of our regular guests our trips were an essential part of their routine – an opportunity to get out in the fresh air and to meet people and to exercise. Many live alone and those with support in other areas of their lives, had this support taken away. These people choose to risk being out, for the sake of their mental wellbeing. We started in a small way with just a few people that we knew were otherwise socially distancing and this grew to around 30 people, without advertising. We are still managing without our full compliment of leaders, some of whom continue to be shielding. We decided to bring forward our purchase of a new Katakanu so that we could take out more people at once and rest the boats for decontamination purposes in between. No sooner than we had done this, we were obliged to reduce our group size to six, and we had to rearrange the bookings to several different days as the temptation to gather would have been too great. Nor are we allowed to provide refreshments which means that some of the camaraderie is lost. But we have been seen by many more people as the canal is considerably more in use.
Obviously, we have had to continue to pay our insurance and we received a Covid grant from the CRT, which has helped to cover our lack of income during lockdown and the fact that we are getting fewer cash donations in the bucket. We are beginning to see more donations being paid directly into our bank account. We now have five katakanus of various ages – two new ones and one in need of expensive repair. We need more paddles, another set of safety kit and more buoyancy aids – some additional and some replacement ones. We had a new Wheelyboat engine in January, as it had never been quite right after the attempted theft and the propellor does take a bit of a bashing from the uneven depths and sides of the canal and the weed. We are taking the old engine for repair but that was put on hold during lock down. We feel that it is best not to be wholly dependent on one, as it deprives wheelchair users when the Wheelyboat is out of action. Another essential expense in January was First Aid training/updating and a separate Water Safety training session day for eleven of our leaders. We have been unable to arrange full training this summer for the Power Boat certificate because of Covid.
We were filmed for part of the video made for the HLF bid, as one of the community groups using the canal. Covid has brought out many more canoeists, paddle boarders, walkers and cyclists. We continue to take out a mixture of local people and people who travel a little further – we have recently been discovered by groups in Oxfordshire and we have been taking out younger adults and young people not in school.
So generally speaking our plans are on hold, with no special events, and we are paddling as hard as we can through the mire of Covid regulations and trying to remain sane. We should have been celebrating our fifth birthday with a gathering. The good news is that we are keeping going, keeping wellbeing on the canal as an option and we have many happy guests.
We would love to see some of you come and join in with what we are doing – any of you living within an hour of Ryeford, it is easy to do. Maybe we will see some of you if the Saul Festival goes ahead next year. We do value your support and thank you.
Janet Thomas