Wednesday 4th December 2024
Apologies– Thomas Greaves, George Williams, Laurence Harmer.
Present – Nick Day, Ed Steven, Toby Ray, David Barnett, Andrew Madden, Sarah Mundy, Carrie Lawson, Tim Walker, Ian Greaves, Oli Billson, Fredrica Zecca, Diane Uff, Bif Lancaster, Amy Dilks, Steve Patterson, Jo Brown, Aaron Boylan, Fiona Elliott, Andrew Robey, Emily Roberts, Pete Able, Jamie Gibbs, Dan Hatfield, Ray Taylor, Charlie Lawson, Jeremy Griffiths
Chairmans Report-
Jeremy Griffiths outlined the club’s activities for the prior (and inaugural) year. The club started as an idea that he and Tom shared with some other local beach users, and from that, the trustees came together to form a club that would go on to become part of Surf Lifesaving GB.
From that came the pulling together of a committee to fill the various statutory roles that SLGB required for membership. Then, a gap analysis was undertaken,n which identified the need for:
- Training to be offered, a website built along with a strong social media presence
- Find somewhere to store equipment (container)
- Obtain registered charity status
- Open up to membership and meet on a regular basis.
All of this was achieved within six months of the club forming for which the chairman thanked all those people who helped to get this done so quickly.
From that strong start, Jeremy was delighted to report that in the first year the club had facilitated the training and qualifications of ten beach lifeguards along with the qualification of four trainer assessors. With these extra people who are now qualified, the club was able to open the Nippers element of the club, which has proved very popular with 12 Nippers joining.
Jeremy rounded off by saying that the club was in a very strong position with, good membership good funding and a promising future. Jeremy went on to give Annette Pearson a special thanks, who owns the top of the beach and has, from day one, been very supportive of the club and its ambition to build a clubhouse in the sand dunes.
Treasurers Report-
Dan Hatfield ran through the club accounts to date (which form part of these minutes and are detailed at the bottom of the minutes). The headline figures were we had an income of 37k with 16k being spent and a current balance of 21k.
Dan also highlighted how pleasing it was to see the amount of money that has been raised through donations, which totalled over 23k and grants obtained of 11k over the past year. The club has purchased in excess of 10k worth of much-needed training and lifesaving kit, a substantial part of which was specifically for the Nippers.
Dan confirmed that the club had appointed accountant Francis Clark to act on the club’s behalf with regard to the statutory reporting the club has to undertake.
Dan concluded that the club was in a financially sound position and that being so membership subscriptions would remain at this year’s level next year.
Club Captain Report-
Joe Brown reported that through the winter, lots of training took place with a focus on first aid and casualty care, and this gave a head start for those undertaking the lifeguard qualifications. The added bonus of this was lots of adult training was able to take place over the summer with the support of the newly qualified lifeguards.
Joe also highlighted the equipment the club has purchased. We have benefited from donations of much-needed training kits from Holywell Bay SLSC, which really helped us this first year. Joe expressed thanks to Amy Dilks for her amazing efforts to get the Nippers section not only open, but also thriving over the summer on Saturday mornings, Amy thanked Joe for his kind words but also pointed out that it had only been possible to run the sessions with help from some great support by members of the club.
The adult training was also very successful on a Wednesday evening over the summer and indeed some of the members undertaking training have already had the opportunity to use the rescue skills being developed both on Mawgan Porth beach by giving members of the public directions and advise this being given whilst the RNLI lifeguards are not on the beach, and also locally at Harlyn where a member of the club was able to get a member of the public out of a potentially dangerous situation and back to safety.
Joe then outlined the winter plans for training, for the members this is based around pool training on a Wednesday evening along with first aid. Using this winter period to keep fit and develop skills will give those wishing to undertake a variety of exams next summer a real head start.
Finally Joe explained the club is planning to offer to the general public in the locality in the new year the opportunity to come along to the village hall and join in some first aid training with the club whilst this would not be for a formal qualification, it would give some real practical advice for those attending and would be a good way to give back to the community.
Secretary’s Report-
Charlie Lawson reported that as club secretary, he had dealt with all correspondence the club received along with providing monthly minutes and had also been involved in successfully arranging for a lease/license for the parcel of land in dunes that Annette has kindly allowed us the use of and this had taken time to make sure the document worked well for everyone.
Charlie also reported that the club was fully insured, including a recent uplift in cover to 25k to cover the ever-growing amount of equipment the club owns. A lot of secretarial time had been spent on liaising with various people to get the plans for a club house underway, this is progressing well with most of the searches/reports needed completed and the initial design concept has been shared with the members with very positive feedback. In conclusion Charlie thanked all of the members who through the year had helped and supported his work.
Funding-
Denzell/Cornwall Capacity Foundation. Requirement for monthly cash flow and one-offs. Individual efforts
Ian Greaves reported that the club obtained two substantial grants the first from a community fund from the Wind Farm at Denzell Downs – this was 4.5k and used to enable the club to buy enough equipment to get the Nippers section started.
The second grant was Cornwall Council via the Community Capacity Grant, and this gave us 7k to enable us to start the clubhouse project. Ian concluded by thanking Tim Walker for giving up so much of his time to support the club’s grant applications.
Trustees and Committee Members
As per the club’s constitution, all members serving on the committee resigned from their position. The vacant positions were outlined by title and any members who wished to stand for any committee post were invited to make themselves known. No member from the floor wished to stand for any of the vacant posts; however, all the committee were prepared to serve for a further year, and all were re-elected by acclamation from the floor. So the serving officers for the coming year were agreed as:
- Chairman– Jeremy Griffith (Trustee)
- Treasurer– Dan Hatfield (Trustee)
- Secretary– Charlie Lawson (Trustee)
- Club Captain– Joe Brown (Trustee)
- Competition Officer– Ray Taylor (Trustee)
- Training Officer– Tom Greaves (Trustee)
- Safeguarding Officer– Carrie Lawson
- Lifesaving Officer– Pete Abell
- Youth Development Officer- Amy Dilks
It was also agreed by acclamation that Annette Pearson be the club’s President
Sub Committees
- Website/Social Media Pete Abell, Ro Abell, Charlie Lawson and Claire Ray.
It was noted that due to other commitments, Lawrence Harmer could not serve on the committee but was still able to host the website and support where possible
- Equipment Amy Dilks, Carrie Lawson, Jeremy Griffith and Mark Hampson.
- Fundraising Ian Greaves, Dan Hatfield, Charlie Lawson and Tim Walker
- Planning Charlie Lawson, Pete Abell, Tim Walker, Ray Taylor and Arron Boylon
- Training Tom Greaves, Joe Brown, Carrie Lawson and Amy Dilks
- Container Ray Taylor, Amy Dilks and Thomas Greaves
- Safeguarding Carrie Lawson, Pete Abell and Sarah Munday
Insurance
It was noted that the correct insurance via our brokers and SLSGB covering individual cover for the club, training and equipment is in place
Competitions
There was a general discussion regarding whether the club should take part in competitions. Now it was a little more settled as it was a way to join up with other surf lifesaving clubs. It was also noted that these competitions need not be large and serious events but fun inter-club events. If anyone is keen to assist with these, they were asked to contact Ray Taylor, the competition officer.
Membership Renewals
Members were reminded that both club and SLSGB subscriptions are now due and it is important that they are paid this month as any member who doesn’t pay falls outside the club insurance cover and therefore sadly cannot take part in any club events.
A.O.B.
Noted that it is intended to start a Juniors section in the spring, and Amy will need support for this to happen. Several parents indicated that they would be happy to help. It was noted that the arrangements for Nippers will stay the same.
Ro had asked that a call be made to request help for her in organising social events. Steve Patterson offered to help.
Job roles/positions held by whom to be posted on the website
Carrie highlighted how important having sufficient people who have completed DB checks is to the club, Carrie pointed out that 50% of the members who attended hadn’t gone online and finished the admin part of the course and if they needed any help please just ask!
Pete highlighted to the meeting that next spring there will be a wider range of courses available for members to suit all abilities.
It was also noted that the club had in the past year supported where possible local events by providing volunteers these event included:
- St Mawgan Christmas tree lighting/carol singing
- Mawgan Porth Christmas light switch on
- Lions Club duck race
- St Mawgan Feast Day
- St Mawgan Steam Rally.
The meeting closed 8.05pm with a vote of thanks to our chairman Jeremy.
ENDS
