The club’s 2018 Annual General Meeting took place on 17 November and the minutes of that meeting are set out below.

At the AGM, the club’s Chairman, Denis Walker, resigned. Lee Pearce has agreed to take on this role. Drew McLaughlin resigned as the club’s Webmaster, and this position remains vacant. Any members interested in supporting the club’s activities in this, or any other way, are warmly invited to contact me (secretary@derbyshiresoaringclub.org.uk or 07990562543) or any other member of the committee.

John Warden
DSC Secretary

Derbyshire Soaring Club Annual General Meeting

Saturday 17th November 2018 7:00pm, DLGC Camphill

Minutes

1  Welcome

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. He noted that this was one of the best attended meetings in recent years, and thanked everyone for coming.

2  Confirmation of Committee members for 2019

The Chairman, Denis Walker, outlined the committee membership for 2019 (set out below), and noted that the roles of Chairman and Webmaster required permanent replacements following resignations taking effect at this meeting. The other roles were confirmed without vote as no alternative proposals had been received.

Committee Members for 2019

3 Officers’ reports

Chairman’s report

Bradwell is not a site that the club manages, but the club seeks to maintain good relations with local farmers, landowners and the gliding club. A new process has been put in place with one farmer who keeps tally of pilots landing in his field (not the main landing field) and the club pays £5 for each. The website now provides a means for pilots to pay their landing fee. The landowner donates the money to charity.

In relation to the track to Bradwell, the club regularly pays for repairs particularly to the Abney end, and seeks to get the council to make repairs. Our goal is to maintain positive relationships with all local landowners, including those who may have been less enthusiastic about our sport in the past. Members should note that landing in the top field is tolerated, but pilots should clear the field as soon as possible, and certainly not use that field for ground handling.

Mam Tor (7 sites in all) has had to be renegotiated with The National Trust over a period of 9 months. NT have given permission for DSC to publish the agreement, which we will do in the coming months. Under the agreement, NT may give us notice to close the site to paragliding/hang gliding if, for example, there is drone flying for a TV programme. but no other groups, including drone pilots, have general agreement with the NT to fly the sites. Of course the relevant issue to focus on with drone pilots encountered on the hill is compliance with the Air Navigations Order, as well as the lack of landowner permission. NT will permit competitions provided we notify them and pay the £50 fee.

The forum part of the website is being used much less than previously, and Facebook has become much more actively used by members. However, that raises issue of how important information can be communicated and persist over time. One suggestion to increase traffic to the website was weather and RASP informations as deployed on the Long Mynd club website.

Denis Walker thanked the rest of the committee for their support over the period of his Chairmanship.

Site Officers’ reports

John Youle outlined the management of Stanage, including the forum which he attends together with other parties interested in Stanage Edge. The landowner of Overstones Farm can be prickly, but there have been no complaints from him this year. There was discussion about the northern takeoff area above the track: the problem with this takeoff is that there is no landing area below launch, although the site can be safer for taking off than the agreed take off points referenced in the suite guide.

Pete Denver commented on the history of Curbar. Currently the site is managed by the Eastern Moors Partnership between the RSPB and The National Trust. His strategy is to maintain good relations but not to seek a formal agreement. This has served us well for many years.

Safety officer’s report

The role of safety officer is to ensure that incidents are properly considered and reported to BHPA. Investigation into the sad death of Mick Bostock on Stanage has been taken up by BHPA.

Phil Steele noted the hard work undertaken by Bernard Clewer organising the club repack over many years, and thanks him for him contribution. Bernard responded that a repack event is being planned for 17 February 2019.

Membership report

Guy Richardson updated the meeting on how arduous in practice it is to maintain the membership records, and accept new members . Currently a potential system to handle the administration through the website is being examined to handle the 40 – 70 applications/renewals each month, which currently takes a couple of days a month to process manually.

Treasurer’s report

Pete Happe ran through his finance report which had already been circulated to club members by email. The level of the contingency fund was discussed, and the committee outlined the strategy to ensure that resources were in hand to cope with potential opportunities (and threats) which might arise in the future, such as might be needed to secure sites.

New Members Officer’s report

Chris Dervin outlined his role as new members officer, providing a wide range of information to new pilots, including site, training and weather information. Currently a lot of information is contained within his own site which he intends to integrate into the club site in due course.

Chief Coach’s report

Ash Ghinn outlined how coaching has been operating over the past couple of years, and invited input from members for suggestions as to how the current structure could be made even more effective.

4  Any Other Business

The Chairman asked if there were any other matters for discussion.

Peter Happé proposed a vote of thanks to Denis Walker, our retiring Chairman, and spoke kindly of the contribution Denis has made over many years both in this role and as Social Secretary before that. There was applause to record our gratitude.

5  Close

The Chairman thanked the members of the club for attending, and for their good participation in raising questions for the committee to answer. There being no other business, he declared the meeting closed.