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Sunday May 11th 2008 Annual General Meeting of the Oxford University Underwater Exploration Group |
Apologies |
o Tim Bond - Neil Carter |
Approval of Minutes from 2007 AGM |
o To be found here, and also in the appendix to the Official Announcement of the AGM on the OUUEG Mail List |
Changes to the OUUEG Constitution |
o The following Motions to amend the relevant sections of the OUUEG Constitution are being put to the Meeting by the President, and are to be voted upon by the Meeting once due discussion has taken place. o Quorum for Committee Meetings The current OUUEG Constitution requires seven voting Committee Members to be present to form a Quorum for a Committee Meeting. As there are only eight voting Members on the Committee this is difficult to achieve in practice. It is suggested that this requirement should be amended in order that four voting Members will be deemed to form a Quorum, such Quorum to include one Officer (President, Secretary or Treasurer), with the Treasurer’s presence being required for financial business as at present. o AGM Procedures It is suggested that the Constitution be amended to allow the Agenda for any General Meeting, including the Annual General Meeting, to be issued 7 days before such General Meeting, (to be held with at least 14 days Notice in advance). It is also suggested that the election of the Diving Officer be clarified to state that the Candidate should be qualified to a minimum of BSAC Advanced Diver level, or to have similar qualification with the approval of the current Diving Officer, or to be referred to Sports Federation where no suitably qualified Candidate can be be put forwards. |
Committee Reports for 2007/2008 |
o Written Job Descriptions are now being prepared, and will be included in the appendix of OUUEG Mail List AGM announcement where possible, and will also be posted too the WebSite for future reference. |
President's Report |
o The new Committee took over at an interesting time in the Club’s history. There had been a problematic year resulting in weak Membership and difficulty filling Committee posts. The new Committee aimed to address these points by improving recruitment and making the Committee positions more fun and more manageable. Outstanding issues were cleared up in the initial months, particularly with regard to some financial matters, to ensure the Club had a clear start to the year. Reorganisation of the Kit provision was also started at this time. At Freshers’ fair we advertised a Trip to the Red Sea, a Trip to Weymouth and our Training Program. Take-up of the Red Sea Trip was poor, I suspect because it seemed a little too expensive for students, but not at a good time of year for non-students. The idea of an overseas Trip has worked in the past but consultation about appropriate times and costs would be a good idea before repeating this idea. Take up on the Weymouth Trip in October was very good and this idea should be repeated. The Training Program aimed to work intensively in Michaelmas term to complete Ocean Diver, following on with Sports Diver later. This proved hard work, but was successful in attracting and retaining a large number of Novices, so we recommend this process is continued this year. As an incentive to train more new Instructors we offered to cover the IFC fees (half from SportsFed, half from the Cub) for Instructors who made a substantial contribution to Pool and Open Water Training. This generated three extra Instructors and would seem to be a successful scheme. The OUUEG Annual Dinner was held in January, at which Jonathan Cole gave an interesting talk. The Dinner was well attended by older Members, but few new Members came along. It was disappointing to lose two Committee Members during Hilary Term, and I urge people standing for Committee posts to remember they are making a full twelve month commitment to carry out their duties. Special thanks is due to Tim Bond for covering the positions of both these people through until the AGM. On a similar note, it has also been disappointing to have to spend time chasing payments from trips and courses, and to rectify problems such as the return of the Gordon Foundation Landrover. All Members have an obligation to the Club, not just the Committee. The remainder of the year saw a successful ET, followed by two successful Weymouth Trips. A third Trip was cancelled due to boat electronics failures which were not corrected on time by a third party supplier. This has been a successful year, leaving the Cub in a much better state, and with a more enthusiastic body of Members than when we started. It is now up to the new generation of student Members to maintain this enthusiasm and be committed to keeping the Club running and diving an active sport within the University. To this end, some positions still have no nominations, so please keep them in mind for the Elections. Finally, thank you to all the Committee Members and Club Members who have helped out this year. |
Secretary's Report |
o This Report is a summary prepared by the President as there have been two Secretaries during the course of the year. Kieran organised Freshers’ Fair and an initial batch of BSAC memberships well. However, some problems were encountered with Novice BSAC renewals in November, with the majority eventually being sorted out. The President began to receive complaints about BSAC Memberships from renewing Members, at which point Kieran resigned, citing ill health and a D.Phil. Tim Bond agreed to act as Secretary in March and the majority of Memberships are now in good order. There are a few outstanding issues which will need to be addressed by the incoming Secretary, but on the whole things are in good order. |
Treasurer's Report |
o The OUUEG Accounts are in preparation to be presented at the AGM and will be included herein in due course |
Diving Officer's Report |
o Training: An excellent amount of Training took place, which will be covered in the Training Officer’s Report. I'm very encouraged by the standard everyone has reached. The only concern I have is that because of the bad weather on ET etc people now have qualifications which let them dive quite deep but haven't had that much depth experience. I would recommend that the new DO keeps an eye on this situation. Also Advanced Training has been somewhat lacking this year. People have done a considerable amount of Instructor Courses plus other Courses such as Boat Handling etc. I think we are in a strong position in terms of qualified divers going forward. o Safety: No major incidents to report. One minor incident (Luke's valiant boat fending). o Diving: Last summer the Club diving programme was very heavily focused on chartering hard boats and the Club boat only saw limited use. During last summer we did some day trips to Weymouth and proved that this is a very cheap and easy way to dive. More diving could have happened but didn't mostly due to not enough people wanting to sign up for Trips. Over the winter the Inland Training Days worked very well. I would be interested in comments from the Trainees on whether they thought these days were a good idea. ET was organised and run very well and proved to be very cheap. The bad weather stopped us doing more and better diving but I think ET was still a big success. Since ET there have been a high number of Club boat Trips and I hope this will continue through the summer. It is very cheap and easy to organise a weekend from Weymouth and I hope more people (particularly Sports Divers) start to organise things. We need to run trips that let the people from ET do some good quality diving and build their experience. |
Training Officer's Report |
o The Training Officer's Report is in preparation to be presented at the AGM and will be included herein in due course |
Kit Officer's Report |
o This Report is a summary prepared by the President as the Kit Officer resigned during the course of the year. Julie made an excellent start at organising the Hut and consolidating our Kit into 15 good sets, with 7 each of less demanded items such as dive timers, reels etc. Spare Kit was moved to the Boat Hut and additional Kit purchased where appropriate. Records were updated for the purposes of servicing and inventory, and Kit sign out lists were created. The standard of organisation and record keeping previously was severely criticised by the Safety Department, and even now I am still in the process of addressing their concerns. It is therefore extremely important that high standards of organisation and record keeping are maintained. It is in our interest to keep the Safety Department on side as they are willing to provide extra money for Courses etc. However, as Michaelmas term progressed, Julie found it difficult to keep on top of running Kit maintenance and decided to resign in January. Tim filled her position and organised kit servicing and maintenance, as well as the sale of some of the excess items. It is disappointing that some items of Kit have disappeared and others have been damaged. The new Kit Officer will therefore need to maintain accurate sign out records and check Kit regularly. The facility for taking Kit deposits has been introduced to help with this. The consolidated Kit is more manageable than before, but the level of Kit available must be kept under review in terms of both cost and time input required. |
Boat Officer's Report |
o I spent a lot of time in Jan/Feb working to bring the Boat trailer up to scratchr, changing the wheel bearings and freeing the completely seized up handbrake. All bolts/strop assemblies were wire brushed and greased. The Boat itself was cleaned out of all the leaves and junk and the electronics checked and the tubes reinflated. Also the Boat storage area had to be cleared of undergrowth and brushed down before any work could commence. The GPS was fixed recently (by Jenny) and at present all seems to be working well with the Boat. The engine is due for a service and this has to be arranged. I am currently giving the Boathouse a good clear out and bringing the map library together. |
Social Secretary's Report |
o No Report has been received |
Expedition Officer's Report |
o No Report has been received, but refer to the ET Report here. |
AGM Elections |
o The OUUEG Committee makes the following nominations: President – Martin Crow Secretary – Conor Proud Treasurer – Andrew Griggs o Additional nominations for these positions should be received in writing with a Nominator and Seconder no less than five days before the AGM. Diving Officer – Luke Sanders Assistant Training Officer – Brian Patton Assistant Boat Officer – Conor Proud o The OUUEG Committee also recommends that: Huw Jenkins continue is post as Training Officer Neil Carter continue in post as Web Officer Jonathan Cole continue in post as Senior Member Anthony Dyson continue in post as Boat Officer o Additional nominations for all the above positions may be taken from the floor. Nominations for the position of Diving Officer are subject to approval for Safety Standards. o The committee is unable to make nominations for the following positions and invites nominations from the floor: Kit Officer Assistant Kit Officer Expedition Officer Social Secretary |
http://www.ouueg.org.uk |
