Council minutes 10th June 2014 ‐ At Hornet Services Sailing Club, Gosport

1. Confirmation of Minutes to Last Meeting – 24th April 2014
The minutes to the last meeting were agreed subject to the quote from Maurice Perrin being corrected to reflect the view stated in his email of 15th May: “John Wallace and myself felt that a formal membership designation be introduced for applicants who were obviously ‘small craft’ surveyors, i.e.; those who did not posses degrees/superior Certificate of Competency with the required marine experience.” The other matter raised in Maurice’s email would be covered during the discussion tonight after the AGM. 

2. Matters Arising
Following a question from Bob regarding the £16,000 expenditure last year the Secretary confirmed that £10,000 had been agreed by the CA Committee for the new functionality of the database and that the remainder was authorised by himself to update the existing code. 
Regarding the provision of photographs of large ships for use by the Society, only one had been provided in time for SEAWORK and was on display.  
Bob had produced an annual programme of events on a spreadsheet for use in promoting our activities. 

All other outstanding matters covered below.

3. MCA
Revised Brown Code

The Secretary reported that the revised Brown Code was launched that afternoon by the MCA at the SEAWORK exhibition, it had been well received. There would be a consultation period of 2 or 3 months. 

There is also a project underway to update the SCV Code, which the RYA is leading.  
Eventually MGN280 and the original Brown Code will be withdrawn for newly coded vessels but may continue to be used by existing coded vessels.  

‘Grey Code’ 
Clive mentioned the existence of this unofficial standard, which had been copied by Lloyds Register from the Brown Code for use by them in MOD. Hence, there was no competition at present for certification of Coded MOD vessels. Bob had discussed this briefly at the MOD presentation that forenoon in SeaWork, and said he is considering provide a draft letter to MoD, as he felt strongly that this should be out to competition. Clive advised caution when approaching Contracts Branch. (Post meeting note: he had a further discussion at the MOD stand on 11th June with an Iain Sinclair, who had mentioned that he, personally, was an IIMS member; and who said that it would be extremely difficult to alter the present LR contract). 

Number of vessels
The Secretary reported that there was little change to the numbers compared to the last meeting figures, (1,051 vessels). However, it was noted that the majority, about 80 percent of this total were coded by just 3 or 4 examiners. Whether or not this put the Society to undue financial risk should be considered by the CA Committee (See attached list).

Staffing in Office
The Secretary reported that, Avril Pearce has handed in her notice and a replacement had been recruited w.e.f. 22nd May, Keith Richardson, who was currently undergoing training.

Luxemburg Approval
The Secretary reported that we are currently awaiting contact details from Mark Lockie before we can proceed further. 

4. Technical
A meeting of the CA Committee is scheduled for July, date to be agreed.

Following loss of the Cheeki Rafiki, it was noted that John Wallace had suggested that the Society’s Examiners conduct random inspections of HRUs on the Society’s Coded vessels when an Examiner finds such vessels in his area. This should be referred to the next CA meeting. 

5. Membership & Professional Standards
The Secretary reported that there had been no new members since the last Council meeting 6 weeks ago. 

6. Budget Manager
The Secretary reminded that the accounts had been approved by Council at their last meeting and would be presented to the AGM after this meeting. 

Clive stated that he preferred standard business accounts reporting so that it was easier to pick up problems at an early stage, bearing in mind that we do not want to create any unnecessary additional workload. The Secretary briefly explained the current accounting process in the office. Clive said he is prepared to visit the office to discuss the accounting process. He continued by saying that he saw a problem with the governance of the Society. The Secretary reminded that he is contracted for two days work a week. 

With the absence of the Budget Manager the Secretary reported the balances in the accounts – at the end of May the Current Account £60,974 - the PayPal account £6,037 – the other accounts are similar to the last report. For major or unique expenditure items: we paid the Marine Society and Sea Cadets in April a rent and service charge of £12,150 to cover the outstanding amounts for our new lease agreement which took effect from 1st August 2013.

Then in May we paid them another £4,387 for rent and service charge for the next three months in advance. The cost of hiring a new staff member was around £1,800 in agency fees, which can be covered by the reduction in National Insurance this year. [Post meeting note: In addition to the sums mentioned above, £3,240 was paid to our database developer (Cutting Edge Software) for upgrading the Database Server and clients to a new version of FileMaker Pro, and adding functionality to enable Examiners to access and complete the SWB2 forms online via a web browser during February and March. We paid £1,118 for the Societies annual FEMAS Subscription, this is offset by income from individual members. We paid £2,620 to Menzies for accountancy services.] 

Bob commented that the budget for the Annual Dinner could be used for the weekend event in September.  

7. Recruitment & Marketing
The Secretary reported that interest in the Society at SEAWORK, compared to last year had been much slower. 

Clive commented that our coding fees are lower than most other CAs he had looked at, with others charging £100 for Annuals (we charge £70). The Secretary reported that on occasion he offers discounts to vessel owners, depending on the circumstances.  

Clive stated that he felt the charges should be set by Council rather than the CA Committee.  

8. Publications & Promotion
Bob commented that the introduction in the front of the List of Members is rather out of date and needs updating. At present, no Council member had responsibility for its editing and production. 

The meeting felt that this year’s SEAWORK stand was most uninspiring. The placard was inaccurate, stating 500 members, the catalogue entry was not clear and highly confusing, the stand sign was part of AMC’s sign, only 3 chairs were provided. Bob stated that this was totally unsatisfactory. He had ordered 2 additional chairs and had the sign re-written over the SCMS section at a cost of £120. It was agreed that we must have a separate stand next year, which would need some design work and planning. The stand should reflect the image we wish to portray.  

In reply to a question on the distribution for the List of Members the Secretary answered that the list is constantly updated, and returns are removed and replaced by new addresses, he gave the example of Lloyds Agents. He further said he would welcome someone to inspect the list and offer suggestions. 

Bob asked how press releases are handled, the Secretary replied we do not handle this ourselves, but pass information on to others for distribution as appropriate, as suggested, he passed the last release to Chris Jones.  

Bob asked if we need to hire a PR person, Clive proposed what would be better is a Marketing person (University Graduate?) on the staff who would organise shows and events in support of Marketing and Members Services. It was agreed that the above items of marketing the Society would be subject to separate discussion. 

Clive went on to say that most Societies are now doing away with Membership Committees and making the three members, who vet and referee an applicant for compliance with the rules, fully responsible. If there are problems with the applicant afterwards, it is the three nominees who come before the disciplinary committee. This subject was noted for further discussion with ‘the way ahead’. He further argued that Council meetings should be allowed to continue if you haven’t got a quorum, using an online voting system (30 days) for agreements to be reached, once again ensuring that the office workload is not increased.  

Clive asked to look at a copy of the Society’s surveying book (which is now out of print), Bob agreed to loan him his copy.  

Clive proposed that the Society consider appointing a Marketing Executive, subject to funding being available. The Secretary stated that we should have a good idea where the Society’s finances stand at the half year mark. 

9. Presidential Activities
The President reported that he had attended the Association of Average Adjusters dinner in the Savoy, it was suggested that in return we invite the Chairman of the AAA Committee to join us for the weekend away event planned for end of September.  

Bob continued by saying that when he visited Gibraltar he hoped to hold a formal cocktail party inviting appropriate dignitaries and local members.  

10. Matters for EGM
Straight forward, all we need is the meeting’s approval. No objections had been received and agreement to proceed was carried unanimously. 

11. Matters for AGM
Bob stated that he would offer the three Council members who, are not former Presidents, for re-election to Council, for full compliance with the Articles and Bye-Laws.  

12. Benevolent Fund
The Secretary reported that there had been no activity since the last meeting. 

13. Weekend event 27th September

Covered above. A Notice of the event would be issued. 14. Any Other Business

The Secretary presented details of a learning system from Verified Learning which had been proposed to the Society, he thought it might be of interest to members, he distributed information on the subject for later discussion.  

15. Date of Next Meeting
Date of next Council meeting - to be agreed. 

There being no further business the President closed the meeting at 18:00