STACK AGM 2016

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Minutes of Meeting Purpose: STACK UK AGM 2016

Date: 19th February 2017

Location: Farringdon, Oxfordshire, SN7

Attendees (#8) Vee Griffiths Mary Anne Parker Keith Griffiths Irma Adriaanse

Lex Kraaijeveld Barry Savell [National Director (ND)] Tony Shiggins [Membership Secretary (MS)] Fran Burstall [Treasurer (T)]

Agenda 1 Apologies 2 Minutes of last AGM 3 Reports 3.1 Membership Secretary’s report 3.2 Treasurer’s report 3.3 National Director’s report 4 Election / re-election of officers 5 Fees 5.1 Membership fees 5.2 Competition Fees 5.2 Insurance Costs 7 Competitions and National Championship 2017 8 International Events 10 AOB

1 Apologies (#4)

Mick Burls John Williams Alastair & Linda Hunt

Martin Baker Andrew Taylor (post-event)

2 Minutes of Last AGM Minutes of the last AGM (9th January 2016) were agreed.

2.1 Actions Review Action 2015/1: Open.

Action 1: T

Action 2015/2 – Done.

Action 2015/3: Done.

Action 2015/4: Done.

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Action 2015/5: Done. Note – Although the website has the latest membership form, it does not have the competition licence form. This will be added.

Action 2: ND

Action 2015/6 – Done. Joining STACK on the day of an event is not a problem for insurance, providing BKFA are subsequently notified insurance starts immediately.

Action 2015/7 – Done.

Action 2015/8 – Done. Note - Information was obtained but Hi-Vis were not ordered. It was agreed that STACK would not proceed with HiVis, at least for now. Note 2 – STACK branded sweat shirts and tee shirts are available, there is a link on the STACK web site.

3 Reports

3.1 Membership Secretary’s Report The report from the Membership Secretary was reviewed. (See Annexe 3.)

Numbers were down slightly, with competitor numbers down rather more relative to the previous year.

3.2 Treasurer’s Report The Treasurer’s report was reviewed. (See Annexe 2.)

STACK is slightly in profit for the year.

The competitions were also in profit, mainly due to having no costs for PA hire. However we have still to make donations to the National Trust, which will take this closer to break-even.

The ND will chase Josh for details of how to paying Souter Lighthouse NT, and also ask Dunstable NT for payment details. Once details are obtained donations will be sent.

Action 3: ND

Action 4: T

3.3 National Director’s Report The National Director’s report was reviewed. (See Annexe 1.)

Thanks were reiterated to Keith Griffiths and Peter Heayns for free use of the PA systems at Dunstable Downs and Souter Lighthouse (respectively).

4 Election / Re-election of Officers The Membership Secretary, Tony Shiggins was prepared to continue in post and was unopposed. Tony Shiggins is therefore re-elected as Membership Secretary.

The Treasurer, Fran Burstall, was prepared to continue in post and was unopposed. Fran Burstall is therefore re-elected as Treasurer.

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The National Director, Barry Savell, offered to stand down if anyone else had a vision for how to increase membership and competitors. As no one did, he agreed to continue in post and was unopposed. Barry Savell is therefore re-elected as National Director.

The current National Head Judge, Andrew Taylor, was re-appointed as National Head Judge.

5 Fees The executives (ND, T & MS) had decided that the membership fees and competition licence fees should remain the same this year as we had not lost money and we want to encourage new members and competitors. The meeting ratified this decision.

5.1 Membership Fees The membership fees are as follows:

• Standard member £14 • Standard member (unwaged/retired) £5 • Junior member (under 16) £5 • Additional family member (each) £5

It was noted that we do make a loss on junior, unwaged and family members, as the basic insurance is a fixed fee based on total numbers of members.

5.3 Competition Licence Fees The competition licence fees are as follows:

• Full competition licence £20 • Novice competition licence (new competitor) £5 • Junior competition licence (under 16) £5 • Freestyle only licence £5 • Multi-kite ballet only licence £5

5.2 Membership Fees The additional CAIF (Club Affiliated Independent Flyer) insurance which provides 3rd party liability cover when flying anywhere (except USA or Canada) at any time is offered as an option, basically at the cost that STACK pays to BKFA for it.

• This additional cost for CAIF insurance per person is £11.

7 Competitions & National Championship 2017 Options for this year’s National Championship were discussed.

The target will be to run several events, three or possibly four. One event will be a double round event, the others will be single round events.

At the double round event there will be a round on each day, and these rounds will NOT be brought forward or pushed back as a result of forecast or actual weather. This is because some competitors (eg Bryan and John) may only be able to attend for a single day, and also because we do want to do other things at our events – such as mega team flying / training.

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At single round events competition will normally be split over both days. If site availability is an issue running the competition in a single day is viable, though it would be desirable to be able to have informal flying on the other day.

Rounds of the National Championship will be run using full IRB format (figures plus technical freestyle and ballet) as last year.

We will also aim to run multi-kite ballet and trick/freestyle rounds at some events.

Other activities such as coaching and mega-teaming will be run at events and will be (roughly) programmed into the timetable.

Dunstable Downs would be ideal for the two round event. However they now have a line length restriction which may be a problem. The ND will contact them regarding whether they are prepared to have us, and if the line restriction can be waived.

Action 5: ND

We have an invite from Barmouth Kite festival to run a competition there. However this is the same weekend as Brighton Festival so some competitors are already committed, and several others have personal commitments that weekend. The ND will politely decline the offer from Barmouth, but try to retain the option for next year.

Action 6: ND

Some members will aim to attend Barmouth Festival to assess the venue.

Northampton Billings Aquadrome Holiday Park and Showground have said that they would be happy for us to run a competition there (at no cost). Keith and Vee will try to visit the Northampton Showground to assess its suitability.

Action 7: V&KG

Subject to its suitability the ND will contact them to try to schedule a competition round.

Action 8: ND

If possible an event in the SouthWest would be desirable (especially for Bryan). Brean beach would be ideal for this. Keith will attempt to find the contact details for Brean National Trust.

Action 9: V&KG

Minchinhampton Common was considered, but the absence of toilet facilities is an problem, as are pot-holes.

Depending on the interest shown at a Boot Camp which is being run in the North East (see below), it may be appropriate to hold a further competition round in the North of England. Keith and Vee will assess the interest in a Northern round at the boot camp and look for reasonable sites/dates if possible.

Action 10: V&KG

Lytham St Anne’s might be a suitable venue for a competition round – it has held them in the (distant) past. Keith and Vee are involved in this festival this year. Once contact has been made, they will make enquiries about possible competition events in the future.

Action 11: V&KG

The national championship will be based on the best two results (unless really bad weather cuts it down to one) from the rounds held, even if a fifth Northern round is added.

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Some flexibility can be provided for known competitors who have travel issues – for example if Dual Line Individual was run on Saturday but a known competitor could only get to Sunday, we would try to fit in extra individual round on the Sunday – however this would also be open to anyone who had competed on the Saturday. Similarly we could allow someone to fly at the end of the running order, later in the day, if they had experienced travel problems.

8 International Events There is already some discussion taking place regarding the possibility of a EuroCup at Dunkerque.

9 AOB In terms of other activities to do at competition events, Keith mentioned that Vee has produced a scalable routine that can be used for 2, 6 or 8 flyers (or in theory any even number). It would be great to get most members practicing this, so that we could use it at festivals on an ad hoc basis. Keith will digitise it and send it to the ND to publish on the web site.

Action 12: V&KG

Keith and Vee are running two Boot Camps. One is in the North East of England on 11-12 March, primarily for Josh and some friends who are interested in having a go at dual line team, plus a multi-line flyer who wants a steer on ballet development. The other is in the South of England on 8-9 April, primarily for Flying Fish.

A Quad-Line training course is being run by John Baressi at Lytham St Anne’s on the two days preceding the festival.

There is an Indoors-Outdoors festival being run in Northampton in early November. Details will be added to the web site when available.

The new revision of the international rule book was discussed. Comments (one relating to the number of flyers in Mix figures, another about whether a belly landing is a two point landing and whether an axle landing should be specifically mentioned and one about the new DL Pairs figure) were passed to the ND who will pass these on, along with anything else identified in the next week. Subject to those items the ND will ratify the new rules.

Action 13: ND

Thanks were made to all the members who helped at competitions (including all the Judges and FDs), all those who promoted STACK at other kite events, and also to all those who competed.

The AGM hosts, Tony Shiggins and MaryAnne Parker, were thanked.

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Annexe 1 - STACK UK National Director’s Report - 2016 Season

The season opened with the World Sport Kite Championship for teams, held in France. Flame represented the UK and achieved a career best 5th place.

The UK National Championships were this year held over two weekends.

The first event was held at the National Trust site at Dunstable Downs in June. Competitor numbers were quite low, with two dual line individuals, two dual line pairs and one dual line team. Two complete rounds of IRB format (figures and technical freestyle plus ballet) competition were held. In addition a single round of freestyle competition was run, albeit with a single competitor.

The second event was held at the National Trust site at Souter Lighthouse in the North East of the country. Though winds were not ideal, we still ran two rounds of IRB competition. Again there were two dual line individual competitors (though one was different from Dunstable), two dual line pairs and one dual line team. However at this event we also had a multi-line individual, and for one round only a multi-line pair. We also ran a round of the multi-kite ballet competition, with a single competitor.

At Dunstable we used a PA system supplied (and built) by Keith Griffiths. This worked effectively, and will henceforth be the system of choice unless the event or site has their own system. A big thank you to Keith, who supplies the system at no charge which makes a massive difference to the economic viability of us running our own events. At Souter Lighthouse, the PA was supplied by Peter Heayns (Josh Mitcheson’s father), again free of charge, so a big thank you to him also. Thanks also to the National Trust at both Dunstable Downs and Souter Lighthouse.

Overall competitor numbers were somewhat disappointing. In total we had eight competitors spread over three dual line individual competitors, two dual line pairs, one dual line teams, one multi-line individual, one multi-line pair, one freestyle competitor and one multi-kite competitor.

Well done to all this year’s competitors and to our national champions. In individual Tony Shiggins retains the champion. In pairs Phoenix retained their title, but pair Flying Fish are now pushing them and even beating them in some components. Flame were unopposed and retained the championship. Josh Mitchenson retained his individual multi-line championship, with multi-line pair Amalgamation taking the multi-line pairs champion. Miguel Perez Sennet took the UK Freestyle Championship, and Josh Mitchenson took the second UK multi-kite Championship.

STACK was also represented by members at various other kite festivals, including Weymouth, Basingstoke, Dunstable, and Exmouth, amongst others.

Changes to how the BKFA sources insurance significantly impacted our costs, as the basic insurance now only covers club events. The anywhere, anytime insurance (called CAIF) which most members need is now a separate item. We are now passing this cost on by offering CAIF as an optional (albeit recommended) add on for member at extra cost (this cost applies even to life members). As we also reduced the basic membership cost a bit, we have not had any complaints about this new fee structure.

Our main ongoing issue is that we need to increase the number of members and competitors. We must put ourselves in front of the public as often as possible, while continuing to run a viable championship. Ideas on this are welcome and will be discussed at the AGM.

Finally, thanks to all those who have helped at the national championships (including judges, field directors, line judges and arena builder/take-downers) which have run smoothly despite the small number of participants, and to those who have appeared and flown the flag (well, banner) at events and festivals throughout the year, and of course to those members, pairs and teams that have competed.

Barry Savell STACK UK National Director

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INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT 2016

General Income General Expenditure

Subscriptions

Individual 155.00 BKFA dues 25.00

Family 42.00 Insurance 420.20

Family Members 30.00

Junior 5.00

CAIF 242.00

TOTAL SUBSCRIPTIONS 474.00

Merchandise 29.31

Interest on bank account 0.04

TOTAL GENERAL INCOME 503.35 TOTAL GENERAL EXPENDITURE 445.20

Competition Income Competition Expenditure

Licences 140.00

TOTAL COMPETITION INCOME 140.00 TOTAL COMPETITION EXPENDITURE 0.00

TOTAL 643.35 TOTAL 445.20

BALANCE 198.15

Current funds 2,330.08

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Annexe 3 - STACK UK Membership Status - 2016 Season