Annual General Meeting 2008

15 Aug 08 AGENDA FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 OF MARLOW SEA CADETS TO BE HELD AT TS APOLLO, WETHERED ROAD, MARLOW AT 1930 ON 16 SEP 08 Item

Lead

1. Apologies for absence

Chairman

2. Opening address

Chairman

3. Adoption of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting

Chairman

4. Matters arising from the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting

Chairman

5. Report from the Chairman

Chairman

6. Report from the Commanding Officer

Commanding Officer

7. Presentation of Unit Accounts

Treasurer

8. Adoption of Unit Accounts

Chairman

9. Resignation of all Unit Management Committee members and elections/re-elections of those nominated

President

10. Any other business

Chairman

R J Royall Chairman, Marlow Sea Cadets Tel: (01494) 439763 Email: [email protected] Distribution: Members of the Unit Management Committee Parents of Cadets at the Unit Southern Area Business and Management Director District Officer, Oxon Bucks District

1 of 10

19 Sep 08 MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 OF MARLOW SEA CADETS HELD AT TS APOLLO, WETHERED ROAD, MARLOW AT 1930 ON 16 SEP 08 Present

Apologies

Mr Richard Royall S Lt (SCC) Nicholas Jones RNR Mr Bob Savidge Mr Martin McCluskey Lt Cdr (SCC) Peter Piercy RNR Ms Katie Truss Mr James Hall Mr Graham Cooper

Chairman Commanding Officer Treasurer Area Business and Management Director District Officer

Item 1 – Apologies for absence 1. Apologies received from Martin McCluskey, Peter Piercy, Katie Truss, James Hall and Graham Cooper. Item 2 – Opening address 2. The Chairman welcomed Nick and Bob and expressed his disappointment along with Nick and Bob that, despite giving more than adequate notice of the meeting and writing to all parents personally, there were no parents present. Item 3 – Adoption of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting 3. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting for 2007 held on 15 Jan 08 were approved by Bob Savidge and seconded by Nick Jones. Please see the attached document (commencing page 4 of 10) for approved minutes. Item 4 – Matters arising from the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting 4.

There were no matters arising.

Item 5 – Report from the Chairman 5.

Please see attached document (commencing page 6 of 10).

Item 6 – Report from the Commanding Officer 6.

Please see attached document (commencing page 7 of 10).

Item 7 – Presentation of Unit Accounts 7.

Please see attached document (commencing page 9 of 10).

Item 8 – Adoption of Unit Accounts 8.

Adoption of Unit Accounts was proposed by Richard Royall and seconded by Nick Jones.

2 of 10

Item 9 – Re-election of Unit Management Committee Members 9. Bob Savidge and Richard Royall were prepared to stand for another year. Subsequent to this AGM, the Chairman to review/confirm availability of other current Unit Management Committee members. Item 10 – Any other business 10. Due to lack of support, it was agreed that a separate Parents and Supporters Association was not viable and we would continue to run the Unit Management Committee under its present remit. These minutes are a true record of the meeting.

R J Royall Chairman, Marlow Sea Cadets

3 of 10

16 Aug 08 MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007 OF MARLOW SEA CADETS HELD AT TS APOLLO, WETHERED ROAD, MARLOW AT 1930 ON 15 JAN 08 Present

Apologies

Mr Richard Royall S Lt (SCC) Nicholas Jones RNR Mr Bob Savidge Mr Graham Cooper Mr Phillip Moore Councillor Doug Anson MBE Mrs Caroline Murray

Chairman Commanding Officer Treasurer

President

Item 1 – Apologies for absence 1.

Apologies received from Doug Anson and Caroline Murray.

Item 2 – Opening address 2. The Chairman welcomed everybody to the Annual General Meeting and took the opportunity to thank them for their ongoing support. Item 3 – Adoption of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting 3. Approval of the Annual General Meeting 2006 minutes was proposed by Graham Cooper, seconded by Bob Savidge, carried unanimously and signed by the Chairman. Item 4 – Matters arising from the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting 4.

There were no matters arising.

Item 5 – Report from the Chairman 5.

Please see attached document (not included in this pack).

Item 6 – Report from the Commanding Officer 6.

Please see attached document (not included in this pack).

Item 7 – Presentation of Unit Accounts 7. Bob Savidge presented the Unit Accounts together with his report. The main focus was articulating Health and Safety rectification costs in the main building and the high level, circa £8,000 per annum, operating costs to run the Unit. 8.

We received a number of donations and thanks were expressed to the contributors.

9. Considerable funds and work were still required to complete refurbishment of the toilets, fully reline the badly leaking gutters and to enable a new functional boatswain’s store and marine workshop. 10. Bob outlined that we cannot guarantee a continuous level of donations, therefore requiring the establishment of a fundraising team as well as cadet focused fundraising initiatives. 11.

Please see attached document (not included in this pack). 4 of 10

Item 8 – Adoption of Unit Accounts 12. Adoption of Unit Accounts was proposed by Richard Royall, seconded by Phill Moore, carried unanimously and signed by the Chairman. Item 9 – Re-election of Unit Management Committee Members 13. Phill Moore was nominated by Nick Jone, seconded by Richard Royall and welcomed to the Unit Management Committee. 14. Richard Royall, Bob Savidge and Graham Cooper were prepared to be re-elected and remain in their current roles. Bob Savidge was prepared to stand for a further year as Treasurer. Item 10 – Any other business 15. Nick Jones is preparing the Unit calendar for general circulation and highlighted the Royal Naval Parade on 19 Feb 08. 16. Recruitment of both Unit Management Committee members and cadets, with a focus on local schools for the latter, are clear priorities. These minutes are a true record of the meeting.

R J Royall Chairman, Marlow Sea Cadets

5 of 10

16 Sep 08 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 – CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2008 has been a positive year for Marlow Sea Cadets. Our Royal Naval Inspection in February was well received, given the age profile of the cadets. It also provided guide lines for future inspections. The Annual Mess Dinner was enjoyed by all. A very well organised event - a big thank you to Chloé White. The cadet activities and training have prospered under Nick’s leadership and Chloe’s support. Nick deserves a special mention for his diligence, commitment and tenacity with regard to cadet matters and has been very supportive of the UMC. Bob has somehow kept us financially “afloat”, driving the building projects forward to a position where we will shortly have a first class facility. This will increasingly enable letting revenue opportunities. The marine workshop and boatswain’s store are the next major projects. We must, however, take on board that we cannot guarantee continuous levels of donations that we have been fortunate enough to receive in the past. New initiatives are imperative for the future of the unit. We have, for example, no fighting or contingency fund. We are pleased to recently welcome Katie, who brings a wealth of fund raising experience to the UMC. I will be proposing at the next UMC meeting that we consider the formation of a Parents and Supporters Association to focus on social and fund raising activities. This will enable the UMC to concentrate on the fiscal, funding, charity and building activities as well as accession plans for the roles of Chairman and Treasurer. I would like to thank everybody involved in helping and supporting Marlow Sea Cadets. Our endeavours will greatly benefit our young people.

Richard Royall Chairman, Marlow Sea Cadets

6 of 10

16 Sep 08 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 – COMMANDING OFFICER’S REPORT This year has been another tough year from the instructional point of view at the Unit. This has primarily been due to the low numbers of staff with Petty Officer Chloé White and myself having to take on the majority of the work. That being said, Petty Officer White’s progress as an instructor has been exceptional as can be seen by her recent promotion, which notes the fact that she has completed her probation as a uniformed instructor. We have also added to the Unit staff with a Unit Assistant in the form of Miss Jodie Hall. Although not taking on any of the instructional responsibilities, Miss Hall has been very helpful in providing another point of contact for the cadets and in assisting with Stores and subscription collection. One of the items for improvement noted in my report in 2007 was that the instructional staff were not able to cover many subjects in the Unit. By the end of the year, Petty Officer White and I should have added the following subjects that we are able to instruct and assess in the Unit. • • •

First aid; Weapons handling; and Pulling.

This is a significant step forward which will hopefully result in more qualifications for cadets in the future and we aim to continue to develop our knowledge base into 2009. The year has also seen cadet numbers increase from 16 (10 seniors and 6 juniors) to 18 (12 seniors and 6 juniors). With only two staff available on more parade nights, this means that we are now reaching the maximum numbers of cadets that the Unit can take (with approximately 12:1 being the maximum safe ratio). Therefore staff recruitment will be a major priority for the next twelve months. If anyone here knows of somebody who would be interested in joining the instructional staff, either as a uniformed or civilian instructor then please let me know as we could definitely do with the assistance. The nine months since the last Annual General Meeting have also seen the award of two pennants (recognising the overall standards of the Unit). The reason we have received two of these “annual” awards is that the timeline for awarding these has changed but from now on we should be back to one efficiency assessment each year. The first of the pennant was recognising the achievements of the Unit up to its assessment in Feb 07, while the second was for the work done until Feb 08. Both of these highlight the Unit as one of the top three Units in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and take account of the hard work carried out to ensure our training takes place in a safe environment. There are three particular events, which have occurred over the last nine months, that I would like to highlight. Firstly February saw the Unit paying a visit to our affiliated ship, HMS ARK ROYAL, this time sailing from Newcastle to Portsmouth. Three cadets and I sailed on board and we all had an excellent time. The trip was also a good opportunity to build closer links with our new Affiliate Officer on board ensuring that cadets can take advantage of similar opportunities in the future. Our close affiliation with HMS ARK ROYAL is one of the biggest selling points of the Unit and, without a doubt, sets us apart from other Units locally. My second highlight of the year was the attendance of two cadets and myself on a summer camp at Pier Cellars Camp in Torpoint. Although this was the fifth year that this camp has been held, it was the first where it was attended by members of Marlow Unit. The cadets seemed to thoroughly enjoy the week taking part in a number of adventurous activities including indoor climbing, night exercises and fieldcraft skills. 7 of 10

Finally 2008 saw the Unit participating in the Marlow Regatta for the first time since its move to Dorney Lake in 2001. This was a very good opportunity to promote the Unit to members of the local community and also raised over £250 for the Unit’s funds. In closing I would like to thank all of the parents who have assisted in the smooth running of the Unit in the last year, ranging from those willing to transport to their cadets to the various activities they have participated in to those who have volunteered to help with some of the events the Unit has been involved in. Without this assistance the Unit would not be able to function and, as I mentioned earlier, anyone wishing to become more involved, particularly on the training side, should let me know as we are always looking out for willing volunteers.

N M Jones Sub Lieutenant (SCC) Royal Naval Reserve Commanding Officer, Marlow Sea Cadets

8 of 10

16 Sep 08 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 – TREASURER’S REPORT This year we have finalised our electrical refurbishment of the main building and the start of the total replacement and upgrade to the toilets including the disabled toilet required by the WDC Access Officer. These upgrades and a new cleaning contract have been well received by the organisations that rent the facility. This bodes well as our goal is to maximise our rental income. The negative charge for electricity and the major reduction in water charges are due to excess billing and the companies taking excessive amounts of direct debits in 2006/7. These issues were resolved and the monies returned but we still owe over £700 for water, which arose due to a major leak in the toilets. It is to be noted that due to a shortage of operational funds we were unable to pay HQ the insurance invoice of £1,100. Had we done so we would have gone into the red at the bank, which would not have been acceptable to the UMC. We have addressed this problem with HQ. Sadly due to staffing issues the income from our band only amounted to £150 when we were hoping for a considerable income to contribute to the basic running costs of the unit, which still stand at between £7,000 & £8,000 p.a. This is expected to increase significantly with the forecast of huge increases in electric and gas. Additionally the shortage of staff and loss of cadets and UMC members has also meant we have not had the income we would have expected from fundraising. The donation of £2,500 is ring fenced for the total refurbishment of the marine workshop and boatswain’s store, which is planned for later in 2008. Our main problem remains in that we have significant difficulty in funding the day-to- day operation and the cadet activities. The major difficulty is that most charitable organisation only want to fund capital projects. We are desperately short of UMC members and need urgently to recruit two new members to lead our fundraising activities and to raise money from donations for the operational costs as well as capital projects. We still have a number of capital projects that need funding e.g. full refurbishment of the Marine workshop and boatswain’s store, the lining of gutters to the main building, refurbishment of the garage/store and the boat shed, and the resurfacing of the car park and areas surrounding our buildings. However, we are still remain very optimistic with our small but highly dedicated uniform staff and a slowly growing number of cadets that the unit will continue to support the youths of Marlow and the surrounding areas in the foreseeable future.

R B Savidge Treasurer, Marlow Sea Cadets

9 of 10

Marlow Sea Cadets Income & Expenditure 1 April 2007 - 31 March 2008 Expenditure 2006/7 Building Costs Electric Water Gas Security Waste BT/Talktalk Insurance Legal Cleaning Misc Repairs

1032.00 1242.47 957.00 766.12 342.91 192.50 783.60 0.00 1058.81 0.00 4440.77

Cadets Admin Dist Levy Uniform Band

935.14 70.00 70.01 1364.82

Subs Misc Activities Boats

-650.50 200.03 7.20 443.36

Income 2006/7

10816.18

-629.36 246.00 856.90 303.15 375.48 198.76 0.00 0.00 1274.89 0.00 3030.53

5656.35

2440.06

260.22 70.00 14.76 -150.00 1039.84 678.62 236.00 215.70

285.46

Fundraising St. George's Dinner Regatta BBQ Carnival Skittles M. Unwin leaving dinner Bar Shirts

-126.78 122.60 127.92 176.30 139.02 -60.00 557.05 -127.00

Rent Donations Bank interest Totals Balance of Expenditure/Income

Expenditure 2007/8

13256.24

207.02 69.07 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 594.15 809.11

870.24

1988.00 6412.00 0.00

3211.00 2500.00

9209.11

4047.13

Income 2007/8

5941.81

6581.24

639.43

10 of 10