the flydressers' guild

Forty Second Annual General Meeting
28th November. 2009.
Minutes Annual General Meeting held at
The Marylebone Hotel, Welbeck Street, London.

Present.
 

A. Middleton	Chair
I. Fazakerley	Membership Secretary and Web site Manager
T. Griffiths	Editor and Advertising Officer
P. Watson	Vice President
D. Bartle	Fishing Competition Secretary

                         
Plus those Guild Members and visitors whose names appear in the attendance register; a total of 7

• Apologies for absence were received from P. Eslinger, M. Humphreys, R.Vipond, P. Little, M.Grant

 

2)         The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 22nd November 2008.
  The record copy of the minutes were confirmed by the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

3)        Matters Arising.
None.

4)        Presidents Address.

Welcome to the meeting and apologies for my absence. This is due to business commitments elsewhere.

The Flydressers Guild holds a unique position within the angling fraternity. Its independence from commercial concerns; its continued commitment to its core values, the expansion of the skills of fly tying and its openness to all members places it high in the regard of many other organisations. Considering the fact that the whole organisation is run by a group of unpaid volunteers it is amazing what has been done over the years and what is being done now.

The production of the magazine, often seen as the most tangible benefit of membership just does not happen. Whilst each member receives only four copies each year there is a great deal of work in the background to see that you receive your copy. The editor works to produce a professional magazine. It then has to be distributed to almost 2000 members together with the other items of information, raffle tickets and equipment offers. None of this happens by magic.

The upkeep of the web site and membership data base take an inordinate amount of time. Information on membership in respective areas is available to branch officers when trying to inform their locals of branch activities. Reports of meetings events and competitions need to be posted on the web site. The forum, which is available to all members needs monitoring.

New ranges of clothing, available this year, need to be sourced, priced and purchased. Ever more ways are being looked at to improve the benefit package offered to the membership. The John Watts Competition needs organising. The venue has to be reserved months in advance. The number of boats determined and the teams allocated. The prizes given out and reports made available to the editor and the web master. Flies for the tying competitions need to be identified. The list of materials verified and the entries judged. More reports for the web site and Flydresser.

Attendance at shows is now more elaborate as risk assessments now need to be completed. Logistics such as how much display materials are required. Who will attend the show has to be calculated.

All of the above takes time and effort and I would like to thank those few individuals who have given of their time to see that the Guild is perceived as credible and worthy part of the angling community.

5)            Chairman’s Report.

2009 was a fairly routine year until a few weeks ago. Jerry Lee as Secretary and Phil McDade as vice chairman both resigned. This leaves the Executive Committee with a severe shortage of personnel. Both will be sadly missed and I would like to thank them on behalf of the committee for all of their hard work they have put in on behalf of the Guild over the past years. Their contribution has been considerable.

The year started with a successful presence at the Newark Spring Fly Show. David Palmer and David Watkin were on hand to offer advice to the many visitors to our stand. The number of visitors to the show was up considerably on the previous year due in some part to the presence of a shooting show taking place at the same time.

Entries for the Fly tying competition were up on previous years. Could this have been the result of increasing the prize money four-fold? In 2011 we hope to have some sponsorship from the revitalised Partridge brand. Mark Hamnett has offered to sponsor some of the competition in recognition of the close association the Guild has had over the years with the Partridge brand.

The CLA Game Fair suffered from the recession with numbers of visitors down by 20% and the number of commercial stands down by 25%. Nevertheless we met with many of our members and recruited new members to the Guild.

By the time the BFFI show in November arrived we had lost the services of Jerry and Phil but managed to make the show our most successful yet. Sales of the new range of clothing proved to be very popular with some items selling out on the first day.

This year has seen the official launch of our Accreditation scheme to branches. A trial run was carried out with the Ringwood branch last year and proved to be quite successful. Details have been sent out the branches and it is hoped that some will find time to participate. The scheme is designed to recognise the acquisition of the skills of fly tying by members of the Guild under tuition at branch level. Discussions are underway to see if a nationally recognised certificate scheme can be set up, enabling the membership to obtain an NVQ in fly dressing. The Guild feels that in this way it can maintain its position of being at the forefront of teaching flydressing in the United Kingdom.
 
The Executive Committee is desperately short of members going into 2010 and I would urge any member to become involved in the running of the organisation. If enough members volunteer then the work load for each member will not be too onerous and the rewards in seeing the Guild develop can be uplifting.

As we go into 2010 we face new challenges. The recession undoubtedly has an impact upon our activities and finances. We must continually recruit new members as we lose so many each year. It is apparent that for some people once they have learned to tie flies they see little use in being a member. Branches can and do play an important part in retaining members by offering the wide range of activities on a regular basis. By working together with neighbouring branches bigger and better events could be staged. Regional get togethers could benefit all concerned, but these require organisation and momentum.

In the coming year we hope to open faster and better lines of communication so that everyone is kept up to speed as to what is happening. The internet and e-mail will play an increasing part in this. We hope to streamline the administration of the Guild so that a quicker, more efficient service is offered to the membership in terms of response to requests for information. Controlling costs is an ever ensuing battle. Every time we turn round there is an increase in postage and packing. Even the cost of paper and envelopes seems to have gone up recently. The cost of meeting rooms continues to escalate; the cost of running shows and exhibitions continues to rise. We must be ever vigilant

It only remains to me to thank all of the members of the executive committee who give up their time so generously for the benefit of others. Without their efforts the Guild would simply not function at all.

6)      Reports of Officers
a)      General Secretary.
 
No report available

b)               Treasurer.
The Treasurer tabled the annual statement of accounts for the financial years and reported that as can be seen from the accounts we have made a deficit this year.

We have managed to contain our overall costs again this year, although a constant area for concern is that of postage. We have now outsourced the distribution of the magazine thereby gaining the benefits of bulk postage rates.

In order to maintain the viability of the Guild there is a notice of motion at the end of the meeting to allow the committee to increase the subscriptions by up to £5 per member if the finances of the guild require this to happen.

The accounts were unanimously approved by the attendees.

c)      Membership Secretary and Website Manager.

• Membership

Our membership currently stands at circa 1600- which is a bit down on last year at this time. Renewal notices will go out to 300-400 members that are always late around the September date resulting in a lot of wasted postage if we need to send renewal reminders in October/November

The BFFI now stands as our show to be at, dealing with 60 membership renewals face to face; that’s a lot more than at any other meeting

The accreditation scheme is now out there and a few branches have been in touch, mostly positive

• Website

The web site is still short of content and some branch information is out of date. It is always a problem to keep up to date as each page needs to be checked for dateable information. The technology to overcome such limitations exists and hopefully such a site should exist in the next year

• Editor and Advertising Manager

 
As ever it has been a year of begging and cajoling to get articles promised onto pages of Flydresser. It is not the problem it used to be, and bits and pieces come inform the most unlikely sources. I subversively use my demos to canvass ideas and much content comes via that method. My first move after a demo is to park up and make a note or two of worthy ideas gleaned from the evening.
It was with a very dark heart that I had to withdraw from the BFFI 2009, I had looked forward to meeting and greeting such a good number of people, but it wasn’t to be.
I am forever grateful to the likes of Graham Quiggan and his boss, Stuart Still, and Blain Kenward (in the studio) at Zetacolour for the excellent job they do in printing the magazine. Graham is the last person to see it before it goes to press, and it is not unusual for him to make some comment or suggestion regarding the “job” in hand, usually of benefit. None of the Zeta staff are fly-tyers or indeed fishermen, but they do care that we get the best job possible and for that we should be grateful, more bizarrely some of them read it.
Before any part of production happens, it goes to Sue Middleton for proof-reading, and it is to our huge advantage that Sue does not tie flies, and so reads with an objective view. It can be noted that it is not a good idea that one proof-reads one’s own writing…suffice to say that my own work is the part with the most mistakes when it comes back from Sue. As part of the team, Sue’s contribution is invaluable, I cannot thank her enough. I have also adopted a practise of sending a pdf  “proof” to contributors in case there is some aspect I have missed in my translation
 It is never easy to turn down articles, and these days I’ve learned to see virtue in almost anything that comes in…except verse…or national flags!
Writers come and go, or need a break. Or get poached by national magazines…. I’m quite philosophical about that. Next year is the tenth anniversary of Paul Proctor promising an article for the Flydresser….it’s still in the post!
The Winter 2009 issue is my 43rd as Editor, and I feel as enthused by the process as I did back in 1998, no wiser obviously, but grateful  again, for all the friends I’ve made and met.
Finally I would like to thank the Guild in toto, everyone especially the EC, for allowing me the space to express my passion through the magazine, and of course for sustaining my sense of humour despite testing it to the limit at times.
.
e)               Merchandising Manager.
 Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the meeting this weekend, due to that nasty thing called work. The year has been a quiet, especially in the summer, but now orders seem to be increasing. The members like the new range of clothing and business was brisk at the BFFI. We have sorted the wheat from the chaff in regards of quality and can hopefully increase awareness of the new products. We now have a new all colour cloth badge, which we have the sample and delivery should be imminent. There are also Snowbee products that we shall try, those being the new fishing shirt and baseball cap
All seems to be heading in the right direction with the fleeces and soft shell jackets and I may look at full zip micro fleeces in the future

• Fishing Competition Secretary.

   
The John Watts Competition was held at Grafham Water on 5th September 2009. Fourteen teams of 4 participated in good weather conditions. The total number of fish caught was 203 for a rod average of 3.63. The team winners were London A, closely followed by Ayrshire who returned to the competition after a long break John Anderson of Ayrshire caught the biggest fish of 4lb 7oz and the top rod was Neil Thomas of Congleton with a bag of 24lb 15oz. John Watts presented the prizes

The rules for the 2010 competition have been changed so that any 4 members of the Guild can form a team in addition to the usual Branch teams. The 2010 competition will be held at Grafham Water on 28th August. Forty boats have been booked.

• Fly Dressing Competitions Secretary.

A significant improvement in the number of entries this year; up to 132 presumably prompted by the increase in prize money. The tying standard also increased; the use of step by step flies from Flydresser as competition patterns no doubt being a contributory factor. At the top end if the spectrum the prize-winners classes as usual proved hard to separate though the number of entries was disappointing- with the in mind and always seeking to open the competition up to more entrants I will look to change the pattern and whilst maintaining the challenge across all classes. As ever thanks to the Secretary, Website manager and last but by no means least the Editor for all their efforts in supporting the competition and helping me. .

h)               Development Officer.

No report available

7)         Election of President and Vice Presidents.
Mike Humphreys, was proposed, seconded, and unanimously elected as President.
The current Vice Presidents and Life Vice Presidents were all unanimously re-elected en-bloc.
 
8)         Election of Officers.
The Officers and Executive Committee Members were elected in accordance with the rotational scheme set out in the constitution. No nominations were received for the now vacant positions of Secretary and Vice Chairman:

A. Middleton                          Chair
 
 
9)         Accounts examiner.
M. Clearey has kindly agreed to examine the accounts for the forthcoming year.  This was unanimously approved by the meeting.

10)       Notices of Motion...
To give authority to the executive committee to increase the subscriptions by up to £5 per member having reviewed the financial situation in the first quarter of 2010.

This was passed unanimously