The AGM was held on 24 April. It received reports from retiring Officers, approved the accounts and agreed subscriptions for the coming season. It also re-elected the 4 officers, each of whom is aware that with increasing age their capacity to deliver as we have done in the past is reaching a limit. Each agreed to submit for re-election because they are committed to the club and its continuation and in the absence of others coming forward, they realise that if they stood down a vacuum would be created which would create increasing difficulties for our future. HPoWAS like all clubs is only as strong as its members, because it is only the membership which can deliver.

 

At its best we get attendance at matches around 40% of the membership, (more than most clubs) and when you consider where our members live it shows an encouraging commitment. The same is true for recent work parties and our charity fundraising both of which show what we as a club can do when we unite in a common purpose. 

 

As a club our 2 prime purposes are a commitment to securing waters for members to fish and to arrange matches for those members who wish to participate. Providing this requires ongoing work, some of which rightly falls to the Officers each of whom is committed to fulfil that for which they are elected for another 12 months, but some of which is beyond their roles but undertaken by them by default because we have been unable to effectively share more widely what both needs to be done and what we decide to do more equitably. This also highlights a problem that we have no effective succession plans and our continuation is increasingly reliant on the ageing few. 

 

There are various reasons why this has happened but it is clear that we now must look critically at what we as a club do, and explore ways in which the wider membership might contribute more directly to what we as club can offer. Our club meetings In the past were the prime means of communication within the membership. At their best they were a source of ideas, expertise, for an exchange of views and provided the basis of informed and democratic decision making which could be seen to reflect the views of the membership. Today our members are more widely scattered, and avenues for communication more varied and diverse and there may be more effective ways for the process of the way we operate.

  

Until we can decide on what these might be we must use the  monthly meetings on 8 May and 12 June to begin to look at what we do and how we do it moving forward. Each and every member has something to contribute to enable us to reach the best decisions for our future. Please paly your part in this for your club.

 

 

 

Into 2025-6……..

 

1. Our first match is 11 May

2. The Little Stoke work party is 15 June

3. Our first match at Little Stoke is the following Sunday 22 June

4. Membership renewals are now due. Every 24-5 member has received details as to cost and payment arrangements.