Secretary’s  Report looking ahead to the last month of the season

 

The fishing at Little Stoke

 

As I sit here watching the rain, it’s a pretty disappointing prospect. A hardy group had an unofficial match at Little Stoke in early January which as it turned out was the was the last opportunity to do so. The river on that day was around 3.85m and as we waded onto the downstream path past the boathouse we looked at grey and unpromising water flowing fast just with in the channel.

 

The fishing was hard and that night the river rose to over 4.00m where it has stubbornly been ever since. At 4.50m level which is where it is now and it is into the fields…… 

We can only hope that the long promised ‘drier spell’ materialises soon and we can get in some time on the river before the end of the season.

 

New Member

 

We welcome Steve Eatwell a new member who lives close to Little Stoke who has taken advantage of our winter membership promotion. We look forward to meeting you soon.

 

Looking forward

 

It’s that time of the year when we look forward to wrapping up this season and prepare for the new season.  The lousy weather does at least give to opportunity to catch up on other things (although I for one would rather be fishing).

 

In January we discussed and reviewed the degree to which we as club are adapting to current requirements which includes governance, procedures and the way in which we undertake activities in the name of the club. We had an interesting discussion focussing on how we conduct work parties (WP) and where we stand legally. Following that I conducted some research the implications of which were quite revealing. Like most clubs we are unincorporated (i.e. have no legal standing) and as such the officers could, in certain circumstances, be personally liable. Although our public liability insurance (PLI) gives an additional layer of protection it’s therefore important that we comply (and can demonstrate this) with all the insurer’s requirements to maintain this protection. 

 

We need YOUR input please with the following proposed changes prior to our March meeting so they are ready for our AGM – 

 

1. Work Parties

 

To this end Dave Ashton and I have put together a simple set of rules we intend to enforce with regard to future work parties these have been formulated to ensure we comply with PLI expectations. You can find these proposals on the members’ section of the website at 'Proposed Work Party Rules'. These will be discussed and if necessary amended this spring and the regular meeting invited to approve these – in April or May - before the start of the new season.​

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  2.   We have also made decisions this year about changes to the way in which the club is run specifically a reduction in regular meetings to reduce officer workload.  These have constitutional implications, for which an AGM needs to ratify. To this end we have posted a revised (and with the assistance of AI) a simplified plain English version of the constitution which can be found at the  following page 'Proposed Amendments to Constitution' in the Members Section. This will need the meeting in March to approve (and if necessary amend this) so it can be put to the April 23rd AGM for approval.

 

1. Match Rules

 

At the same time we’ve used AI to simplify the agreed match rules and again these require endorsement at the regular meeting, probably in April or May. The draft version can be found at 'Proposed Changes to the 'Match Rules'.

 

Please take the opportunity to look at the proposed documents. There is no current version of WP rules but the existing constitution and match rules (for comparison) can be found at https://www.hanwellprinceofwalesas.co.uk/account/blank-4 in the members section.  The existing match rules follow the constitution on this link.