Annual General Meeting, 2008
The Association's AGM was held last Sunday, 17 November 2008 at 2:00 p.m. in the Village Hall, Stansted.
As with the EGM back in August, attendance was much higher than in recent years - in fact it was up more than 50% on last year with 53 members present, representing 20 clubs! It was certainly very encouraging to see so many people there, including a lot of new faces; many thanks to everyone who attended.
There were a few changes this year, the most obvious being a rearrangement of the room to make wheel-chair access as easy as possible. This also had a couple of secondary benefits - it seemed to create a friendlier and less formal atmosphere with everyone closer to the "top table" and queuing for tea and biscuits during the interval was less cramped!
The new constitution resulted in a few changes to the agenda; in particular the "AOB" has been removed and in its place an "informal discussion" was held immediately after closing the AGM. Well, it's informal insofar as it has no specific agenda, but minutes were recorded and will be taken to the next Operational Committee meeting for action.
Even though the informal discussion was always likely to be lengthy and involve strongly held views, it remained friendly and polite without a single raised voice and the day's business concluded on time at 5:00 p.m.
The Main Meeting
A small addition to last year's minutes was requested to explain the reason behind the additional EGM in August. The rest of the first part of the meeting was occupied by reports from various officers and other county-level groups (coaching, judges and development) and presentation of the previous year's accounts; one very small discrepancy was identified and will be resolved by the time of the December Operational Committee meeting.
First up after the interval were the awards, including County Badges and Bars for team members, County Champion's medals, the Association's Green Tassel for Stella Green for attaining Grand Master Bowman in Longbow and a Red Tassel to Philip Gower for attaining Junior Master Bowman (Compound) during the summer.
Ted Essex. 
Ted Essex. This was followed by a presentation to Margaret Barrett of the Gold Tassel and a memento from the committee for all the work she has done over a great many years, starting as an Ordinary Member of the committee, then more recently as county Records Officer and Secretary, but also her support of the county team at matches and helping at many of the tournaments we run. It was apparent from the standing ovation that she received, that Margaret is widely loved and appreciated and will be greatly missed!
Next came the election/appointment of the committees for the coming year and we can now welcome four new faces (**):
| Chairman | Derrick Lovell | Bowmen of Woodstock | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secretary | Pam Hagon | Gravesend Archers | |
| Treasurer | Tim East | Medway Archers | |
| Development Officer | Mike Brighton | Tonbridge Archery Club | |
| Records Officer | Mandy Warren | Sutton Bowmen Archery Club | |
| County Captain | ** | Peter Dallas | Swan Archers |
| Child Protection Officer | vacant |
| T/O Target Championship | vacant | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| T/O FITA Tournament | vacant | ||
| T/O Longbow Championship | Neil Turville | Gravesend Archers | |
| T/O Field Championship | vacant | ||
| T/O Clout Tournament | Bob Gawler | Thanet Archery Club | |
| T/O Indoor Championship | delegated | Ashford Archers | |
| T/O Disability Tournament | ** | Bob Beaney | Ashford Archers |
| SCAS Representative | Derrick Lovell | Bowmen of Woodstock | |
| SCAS Representative | Neil Dimmock | Individual | |
| SCAS Representative | Barry Maytum | Highstead Valley Bowmen | |
| Team Selection Panel Member | Michael Walton | Medway Archers | |
| Ordinary Member | Peter Sansom | Ferryfield Bowmen | |
| Ordinary Member | ** | Mike Higgins | Crystal Palace Bowmen |
| Deputy Child Protection Officer | vacant |
A volunteer came forward to take on the role of Child Protection Officer, but because of the timing it was not possible for the Operational Committee to discuss it before the AGM; this will be therefore be determined at the December committee meeting along with what action to take over other vacant committee positions.
There are no changes to the KAA membership fees for the year commencing October 2009.
The Informal Discussion
It was no real surprise that the main issue for discussion was the rebranding of GNAS. Perhaps more of a surprise was that an informal ballot of those present was fairly evenly split between those who like "ArcheryGB", those who do not and those who do not have a strong opinion either way (abstentions). But when asked whether they agreed with the way that the new brand name was introduced, the result was spectacularly different - the meeting was almost unanimously against.
After much discussion it was agreed that the Operational Committee should:
- determine the opinions of the wider KAA membership on whether to request that SCAS puts a resolution of condemnation to the next GNAS AGM.
- provide via the web site two skeleton letters, one condemning the change and a second supporting it, and encourage members to use these to tell the GNAS Board of Directors how they feel about the change.
This will also be taken forward at the December Operational Committee meeting.
