Minutes of 2003 Annual General Meeting (AGM)  

Thursday March 27th - Kirkintilloch Miners Welfare Club

MS Word Document - Minutes of 2003 Annual General Meeting - Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling

The Chair – Ralston McPherson, thanked everyone for attending and brought the AGM to order

2. Steve Clerkin took the meeting through the minutes of the 2002 AGM. No comments were raised and the minutes were noted and approved as correct. (prop A. McPhee, sec A. Morrison)

3. Chairman’s Introduction: Ralston spoke on the role of the Federation and the Exec Committee members. He moved on to invite the EC members to make their reports.

4. Secretaries Report : Once again – another year has just belted by – the Coarse Angling in Scotland story never stands still. My colleagues will testify to that on their specialist subjects in detail. First of all, I have apologies tonight for the new Angling Co-ordinator at SportScotland, Lorna Macleod. Our annual DGA has once again been approved and as always, we are thankful for the continued support we receive from SportScotland. We are now obliged to submit our audited fiscal review to SportScotland, I have asked our Hon Treasurer to address this.

I thought I would remind you all of the member clubs and what we know of their current plans:

1. Monklands – SFCA members – continue as and active match group
2. SQCAC – SFCA members – continue as a busy club and are involved in new canal initiatives
3. LinCAC – SFCA members – continue as a busy club and are involved in new canal initiatives
4. WLCAC – SFCA members – new members for 2003 – successfully running the Eliburn loch
5. CSCAC – SFCA members – continue as a busy club involved in all aspects of our sport
6. PAAS – SFCA members – continue to grow as the Pike community matures
7. Carp Group – SFCA members – actively focussing on their Specialist waters
8. Dragons – SFCA members – taking care of their Club waters, also have a match calendar
9. Postal – SFCA members – ever-present match team
10. FifeCAC – no longer SFCA members – working with Carp Group
11. Milton – not members – rumours of a revival?
12. Glasgow – LCAPS project – new club focussed on building a community club in Firhill
13. Edinburgh – LCAPS project – new club focussed on building a community club in Weter Hailes
14. Falkirk – LCAPS project – new club focussed on building a community club in Falkirk
15. Magiscroft – forming a new club this year

Other topics in brief:

SFCA and members were consulted on their view regarding proposed legislation concerning the adoption of the E&W "Native Species" listing – in short, if this goes through as published, this will bring the coarse fish population onto the statutes (eventually) as recognised, protected and vital resources.

FFF – continuing to support this Charity – while driven by funding opportunities, they still operate on an all-species agenda. Recent funding from SE was secured to survey Coarse Species in a number of regions (including Forth, Clyde and Lomond)

The "Fishing Survey" (online only) was encouraging – once again, this was a welcome opening for the coarse angler to demonstrate contribution to the angling wealth Scotland has.

At the last AGM – we agreed to bring a proposal in 2003 to increase the EC posts to include an Asst Chair. With your permission, we will complete this during the Election of Officers.

During the 2002 AGM we also adopted a new membership class – Corporate membership. This will be introduced this spring and offered to organisations/clubs/retailers/hotels/ etc. The basis of their voting rights was included in the Constitution amendment. The future for this membership is to allow the Federation to enjoy new revenue by allocating advertising space and priority status in the SFCA website. A separate announcement will provide details of the fees and benefits

Last on my list this year is LCAPS – we have talked at length over the years about the decline in our canal angling resource. Well – it is now clear that something IS happening to reverse this decline. LCAPS is just days away from a public announcement – has a management body, partner clubs, constitution, permit scheme, stocking plans, etc. Ron, Gary, Ken, John Callaghan, Jim Brown and myself have been working with BWs driving force – Mr John Ellis. Without his continued enthusiasm, belief, drive and commitment, we would be not be anyway as far forward as we are. With that, I hope you will join me in recognising John in the appropriate manner. We would like to thank him Hon Membership of the SFCA. We genuinely thank him for his continued support.

Finally - please recognise the scale of the challenge we face... Tay, Tweed, Forth, Clyde, Loch Lomond, Canals (LCAPS), National Park, LR bill, Access codes, SSSI, SACs, POs, AfC, SEPA, SNH, SSA, Sportscotland, SCRO, SFCA matters, National competitions, leagues, Galloway, SEexec, Live Fish Importing Regs, legislation changes, meetings etc. This all takes time which we give freely and gladly - we need more support though otherwise we continue to only just cover the bases.....

Keep working on the minority of "knockers" - they have small minds and narrow view on the bigger picture, don't let them deter all the work you put in yourselves - thanks for the great support this year. My personal thanks got to Ron as usual and the EC members for their support over the year.

6. Policy Liaison Officers Report: Ron Woods summarised some of the major issues over the preceding 12 months by describing a number of consultations and information-gathering projects at both national and catchment level to which we have contributed this year. In the case of the Loch Lomond catchment plan he noted that our submission appears to have persuaded SEPA to shift their position to accept the use of livebaits taken from the water being fished.

The major national issue had been the "Keeping and Release" regulations. If they were extended to cover any significant range of coarse species our freedom to stock club waters or commercial coarse fisheries would be severely curtailed. Ron explained that SEERAD’s initial proposal had been to bring the list of species covered in Scotland more or less exactly into line with that in England. This was good news for us, and our submission had supported the proposal in principle whilst challenging some of the background assumptions. Other parties, were thought to have made submissions which would have been against our interests, however, and we are anxiously awaiting news of the result. 

For the future, he mentioned that consultation was about to start on the matter of replacing the Protection Order provisions of the 1976 Act, and that this was an absolutely vital matter on which SFCA, member clubs and individual coarse anglers should make their views heard as strongly as possible

7. Coaching & Development Officers Report:

Scottish Junior Championships :The Scottish junior championships were held at Deans Res, Livingston on the 3^rd Aug 2002. There was a great attendance from the juniors and a total of 10 fished with all entrants catching; the winning weight was 4.690 kg by Grant Clark of CSCAC.

This year the match will again be held at Deans Res, Livingston on the 9^th Aug 2003.

Coaching and youth policy: This year we have been working with British Waterways to form groups along both the Union and Forth and Clyde Canals, to develop coaching facilities for the youth in specific areas. Those areas are Maryhill, Falkirk and Wester Hailes. The Maryhill and Wester Hailes groups are either in the process of having classes or have already had some classes for the youth element in the area. Gary Clarkson is dealing with the Maryhill area and I am dealing with the Wester Hailes Group. We are keen to enlist the assistance of one of the members in the Falkirk area to start the project there.

Child protection policy: This policy has now been desiminated to all clubs and all clubs should now have their own policy in place, copies of which should be forwarded to myself ASAP. The policy will show to those wishing to join member clubs that they take the situation of child protection seriously.

SCRO checks: There are a number of policies which have still to be addressed to enable free checks to be done via the SFCA as the governing body for Coarse angling with in Scotland. These policies and documents will be issued through the coming year and consultation shall be sought from the member clubs on the way forward. A reminder that all individuals, who have sole/considerable charge of children or vulnerable adults, require SCRO checks.

Round robin: Due to the lack of juniors within member clubs there was no real possibility of holding a round robin for the junior members, it is hoped that in the years to come there will be enough juniors in a variety of clubs that the round robin can be put in place for them.

Thanks: My thanks must go to all those who have assisted me on the development sub-committee and also in the staging of the Scottish junior championships this last year. The progress could not have been made without those people who put in so much effort and time to ensure things have gone smoothly. I anticipate your assistance next year

8. Team Managers Report:

General

George started by saying he intended to stand down as Team Manager.  He then gave a brief report on the 2002 International events with the results as follows - 

Scotland v Wales - Willow Springs Fishery, Llanelli
Scotland were just beaten by Wales overall by 134.5 points to 137.5 points after Scotland had won the first day.  Barry Morgan was second placed individual.

6-Nations Championships - Furzton Lake, Milton Keynes, England
Scotland was 6th on day 1 and 5th on day 2, 6th overall.

World Championships - River Mondego, Coimbra, Portugal
Scotland were 30th from 31 on day 1 and 14th on day 2 ending up 28^th overall.  Ewan Weed was an excellent 3rd in section on day 2.

George thanked all of those who had helped him over the years and pledged his support for the new team manager.

9. Match Secretary’s Report – Chris Paton:

It has been an interesting year as Match Secretary and perhaps one of our best in a while starting with the massive catches on the Endrick; the opening of our new commercial fishery; some poor fishing on the Clyde and finishing with some good fishing on the Endrick.

The year started with the Fed Cup way back in may and immediately saw the Scottish match record go with over 50lb by Stephen McAvaney. This superb fishing continued for the next couple of months albeit slightly peggy with everyone hoping to draw between peg 6 and 10, but culminating in perhaps the best match in Federation history league match three seeing an average angler weight of 32lb 10oz, and in some instances nearly 50lb only gaining 3rd in the section. By this halfway stage the league had turned on its head with last years runaway winners Monklands A trailing Monklands B then C which undoubtedly made for an exciting second half of the league. The matches then moved on to Magiscroft our new coarse fishery and whilst catches where initially mixed, it saw Scotland's first Ide matches, with some huge bonus fish thrown in as well as our first 2 lake match, carp fishing and random draw.

The latter stage of the summer season moved onto the Clyde, which was generally disappointing, did see the high light of Davy Corcoran scooping over £500 in the Scottish national, shortly after becoming Dundee Open Champion (well done Davy). The league culminated in new double winners Monklands B, followed closely by Monklands C but things remained close to the wire between the top 3 teams which certainly made for an exciting finish.

Winter League wise, our lack of venues resulted in the matches being held on Loch Ken which whilst disappointing in terms of turnout did see some excellent skimmer fishing.

Angler wise the season really belonged to Ewan Weed with a sensational Summer and Winter League Win (including the Golden Peg in the last match of the winter), a section 3rd in the World Club Champs and a Section 3rd in the World Champs.

It has been an interesting second season as Match Secretary and with the prospect of Magiscroft and some superb Endrick fishing, it should be good for the new one.

Finally I must thank the help I received to run the matches in particularly Stephen McAveney and Davy MacAuleys help with the pegging but more than anybody Mike Weeds help in running the matches so smoothly. With out his help the results and maintenance of the league would not be anywhere near as good as they are. Thanks Mike.

11. Election of Officers: There were several posts due for election this year. The following elections were completed:

12. Notices of Motion: several notices were received:

12.1 – National team Selection Criteria

The proposal was brought forward by CSCAC and after lively and good humoured debate was finally agreed as follows as follows:

To delete the current eligibility criteria for selection for the National Team and to substitute therefore:

"Eligibility for selection shall be based on the following criteria:

The proposal was brought to vote and was carried by a "3 for" versus "2 against" majority.

12.2 – Protection of Member Clubs Fishing Rights

This proposal was brought forward by LinCAC:

The SFCA will keep a register of all fisheries fishing rights or ancillary property or rights held in any way by Member Clubs. It is the duty of Member Clubs to notify the SFCA if they hold such rights and wish them to be protected by this rule. Any Member Club which wishes to acquire any fishery or fishing rights or other right or property must first ask the SFCA to search in its register to ascertain whether such right is held by another Member Club. If the search is clear the Member Club may proceed to acquire the right, if not, the Member Club may only proceed with the consent of the SFCA Executive Committee. Consent will only be given where the SFCA are satisfied that it is fair and reasonable to do so subject to the general principle that a Member Club which has registered a fishery will at all times be permitted to take every reasonable step to retain that fishery.

A search fee may be charged for all searches conducted by the SFCA for Member Clubs.

The SFCA shall make all necessary arrangements to ensure the confidentiality of all information kept on the Register.

It shall be the duty of a Member Club to notify the SFCA in writing within 3 months of the termination of any right protected by registration.

A Member Club may refer any question of dispute or alleged breach of this rule to the SFCA Executive Committee for a decision.

No Member Club or anyone acting on its behalf shall take any actions designed to prejudice, bring to an end or prevent the renewal of any fishery registered by another Member Club.

A Member Club, which considers a fishery has been wrongly registered, may apply to the SFCA for that registration to be corrected.

The penalties associated with contravention of this Rule will be determined by the SFCA Executive Committee but may include exclusion from the Federation if deemed appropriate.

The proposal was brought to vote and was carried unanimously.

12.3 – Executive Committee Post of Vice Chairman

This proposal was brought forward by LinCAC:

The object of this proposal is to support the suggestion made by the SFCA Chairman at the 2002 AGM whereby the post of Vice Chairman should be created in recognition of the increasing demand placed on the current office bearers. Such a role would be to support the Chairman and the other Federation officers in their duties and to represent the SFCA in an Executive capacity.

The following SFCA Constitution sections to be amended:

4.2 The Officers of the Federation shall be Chairman, Vice Chairman, Hon Secretary and Hon Treasurer who shall be elected at the appropriate Annual General Meeting.

One Officer only shall return annually in the order: Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary such that each position is filled for a period of three years, other than in exception circumstances. (Note – the Vice Chairman is the exception to this rule, this post will also return in the same year as the Secretary.) The retiring officer shall be eligible for re-election. If the post of any Officer should fall vacant during his term of office, the executive committee shall have the power to fill the post until the next Annual General Meeting.

4.3

c. The officials of the Executive Committee, other that that of Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary, shall be for a period of 2 years. These officials shall be elected at the appropriate Annual General Meeting. The retiring official shall be eligible for re-election.

This Motion was unanimously accepted by the voting clubs present

13 AOB

David McAuley (as new Match Secretary) advised he would call a Match Meeting very quickly. He had several organisational proposals to review as well as some thoughts concerning match calendar dates. He also announced a tremendous boost for the match scene in the form of a Daiwa Sponsorship package in support of the Federation Summer League. Copies of the sponsored prizes were circulated.

Ali McPhee made the meeting aware that the LLFT required an additional coarse angling representative. He encouraged the room to consider who may be able to offer support in this post. This is a useful project for members to tackle who are new to representing the Fed.

Andy Morrison noted that SQCAC will be renaming their club this year. This is intended to more accurately represent the clubs membership distribution as well as the clubs activities and areas of interest. The new club will be "Edinburgh and Lothians CAC". SC advised the club to submit a formal proposal to the EC in the form of a new E&LCAC constitution.

Several questions were raised concerning Public Liability Insurance for the Federation member clubs and their individual members. As a result of work during the initiation of LCAPS, a new scheme organized by NAFAC has been highlighted and seems to offer a very reasonable insurance option. SC agreed to investigate the feasibility of the SFCA joining NAFAC and then subsequently offering the clubs/members full PL cover.

The meeting was brought to close. Ralston was correctly recognized and roundly thanked for his contribution to the sport in many aspects and as Chairman over the preceding years.

Regards

Steve Clerkin, Sec SFCA