EBA AGM: Coventry 2nd November 2019

Dear Member,
The EBA Annual General Meeting will be held at the Hope Centre, Vauxhall Street, Coventry, CV1 5LF at 2pm on Sat 2nd November, 2019. Tea and coffee will be served. There is some parking at the centre and on nearby streets.

Preview of the General Secretary’s report; “2018 – 2019 has been a busy and productive period during which the EBA has maintained and supported our membership and extended our influence through our face-to-face presence at popular boating festivals and through social media with around 5000 Facebook subscribers worldwide as of Sept 2019. 

Our President, Kevin Desmond, has been active building international links and working to help electrify Venice’s canals, and he will be updating us on progress at the AGM 

Information is our main ‘product’, and we have seen excellent progress on the publications front this year: our former Editor, Don Wright,  has recently produced a brand new Magazine to download here, and Canadian EBA member Jeff Butler has also produced a new International PlugBoats magazine and website to view here. 

Come along, find out more – and join our Committee to be part of the positive change ahead  !

AGENDA
1. Apologies for absence
2. Motion to approve the Minutes of the AGM held at 27th October, 2018, at Coventry. 
3. Any matters arising from those Minutes
4. To receive the reports of the President, Chairman, General Secretary and Membership Secretary
5. Motion to adopt the Accounts (Accounts to be presented on the day)
6. Motion to appoint an independent examiner of the Accounts
7. Election of a) The President and any Hon Vice President (President then presides over the meeting for the election of Committee members). 
8. Any other Competent Business notified to the General Secretary by the 20th October, 2018

Please indicate your intention to attend and any special requirements by email  

Proxy form for nominations: 

I,  (full name in capitals)
of (Address)
Being a Member of the EBA, hereby appoint either
a) The Chairman of the meeting to act as my Proxy and vote on my behalf in favour of / against (instruction on a motion) or
b) (Name and address of Proxy)

being a Member of the EBA, to act as my Proxy and to attend, speak and vote as directed by me at the 2019 AGM of the EBA.

Signed  ……………………………. 
Dated     …………..2019

NB: Members unable to attend an AGM in person may opt to exercise a proxy vote by registering the duly signed Proxy Vote in the format provided above by mail or email with the General Secretary , Robert Kay, 104 Stirling Rd., Kilsyth G65 0HY to arrive by Saturday 26th October 2019, allocated to a named member of the association who will be and is present to vote on the absent members behalf in accordance with his/her instructions, or by 10:30 am on Thursday 31st October 2019 for the Chairman to exercise the absent members vote as indicated by the absent member on motions circulated in advance. Any such legitimate motions will also be published on the Diary Page of our website and on our Facebook Page.

Draft Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the EBA held on 27^th October 2018 at the Warwick Rd. Community Centre, Coventry

1 Present:

Private members: Kevin Desmond, Robert Kay (General Secretary), Tony Dunning (TD), Barry (BG), Nick (NG) Oscar (OG) and Yvonne (YG) Goldring, Cedric Lynch (CL), Barbara Penniall (BP), Sylvia (SR) and Ian (IR) Rutter, Duncan Selby (DS) Diane (DH) and Ian (IH) Harding, Geoff Barrell (GB)
Business Members: Stuart James (SJ,) (Chairman), Tim Knox (TK), Emrys Barrell (EB)

The Chairman, Stuart James, welcomed members and noted that as the quorum was 10, and that 15 of those present were entitled to vote, the meeting was quorate.

2 Apologies for absence: 

Apologies were read out by RK.

3 Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 

It was proposed by TD and seconded by TK that the minutes of the AGM held on 24^th June, 2017, at Earith, Hunts. should be accepted as a true record. This was unanimously agreed.

4 Matters Arising. 

There were no matters arising that were not covered under later items on the agenda.

5 Chairman’s Report.

SJ reported that in the 15 months since being elected he would have liked to do more, but this had proved difficult due to pressure of work. Nevertheless, progress was being made. Electric boats should become the norm, not the exception, along with electric cars and buses, due to the revolution in battery technology, solar and wind power. RK and SJ had met with the CRT in Leeds, and our presentation was well received, with a perceived willingness to review license fees for electric watercraft.

He felt that investing in the breadth and reach of the website and increasing the visibility and brand profile of the EBA should be a priority in the coming year: whilst we are a not-for-profit, this would help increase our income through paid advertising. We are still a small society, but many people incorrectly assume that we are a much larger organisation. Working with the CRT on licensing and compliance could be an additional source of income.

He then tabled 10 copies of a draft Marketing and PR proposal from Sandstar Communications, an agency that promotes his own battery company, for discussion. He said the primary aim was to enhance the EBA brand in order to generate more advertising revenue and membership income.

A lively discussion followed. Comments from the floor included:
1) lack of a formally agreed specification or business plan,
2) the pros and cons of putting this proposal out to tender.
3) concern about the costs of the proposal, which at an open-ended £625 per month plus VAT would come to £9,000 a year, with no measurable performance targets or defined outcomes
4) Need to consult the whole membership before approving such a large contract
5) Concern that we we should not be seen to be endorsing advertisers products
6) We are already growing fast on social media under our own steam, so why is this needed?

After a lengthy debate, it was broadly accepted that more work was needed.
6 General Secretary’s report

RK reported on his first part-year in post. He thanked BP and TD in particular for helping him get to grips with the EBA business and procedures. Most committee communications and decision taking took place online and through email, to save time and travel.

Personal high points of the year included attending two conferences in Jordan as a guest speaker and conference delegate, (fully funded by the Arab Renewable Energy Commission), and attending a three-day conference at Delft University to learn more about emerging technology in electric transportation.

There has been rapid growth of EBA communications on social media with several thousand people now engaging with the EBA directly on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In. This was starting to yield benefits in signing up new members, both individual and corporate. The profile of social media subscribers is youthful and international, with 90% being male. Many posts are receiving between 1000 and 2000 views.

7 Finance
The main initial challenge coming into post had been enabling Santander Bank to grant control to the three new bank signatories, (SJ, TD and RK) as the bank procedures were very cumbersome. As a result of not having access to the EBA bank account for a period of several months, RK had loaned the EBA £6189 from his own resources, interest free, partly in respect of deferred ‘office rent’ *.

* An annual allowance of £5,000 was formerly paid to BP as an honorarium, but this was changed by the Committee to a monthly invoice of £416.66p for home office rent to protect the EBA, due to tighter government regulations and tough new employment laws and official guidance concerning casual contracts and p/t employment.

All sums owed to RK had since been refunded by the EBA once bank control had been re-established.
Finances over the year had remained relatively robust with prudent management and tight controls in place to reduce excessive postage and printing costs and overheads by using digital communications and publications. On an income of £10,740, there had been a deficit for the financial year 2017/18 of £911, mostly due to unforeseen expenses attending Crick in 2017, but liquid balances remained healthy at £17,666.

8 Membership Secretary’s Report

TD reported that we currently have :

Category	Members (2018)	Members (2017)	Change
UK private:	285	312	-27
UK Business	36	33	3
International Private:	19	17	2
International Business:	6	3	3
Honorary	6	6	0
TOTAL	352	371	-19 ( = -5%)

He noted that each year we lost some members and gained some new ones. In 2018 69 members failed to renew, compared with losses in previous years of 36, 64, 45, 48, 33, 44, and 51.

In 2018, 30 new members joined via the popular online PayPal shop.

TD also reported on a successful EBA presence at Crick show and other events, with many thanks to the volunteers who attended in support.

9 Motion to adopt the Accounts
The accounts were adopted unanimously.
Mr Paul Russell BA (Hons) was thanked in absentia for checking the veracity of the Accounts, and reappointed as an Independent Examiner.  

10 Elections of office bearers:

Kevin Desmond was elected uncontested as President, following his excellent presentation earlier in the day.
KD proposed that OS be elected as Hon. Vice President (Youth). This was supported by a show of hands.

Office bearers were then re-elected en-bloc:
SJ: Chair
RK: General Secretary
TD, Membership Secretary
Existing Committee members were reappointed: BG, TK, JA
EB was elected as Editor.
DH and Jamie Marley were elected as new Committee Members.

11 Discussion and close
There followed a lengthy and lively discussion about future goals and plans.

Archived Diary 2018
 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 24^th June 2017

        at the Westview Marina, High St, Earith.

Present: Jeff Hide (JHi,) (Chairman) and Jacquie Hide, Tony (TD) and Janet (JD) Dunning, Barry Goldring (BG), Nick (NG) and Yvonne (YG) Goldring, John Hustwick (JHu) (President),  Les Fiddler (LF), Robert Kay (RK),  Cedric Lynch (CL), Barbara Penniall (BP) (Secretary), Pam (PT) and Trevor (TT) Thorn, Don Wright (DW) (Treasurer)

Business Members: Stuart James (SJ), Tim Knox (TK),

The Chairman, Jeff Hide, welcomed members and noted that as the quorum was 10, and 17 were present, the meeting was valid.

1. Apologies: John Arnold,Hans Aysee, Ian and Sylvia Rutter,Ian McNab, Julia Briars-Filby, John Varian, Christopher Brown, Elizabeth Cussons, LEMCO, Henley Sales and Charter, Hybrid Marine, Torqueedo.

2. Minutes. It was proposed by BP and seconded by JHi that the minutes of the AGM held on Sat, 25^th June 2016 should be accepted. This was unanimously agreed.

3. Matters Arising. There were no matters arising that were not covered under later items on the agenda.
4. Retiring Secretary’s Report.  BP noted good progress introducing a PayPal facility for new members on our  website, attracting around one new member per week, and thanked NG for his work on the new system. She noted that some recent ‘cruise in company’ invitations have not attracted a viable response, and that whilst Crick had been a great success in the end, arrangements had been complicated by unforeseen events. Originally elected in 1996, she was proud to have served the EBA for 21 years, but felt that it was time to pass on the baton. However her enthusiasm for electric boats was undiminished: ‘We are on the next big surge forward and of course the EBA will benefit from this’ .. ‘good luck to you all’ !
5. Treasurer’s Report.  DW presented the accounts for the year ended 31^st March 2017. The increasing costs of attending shows and print publishing were becoming prohibitive, and actions have been taken accordingly. Whilst overall income had fallen from £12,416 to £11,202, expenditure had been reduced from £13,208 to £10,412,  mainly by changing from paper to electronic publishing and reducing show fees and expenses, resulting in a net trading surplus at year end of £790. The magazine had cost £1481 to produce, and generated approx £886 in advertising revenue. Accumulated assets minus liabilities had risen to £19,791, an increase of £10,000 in ten years. The accounts have been independently certified and are available to members on written request. EF proposed the adoption of the accounts, seconded by JHi
6. Membership Secretary’s Report  TD reported that we currently have 312 private UK members, 33 UK business members, 17 overseas private members, and 3 overseas business members, a grand total of 365. There was a small reduction of last years private members total of 342. In the last year, 39 private members, and 2 business members had taken advantage of the PayPal facility.

7. Retiring Chairman’s Report
   JHi reported on his activities during the year, giving warm thanks to all officers and volunteers for their work, with special mention to Les and Elaine Fidler for hosting this years AGM and helping with the Crick show arrangements.
   The Ouse Cruise and 2016 AGM had gone very well. Our EBA stand and Trevor and Pam Thorn’s ‘Sunflower’, at the Crick show, with 26,000 attendees over three days, had received a constant stream of new visitors and old friends.
   Meeting Richard Parry, the CEO of the CRT and his team had enabled us to promote the benefits of negotiating license fee discounts for electric boats. Finances over the year had remained relatively robust with prudent management and tight controls in place to reduce excessive costs and overheads by using digital communications and publications.
   Thanks were also due to BP (secretary) and DW (treasurer) who had also intimated their intention to retire at this AGM. Very careful consideration and thought had been given to managing the transition to new office bearers, and he was confident that SJ and RK would prove well capable of steering the organisation forward in future.
8. Elections of office bearers: Appointment of Chair.   Stuart James (SJ) was proposed by JHu and seconded by BP: elected unanimously.
9. Appointment of Secretary and Committee. Proposed en-bloc by JHu and TD: RK was elected as Secretary. DW would continue as Treasurer for an interim period until new arrangements were put in place. TD, NG and BG and JA to continue in post. TK was co-opted as a new member. Hon. Members continue to be members of the Committee All elected unanimously. JHu to continue as President.
   Presentations were made by JHu to BP and DW in recognition of their outstanding years of service.
10. Independent Examiner of the Accounts for 2017/18 to be determined by the incoming Treasurer. Proposed TD and BP : approved unanimously.
11. Any Other Business  As incoming Chair, SJ gave a short speech of thanks, outlining his vision for the way forward. His view was that clean electric boating was the future, that it was becoming increasingly viable and that EBA was well-placed to continue promoting the move away from diesel engines. He welcomed feedback and views from members in the coming year.
    There was general discussion, followed by supper.