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Minutes for the Annual General Meeting (19th May 2002)

The meeting was held at the Hitchin Boys School Sports Centre, Hitchin, Herts. The meeting was opened at 12.30 p.m.

Present

Seventeen fencers were present. The following clubs: were represented : Dacorum, St Albans, Watford, University

Apologies for Absence

Mike Whale (St Albans)

Chairman's Report

All the usual competitions had been run in the previous season, the age group competitions and team foil at Hitchin and the County Championship weekend at the Royal Masonic School for girls. The team foil was due to take place after the A.G.M. It was good to see that running the A.G.M. before the competition had increased the attendence at the A.G.M. The entry was basically static across most categories, with a slight rise in some events (Ladies Epee, U20 Foil). The team foil was due to have an entry of eight teams. The event winners so far were as follows:

Men's Foil: Jonathan Weekes (Unaffiliated)
Men's Epee: Eugene King (Watford)
Men's Sabre: Santiago Vila (North London Sabre)
Ladies' Epee: Juliette Hall (Watford)
Ladies' Sabre: Julia Rhodes (North London Sabre)

The novice league had continued to run successfully and had been won by the University club. Several new clubs were considering joining next year.
Although interest had been expressed to run a refereeing course, It had been posponed due to illness of the organiser and insufficient numbers being able to commit to a date for it to be financial viable. It was hoped that a new date could be found to run one later in the year. The Chairman re-iterated that any fencing related course could be run by the H.F.A. if sufficient intererst could be found and suggestions were always welcome.

Treasurer's Report

Full Accounts for the year were not complete since the Team Foil was yet to run. Monies continued to be fairly static and the association remained healthily in the black. This had been due to not having to cancel any events during the period in question.

Problems remained with the lack of signatories to the H.F.A. accounts, and this would be a priority for the new committee.

Committee Motions

A proposal was made to adopt a new constitution for the H.F.A.:

After the recent regional development meeting, the Chairman had been investigating the possibility of applying for an Awards for All grant. This would be use to run a coaching programme within the county. In order for an application to be successful, Awards for All lay down certain criteria which must be followed. Some of these criteria involve the constitution of an appellant organisation.

A draft of consitution was distributed, along with the current constitution in the Minute Book, believed to date from 1967. The proposed changes were as follows:

1) Add a paragraph to the constitution to indicate what should happen to the assets if the Association should fold. It was agreed that any remaining equipment should be distributed between the remaining clubs, and any money in the account should be passed to the Eastern region committee.

2) Ammend the constituents of the committee to reflect current practice.

3) Reduce the proposed number of meetings a year to reflect current practice.

4) Replace "Amateur Fencing Association" with "British Fencing Association" throughout.

5) Add a date of issue to the constitution.

These ammendments were then discussed. According to the 1967 consitution, for the ammendments to be carried, they must now be publicised for 28 days prior to an E.G.M. for adoption.

Election of Officers

The Chairman stood for re-election, he mentioned that he would only be able to continue in the role for one further year, since he was likely to be moving out of area thereafter. He was elected unopposed. The current Secretary and Treasurer both stood down, nominations were taken from the floor and there were single candidates for each post who were then elected unopposed.

The new committee was as follows:
Chairman:Jason Fox (Watford) prop. Terry Sandell, sec. David Stockley
Treasurer:James Bird (St Albans) prop Barclay Dutson sec. Terry Sandell
Secretary:Paul Cramphorn (University) prop. Trudie Brewer, sec. Terry Sandell

Any Other Business

A presentation of the Ladies Novice Foil trophy was made to Trudie Brewer (University).

The meeting was closed at 12.55 p.m.

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