The meeting was held at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, Hatfield Herts, prior to the team foil. The meeting was opened at 12.05 p.m.
John Williams (SA) asked that minutes be sent out after the meeting, rather than waiting until the following year. It was pointed out, the minutes are published on the website, but the concensus was that the minutes should be emailed out immediately.
The minutes from last year were accepted by Terry Sandell(University) as an accurate representation of last year, as he was the only one present from the previous year, other than committee members.
The report was fairly quick. All competitions have been run this year as normal. A new Team foil trophy was purchased by the committee and is to be presented today. The website has continued to be viewed regularly and all clubs reported that attendance and interest has been high this year. The new kit regulations have been bought in this year, and this had an effect on some clubs. Arising from last year, was the matter of interest on our account. We no longer get interest on our account. A decision was taken unanimously that it was too much trouble to move the bank account for a few pounds interest per year.
Entry was down a lot in the age group competitions. The feeling was that because it was the first competition of the year, many children did not have sufficient kit. The entry for the senior and novice foil was very good, but the epee and sabre was down. It was mentioned that there has been a low turn out at many of the Eastern Region Competitions and it was agreed that everyone should try and attend these.
The event winners so far were as follows:
Men's Foil: Andy Docherty (Watford)
Ladies' Foil: Rachel Thomson (St Albans)
Men's Épée: Paul Cramphorn (Watford)
Men's Sabre: Andy Aitken (North London Sabre)
Ladies' Épée: Juliette Hall (Watford)
Ladies' Sabre: Sharon Penton (North London Sabre)
Ladies' Novice Foil: Lisa Shafe (St Albans)
Men's Novice Foil: Nick Peters (Watford)
Addendum : The Team foil event was won 45:22 by St. Albans.
James Lee (St Albans) has been sending out details of coaching courses as and when he has the details. Liam Harrington (Watford) and James Lee (SA) were congratulated on passing another coaching exam in the last year.
This year the HFA has made a small profit of £24.31. However, with 13 teams possible for the team foil today should make an additional profit of £192. (In the event, only 11 teams turned up, and £142 was made from the day) Last year we made a loss of £24.31, our current balance stands at just under £2400. The accounts for last year were proposed by Terry Sandell (University) and seconded by Andy Docherty (Watford)
People were asked for their views on the website. The content was generally good and nobody could think of anything to be added. People were asked to submit any requests for anything to be added via email. The preferred name of hertsfencing.co.uk has been registered and will now be the preferred address for the website.
Nominations were taken from the floor and there was nobody willing to stand for any position. The commitee had all agreed to stand for a further year, and single candidates were then elected unopposed.
The new committee was as follows:Douglas Gordon proposed that future competitions have stop watches provided. This was agreed unanimously, and the commitee will spend a small sum to obtain about 8 stopwatches.
The meeting was closed at 12:40 p.m.
