Merchant Navy Association Boat Club Constitution Adopted on 17/09/2024 1. NAME AND STATUS 1.1 The name of the Club shall be the Merchant Navy Association Boat Club. 1.2 The Merchant Navy Association Boat Club shall be a non-profit making, unincorporated association at all times affiliated to the Merchant Navy Association. 2. OBJECTS AND INTERPRETATION 2.1 The objects of the Merchant Navy Association Boat Club shall be to facilitate and promote the safe participation and enjoyment in yachting and boating activities on oceans, seas, lakes and inland waterways, and to facilitate the training of prospective younger members and promote opportunities for careers in the leisure sector. 2.2 In these rules: Annual General Meeting’ means the meeting of members convened under rule 7.1; ’Committee’ means the Committee referred to in rule 6.1; ‘Officers’ means the Commodore, Vice Commodore, up to three Rear Commodores, Secretary, Treasurer, and Membership Secretary 3. MEMBERSHIP 3.1 Membership of the Club shall be available to a full member, associate member or honorary member of the Merchant Navy Association. 3.2 Honorary membership of the Club shall be available for distinguished service to the Club 3.3 All members shall be required to provide their contact details including names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation members details will be securely stored by the Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary on an encrypted device. Contact details, such as email addresses shall only be shared among members with an individual’s express permission. Once a member leaves his/her details shall be destroyed after one calendar year. 3.4 In the event that a third party requests any personal details, the member concerned shall be advised and such details shall only be given with his or her express permission. 4. SUBSCRIPTIONS 4.1 Annual subscriptions shall be payable by all members, except honorary members, on the first day of January in each year and shall be such sum as the Annual General Meeting from time to time determines. 4.2 An annual subscription paid in respect of a member joining after the first day of September in any year shall be deemed to include the subscription for the following calendar year. 5. CESSATION OF MEMBERSHIP 5.1 Any member of the Club who ceases, for whatever reason, to be a member of the Merchant Navy Association, shall thereby cease to be a member of the Club. 5.2 A member who intends to resign from the Club shall notify the Secretary of his or her intention before the first day of January, otherwise any liability on his or her part to pay the subscription for the following year shall remain in force. 5.3 In the event that a member’s subscription remains unpaid, after one reminder, before the end of March, he or she shall be deemed in the absence of an explanation satisfactory to the Committee to have resigned, and he or she may not rejoin the Club without paying the arrears. 6. CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT 6.1 The control and management of the Club for the attainment of the Club’s objects shall (except in respect of matters specifically reserved to a General Meeting of the members) be vested in a Committee consisting of the Officers and not more than three members of the Club elected to the Committee pursuant to tule 7.1. 6.2 The term of office for an Officer shall be three years. 6.3 An officer may stand for re-election. 6.4 If an officer resigns, or is unexpectedly unable to undertake his or her their duties, the Committee shall co-opt a member of the Club to take on the vacant office until the next Annual General Meeting. 6.5 In order to benefit from their specific knowledge, experience and ability, the Committee may co-opt not more than three additional members of the Club to serve until the next Annual General Meeting. Such co-opted members shall not be entitled to vote at meetings of the Committee. 6.6 The Committee may appoint sub-committees to advise it and define their duties. A sub-committee may include some members of the Club who are not members of the Committee. 6.7 At any meeting of the Committee, the Commodore shall take the chair, or failing him or her, the Vice Commodore. In the absence of both of them, the meeting shall elect a chairman of the meeting. 6.8 Issues dealt with by the Committee shall be decided by a majority vote of members of the Committee entitled to vote, each such member having one vote. In the case of equality of votes, the chairman of the meeting shall be entitled to a second or casting vote which shall determine the outcome. 6.9 At meetings of the Committee the quorum shall be four. 6.10 The Committee may meet in person or by remote teleconference or videoconference, or a hybrid combination thereof. 6.11 The Secretary shall maintain a record of all General Meetings and all Committee meetings, and shall hold all records of General Meetings, Committee meetings and sub-committee meetings, documents and correspondence. The Secretary shall advise the MNA’s National Secretary of the names of the Officers, and of any changes to this Constitution. 6.12 The Membership Secretary shall keep a register of the Club members’ names, addresses and any boats they own. Members shall be responsible for notifying any changes to their details and boat ownership by contacting the Membership Secretary. 6.13 The Committee may open and operate bank accounts on behalf of the Club. 6.14 The Treasurer shall keep a record of monies received and disbursed on behalf of the Club, a summary of which shall be presented at Committee meetings when the details of which shall be held available. The Treasurer shall: obtain advance approval from the Committee for any payments in excess of £100; ensure that any invoices are paid in a timely manner either by cheque or bank transfer; prepare quarterly detailed accounts for the other Officers; monitor bank statements; prepare, and have independently scrutinised, annual accounts to be given to all members for consideration at the Annual General Meeting. 6.15 The Treasurer, Secretary and Commodore shall be responsible for the safe keeping of the Club cheque book and debit card, and the Treasurer and at least one other officer shall be authorised to have on-line access to the account and arrange bank transfers. 7. GENERAL MEETINGS 7.1 Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of members shall take place on such day within fifteen months of the previous AGM as determined by the Committee. The business at the AGM shall include, unless the meeting otherwise determines: i) consideration and approval of the minutes of the previous AGM ii) election of Officers and other members of the Committee; iii) motions proposed; iv) consideration of the Club’s accounts. Any member is eligible for election under (ii). 7.2 The Commodore shall have power to summon a Special General Meeting whenever he or she may deem it advisable to do so, and he or she shall do so on being thereto requested by one-third of members. 7.3 For an AGM or SGM to take place the Secretary shall send a notice of the meeting to every member, electronically, or by post, at least 28 days before the date of the meeting. 7.4 At any General Meeting the Commodore shall take the chair, or failing him or her, the Vice Commodore. In the absence of both of them, the meeting shall elect a chairman of the meeting. 7.5 Each member of the Club shall have one vote in respect of General Meeting business. 7.6 To succeed a resolution on the agenda shall require a simple majority in support of those voting. 7.7 At General Meetings, voting on a resolution on the agenda shall be by a show of hands, unless the chairman of the meeting decides that a poll of the membership by post or electronic means shall be held in which case the result shall be communicated to members as soon as possible after the votes have been counted. 7.8 The quorum at a general meeting shall be 10 members. In the absence of a quorum, and provided that the majority of members present so require, a poll of the membership by post or electronic means shall be held in which case the result shall be communicated to members as soon as possible after the votes have been counted. 7.9 In the case of equality of votes, whether on a show of hands or a poll, the chairman of the meeting shall be entitled to a second or casting vote which shall determine the outcome. 8. ALTERATION OF RULES 8.1 Any of these rules may be rescinded or amended by the members by a resolution passed at an Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting convened in accordance with rule 7.1 or 7.2, or, if that meeting is inquorate, passed after a poll conducted under rule 7.7. 8.2 The proposed alteration shall be communicated to members at least 28 days in advance of the meeting. 9. CORRESPONDENCE 9.1 Correspondence may be by electronic or postal means. 9.2 The primary point of communication to the Club shall be through the Secretary whose home address shall be used for mail. 9.3 Communications from the Club to members shall normally be sent electronically. If a member does not have an email address, he or she shall inform the Secretary of this. It shall be the responsibility of each member to inform the Secretary of any change of email or postal address. 10. DISSOLUTION 10.1 The Club may at any time be dissolved by the members by a resolution passed at an Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting convened in accordance with rule 7.1 or 7.2, or, if that meeting is inquorate, passed after a poll conducted under rule 7.7. 10.2 The proposal to dissolve the Club shall be communicated to members at least 28 days in advance of the meeting 10.3 If the members resolve to dissolve the Club, the Officers shall remain in office and be responsible for winding up the affairs in accordance with this rule. They shall: • inform the MNA’s National Secretary of the dissolution at the earliest opportunity; • make provision for any liabilities.; • gather together all the assets. • once all liabilities have been met, offer to return any unused proportion of members subscriptions, and consider disposal of any surplus funds, by donating them to a maritime charity or to the MNA. 11. The Club shall, at all times, be affiliated to the Royal Yachting Association.

For those of you for whom this is your first visit to the mnaboatclub.org.uk website I guess I ought to say a few words by way of introducing myself. My family have been involved in shipping for several generations, but my own merchant shipping sea-going experience was limited to a short time as a cruise director in the 1960’s before joining His Majesty’s Coastguard in 1973 where I spent twenty-three years including a spell as reserve skipper of the Portland Coastguard patrol boat. After several years as Station Manager at the NCI Lyme Bay Coastwatch station my role now is mainly as a water safety adviser for the Hemsby Independent Lifeboat station and their lifeboat for the Broads, and as a member of the Broads Authority's Boat Safety panel. I was born at Leigh-on-Sea and brought up in Norfolk where I first learned to sail on The Broads, subsequently qualifying as an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor, and went to Highgate School in North London. However my experience with HMCG led me to becoming a rescue boat operator, and eventually Chief Rescue Officer for Yacht Clubs of Weymouth and the British Sailing Team.My boating in recent years has been mainly in the Med where my partner Lois and I shared an interest in a Yarding 27 Motor Cruiser which we kept on a permanent mooring at Port Ambonne in the south of France and used as a second home. Until quite recently we had a Hardy Pilot 20 “Felice” which we kept on a mooring in Weymouth and used for pottering around in the Weymouth Bay – Lulworth area.However we’ve become “fair weather sailors” during the last few years and decided to relocate our boating activities to the Norfolk Broads so we acquired a 30 year old Hardy 25, mv “Lady Helen” which we completely renovated and fitted a new engine over the winter of 2020-2021 before moving her to the Norfolk Broads at Barton Turf where we stayed aboard her and made several short cruises during 2021- 2022. However what we hadn’t bargained for was my wife Lois suffering a quite serious knee problem aggravated by the steep step up and down between the cockpit and the cabin, so sadly we’ve sold Lady Helen and bought a traditional Broads cruiser with the accommodation all on one level in the form of a Hampton Safari 25 named “Elsa II” She has already been used with our MNA Boat Club “WaterWatch” Scheme (see WaterWatch pages) in partnership with the Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association (NSBA) to keep an eye out for potential hazards or incidents; indeed the day after we put her on our mooring at Cox’s Boatyard we played a part in an incident involving the theft of a £50,000 English Harbour electric motor launch (see incident report in our WaterWatch section). As regards the MNA Boat Club along with our small MNABC committee we’ve initiated several ideas which thanks to our webmaster David Hearn have included launching this website. My aim is to try to involve many more of the membership than previously, but I’m also very aware that the MNABC is unusual in having its membership scattered around virtually throughout the whole of the UK (and even abroad) so that trying to get people together is extremely difficult, and very expensive. To address that problem we’ve needed to adopt a somewhat different approach to that used by most yacht/boat clubs. That initiative has now evolved into our WaterWatch scheme which we are operating in East Anglia in partnership with the NSBA. - full details of the scheme and details of how our members are encouraged to participate are featured on our WaterWatch pages.