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1. Meeting opening The meeting opened at 17.30 hours. The Commodore welcomed members to the 13th MNABC Annual General Meeting followed by each member introducing themselves. 2. Members present: Committee: C Edwards (Commodore and Chairman), R Card (Rear Commodore), C Woods (Rear Commodore and T Brant (Secretary). Members: Mrs V Foster (MNA Past President), J Sail (MNA Vice President), Mrs R Card, Mrs L Edwards, M Harris, L Payne, G Shimmings and N Williams 3. Apologies for Absence Apologies were received from: D Buckpitt, D Cornes (Membership Secretary & Treasurer), D Hearn (Webmaster), T Eaves, J Johnson-Allen, B Lawrence, R McClean, C Overton, S Partridge, I Pearson, J Rose & S Walker. 4. Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting (19 September 2023) Approval of the Minutes: Proposed by J Sail, seconded by C Woods and were unanimously accepted. 5. Matters arising from the previous Annual General Meetings There were no matters arising 6. Commodore’s Report The Commodore’s report (see attachment) was unanimously accepted. On 1-2 June this year, the Commodore and R Card (Rear Commodore) provided Guard Ship duties, using their own motor cruisers, for the Norfolk Broads Three Rivers Race which covered 50 miles on the Rivers Bure, Ant and Thurne. 7. Constitution (Read Here) The Commodore thanked R Card for all his dedicated work in drawing-up the new draft MNABC Constitution and the meeting unanimously agreed. The revised Constitution was required as the MNA National Councillors had agreed that the MNABC should be recognised as an affiliate Branch and should take care of its own finances. Discussion followed, then R Card proposed that the new Constitution was adopted, seconded by C Woods and unanimously agreed by the meeting. The annual subscription was then discussed and it was agreed that it should be £10.00 paid, preferably by Direct Debit, on 1 January for members who received their MNABC information by email and £12.00 for members who received their information by post due to postage, packing and printing costs. At present, 50 members had not supplied an email address which involved a few hours work for each mailing. A meeting quorum would be 12 members - this was proposed by Mrs V Foster, seconded by J Sail and approved by all except one member. The meeting unanimously agreed that David Cornes would be appointed as Treasurer and a Barclays Treasurer’s Account would be opened requiring two Committee members to be signatories for each outgoing payment. There would be 4 appointed signatories – C Edwards (Commodore), R Card (Rear Commodore), D Cornes (Treasurer) and T Brant (Secretary) to ensure that there were 2 signatories available during illness or leave. 8. MNABC Officers The Election of Officers was not due until the 2025 AGM. P.Battagliola (Vice Commodore) had recently stood down due to his business interests. It was agreed that Mrs V Foster should be co-opted as a Rear Commodore and I Pearson as a Committee member until the 2025 AGM Election of Officers. The Commodore stated that Committee Members were needed from other areas. 9. MNABC affiliations The Commodore stated that in addition to the Merchant Navy Association National, the Club was affiliated with the Institute of Seamanship, Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association, National Water Safety Forum, National Independent Lifeboat Association, Sea Safety Group of Coastwatch Stations, RNLI and the RYA. 10. Defaced Red Ensign The Commodore reported that he had written to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and a reply was awaited. 11. Any Other Business J Sail proposed that the Club should sponsor a younger person to attend a boating safety course. This was unanimously agreed. 12. Date of the next MNABC AGM The date and time for the venue to be advised but it was agreed that it should be held in Liverpool. J Sail undertook to see if the AGM could be held in a local yacht club. 13. AGM closure The meeting closed at 18.50 hours.

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The Merchant Navy Association Boat Club Greetings Shipmates, The good news is that Spring has indeed sprung and we’re all enjoying a lot better weather than we were this time last year! We also have some other good news items including the news that we’ve been able to arrange to hold our first AGM as an organisation “affiliated to but independent of, the MNA Charity” on HMS Wellington moored on The Thames at Temple Stairs. The details are as follows: Wednesday 18 th June 2025 HMS Wellington Access to the ship can be any time between 10.00 – 16.00 hours to provide ample time for members to make a tour of the ship, enjoy a buffet lunch if they want with the total cost including lunch and a tour of the ship amounting to no more than £25.00. Those members who do not want to have lunch aboard need pay only £10.00 for a tour of the ship which will enable us to make the appropriate donation to the Wellington Trust The formal AGM will start at 14.00 hrs. and for those just attending the AGM without a tour of the ship or lunch there will be no cost.of course Also on the good news front thanks to our affiliation to the RYA our Boat Club members will have access to the RYA’s new and very attractive “Dinghy Trails” researched and published in a very attractive format by the RYA. A selection of these Trails, which will interest anyone with a “dayboat” or small cruiser as well as dinghy sailors, will shortly be featured on our mnaboatclub.org.uk website and in the meantime I’m attaching a couple of examples to the email I’m sending with this Newsletter – Well worth taking a look at! There are already Trails identified for all the RYA regions and more are in the pipeline Given the MNA’s role as a charity supporting se3afarers the MNA Boat Club is also doing its bit to support those who would otherwise not have a chance to get out on the water, namely people, especially youngsters who are disadvantaged either as a result of physical or mental handicap, or simply as a result of economic circumstances, so we’ve recently made a donation of Musto sailing gear to the Nancy Oldfield Trust (see www. nancyoldfield.org.uk) which is a charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged people to get afloat On a rather more sad note, you will already know that since we are now “affiliated to, but independent of” the Merchant Navy Association charity (MNA) we have had to introduce a small annual membership sub of £10.00 per member – a tiny fraction of the subs for membership charged by virtually every other RYA officially recognised affiliated boat club! Given that all our members have enjoyed the benefits of membership for the past twenty years or so absolutely free of charge I’m very disappointed that so far less than half of our current members have renewed their membership and paid the subscription,so I very much hope I that those amongst you who have still to renew will do so shortly because by the time of the AGM in June those current members who have not renewed their membership and paid the £10.00 sub by then will cease to members after the AGM I really hope that the majority of our members will indeed reflect on the fact that there are significant costs involved in paying the premiums for Public Liability and PI insurance, maintaining our website, paying our affiliation fees to the RYA which is our Governing Body, organising events, printing and posting Newsletters etc to those members without an email address etc let alone undertake to support any charities! So when all is said and done £10.00 these days is less than the cost of a couple of pints or in some places less than the price of a coffee and a bun! I hope everyone will enjoy a very Happy Easter, and I look forward to hearing from you Yours Aye, Clive