WELSH AIRGUN and FIELD TARGET ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD AT THE LIMES CLUB ON 13th. JANUARY 2004
PRESENT
AVON HAWKS, BLAENAU GWENT, CASTLETON, NELSON, PONTYPOOL, QUARRY RIFLES AND TONDU.
APOLOGIES
JOHN JOHNSTON AND DORIAN FALCONER.
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The minutes of the last AGM held on the 21st. January 2003 were accepted as a true and accurate record.
Proposed by Castleton, seconded by Avon Hawks voting was unanimous.
MATTERS ARISING
It was proposed by Tondu that a sub committee be set up to look at the Associations constitution to see if any changes need to be made. It was decided that each club would get a copy of the old constitution and also a copy of the specimen constitution sent by the BFTA, comments would then be sent to the secretaries by the end of January. A sub committee would then discuss these comments.
The sub committee to consist of
Howard Lloyd, David Gage, Gwynne Robinson and John Lewis
This proposal was seconded by Pontypool and accepted by the meeting.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
After discussion it was decided that even though we would be delighted to put on a World Championships unless a suitable venue was found it was not feasible for us to consider holding this event.
CHAIRMANS REPORT
The report is attached.
Following on from the report, Avon Hawks raised the question of shooter eligibility because of the comments on the Home Internationals. The chairman assured Avon Hawks that this was nothing to do with membership of WAFTA, but was an issue raised by Scotland to use the world qualifying rules for participating countries. It was stated that this would then often be impractical as sometimes one Home Region/country could not always fill their team and people from other Home Regions/countries had made up the team. If not, then the competition could not have taken place and many people would have needlessly travelled. The meeting was requested to endorse the stance that we consider that this is an informal competition between the Home Regions i.e. EFTA, SARPA and WAFTA. This was accepted by the meeting.
SECRETARIES REPORT
The report is attached.
It was decided that in future the Chrono would be taken to Tondu and the next club to hold a shoot would be responsible for taking the chrono so that it is available for their shoot. Results from firing over the chrono must be entered on the scorecard along with the pellet used.
It was suggested that the wording of the paragraph on courses should be changed from must to should, as it is up to each club how they set out courses.
TREASURER’S REPORT
The treasures report is attached.
It was proposed by Gwynne that the money owed by the team that travelled to Scotland be wiped out and the money be refunded to those who had already paid.
This was seconded by Nelson and passed by the meeting.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
Chairman
Tondu proposed John Lewis, seconded by Pontypool, accepted unanimously.
Vice Chairman
Pontypool proposed Howard Lloyd, seconded by Castleton, accepted unanimously.
Secretaries
Blaenau Gwent proposed Hilary and David Gage, seconded by Nelson, accepted unanimously.
Treasurer
Nelson proposed Gwynne Robinson, seconded by Pontypool, accepted unanimously.
Competition Secretary
Quarry Rifles proposed Dorian Falconer, seconded by Castleton, accepted unanimously.
Grading Officer
Quarry Rifles proposed John Johnston, seconded by Pontypool, accepted unanimously.
Web Site Officer
Nelson proposed John White, seconded by Blaenau Gwent, accepted unanimously.
Safety Officer
Discussion on whether a regional Safety Officer was needed to comply with the terms of the insurance policy. The meeting suggested that the chief marshal at club shoots filled this role and there was no need to have a regional officer.
Secretaries to check with Beryl Noon to clarify the situation.
Correspondence
E-mail from SWEFTA suggesting dates for the regional challenge; it was decided that August 8th. Would be the best date for WAFTA. SWEFTA suggested the venue could possibly be the Mendip club.
Proposals were received from C. Land (Nelson club)
1/. Whoever wins the summer series should be offered the captaincy of the Welsh team. This was seconded by Castleton and passed by the meeting.
2/. The end of series trophies have a set amount of monies to cover the cost approx., £230. Plus inflation where necessary. Seconded by Tondu and accepted by the meeting.
3/. WAFTA should cover the cost of travel to international events and supply T-shirts for that event; this cost can be offset by the raffle. Because of the ongoing discussions at BFTA about holding the Home Internationals at Newbury it was decided to await the outcome of the next BFTA meeting before proceeding with the issue of travel.
Pontypool proposed that we have caps for members picked to represent WAFTA.These would carry the insignia showing the wearer was a member of the Welsh team, and the year. This was seconded by Avon Hawks and accepted by the meeting. Howard Lloyd agreed to obtain some costings.
4/. If at the end of the summer series there is a tied position, then those positions should have a shoot off to decide an outright winner from 1st. – 5th. In all grades. So that only 15 trophies would have to be bought every year clearly showing those positions with no joint places. This was seconded by Castleton and was accepted with the proviso that shoot offs are done as soon as possible at the end of the season.
5/. Three people should be in charge of the international event, i.e. 1 team captain to pick team, one person to arrange transport and if necessary one person to arrange accommodation. This should spread the load evenly as I feel it is totally unfair to leave all these arrangements to one person. It was decided to carry this item over to the next meeting because it ties in with 3 above.
6/. The matter of Hunter FT insurance was discussed. i.e. what would happen if there were two meetings on the same day and two incidents arose at two different venues.
The secretaries informed the meeting that they had talked to Beryl Noon about this issue and she had said that provided she had been notified of all shoots then all these shoots would be covered.
Pontypool proposed that the Hunter FT be asked to obtain their own insurance, as realistically they are not part of WAFTA, but are a separate association. Castleton seconded and the proposal was accepted by the meeting. Gwynne agreed to discuss this with the Hunter FT members at Quarry Rifles.
Avon Hawks proposed that: -
1/. To the rule about shooting partners being from different clubs, we add “To conform with the spirit of this rule, members of the same family who belong to different clubs will not partner each other”.
After much discussion it was decided that this rule change could cause problems for families where the child would need supervision and would perhaps not like to go around with strangers. It was suggested that the spirit of this rule should be upheld but the chief marshal should have the final say in any problems arising from this rule.
This was seconded by Castleton and accepted by the meeting.
2/. Ungraded shooters automatically starting in C class – we change this to “ungraded shooters may opt to start in B or C class”
Castleton seconded this proposal and it was accepted by the meeting.
Safety
The representative from Tondu stated that safety at shoots, especially the angles of lanes in relation to each other, needs to be addressed and that all clubs should look at the layout of their courses. The meeting agreed with this and each club would check layout in future.
Tondu also proposed that a first aid kit be provided at stats. Nelson amended this to the effect that the kit should be provided by WAFTA and kept with the Chronograph to be taken to each shoot along with an accident book. Seconded by Tondu and accepted by the meeting. Howard offered to sort out a first aid kit.
BFTA Report
In the absence of the minutes of the BFTA AGM the secretary gave a brief resume of the items discussed, this was accepted by the meeting.
Summer series presentation
Castleton proposed that any shortfall in monies for the presentation evening be made up from WAFTA funds. Blaenau Gwent seconded this and the meeting voted to accept the proposal.
It was agreed that John Lewis would present the trophies and that the presentation would start at 8 pm.
GRAND SLAM TROPHIES
Nelson proposed that we pay between £125 and £135 for the grand slam trophies.
This was seconded by Tondu and accepted by the meeting.
Welsh Open Venue
It was proposed by Pontypool that Quarry Rifles be used again this year as everyone had enjoyed themselves last year.
Nelson seconded this and the meeting agreed unanimously.
Discussion took place about getting a Burger van for this shoot. Gwynne agreed to source a van.
It was decided to hold another meeting on the 2nd. March to discuss further the Welsh Open.
Summer series
Deferred to next meeting.
A.O.B.
Pat Isaacs brought up the fact that at BFTA shoots anyone with a disability unable to take disciplined shots could take them sitting. It was discussed at length and the feeling was that for disabled shooters to take the disciplines sitting would practically guarantee them 8 hits. It was then also pointed out that the lanes allocated to be shot by the disabled shooters instead of the disciplines, were often very long and consequentially very hard which meant that this was not fair either. After much discussion it was decided that the disabled shooters would select their own lanes to shoot twice but this must be done at the start of the day before they walked the course, they would inform stats of their choice when booking in.
The necessity of running the raffle was raised if the Home internationals are to be held at Newbury every year. The meeting was told that people were used to the raffle now and it raised valuable revenue for the association and would help to offset the cost of providing caps.
An alternative proposal was raised by Quarry that we charge a £1 for the raffle and give 50% back as prize money. This did not get a seconder.
It was decided to continue with the raffle as before.
Meeting closed 10:40 pm.