Happy New Year, a stormy start!
Some of you may be wondering why you haven’t received your membership renewal letters. The committee has decided to amend the membership year to run from March to February. This has the practical advantage of enabling decisions made at the AGM to be implemented from March rather than the following year. It may also spread your expenditure about a bit after the Christmas period, so expect them in February.
Graham Osborne will soon be sending out the AGM notices. There will be a bit more reading than usual as the committee has decided to revise the club constitution, which is mainly around 50 years old. Much of it will be retained, but areas such as procedures around refusal of membership and committee member roles will be updated.
The club bye laws will be separated from the constitution. The constitution’s purpose is to give the general principles and aims of the club whereas the bye-laws are concerned with the day to day administration. Within the bye-laws section the proposed changes to types of moorings may be the most significant. From 2026 we are considering offering a limited number of moorings maintenaned by the club at additional cost. For a club without paid staff this is ambitious and some of the practicalities still need to be worked out, but we know the current system is not working for all.
In this last year the club has invested in site improvements. Further work will be required just to maintain the site but also it is hoped to improve the facilities available. There has been little increase in membership fees for around 20 years, yet costs to the club have increased significantly this decade. We are proposing small increases in fees which will be included in the information provided. This is to enable us to retain a reasonable emergency buffer and to allow improvements against a background of falling membership.
Membership has a been declining over the years as retirement has been greater than recruitment. Attracting new members is a problem all boating institutions face on the Medway and beyond, but we would like to put the club in a good position to bring in new members.
Graham.
