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1. Meeting opening The meeting opened at 13.30 hours. The Commodore welcomed members to the 14th MNABC Annual General Meeting followed by each member introducing themselves. The Chairman stated that there only 8 attendees so under rule 7.8 of the MNABC Constitution (dated: 17/09/2024), the AGM was inquorate as 12 members were required to be present. 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. The members present unanimously voted so to require. As a result, items in red required a poll of the membership. Members present: Committee: C Edwards (Commodore and Chairman), R Card (,Vice Commodore), T Brant (Secretary) and I Pearson (Treasurer). Members: Mrs D Bell, R Bell, Mrs R Card & N Williams. 2. Apologies for Absence Apologies were received from: D Cornes (Membership Secretary), D Hearn (Webmaster), M Harris (Shop Manager), J Johnson-Allen, J Sail (MNA Vice President), M White, Mrs D Williams & C Woods. 3. Approval of the Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting (17 September 2024) The Minutes were amended by the addition of Roger Bell to the list of members present. Approval of the Minutes, as amended: Proposed by R Card, seconded by N Williams and were unanimously accepted by the meeting. 4. Matters arising from the previous Annual General Meetings Funding was now a contentious issue as the membership had dramatically dropped from over 250 when it was free, to the present 27 paid-up members. The Commodore had written to the MNA National Secretary, Ken Usher, requesting a £250 donation per annum for an agreed period, to get the Club back on its feet. The next MNA National Council meeting was on 26 July. The RYA (the governing body for boating) affiliated cost is £170 per annum for 1 – 1,000 members whilst the Norfolk & Suffolk Boating Association annual fee is £20 - this membership has given a route into various boating safety forums. In addition, there are costs for Public Liability and PI insurance, website maintenance, event organising, postage and printing. This exhausts our income from Membership fees. The Secretary, who is a MNA Executive Committee member, stated that he agreed with the proposal but would have to declare a vested interest at the 26 July, MNA Council meeting. Item 10 – Defaced Red Ensign. There still had been no replies to letters sent to the MCA and it was agreed it should be delayed until the membership numbers improve. Item 11 – Sponsorship for a younger person to attend a boating safety course. The Commodore proposed that ,due to insufficient funds, it should be carried over to the 2026 AGM. This was unanimously agreed. 5. Commodore’s Report The Commodore’s report (read here) was unanimously accepted. He believed the low AGM turn- out was due to the lack of social activities before and/or after the AGM as had been done previous years. A Club handbook had been proposed which was great idea but it was premature, at present, due to the financial situation. The financial year was discussed and it was finally agreed that this year it would end on 31 December, then run 1 January to 31 December annually. It was agreed that a scrutineer was required to check the year-end accounts. 6. Officer’s Reports 6.1 Secretary He reported that 61 letters (costing over £53 in postage plus printing and stationery costs) regarding the new membership had been sent out. 4 letters were returned as “Not known at this address”. 6.2 Treasurer See attached report. 6.3 Membership Secretary 27 Members have paid their Membership fees - all email members. 6.4 Webmaster The website had recently been updated and the Commodore thanked David Hearn for all his dedicated work. 6.5 Shop Manager Sales had been slow but £25.00 had recently been sent to the Treasurer. 7 MNABC Officers Mrs V Foster had previously been co-opted as a Rear Commodore, I Pearson as a Treasurer and Mark Harris as Shop Manager until this AGM. N Willams had agreed to join the Committee. Unanimous approval was given that they should all be appointed to these positions. C Woods had stood down as Rear Commodore but there had been no-one to take the position. The remainder of the Committee wished to continue in their present positions which was agreed. The Committee list is as follows: Commodore – Clive Edwards. Vice Commodore – Richard Card. Rear Commodores – Vivienne Foster and John Sail. Secretary – Tim Brant. Treasurer – Ian Pearson. Membership – David Cornes. Webmaster – David Hearn. Shop Manager – Mark Harris. Committee Members – Leslie Payne, Graeme Shimmings, Nigel Williams and Chris Woods. 8. 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 Coast Watch Stations, RNLI and the RYA. The Club should promote boating safety and develop relationships working with other maritime organisations to facilitate this training with such groups Sea Scouts etc. Drowning figures remained unchanged with 80% of drowning in the 18/30 age range. 65% of drowning took place in Inland Waterways. 9. Any Other Business Next AGM - after discussions, it was agreed that it should be held in Hull which had a number of interesting maritime venues to visit. The Treasurer would investigate and report back. 10. Date of the next MNABC AGM September 2026 in Hull. Date to be advised. 11. AGM closure The meeting closed at 14.45 hours. Attendees were then invited to take a walk around the ship.

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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

The Merchant Navy Association Boat Club Commodore’s Report Greetings Shipmates, Further to the news that the MNA Boat Club is now “Independent of, but affiliated to” the Merchant Navt Association National charity we’ve been able to arrange to hold our first independent AGM 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. 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 charge of course On the good news front thanks to our affiliation to the RYA our Boat Club members now 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. On a rather more sombre note, you will already know that since we are now “affiliated to, but independent of” the MNA National Charity 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 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 good summer , and I look forward to seeing you at the AGM, or if you can’t make it to London for that then pif you haven’t already dsone so please renew your membership along with payment of the 2025 subscription as soon as possible. Yours Aye, Clive

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