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somerley estate

Dave, Your membership should only be 'suspended' until a decision made.
Should your disciplinary turn out in your favor then your membership should be reinstated including the time you lost.
Membership is now 'rolling' so you shouldn't lose any time at all.

All the best.
John
 
As a member of CAC I am also extremely disappointed at the way the Committee have handled the whole situation.

Back in October members started to raise questions/concerns in the questions for the committee section of the forum. This thread gradually got longer and longer due to many members having an imminent renewal date.

At the end of November a number of members received PM’s from the committee assuring them that the Somerley lease was secure. I along with many other members renewed my membership on this basis.

At the start of January it was announced at the General Meeting that the club had been served notice from the Estate!
Not once during this 3 month period did the committee respond to any of the concerns raised by members over the Somerley lease, despite it being obvious that the negotiations were only going one way.

The members still have had no communication about the Somerley notice and those members who are not signed up to the forum (which seems to be the majority) will be blissfully unaware of the fact. What is worse is that these members will be renewing their memberships expecting a full years worth of fishing on the estate, when in fact they will only be able to fish until the beginning of next January.
As each day goes by this situation gets worse.

The membership are currently calling for a Special General Meeting (SGM) to discuss the issue further and the committee are insisting that we all submit signed confirmation of this with a minimum number of 60 required. We have to date nearly 50 forum members who have called for this but the committee refuse to accept this (despite the rule book not stating that the request has to be in writing). The problem is, as the Committee well knows, is that the majority of members do not even know there is an issue (as the Committee hasn’t told them) so why would they be interested in calling for an SGM?

This whole sorry state of affairs has highlighted a number of concerns:

• The committee are refusing to communicate with the members on important issues.
• The committee has deliberately mislead people into believing Somerley was safe just before issuing the whole membership with renewal forms.
• The committee seem to be obstructing the call for an SGM

Unfortunately there seems to be a number of members who will defend the committee despite the failings above stating that they are only volunteers and were voted in by the members!
Whilst this may be true, a committee member still has an obligation to act in the best interests of the club and its members and it is obvious that this isn’t currently the case.

In fact I am surprised that the membership is not calling for a vote of no confidence in the committee.

On a final note, Dave, I wish you all the best with your postponed hearing. It’s truly shocking how the Club have behaved.

All the best Richard
 
Walt Disney & CO springs to mind the way things have been handled by the committee.The club reminds me of the titanic once great but sinking fast
All the best Jamie
 
Richard,

While I did try to do my best to keep the membership informed and answer questions on the forum it seems that, since I resigned, the Club has gone back to the dark days when questions on the forum are unanswered. I still find it hard to believe that the Committee, under Ian May's Chairmanship, can be so insensitive to the needs and views of the membership but they are. This will not be the first time that an SGM has been requested in recent years but the last time the Committee sidestepped the issue, despite the Club's rules, and avoided having to call one. I hope they aren't so lucky this time and, as you say, the meeting should be called to have a vote of no confidence in the Committee.

John.

Not quite sure where you are coming from. The suspension of my membership precludes me from fishing any of the Club's waters or participating in any meetings (convenient that, as it meant that I was barred from the General Meeting earlier this month). I would assume that it also prevents me from renewing my membership. There was no chance of the disciplinary finding in my favour and I have little doubt that the necessary two thirds majority would have been achieved to confirm my expulsion. Given that there is no requirement for subs to be refunded if you are banned, I certainly would not waste £160 of my hard earned on the remote possibility of things turning out in my favour........


Dave
 
Hi Dave,

I think you were the only committee member that ever answered any questions in the 'Questions for the Committee' section of the forum! Your presence there is sorely missed.
 
Richard Mawson said:
The membership are currently calling for a Special General Meeting (SGM) to discuss the issue further and the committee are insisting that we all submit signed confirmation of this with a minimum number of 60 required.
Click to expand...

Any CAC members reading this who are not registered to the CAC forums (and therefore may be unaware of the current situation), and who would like an SGM called, should visit Avon Angling, Ringwood Tackle, or Bournemouth Fishing Lodge and sign the appropriate request form...

Tim
 
Just a thought, but could you not get in touch with the local press and bring it to the attention of the members through the media? I'm sure it would make a story of local interest.
 
Even with a vote of 'no confidence' for all committee and willing suitable replacements it's too little too late
I cannot see the club surviving from here for too many years now.
How much debt is there....?
How many members are likely to drop out next Jan....?
Who will take the club forward....?

All the best with your enthusiasm though
.
 
Anthony Pearson said:
Just a thought, but could you not get in touch with the local press and bring it to the attention of the members through the media? I'm sure it would make a story of local interest.
Click to expand...

I was thinking more of a letter to the weeklys just stating the facts as known, ie. ..that CAC has been given 12 months notice to quit the Somerley venues.
At least this will make most aware of the current situation and prevent any dissapointment, as this loss represents a sizable chunk of the ticket!
Dave T
 
John McGough said:
Even with a vote of 'no confidence' for all committee and willing suitable replacements it's too little too late
I cannot see the club surviving from here for too many years now.
How much debt is there....?
How many members are likely to drop out next Jan....?
Who will take the club forward....?

All the best with your enthusiasm though
.
Click to expand...

John,

Debt. Last figure I saw was between £70k & £80k and with little income coming in the second half of the year (day ticket revenues are way down on what they were) and regular outgoings for rent etc, it can only have increased. The overdraft limit was around £90k with a charge over certain assets. Time was when the December renewals would give the Club a healthy surplus going into the year but that is a distant dream now....

Membership. Impossible to say but with the loss of the salmon rods; a significant number of the trout anglers who prefer Hamer to Whitesheet; some of the carp lads; and an indeterminate number of river anglers who joined to fish Somerley, it is likely to be several hundred and could be a lot more....

Future leadership. That is the $64k question!


Dave
 
Unfortunately I tend to agree with John that it is too late for a rescue plan for Somerley.

I think now all that can be hoped for is to rescue the club, as I cant see how it can survive without Somerley without some major changes right now.

With the loss of Somerley, I would certainly only renew at the end of this year if subs were significantly lower but then again I may need every penny I can to join the Somerley syndicate. I suspect that will be out of my price range though.

Rich
 
I see from the website that the Club have called a "Special Meeting" on 7 March so that those members who were unable to attend January's General Meeting can be informed of the position re the Somerley lease. Is this an attempt to avoid the Special General meeting that some members are calling for? The agenda seems to be merely to discuss the lease negotiations but it should still be possible for a vote of no confidence to be tabled at that meeting, if sufficient members feel strongly enough about the issue and the current management of the Club's affairs.


Dave
 
David.
Just a note, that you may well find that any items to be discussed at the formal meeting will likely be limited to those on the Agenda OR submitted by members within a given time frame in advance.



las
 
David Clewer said:
I see from the website that the Club have called a "Special Meeting" on 7 March so that those members who were unable to attend January's General Meeting can be informed of the position re the Somerley lease. Is this an attempt to avoid the Special General meeting that some members are calling for? The agenda seems to be merely to discuss the lease negotiations but it should still be possible for a vote of no confidence to be tabled at that meeting, if sufficient members feel strongly enough about the issue and the current management of the Club's affairs.


Dave
Click to expand...

Just read that David, and I think that not only is whoever wrote it in need of some lessons in how to write English, but too, those who agreed to it being published are guilty of disregarding the membership.
I don't want to hear how they might justify their position over the last three years, not interested in them washing their laundry, I want to know what they are going to do about it!
If they are in no position to do anything about it, I would call for a vote of no confidence.
I would too, as Tim suggests, continue with the motion for an EGM.

Damian
 
Graham Elliott said:
David.
Just a note, that you may well find that any items to be discussed at the formal meeting will likely be limited to those on the Agenda OR submitted by members within a given time frame in advance.



las
Click to expand...

Graham,

28 days notice has to be given for an item to be raised at a General Meeting. That means that if there are at least 60 signatures on the petitions in the tackle shops by 6 February (to be on the safe side!), they should be collected and delivered by hand to the office that day. Luckily, that is a Thursday, so the office is open in the afternoon.


Dave
 
Well it seems like you 'out of towners' are out of luck again. It looks like the date is now confirmed, Wed 5th March.
 
David Clewer said:
Graham,

28 days notice has to be given for an item to be raised at a General Meeting. That means that if there are at least 60 signatures on the petitions in the tackle shops by 6 February (to be on the safe side!), they should be collected and delivered by hand to the office that day. Luckily, that is a Thursday, so the office is open in the afternoon.


Dave
Click to expand...

Just to correct myself, as the date is the 5th March and not the 7th, as I originally posted, the petitions will need to be handed in tomorrow morning (the office closes at midday on Tuesdays). If they are handed in, I would recommend that a receipt is obtained from Lorraine acknowledging the safe receipt of the request so that there can be no dispute about the 28 day deadline.


Dave
 
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