Held on 29 Sep 2023

Apologies

James Kingston sent his apologies for not being able to attend.

Minutes of AGM 2022

The minutes of the 2022 AGM were agreed to be a true representation of the meeting. Nominated by Anne T, carried unanimously by those present.

Chair’s Report

We have a tremendously strong club at the moment. Our membership is larger than I can remember and has grown substantially this year. All our club sessions are busy with foilists and epeeists, although fewer sabreurs that I’d like. We’ve run 3 beginners courses, which have been extremely popular and introduced 63 new fencers to the sport.

In club, James, Martin and Herman are doing great things helping everyone who takes lessons to improve their game. It’s also important to recognise the work that our armourer Graham has put in to keep our club equipment working well. We bought a 7th electric box last year, and it’s been used every week since then.

Our members have been competing and succeeding at competitions in every age group from youngsters to veterans. 

I’m sure that there are more results, but special mentions to:

• Fin who won the Cadet national Epee a couple of weeks ago
• Ava was second in the WE at Hampshire Open, Anne was 3rd
• Anne Won Bard’s bash (Vets) WE
• Vets Winton ME (Tim) 1st, WE (Huei-Chun, Anne) 2nd

If you’ve not been to a competition yet, or haven’t been recently then you should give it a go because it is a fun way to test yourself, meet new people and learn more about the sport. 

In terms of the running of the club, we need to consider replacing or upgrading some of our masks since many are looking very tired and worn out. Our stock of weapons is low, despite many being purchased over the past two year. In particular, we have very few size 3 foils despite a sizeable number of fencers who require these – please could everyone check their bags for club equipment and return any that is there? Our stock of jackets is also missing some of the mid sizes since we seem to be perpetually low on equipment there too. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s helped out this year with running the club; whether that’s the treasury work that Anne’s done, the coaching from Martin, James and Herman, or even putting out boxes and lugging bags into the cupboard before and after sessions. Finally, I’d like to thank all of our members for helping to make this a welcoming and friendly club. This is your club, and you make it what it is. 

Treasurer’s Report

The provisional accounts for the year were presented. We are relatively financially stable and will make a surplus this year. Our bank balance remains fairly healthy, so this is not of concern to the committee. Hall hire is increasing 11% next year on top of a 12.5% increase last year, which is significant, and something that we need to be mindful of. Full accounts are available to members by emailing the treasurer. 

Election of Office Bearers for next year

Position	Nominee	Proposer	Seconder
Chair	Tim Stephens	Shaz	Anne
Treasurer	Anne Tester	self	Dan P
Welfare Officer	Rebecca Mooney	self	Tim
Welfare Officer	John Williamson	self	Tim

It was agreed that the secretary role would be covered the other committee positions within the club this year. This is effectively how we have operated over the past several years. 

All office-bearers were voted unanimously by the members present. 

We discussed members representation on the committee regarding other matters. Francesa Alfieri offered to take a role in the club to assist with fundraising and to look at  refreshing the content on the club website. John Wick offered to assist with technical matters relating to the website. 

Charlotte T and Marsha S volunteered to represent our junior members with the goal of ensuring that the club is doing the best that it can for everyone. 

The additional committee members were accepted unanimously by the members present.

Membership Fees

We discussed the club membership fees. The committee offered the choice between a modest fee increase of £10 on the annual membership (£1 to the monthly memberships, £2.5 to the quarterly), or to leave fees unchanged and allow the club cash reserves to be eroded. After some discussion, the members present voted by majority to increase fees to the suggested amount. The aim is for the club to break even at the end of the financial year, so any additional funds are to be spent on repairing, replacing and upgrading the equipment that we own.

Master at Arms

The club held its annual club competitions in April and May this year. Our club champions are:

Sabre: Charlotte

Epee: Tim

Foil: Valerie

Junior Foil: Audrey

Intermediate Foil: Kaspar

Master At Arms (best overall results in club competitions): Tim

AOB

The club is aware that Rye St. Antony school will merge with Headington school over the next two years. No further information is available at this time, and the committee will keep an eye on the implications of this merger once things become clearer. We intend to continue to use the excellent facilities at the Rye campus for as long as they welcome us there. 

In terms of our financial security Francesca suggested that community grants may be available to pay for some of the cost of coaching, and agreed to assist the chair and treasurer with this. Martin pointed out that our summer club sessions were very quiet during August whilst many people took holidays. It may be worth not running club sessions over this period. The committee agreed to poll in the springtime to understand what everyone’s commitments are like. Francesca asked about whether we might consider a sponsored fundraising event with the goal of raising money to replace equipment. There was mixed reaction to this, and the committee will discuss how we might do this.

The club is run by volunteers and  chair presented a list of tasks that members could assist with. In no particular order, things that could help us out are:

• A video introducing the club (replace the now tv one)
• Washing kit, and repairing some seams that have split on club jackets.
• Tidying kit up at the end of sessions
• Ideas for how to accommodate more beginners
• Website content refresh and reorganisation 

Several members offered their time or expertise in these matters and the committee will follow up over the next few weeks. 

Kaat suggested a sign-up sheet to ensure that we have enough volunteers to helpp with putting kit away; this works very well at her club in Belgium. Aoife suggested a ‘bring a friend’ week where junior members can bring a friend and show them the basics. We will work out how to manage this once the beginners course has finished.

Charlotte asked about our social media presence, which is mostly non-existent. She had some ideas for ways that it could be increased, and the committee look forward to hearing them.

Dan P is trying to organise a foil refereeing course through British Fencing with the goal of improving the ability and standard of (foil) referees in the club. The club will fund this, ideally as part of a Friday club session.