AGM 2025

Held 3rd October 2025

Apologies

Anne T

Minutes of the AGM 2024

The minutes of the 2024 AGM were accepted as a true record of that meeting. 
Proposed: Dan
Seconded: Martin

Chair’s Report

I’m proud to say that our club remains stong and in a good position. Both our weekly sessions are busy with plenty of fencers, and our training over the summer was well-attended throughout. We are predominantly what BF calls a community club, but despite this we have fencers who do well in competition. 

James, Martin and Herman are developing our fencers from beginners up to top-level athletes, and the results are here for anyone to see. I’d like to recognise a few results:

Valerie won silver at the PSFC
Kenix won the u12 BYC foil
Alexander, Samir V, George competed in their first ever competitions
Adrian and Tim have been selected to fence at the Veterans world championships next month

It remains very important to me that you all feel safe and welcome to fence here. If you have a concern that someone isn’t safe or is struggling with something, even if it’s not related to fencing, you can report it to one of these individuals. We will respond appropriately to whatever you tell us, and will work to make you or the person safe as soon as possible. Our safeguarding leads this year have been Alfie and John, and all our coaches and me are trained and certified too. 

I’d also ask that you take a look at BF’s code of conduct which spells out what we (and they) expect from each other whilst taking part in sessions here. 

This year, Nick has spent a considerable amount of time updating our website to improve the visual identity of the club online, and to make it easier for new fencers to find the information that they need. I thank him for his hard work.

To finish, thank you for being part of the club this year and being so welcoming. Thanks to those of you who set up and put away equipment. Thank you to those of you who say hello to new fencers. Thank you to those of you who are able to offer help with advice and practise and being friendly. I know that I say it every time I’ve made this report, but it really is your club and you make it what it is. 

Treasurer’s Report

The club remains healthy financially, with slight changes in income (membership) and expenditure (equipment and hall fees) this year. Note that Rye adjusted their fees last year, but made reasonable considerations to the club. Hall fees have increased further and we need to monitor that. If the membership remains steady we can accommodate this increase.

Club Socks are available for purchase at £10 each. 

The club has a reasonable cash reserve. Members agreed that it’s reasonable to keep an amount about equivalent to ‘start again’ to be resilient/healthy, but not more. 

The club considered 
Do change in fees. 
Increase fees ~ £5 per year.

We expect that spend is roughly the same this year, so we  voted NOT to increase fees, to keep the reserve as-is or slightly reduce it. 

Election of Office Bearers

	Nominee	Proposed	Seconded
Chair	Tim	Dan	Martin
Treasurer	Anne	Hazel	Tim
Secretary	John W	self	Alfie
Welfare Officer(s)	Dan P/Alfie	self	Alfie/Tim
Committee Positions	Alfie (to help manage equipment)	self

As there was only a single nominee for each position and no dissent from the members present, the nominees were duly elected.

Membership Fees

Following from the treasurer’s report, the club considered whether membership fees were sufficient to maintain our finances over the coming year. Two proposals were offered:

1. A modest increase in fees ~ £5 per year.
2. Maintain current fee, which will slightly reduce our cash reserve.

The majority of members present voted not to increase fees, so membership fee will remain at £220 annually, £25 monthly.

Master at Arms

We had 30 entrants into our various senior club championships, plus 7 U12 and 9 u16s. The winners were:

U12 foil: Alexander
U16 foil: Clara
Foil: Kenix
Epee: Tim
Sabre: George C
Master at Arms, winner of the Ralph Evans trophy: Tim

AOB

Dan P offers to organise a refereeing course. The club agreed that this would be a benefit to our fencers and accepted this kind offer.

Suggestion from the floor that we purchase another electric piste since there are commonly too many fencers during training sessions – maybe an epee wireless system. Members seemed generally positive with no objections voiced. The committee will investigate and proceed.

The club thanked Nick for his work on the website. Various members drew attention to Tim’s dedication and hard work, and thanked him for running the club.