Conference 2010
First of all I must congratulate the Dorset branch for putting on a marvellous weekend. You did a terrific job guys and all I have spoken to have said how much they enjoyed it. Putting on a cabaret two nights running and that magnificent raffle took some organisation. The success of it all equates to the hard work that went in to the organisation and from us all, BZ. I know the NMC has learnt from the experience and will endeavour to take those lessons on board and put them to good use.
The attendance at the conference was far higher than it has been for the recent past at 39 branches. Not sure if that was because of the agenda or because the venue was Weymouth. I have only had very fleeting visits there in the past myself and even then only to Portland but I have to say that Weymouth itself is a really lovely town. The town centre and harbour areas are really quaint.
Prior to the conference itself I had invited Malcolm Cavan (Chairman of the Frankton Project) to give us a very short insight into the Project which you will probably better understand as a Memorial to the Cockleshell Heroes. 
As HMS Tuna was involved in getting the Marines and their canoes across to the Belgian Coast we have been invited to join with them. Malcolm has had the unenviable task of raising something like £75K and he is very nearly there. However he does need our help. I am hoping to be able to donate £1,000 from the Submariners Association and to that end the NMC have agreed that £500 should be taken from our central funds. Now if every branch gave say £10 - £15 we would have the remainder easily. I know some branches have already donated and some substantially more than that and I do thank you all. Malcolm is very impressed with what we are trying to achieve to help him attain the funding required and has asked me to pass on his thanks. If you would still like to donate to this worthy cause would you please send your donation to Ian Atkinson, National Treasurer, who will forward all out donations collectively in September. Each donating branch will be mentioned so that thanks can be sent to each individual branch.
Look back to the last In Depth if you want to learn more about what the memorial stands for as Barrie penned an excellent article in that issue.
So what about the conference itself.
After the opening introductions and conference preliminaries I gave a short presentation on the Sub Committee report on the review of the Association and the way forward.
This Review was carried out as a result of a Proposal by the Sunderland Branch at the 2009 NCC. This was to look at ways to prevent or slow down branch closures. A Sub-Committee was formed with Ted Hogben begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting as Chairman. Unfortunately due to domestic issues Ted had to hand over to Rick Rothwell. Members of the sub-committee were: Ian Atkinson, Glenn Barrack, Baz Bowyer, Chris Freeth and John Wood. The Chairman gave a Power Point presentation covering a bullet point summary of the Review. The Chairman commented that the Review indicated that there was a large number of Members who wished to return to the Submarine Bases as a priority. In spite of this the fact that there is a facility hosted by the West of Scotland Branch every two months for visiting branches is very poorly used. All branch secretaries have been informed of this but still the uptake is poor!
Some of the recommendations in the report are actually being acted on right now. For example. Colin Way is working on the compilation of the Secretaries Hand Book. Some of the recommendations are of the ‘no cost non contentious’ type and we will move on these. Any which may be remotely contentious or have a financial impact will have to be brought before the membership and seek their approval or not to continue. This would be done after we had done our home work and carried out a cost analysis. It is not going to happen overnight. It could take 1 or 2 years or more to resolve.
The Merseyside branch proposed that the National Council Conference be merged into the Association Reunion weekend. This should in theory attract more delegates to National Conference and reduce the cost burden on the Association. After a good debate on the pros and cons this proposal was carried by 27 votes for and 12 against, a big majority.
The National Management Committee recommended that the National Annual Subscriptions be raised by £7 over a period of two years. The first adjustment of £4 in 2011 and the second in 2012. These adjustments to be effective from 1st January of the respective years. This resulted in a very vigorous debate. The proposal was defeated by 20 votes to 17 with 2 abstentions. I took out of the debate that whilst most branches accepted some increase was necessary, the amounts proposed could not be substantiated and asked the NMC to provide more detail why the increase was necessary and for the amount recommended.
In view of this Proposal failing the NMC will have to review our finances and come back to you with alternative proposals and recommendations. We may have to do this between Conferences to try and make sure we are financially secure.
The National Management Committee will recommend that the considerable effort of the Sub-Committee is acknowledged and their report to the National Management Committee is noted, the NMC be authorised by the National Council Conference to take forward those actions/items which are practical and financially viable. As mentioned previously when presenting the Association Review, we would like you to authorise the NMC to go ahead with some of the good suggestions made in that report. If there are any suggestions that have a financial impact or would be contentious, please take it on trust that we would come back to you before proceeding. This again resulted in a good debate with the voting being 36 votes for and 2 against. One delegate had left due to travel arrangements. This clearly showed that you had a high level of trust in the NMC which is very much appreciated.
The third recommendation by the NMC was that the current October Reunion be changed to a Family Weekend and that the current National Council Conference be changed to a Reunion for Full Association Members only, incorporating the National Council Conference. This change to take effect from March 2011. This did cause some confusion as it was thought that this was contradictory to the Merseyside proposal. What this recommendation does is to enhance the Merseyside proposal by ensuring that the Association still has two major functions in the year. The Conference and a Full Members only reunion to be held at the traditional conference time of year. In addition and to satisfy the many members who wish to have a weekend with our wives, girlfriends etc the NMC is further recommending that the Association has what we could call a Family weekend later in the year perhaps slightly earlier than the traditional October weekend to take advantage of the better weather. Once this confusion had been explained and after a short debate this was carried with a vote of 26 votes for, 9 against with 3 abstentions, once again a convincing result.
Finally the NMC recommended that the NMC should decide the date and venue for the conference/reunion as it was felt it would be too much to expect a branch to organise a conference and a full members reunion. However the NMC would always welcome suggestions and offers of assistance. This was carried by 33 votes for 3 against and 1 abstention.
Ian Atkinson who has been understudying Rick Elrick for about six months has now been formally appointed as National Treasurer by the NMC and taken over the accounts from Rick. From what I have seen so far I know we have made a good choice.
There were six candidates for the three places on the NMC this year and the voting was fairly close. The three successful candidates were Bas Bowyer, Gerry Haigh and John Wood. They bring a mixture of skills to the NMC and I just know that they will be an asset. Well done to all three. The three unsuccessful candidates were Frank Pas, Colin Jones and Tim Paulus. All three had good CVs and I hope that they will try again next year when more NMC places will be up for grabs.