AGM held at the Bridge End Hotel Llangollen:
19:30 1st November 2003

1. Attendees
Peter Schofield - Chairman
Simon Wright - Treasurer
Sarah Wright - Secretary
John Handyside
Matthew Stephenson
Greetje Stephenson
Malcolm Blower
Andy Clough
Iain Clough
Mike Tordoff - ICF
James Wingfield - Canadian coach
Stuart Fisher
Mark Gray
Alan Williams
David Peart
Anne Howarth
Liz McIntosh
Jo Oughton
Alastair Goodwin
Kevin Bowerbank
Zoe Btteridge
Yael Ford
Pete Ford
Chris Churchill
Miranda Churchill

2. Apologies
Stuart Smith
John Embrey
Michael Mason
Howard Blackman
Jamie Christie
Jes Oughton

3. Approval of minutes from last AGM
Minutes of last year's meeting were proposed by Yael Ford and seconded by Simon Wright. Vote was unanimous.

4. Chairman's report
WILD WATER RACING
2003 CHAIRMANS ADDRESS

INTRODUCTION
I would like to welcome you all to our AGM in Langollen, arranged again thanks to Simon and Sarah Wright - We are building on the successful format last year - an earlier AGM and a buffet at the Bridge End Hotel - please stay on after the AGM or join us for the social afterwards. Everyone is welcome and I'd like to invite all those paddlers who are having their first taste of WWR competition - everyone is very welcome.

I'm pleased to say that there has been a great response to last years request for volunteers. Everyone is really making a difference in helping us to realise our ambitious plans to introduce more people to the exhilarating and demanding sport of WWR and help them realise their dreams and fulfil their potential. This has worked in all sorts of unexpected ways, which is great. In particular I'd like to thank Howard Blackman and Kevin Bowerbank for their help in junior development. Having the new Perception Wavehopper challenge, with over a hundred entries in the finals is great and bodes well for the future of the sport. I'd also like to thank Miranda and Chris Churchill and James Lee for helping Pete Ford with the new re-vamped website - which looks great.

We always need more volunteers - in all sorts of roles. Please see me, or any member of the committee, if you would like to be more involved!

GENERAL
It has been another good year for our junior athletes - clearly I'm personally very proud of Jonnie's achievement at achieving a silver and a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Mayrhofen. I was also very proud that our junior team delivered another good performance - and learnt a lot. We have a number of outstanding talents continuing to develop and this gives me a lot of confidence for the future.

We were all very disappointed that the Senior Pre-Worlds were cancelled at the last minute - which makes the preparation for Garmisch next year even more challenging. We are continuing to make a very significant contribution to Wild Water Racing internationally and I'm pleased to say the ICF have been awarded us the 2006 Senior World Championship at Bala - which will give us something else to focus on moving forward. We are still waiting to hear about the venue for the next Junior Worlds - hopefully in the Alps - so watch this space!

We are working hard to ensure all classes are well supported and balance the needs to deliver world-class performance with the needs of the sport for development and participation, both nationally and internationally. As promised at the last AGM we had a very important workshop in Matlock to ensure that the needs of athletes in all classes is fully respected. It was very honest and hard and, I think successful in helping us move forward. I've been really pleased to see more people in all of the different classes and we have some other ideas to improve junior participation in WWR canoeing.

Federalisation has changed the organisation of canoeing in the UK with the creation of the new home nation governing bodies. In practical terms for us there is relatively little change. The WWR Exec. remains responsible for the sport in Great Britain, responsible to the BCU's Sports Management Committee. There is some harmonization of regulations across the competition disciplines - which hopefully again will be transparent. We are supporting the move in a creative way with the home nations championship cup. Our AGM will continue to be held in Wales and our annual prize giving in Scotland. Junior prize giving will be in England at the Burrs in February.

I would again like to extend my thanks to everyone who has helped in any way this year - we have a lot of friends and influence in the family of paddlesport and this is something we should be very proud of. In particular I would like to thank the Race Organisers - without whom we would not have a sport!

I would also very much like to thank Jamie Christie, Jes Oughton and all the class coaches for their help and dedication. It is the first time I can remember that we have had all of the different roles filled and this is really making a big difference to our elite performance.

Paddler Focus - To make the sport accessible to all who want to participate

It has been another very good year for development. The programme of different training events run by clubs, the WWR committee, the BCU Paddlesport Development Officers and the new Perception Wavehopper challenge have brought the sport on in leaps and bounds, The numbers in Div. B last year jumped again, from 140 to 230 last year, plus more than 100 young paddlers taking part in the Perception Wavehopper Challenge. We continue to see the results of this flow through - with an increasingly hard fought club youth series and a very promising junior team. We are now focusing on increasing the breadth and depth of our coaching support at all levels and are putting in place a continuing training plan. We continue to need volunteers - in particular to help Howard with the Perception series. The great thing with development is the more we do - the more there is to do!

International Success - To help paddlers realise their full potential in International competition.

We have had another good year, with Jonnie's Junior European and World Championship Silver and Bronze medals, Pete Keron's 13th and the Clough's 5th placing at the World Cup series in California. We also had excellent performances across the board with everyone achieving good individual and team results. We have reviewed our selection process and I'm pleased to report that we had no problems with senior selection this year. We continue to review our processes to ensure they are fair, transparent and take into account learning for next year.

Most of our effort is now focused on supporting all our athletes both with technical training, coaching and good management support, which is now in place to deliver our performance plan.

Raising the Profile of Paddlesport - To manage and run an enjoyable programme that meets the needs of the whole WWR paddling community. Deliver a competition programme that attracts and stretches all our paddlers
We have had another good and full calendar, hopefully catering to most tastes, including a wider range of courses at Bala. We are continuing our very successful social events in Scotland and Wales - and will be introducing a new family-friendly format event at the Nene on 26/27th June 2004. This will include a social, running, cycling and maybe orienteering for all the family. We will also be continuing to try other new format events - possibly with Nomad Paddlesports at Bala and with the Peak Challenge - seeing if we can introduce a wider audience to down river sprint racing. Another example of this is the opportunity that the Dee race brings to demonstrate that you can enjoy WWR without a specialist carbon/ Kevlar river racer. Particular thanks go to John Embrey for all his dedication behind the scenes to develop the calendar and respond to crises when events conspire against us.

So to conclude I would just like to thank everyone for coming to the AGM and wish you all the very best for the coming season. Happy Paddling!
Peter Schofield
Llangollen
November 2003

5. World championships 2006 bid
John Handyside gave an overview of the successful bid for the 2006 World Championship.

6. Treasurer's report
See attached report.

7. Secretary's report
There were 6 committee meetings held in the last year, one in Scotland, one in Wales and the rest in England :

Burrs 23/11/02
Grandtully 1/3/03
Washburn 29/3/03
Bala 17/5/03
Nottingham 20/9/03
Washburn 4/10/03

Attendance was as follows :
Peter Schofield, James Wingfield, John Embrey - 6
Sarah Wright, Jes Oughton - 5
Jamie Christie, Simon Wright, Michael Mason - 4
Howard Blackman - 3
Kevin Bowerbank - 2
Andy Goodsell, Jean Smith, Nigel Royle - 1

8. Team manager's reports
Brief reports were given by Kevin Bowerbank - juniors, James Wingfield - Canadian, Stuart Smith - ladies
It was noted that young junior paddlers should not be encouraged to paddle Canadian boats exclusively.

9. Election of officers
Peter Schofield was elected as Chairman, proposed by Andy Clough, seconded by Yael Ford. The vote was unanimous.
Simon Wright was elected as Treasurer, proposed by Allan Williams, seconded by Andy Clough. The vote was unanimous.
Howard Blackman and Michael Mason were re-elected proposed by Kevin Bowerbank, seconded by Zoe Betteridge. The vote was unanimous.

10. Adoption of new BCU rules (see separate document)
Federalisation changed the legal basis of our constitution - we are now a specialist committee of the BCU governed by a standard constitution. The rules which have been agreed with the BCU board were circulated prior to the meeting and were adopted.

11. Motions
Motion 1:
Section 9.9, rule 4 page 36 of 2003 yearbook change to read
Wavehoppers are to be used by all competitors entering the kayak classes of the under 12 youth championships. A 7% time deduction from actual elapsed time is applied for the use of a Wavehopper in the under 16 and under 14 class.

Voting: Change 12
No Change 0
Abstention 1

Original motion 2:
Section 5.17 Race Course, page 18 of 2003 yearbook change to read
Classic races: The course shall be at least 3km in length.
Sprint races: The event consists of two runs each of 500m to 1000m m in length - either two runs of the same section or two different sections. The result to be the aggregate (total) time for both runs.

The course must be navigable throughout, part of the course must be at least grade II difficulty and portages are not allowed. The interpretation lies with the Race Organiser and/or the relevant Wild Water Racing Executive Officials. Dangerous passages may be marked with gates to indicate the correct route/channel.

Amended motion 2:
Section 5.17 Race Course, page 18 of 2003 yearbook change to read
Classic races: The course shall be at least 3km in length.
Sprint races: The event consists of two runs each of up to 1000m in length - either two runs of the same section or two different sections. The result to be the aggregate (total) time for both runs.

The course must be navigable throughout, part of the course must be at least grade II difficulty and portages are not allowed. The interpretation lies with the Race Organiser and/or the relevant Wild Water Racing Executive Officials. Dangerous passages may be marked with gates to indicate the correct route/channel.

Voting for amended motion:
Change 12
No Change 0
Abstention 1

Original motion 3:
Section 9.2.10, page 34 of the 2003 yearbook to be added -
In the event of race cancellations the number of races to count for the Division A championship shall be reduced so that it becomes half of the total races in the series rounded up to the next whole number e.g. for 9 races, 5 count, for 8 races 4 count. For the purposes of this calculation Sprint and Classic races shall be considered to be two separate series.

Amended motion 3:
Section 9.2.10, page 34 of the 2003 yearbook to be added -
In the event of race cancellations the number of races to count for the Division A championship shall be reduced so that it becomes half of the total races in the series rounded up to the next whole number e.g. for 9 races, 5 count, for 8 races 4 count. For the purposes of this calculation Sprint and Classic races shall be considered to be two separate series.
In this event the number of points required to achieve elite status will be 380 points times the number of races to count in that series.

Voting: Change 12
No Change 0
Abstention 1
During the discussion associated with this motion the number of Div A races was discussed, and there was concern that the championship could be decided, with the 1st and 2nd paddlers in a class not meeting in a race.

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BCU Wild Water Racing Executive

Budget Proposal for Year Ending 31 October 2004 and status of 2003 budget