Annual General Meeting of the Bungay Cherry Tree Angling club 25th of April 2008

Well, for those of you who could not make it to the meeting here is  the news about what took place in brief.

If you missed it then you missed a very good and positive meeting, I was quite nervous as this was my first AGM as secretary for the club but I need not have worried, it all went very well indeed and I felt we had really made some good decisions as a club that would help us all to move forward and grow stronger for the future.

Our president Richard Patrick opened the meeting with a rousing speech saying, the club had to move forward with the times and adopt to the changing world around them in his usual down to earth common sense manner for which he is greatly respected.

We had a visit from Eric Sewell manager of the Bungay Youth club who encouraged the club to take on the club mark status, and told us how this would benefit our working relationship with the youth club, schools and national governing bodies of the sport.

Our new chairman is to be Steven Woodcock who is an excellent speaker and has a gift for clarity of thought and vision as a successful business man and ambassador for the club, he replaces our old Chairman Stan woods who did such a wonderful job for us in the past and is now running our Division 2 Squad for us once again.

A new junior coach was appointed to join the ranks, Graham Binks a young man  with a great deal of enthusiasm and working now towards his level 2 angling coaching degree. Graham has already proven himself as an excellent angler in our local matches and will make a valuable contribution to the Junior section of the club (by the way he uses macaroni cheese to catch carp!)

I was delighted that the club has accepted the move to gain the Sport England's "Club Mark" Status which will mean we will the  one of the first Angling Clubs in the region to gain this prestigious award when we have completed the work needed for accreditation.

As well as this positive move to enhance the clubs further development we are planning a major restocking programme for our club pit which is undergoing some radical changes to insure it will be a first class fishery this year. Topping this we also gained yet another wonderful stretch of river a pristine half-a-mile stretch of the Upper Waveney at Fuller’s Farm Flixton, once famed for enormous specimen roach and 30lb bags, virtually unfished for twenty years, with good depths and banks, improved parking, an attraction for general and specimen anglers.

Subscriptions are maintained at the same level however junior ticket will now be for all those under 17 years of age and under with the removal of the old intermediate category.

All in all this was a very positive and well attended AGM and on a personal level it was great to see such enthusiasm  and support amongst the club members, in fact everything that a good angling club should be all about.

I would like to thank all of you who came along to the meeting and wish all our club members the very best for the coming season.

Tight lines

Mark.