Booking System Club Rule

Good morning all,

I thought I’d send you all an email to inform those who didn’t manage to attend the AGM of a change coming up next year. We like to ensure all members have received the same information at the same time, so this will be going out on email and online to everyone to inform you of this change.

This will be implemented as a club rule and in the constitution as per the AGM decision. This will be updated in the new year. 

It is worth noting that whilst you put in a time of arrival, this is estimated and for socialising more than anything. If you put 10am and don’t arrive until 12pm, don’t worry!

The AGM minutes have now been uploaded, and you’ll see the reasons behind this change. Not only is it to keep our landlords happy in being able to identify any issues quickly such as non-members using the sites, but also for a safety aspect.

Many thanks,

Sam Booton

Membership Secretary, Treasurer & Webmaster

Worcester Model Aero Club

WMAC needs your help!

Good morning! I have two requests for some help towards the club from you today. The first is a request for feedback on membership prices, the other is to nominate yourself for the 2024 committee as nominations are now open! 

To those who haven’t yet had chance to fill in the 2024 membership prices questionnaire to please see if you can take the time to fill it in for us! 

The link is available on your email, or WhatsApp.

If you’ve done it already, no need to do it again!  

Committee 2024: 

We have the nominations for the committee positions available for 2024, and we have two 2023 committee members deciding to not put themselves up for re-election for 2024. 

This leaves two guaranteed spaces on the committee and we’d love for you to put yourself forward! 

Of course, all positions are up for nominations, but we know some of you don’t like to apply as I’ve been told that you feel it’s “stepping on the toes of the committee who wish to continue next year”.  

However, with two empty slots anyway, now could be the time you could help make a change for the club for next year. 

We would quite like to ask one committee member, old or new, if they feel up to it to become a bit of an ‘Events Secretary’ to have the responsibility of thinking up and planning and arranging club events. Whether these be club nights, BBQs, indoor flying, anything at all! This doesn’t have to be you, but it’s worth a thought if you fancy some more club events for 2024.  

The two positions available from members that won’t be up for re-election are both Club Officers. 

The only stipulation we have for being on the committee is that you must have been a member for 12 months. If you aren’t sure if you’re quite there yet, have a word with me and I’ll let you know your eligibility.  

The link to nominate yourself is on the AGM Hub, or on WhatsApp or in the email received.

Nominations close in the evening on the 24th November. 

Best of luck to those who nominate themselves for 2024! 

Thanks,  

Sam Booton 

Membership Secretary, Treasurer & Webmaster

Worcester Model Aero Club

AGM 2023

Good morning,

I am writing to you to invite you to our AGM for 2023, and to update you on what is happening regarding the AGM for voting and renewal payments.

This year, we’re going to stick with the set up we had last year. A bit of a hybrid AGM between online, and in person.

We’d love to see you all on the 12th December at the Perdiswell Young People’s Leisure Club for a 19:30 start. We have booked a room to hold the meeting within, for members only.

The voting for the 2024 Committee will all be online, and during this email I’ll explain how it’ll work, the timeline for what is happening and how you can access the ‘AGM Hub’ on the website. We’ve found this to be far more democratic, due to the entirety of the membership being able to vote as opposed to only those who can make it to a meeting. Online voting is far more fair and inclusive of everyone.

You will be able to nominate yourself to be on the election for Committee 2024 and vote for your 2023 Committee. You will also be able to read the AGM 2022 minutes, the Treasurer’s report, the Chairman’s report and the results of the votes will also be made available online in the hub in due course.

AGM Location

We will be meeting on Tuesday 12th December at 19:30, at the following address:

Perdiswell Young People’s Leisure Club

Perdiswell Park

Worcester

WR3 7SN

You will be able to buy merchandise and renew your membership via our new card reader at the AGM, using any debit or credit card or mobile payments.

The committee will be handing our their own reward for ‘Clubman of 2023’ at the AGM meeting. This is for someone who we feel has gone above and beyond for their club, with Martin Round winning the award for 2021 and Keith Sedgwick in 2022.

I will also be adding an “AGM” location to the booking system a few days before the AGM meeting (around the time the voting ends), so you can confirm your RSVP there should you wish to do so. This is by no means a requirement though, only for if you wish to express your attendance!

The AGM 2023 Hub

Here you’ll find everything you need. Nomination forms, reports from the chairman and treasurer, the link to place your vote, results – everything you need for the AGM.

It won’t all be visible straight away, and in the next section below you’ll read more into this.

You’ll find the hub here when it launches (14/11/2023): https://www.wmac.uk/agm/

The key dates for your diary are as follows:

November 14th – The AGM hub will already be open online (14th November), making available the 2022 minutes and the nominations to put yourselves forward to be on the election for 2024 committee. It’ll appear as a menu all of it’s own once you are logged in at the top of the website (or, on a mobile device if you press the blue menu button, at the bottom of the list).

November 17th -24th – Nominations open to put yourself onto the Committee 2024 vote. This must be done by November 24th, otherwise you will not be able to add yourself onto the election. The nominations will close at 9pm on the 24th.

November 24th – Chairman and Treasurer / Membership Secretary 2023 reports go live

December 3rd – 10th – VOTING OPENS – You may vote for your 2024 Committee, and any other business held in the voting form. Voting will open at around midnight on December 3rd, and close at 6pm on the 10th.

December 10th at around 9pm – Results will be sent out to members via email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and the website on both the news page and the hub.

December 10th – After the fees are confirmed from the online AGM vote and the website is updated, renewals will open for your 2024 membership at around midnight.

December 12th – The AGM meeting will be held at 7:30pm. Renew and purchase merchandise via card payment at the meeting, or online like last year.

How will the voting work?

It’ll work exactly the same as last year. You’ll click a link, select your answers, and submit. You must complete all sections with a red asterisk (*) next to them or you will not able to proceed to the next page.

Note: you will not be able to change your vote once you submit, or place a second vote so please carefully select your answers prior to submission!

As the entire membership will be voting for any nominations for the 2024 committee, for this year we do not need to worry about being proposed or seconded. The entire membership voting will cover this part of the vote by default.

Putting forward your questions

If you have any burning questions or points of discussion you’d like us to air at the meeting, there will be a space for you to write this down during the voting. We won’t be operating the forum this year as we have an actual meeting.

What do we vote for?

The items in the voting form are as follows:

  • 2024 Committee Election
    Asking if you have read the reports, if you agree with them and for any comments you may have
  • Club matters (such as fees, AOB etc)
    • For this section we have implemented a new vote. We are asking you to type in the name of a club member, committee or non-committee, who you feel has gone above and beyond for their club for 2023. You will then need to type your reason for this selection. This will then be acknowledged, amongst everyone else who was also suggested, in an email to the club with the winner being especially noted.
      • The committee will be handing our their own reward for ‘Clubman of 2023’ at the AGM meeting

Renewals are online and in person (no cash!)

Renewing is online like always now, and will be available by chip and pin at the meeting both for your convenience and also for the future going forward to make the secretary and webmaster role a little easier.

We will not be accepting cash or cheque at the meeting! We are a cashless club as of 2021. We will also be selling merchandise at the meeting.

Online payments will be via the member’s online shop, found in the Member’s Menu, or from the link below: https://wmac.uk/shop/

Please note, the renewals are not available until December 13th.

You can pay by all electronic methods, cash or cheque is not accepted any more at the club. If you are paying online by:

Credit/Debit Card –  No card fees. Once you have paid, you do not need to do anything else.

Bank Transfer – No card fees. Process the order online, selecting bank transfer as your payment method and confirm. Once you have confirmed, you will need to email the Membership Secretary (membership@wmac.uk) that you have processed your order online. Please confirm in your email your reference number from your email invoice from us. When you transfer the money, in the reference box in your online banking transfer page, enter your invoice number and your name.

The reason we are doing this is to make use of the new website functions – after you process your order online, and payment is authorised, your online account will auto-renew and update your payment date. This saves either myself and the membership secretary going through manually doing it for all our members and deactivating members who have left. You also get to pay online with credit/debit card, and have a receipt from all of your payment methods.

If anyone struggles, please contact myself on webmaster@wmac.uk and I will process it for you online (not card payments though due to GDPR).

The stock of the online store will replenish on the 13th December, allowing you to add your renewal to your cart and purchase online.

If anyone does not have internet access, we can arrange an alternative way to renew.

That’s it…

That’s just about everything! If anyone has any issues with any of this, please email me at webmaster@wmac.uk

I can help with both the website or IT issue you may face, but also as a committee member I can help with other questions you may have regarding this. If it is more appropriate, feel free to also email or speak to the other 2023 committee members. They are:

  • Dave Evans (Chairman)
  • Sam Booton (Treasurer & Membership Secretary & Webmaster)
  • Clive Maulden (Club Secretary)
  • Mike Strain (Club Officer)
  • Tom Leonard (Club Officer)
  • Jeremy Flatt (Club Officer)

Many thanks,

Sam Booton

Membership Secretary, Treasurer and Webmaster

Club News

Hello all

Just to let you know that following our recent E G M discussions about acquiring a replacement field following the loss of our Hanbury site, the committee have now had further discussions with the landowner.

Pleased to report that he has agreed to provide us with a hardstanding area within the field entrance for Winter parking. Once this is complete he has agreed that members wishing to view the field may do so. The committee will let you know when.

Also agreed were a 50 metre runway and Summer car park plus pits area when conditions allow.

We will be able to commence flying activities from January first 2024.

Best wishes

Dave Evans

Website and New Booking System

Good evening everyone,
 
I just wanted to update you all on the website, as I’ve had a fair few emails about it. I’ve also had quite a bit of useful feedback about the booking system not being very good anymore, and I’m explaining what has been done to rectify that for you. I thought it’d be easier than emailing people back individually!
 
Website:
You will have been aware that our security has not yet been updated on our website. To access our website currently, you have to follow the steps I sent on WhatsApp a while ago to ignore security concerns. I just first of all wanted to reassure you that doing this does not compromise you, your information, or our website. It’s only a certificate that has expired, nothing fundamental about the website is causing a risk. It is safe to use. Obviously, this is far from ideal, and it’s getting resolved by the end of October. The problem has been with our previous hosting platform, but the end is now in sight!
 
Booking system:
I’ve also had reports that our Covid-19 basic booking system has become a little problematic and isn’t coping anymore. It was built to serve a short life purpose, not expecting it to be still used 3 years later and now needs replacement. I promised a year ago there was a new system in the works, coded in higher quality and a more robust and sophisticated manner. The new system is aimed to be upgradeable, updateable, more featureful and reliable. I’m really pleased to say this has now finally launched!
Obviously, I have only had the ability to test this on my own in a closed environment, so as always with new software there will be some issues. I haven’t noticed anything huge, but with more use the little niggles will come to light. Please do report these issues to me at webmaster@wmac.uk or use the IT support ticket system or even WhatsApp me so I can address them straight away.

The new system takes up more space on the screen as before, and this is currently being addressed to make it far more compacted for use on mobile phones. Another is you can currently delete other people’s bookings, this is being fixed ASAP so please be careful which booking you cancel! This will all be done by end of October.
Placing a booking is essentially the same as before, removing a booking has changed. You click a little gear cog on your booking, and there will be two rows. The top row is what you have booked, the bottom row shows time slots available with capacity to book (if we went back to limiting numbers if another pandemic struck). Soon you’ll be able to edit a booking, instead of needing to cancel and rebook. This will be done by end of the year. To remove your booking, click the time in the top row to remove your time, thereby deleting your booking. Your booking will be deleted, and if you reload the booking form you’ll see it’s vanished. It will automatically reload in a future update, due end of the month.

A feature of this system is it clearly shows if another booking will affect your visit to the field. At a quick glance, you can see if there is going to be someone training or someone mowing with icons and colour coding on each booking. You can also spot if a committee member will be present, so you can arrange your booking to meet or chat to us if you needed to. There is a key to see what this looks like, and I will leave 3 example bookings up for you for Christmas Day to see how this appears.
A PDF guide is available when clicking “Booking Help” on the main booking page, and click on the Visual Guide button, or by clicking here.
 
If anyone needs any help, please do get in touch!
 
All the best,
 
Sam Booton
Webmaster, Membership Secretary & Treasurer

Extraordinary General Meeting

Good evening, With reference to the memo sent out on 8th September, concerning the loss of the Hanbury field and the future direction of the club, we are indebted to the 22 people who took the trouble to reply, mostly giving comprehensive details of their thoughts on the subject. Many asked for an EGM. Your committee have reached a point where we need direction from the members on the options we have before us. To this end an EGM will take place at the Perdiswell Young Person’s Leisure Club in the Tudor Room on Tuesday 17th October 2023. Arrive at 7:30 for a meeting from 8pm until 10pm (this is not the same as the main Perdiswell leisure building).The Tudor Room is on the first floor, on entering reception turn left. A lift is also available. PERDISWELL YOUNG PEOPLE’S LEISURE CLUBPerdiswell Park, Droitwich Road, Worcester WR3 7SN01905 451372 This meeting is important and decisions made will have an impact on the future of the club, its membership cost and the amount of members we will be able to attract in 2024 and beyond. Please make an effort to attend if you can. Another date for your diary is Tuesday 12th December at the same venue for the AGM WMAC Committee

BMFA Record Attempt

You will be aware that the BMFA are repeating last years record attempt at having the most model aircraft, drones etc. in the air at one time. This event is scheduled for midday on 14th May.

If we have enough interested members we will register to take part, probably at our Rushwick field.

Please advise the club by email if you are prepared to take part so we can judge if we have sufficient interest. We will need an event co-ordinator so anyone prepared to take on this challenge please let us know. Email us back by replying to this email (contact@wmac.uk), or let us know on WhatsApp.