The Online 2021 AGM

Good morning,

I am writing to you to update you on what is happening regarding the AGM for 2021.

Originally, it was due to be held on the 15th December at the Perdiswell Leisure Centre at 7pm. We had booked a room to hold the meeting within, but with rising cases and concerns of poor turn out due to risks of isolations at Christmas, we have decided not to go ahead with that this year. Your safety is the priority, and risking that along with your Christmas by risking having to isolate just isn’t worth it.

Once again, we’re having an exclusively online AGM.

This will all be run on the website, and during this email I’ll explain how it’ll work, the timeline for what is happening and how you can access what is being called the ‘AGM Hub’ on the website.

We explored several options, such as Zoom and holding an AGM later in 2022, but it was decided this was not the best way to go forward. Zoom relies on all members having access to the correct technology and knowing how it works, and the free version also has a 40 minute limit on the service for a call.

Therefore, for 2021, the AGM will once again take place online. You will be able to nominate yourself to be on the election for Committee 2022, vote for your 2022 Committee and vote for other club matters. You will also be able to read the AGM 2020 minutes, the Treasurer’s report, the Chairman’s report and the results of the votes will also be made available online in the hub.

The AGM 2021 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 (16/11/2021): https://www.wmac.uk/agm/

The key dates for your diary are as follows:

November 17th – The AGM hub will already be open online, making available the 2020 minutes and the nominations to put yourselves forward to be on the election for 2022 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). ‘AGM Discussion 2021’ forum on the club website goes live (click here to visit) for members to voice items they wish to be discussed or addressed. Anything on there will go to the 2022 committee to address.

November 17th -24th – Nominations open to put yourself onto the Committee 2022 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 6pm on the 24th. Chairman and Treasurer reports will go live on the 24th.

December 3rd – 10th – VOTING OPENS – You may vote for your 2021 Committee, and any other business held in the voting form. Voting will open at 9am on December 2nd, 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 12th – After the fees are confirmed from the online AGM and the website is updated, renewals will open for your 2022 membership.

Any members who do not have an email address logged with us will have all of the forms and reports posted out. These must be posted back within the same timeframes as above to ensure any nominations or votes are counted. Arrangements for them to renew memberships not via the website will also be arranged.

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 2022 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.

What about a discussion that we usually have at an AGM, will we be able to air our point of discussion?

Discussions obviously won’t work with the meeting being online only. We have thought about this, and if anyone has ANY questions to please ask them in the AGM 2021 Discussion forum thread found in the Club Forum’s section of our website (found in the Member’s Menu when you’ve logged in). We will respond as soon as we can, and the thread will be monitored to ensure all questions are responded to. The committee for 2022 will then address anything raised.

The forum is the place to have a recorded discussion regarding the AGM 2021. Any comments in WhatsApp will need to put in the forum instead. It must be posted in the forum only if you wish for them to be addressed for the AGM. We can not easily minute what is going on in WhatsApp is the reason for this.

The link for this thread is: https://www.wmac.uk/forums/forum/agm-discussion-2021/

Please consider clicking ‘subscribe’ on the top right of the forum to be notified by email to new replies and discussion.

What do we vote for?

The items in the voting form are as follows:

  • 2022 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 2021. 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.

Renewals are online

Renewing is also staying online, and will be available online indefinitely, both for your convenience and also for the future going forward to make the secretary and webmaster role a little easier.

You will now have to renew online, irrespective of whether you choose to pay via bank transfer, card, cash or cheque. It all must be done online.

This 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 shop is CLOSED until December 12th.


You can pay by all methods, even though it is online only. If you are paying by:

Credit/Debit Card – there is an additional fee of 1.4% for card payments only to cover costs inflicted upon us by the service we use. Once you have paid, you do not need to do anything else.

Bank Transfer – no additional 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.

Cash – no additional fees. Process the order online, selecting cash 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.

Cheque – no additional fees. Process the order online, selecting cheque 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, and please also write this on the BACK of your cheque.

The online store will tell you this information again, and will provide bank details if you choose bank transfer option. The online store is very secure if you wish to pay by card.

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 12th 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 2021 committee members. They are:

  • Dave Evans (Chairman)
  • Simon Ford (Treasurer & Membership Secretary)
  • Sam Booton (Club Secretary & Webmaster)
  • James Ford (Club Officer) 
  • Clive Maulden (Club Officer)
  • Jeremy Flatt (Club Officer)
  • Bryan Howes (Club Officer)

Flying Session Bookings

Hi Everyone,

Just been asked to send out a friendly reminder to everyone that booking in is still very much a requirement for going to either of the fields, no matter for how long. With the rising cases, this is getting more important as the winter sets in. Not only that, the BMFA have recommended we continue, and so it still very much is a club rule.

Additionally,  cancelling unwanted bookings is also required still until we update you further.

Many thanks everyone!

Sam

Rushwick Report

Good Afternoon,

I have been given a report from Clive on the current situation regarding Rushwick. Please take a look below:

I visited Rushwick on 13th October, to view the state of the strip. It is a bit better than my last visit with some grass growth after recent rainfall but still an uneven surface with bare patches. I had suggested buying several tonnes of topsoil with some grass seed to improve things, this met with mixed responses and the latest feeling was to leave this action until next spring. I now concur with this suggestion after a discussion I had with Matt, our landlord, at the field, his opinion is that there is a fairly high probability that the field will flood during the winter. Even after the flood prevention work several years ago he said there has been occasions when the water was hedge high, in this event I suspect that any recently applied topsoil would be washed away. The earlier dry weather had prevented applying topsoil and seed which may have grown sufficiently to anchor the soil.

I applied a mix of topsoil, growmore and grass seed to a few small bare patches just to see if it germinated and survived the winter. Application of grass seed at the end of March and to patches in July resulted in zero growth.

The season has resulted in periods of too cold, too wet and too dry, all conditions being unfavourable for a good growth of the grass.

I noticed that the Prestbury Park Club, near Tewksbury, have been preparing a new field in a similar timeframe as Rushwick was being improved using a similar planting method. I asked them, via E-mail, if they had any suggestions on how to improve the grass, the reply was as follows

Tue, 14 Sept at 17:23
“The earlier wet period stopped us being able to get our roller on the grass, so we have a similar problem to yourselves. With the now dry spell we still cannot roll. Hoping the rain will be sufficient and not overly wet to start the rolling again. We have our own 10 foot unit. It does take a full season to get a reasonable grass cover and hopefully next year it will be better.”

Photos on their website show the progression of their new field.

Apologies to all those that have been inconvenienced as our landlord has tried to improve the field for us and thanks to those that have used their initiative to allow ROG take offs.

One of the reasons for the revamping of the field was to avoid , where possible, flying over the neighbours land. The people who now own this farm are not living there as the place is being refurbished, they will move in as soon as they work is completed. They own restaurant(s) so they will be at home during the day so we need to be aware of this.

Action Plan for the 2022 Committee: The club will need about six people in the spring to apply about 4 tonnes of topsoil and some seed and hope for better weather.

Clive Maulden

Hopefully that report can show that Rushwick is very much a work in progress, and to just please bear with us just a little longer. We’re really excited to get Rushwick sorted and host some events there hopefully next year.

We also had a committee meeting last night, focussing on details for the AGM this year. Keep an eye out for an email over the next couple of days or so from me on that, as once again there are some changes with how things are going ahead whilst returning to some normality. We’ve also revised the rules for 35MHz requiring a non-existent pegboard, and discussed Rushwick at length.

Thanks,

Sam Booton

Club Secretary and Webmaster

Winter Flying Times

Hi all,

Not any changes that will really matter, but just to make you aware the evening slot has now been disabled as the nights are drawing in. You can continue to book AM, PM or All Day sessions.

These session times are now:

AM – Start of flying day until 1pm

PM – 1pm until Dusk

All day  will be reconsidered for fairness if we’re placed under restrictions on numbers for the winter, but hopefully from the positivity we’ve been hearing on the news this won’t occur this winter. The same for an hour between slots, currently with no restrictions this is not necessary at the moment.

Booking, and cancelling unused bookings, is still essential and a club rule. This will likely be the case for a little longer yet!

I’ll also be updating you on this years AGM plans and winter parking at the fields very soon, so keep an eye out for those emails.

Thanks!

Sam Booton

Club Secretary and Webmaster

Rushwick and BBQ

Good Afternoon,

Just to let you all know, Rushwick will be CLOSED for this weekend! We will ensure the flight areas are cordoned off to prevent damage from the bikers, and flying will resume Monday morning. 

Thanks to everyone who attended our BBQ last bank holiday weekend, it was a huge success and we really enjoyed seeing so many of you out on the field for what was a great day!

Remember, the next BBQ will fall on the 26th September. If you plan to go, please book yourself again on the club website  on the booking page for Hanbury on the 26th.

Thanks,

Sam Booton

Club Secretary and Webmaster

Club Summer BBQ

Good Evening,

The committee are extremely pleased to be able to announce the date of our first club social event since before the pandemic! We are really excited to finally be returning to some sort of normality, and are hoping you will join us in having a fun day in what has been a downbeat 18 months or so.

We are having a club summer BBQ at the Hanbury field on the 29th August, starting at around 10am. We will then be serving food around lunchtime on the BBQ, and we have even planned some fun events for the afternoon. We will be organising spot landing competitions, and will be coming up with a few more fun things to do during the afternoon too.

This event will only be for those who are part of WMAC, no other clubs are coming along to this one. However, family and friends of members are more than welcome to come along, have some food and enjoy the afternoon with you – maybe even get them on a buddy box!

We just ask that you please fill out your name and type how many guests you’d likely bring along – this is just so we can gauge numbers for food and drinks beforehand, ensuring everyone has enough. To let us know, please view the event on our website:

Click here to view event

One you’re on the event page, click to register.

We will also ask that members book on via the club website ASAP who are attending, like you would do for a normal flying day.

A quick off topic subject – a couple have asked if booking is still mandatory. Yes, it is, the BMFA have advised us to continue and this will likely be the case until next spring at the earliest. We will keep you updated on if this changes though! 

We hope you can come along, and we hope the weather holds out for our well deserved BBQ! It has been a long time since plenty of us have been allowed to fly at the same time, and we’re really grateful for your club spirit in supporting the decisions we’ve had to take during that time. We hope now we can continue to fly without interruption!

We look forward to catching up with you all on the 29th August.

Kind Regards,

Sam Booton

Club Secretary & Webmaster

Planned Website Outage

Good Afternoon,

I am just letting you know that the club website will be down from 6pm Tuesday 20th July to 3am Thursday 22nd July. This is so we can change our hosting platform as the renewal has come round this month.

I am hoping the website to be back up for Wednesday 21st morning, but as a precaution in case the enormous tasks I have to do overrun into the following evening. The job is quite a massive one to undertake as we have a lot of scripts that utilise the database, and problems could arise in the database whilst completing the task which could take hours to repair.

If you could please all book your slots for the 21st and 22nd by lunchtime on Tuesday 20th, that would be appreciated. Any bookings made after that may be lost.

If you decide to book a new booking, or cancel/amend an existing booking whilst the website is down you can do so by emailing me at webmaster@wmac.uk – I will ensure I add the booking to the system for you.

Thanks for your co-operation, and your patience.

Cheers,

Sam Booton

Webmaster & Club Secretary

Second UKCAA Event

Hi everyone,

The committee have received a request from Martyn Kinder of the UK Classic Aerobatic Assc

His request is :

Would WMAC be prepared to help them out by allowing them to hold another flying meeting at Hanbury on Sunday September 26th  the same format as they did on June 6th last.

This group of vintage model enthusiasts hold meetings up and down the UK at their members club fields. We have two such members Simon and James.

Unfortunately one of their meetings has had to be cancelled as film work will be taking place at that particular field on September 26 and as they wish to still keep the meeting they have approached WMAC.

The committee agree in principal to make Hanbury available to them on that date but would like our members to express their views first.

All members would still be able to attend to see these guys in action and members flying would be still allowed.

It’s all very friendly and a BBQ would be laid on for all. Also by then there should be no covid restrictions in place.

Please express you views on this matteron Club Chat or to the committee via WMAC Email. Please respond promptly as Simon needs to answer the request yes or no

Kind Regards,

Dave Evans

Chairman

Rushwick Update

Good morning,

Following reports on the difficulty of using the Rushwick site David Evans, Bryan Howes and myself visited the site today and were later joined by our landlord, Matt Richardson.

Most will be aware that due to an invasion of ‘river grass’ the field had become difficult to use and last September. Matt decided the only remedy was to plough and re-seed the field. This also provided an opportunity to review the field layout.

Due to weather conditions being adverse in respect of too wet, too dry and too cold at various times, retarding the development of the new sward, the field is as good as we would would expect considering the conditions. A Max Thrust Riot was flown and with standard wheels demonstrated that whilst it was possible to fly it was far from ideal and we sympathise with those that have been doing their best to use the site. We did not feel the main problem was ruts but the fact that the field was seeded by drilling which creates rows of grass with soil in between creating a mini ploughed effect. This can cause aircraft with small wheels to trip. There is some evidence that the grass has knitted together in places elevating the trip hazard. Given the right conditions the whole runway will fill in to enable a smoother surface to emerge, this is more likely to happen later in the year. At the end of March we did roll and seed the strip but with little effect and during the dry period Matt rolled it with his heavyweight roller to try and improve matters.

Purchasing a quantity of topsoil has been considered, racking this in with grass seed to try and level the surface. However, it is thought that with dry weather the soil could become dry and disperse without any grass germination or should we have rain then we could create a mud bath, our landlord concurs with this opinion. You will be aware that when trying to create a lawn effect a critical part is regular watering and there is no possibility of this at the field.

The conclusion is the field is only suitable, in the short term, for aircraft with larger wheels or powered gliders until the grass develops further. If those with some horticultural knowledge feel there is a short term solution we urge you to formulate a plan and present it to the committee who will enthusiastically receive it.

With the runway moved out into the field we have unobstructed, flat approaches and can also avoid over flying the neighbours field. The runway is also wider than it has been before, enabling take off and landing at an angle if wind direction dictates. The parking area / pits will be moved to behind the bank on your left as you approach the field so it is nearer the runway.

We much regret the inconvenienced caused but still feel long term we will have an improved site. Hanbury is operating and with up to 30 people now being allowed there should be no problem with booking a flying slot.

Clive Maulden