Council Minutes 21st February 2017 ‐ At SCMS HQ - Southampton

1. Apologies – received from Maurice Perrin, Ross Hunter, Markus Lankford and Simon Oakes

Mike Eckles as President opened the meeting by welcoming the Committee Members and announcing that after a successful six month probation period, Stuart Gladwell had been confirmed by the Management Committee, as CEO of SCMS. Nick’s role will now be “Technical Advisor” and will now be concentrating on scrutineering and technical matters.

2. Confirmation of Minutes to Last Meeting – 15th Nov 2016

The minutes were agreed to be a true record of the meeting.

3. Update on Action Points

ACTION: Paul Johnson to report on the acceptability of electronic signatures by the MCA – MCA at BCC Meeting agreed they can be used.

Bob Barnes/Clive Robinson Paper on Membership – See new papers on Agenda Item 7. - ACTION CONTINUES

ACTION: Nick Gladwell to report on vertical audits achieved. More audits are required in the new year on Mike Eckles and others such as Simon Oakes and Jim McDonald. Action continues

ACTION: CEO to arrange for voluntary Benevolent Fund donations to be made on the annual membership invoices – Completed

ACTION: Nick and Bob to meet with possibly Clive at Bob’s office to discuss membership matters. – Complete

ACTION: CEO to contact FEMAS and register London as preferred 2017 FEMAS Meeting venue. – Complete

ACTION: CEO to contact Paul Owen FEMAS Secretary and confirm European not just EU for membership. – Complete

ACTION: CEO to circulate the last FEMAS Meeting Minutes as soon as available from Paul Owen – Ongoing

ACTION: CEO to update on position regarding Affiliate and reduced rate members – These have now been removed as per the new 2017 Membership charges – Complete.

4. Budget Report

Nick Gladwell went through the key financial summary:

CCLA Benevolent Fund Shares value 15/11/2016 = £221,687.70, 31 Dec 2016 £240,631.19

Lloyds Benevolent Fund Account 15/11/2016 = £6,477.46 20/2/17 £5,478.25

Peter Hicks was given £1000 in Jan and subject to contacting us to confirm his wellbeing would receive another £1000 in March. Ongoing up to £5k in 2017.

Lloyds Membership Current Account 15/11/2016 = £7,394.48, 20/2/17 £18,836.08

Lloyds Savings Account 15/11/2016 & 20/2/2017 = £2,469.38

Lloyds Visa Card 30/6/2016 = 15/11/2016 = -£100, 20/2/2017 = -£793.57

Lloyds CA Trading Account 15/11/2016 = £20,567.31, 20/2/2017 = £20,785.01

HSBC Money Manager 15/11/2016 & 20/2/2017 = £60,740.00

HSBC Business Acc 15/11/2016 = £653, 20/2/2017 - £667

Total money in Bank Accounts 20/2/2017 value = £103,498, (15/11/2016 = £91,643) This is an increase of about £12k.

Budget for 2017 – Nick confirmed that the finances were roughly following the draft budget proposed by Petar and as previously notified to Council. There were amounts outstanding from Membership but Petar was sending out reminders and would follow up with phone calls as necessary. Petar had been very good at reducing the CA Account money that was owed to SCMS.

5. Office Management

Stuart Gladwell updated Committee Members on the latest office and staff situation.

The admin staff member Ashleigh had settled in well and was already issuing certificates and sorting out the files and updating the database. The office has received good comments from customers regarding the quick turn round times of certification and answers to emails.

Nick was now doing most of the scrutineering and Membership/Examiner applications, liaising with Paul and Maurice as required. Membership applications were up as were applications for CA Examiner. Membership applications were averaging one a week.

The new SCMS Website was online and in use but still undergoing amendments as feedback was received. Stuart asked for permission to continue with stage 2 of the website development plan and this was confirmed with an estimated three months time scale. It was confirmed that all computer based files are now automatically backed up to the “cloud”. The new website is managed by SCMS HQ without the need for a web consultant and new applications such as “Stripe” for owner and membership payments and Online Membership applications were already a big success. The examiners area of the site for controlled forms and information notices was also in use. The Examiner Filemaker database was also now working well with examiners having remote access and most the important documents scanned and available on the vessels site.

6. Expert Witnesses

Paul raised the problem that SCMS have a list of “Expert Witnesses” and a recent enquiry questioned how SCMS vet and approve people (accrediting) on the list. Paul pointed out that we do not vet or approve people to be expert witnesses but offer a list of those Members who claim to be involved in this area of work. SCMS are not approving these people.

Action Point: CEO to amend our website to make clear that SCMS have provided as a service the “Expert Witness List” of Members involved in this area, but have not vetted their qualifications or experience and are not accrediting them. - Completed

7. SCMS Future – Bob Barnes paper

Bob Barnes introduced his paper and reminded the Council of his view of how SCMS needs to change to increase membership. Nick replied to a question from Bob regarding Nick’s Paper on the subject and said that the Nick paper was in response to Bob’s paper as Nick was disappointed with Bobs proposals and did not support then so had put forward alternative proposals. Mark raised the point that he stated at the previous council meeting that he wanted to be involved in this task and the working group, but Bob had not taken his comments into consideration at all. David, Nick, Mark, Maurice all wanted to be involved with developing this. It appeared the Bob paper was just a Bob and David effort. Bob explained some history regarding MECAL and why it split from I Mar EST. Others said that this was not relevant to SCMS and saw no reason to make similar changes at SCMS.

After a general talk about the two papers a vote was taken as to the proposals in Bob’s paper with 2 votes for, and six against, the paper was rejected. Maurice Perrin had sent in a written reply to the Council confirming he was rejecting the proposals in Bob’s paper and agreed with Nicks proposals/paper. There were considerable discussions regarding shipping and shipping management in the UK and its decline and the knock-on effect to SCMS Membership.

Mike proposed that this topic and work be postponed for 6 months as membership applications had increased and the recent work by Nick, Mark and Norman are having positive effects. Bob felt that he wanted to carry on quietly in the background on proposals as he did not want to waste 6 months and this was supported by David. In summary Bob and David support changing the Society to include all seafarers of different branches membership and move away from the present MCA Code biases. Nick’s paper proposed keeping the SCMS as is but making small changes to reflect modern times and making better use of e media and surveyor training.

Mike pointed out that the result of the recent on line feedback from Members of SCMS showed that the majority were happy with the status quo and did not want change.

Graham made comment that he joined SCMS are he wanted to join similar professional surveyors. He did not join to specifically do Examiner work.

Nick made comment that there were presently about 60 Examiners amongst a Membership of about 260. Membership in the last 9 months had been steadily growing despite the eldest members departures.

Action Point: CEO to take this item off the Council Agenda and put it on hold for about 6 months whilst monitoring membership trends and initiatives. Put this item back when the Under 500 GT Code is finalised. - Complete

Action Point: Bob - Any further work on proposals regarding SCMS Membership, the working group members must be copied in on the ideas and proposals before they are submitted to council. Working group members = Bob, Mark, Nick, Maurice & David. - Ongoing

8. Benevolent Fund

Mike made the point that it has an increasing fund value of about £10-15k per year with little claims on it (£5k). Making it more accessible to those Members in need should be a priority. Norman had an article in Link regarding the fund but no claims had resulted so far. Mark put forward the view that the fund could pay medical fees for a member needing urgent medical operations etc. Norman confirmed this had been a use in the past.

9. Honorary Members/Fellows

Proposal to promote Phillip Thomas to Honorary Member after over 60 years SCMS membership. He joined in 1951 and is now aged 96.

Action Point: CEO to arrange for Mr Thomas Membership to be transferred and suitable letter/certificate to be sent. CEO to give Honorary status to membership who contribute for 50 years or more. - Complete

10. AOB

Norman Finley proposed a Social Function.

It was agreed that this could help Membership plus rejuvenate local interest. Norman had previously emailed Members in the South and London areas about starting a local branch of SCMS again but only had replies from 5 Members. It was agreed that we should hold an event in the Yacht Club after the next Council Meeting and invite Members, Owners and Friends of SCMS and ask them to bring guests. Drink and small food could be served and SCMS would finance the event as a loss leader to future meetings and see if we have a good response. Bob suggested that we could start having a guest speaker at future events if it proved popular.

Bob proposed a winter program of talks be arranged combined with the social meet dates. He confirmed his willingness to give 30 min talks on: “Problems on the new type 42 destroyer” and another on the “Engineering History of the Royal Navy”.

Action Point: Nick to liaise with Norman and arrange for invitations to relevant people in the area within a range of say 100 miles. - Complete

AGM

It was agreed to hold this at the usual yacht club venue during the June Seawork’s 2017. Provisionally Tues 13th June 2017.

BLUE BOOK

Christine had been working on the 2017 version and has contacted relevant companies for sponsorship. New photos and information had been put in the latest version and it would be available on the SCMS website as pdf plus a printed version would be available for Seaworks and mailing to non internet connected people. Unlike previous years we are trying to break even on costs as opposed to the usual losses. Stuart asked for agreement from Council to proceed as detailed. Council agreed. Bob asked for a Membership flier to be included in the Blue book printed copies.

Training Day

Mark is arranging a training day in conjunction with YBDSA for April in Portland. Details will be emailed soon.

Link Magazine

Norman is working with Heather to produce the 3rd Edition of Link. Contributions would be appreciated. Dave commented that the recent editions lacked “Big Ship” items. Norman and Paul replied it was because the big ship people were not active, only Code Examiners appeared interested in contributing.

Action Point: All - Contributions to Norman please especially from the Big Ship Membership. CEO to send out email to specifically target active big ship members regarding contributions to Link. - Ongoing

Action Point:

To put together a circulation list of possible useful clients to send Link out to such as: A & P Appledore, Dunstans, etc. - Ongoing

Under 500 GT Code

MCA have a working group drafting this code. Norman has attended as part of NWA and considers that there is work for SCMS Members as well as Class. Norman recommended we make sure we attend and make sure SCMS get a portion of this work.

Action Point: Norman to forward the relevant emails from MCA and SCMS to attend and be represented. – Completed Nick has been attending these meetings and has been liasing with John Fearnley from MECAL

Date of Next Meeting – Tues 16th May 2017