Minutes of the General Meeting held May 21^st, 2008

The Mission to Seafarers, Vancouver, B.C.

In Attendance:

Capt. Ieuan Lampshire-Jones

Capt. Don Tranter

Roy Sluyter

Ram Sudama

Laurie Langill

Philip Oldham

Cecil Noronha

Regrets:

Alistair Beaton

Richard Smith

Capt. Mike Fothergill

George Patterson

Kenneth Rorison

Kenneth Allkins

Darryl Martins

James Moser

1) Call to Order:

Capt. Don Tranter called the meeting to order at 19:00 hours.

2) Agenda:

The Agenda for the Meeting was read by the Members.

Roy Sluyter proposed that a discussion about Charter Status for the AMSBC be included under New Business / Any Other Business.

Capt. Jones inquired about the annual payment of insurance and this was included in the Agenda.

The motion to accept the Agenda as amended was proposed by Cecil Noronha, seconded by Phil Oldham and all present voted in favour.

3) Minutes of Previous Meeting:

The Minutes of the previous General Meeting held on March 26^th, 2008 were read by Roy Sluyter. The motion to accept the Minutes was proposed by Capt. Lampshire-Jones, seconded by Roy Sluyter and all present voted in favour.

4) Old Business/Matters arising from the last General Meeting:

Letter to the Chamber of Shipping – Roy Sluyter informed the Members that the Members’ List had been updated and the letter would be sent at the earliest.

5) Executive Highlights / Director’s Reports:

None.

Capt. Don Tranter informed the Members that he had applied for Membership with the Naval Officers Association. He was asked to pay $100.00 for joining and $40.00 for the annual fee.

In view of the above, Capt. Tranter asked that the information pertaining to joining fee and annual fee be noted in the Minutes. The previous Minutes (March 26^th, 2008) only stated the annual fee as $45.00. The corrected details are hereby recorded accordingly.

·        Membership Director’s Report:

Pat Haliburton had conveyed his regrets for being unable to attend the meeting. There were no new enquiries or further details to report since the last meeting.

Cecil Noronha had contacted the Members – James Moser, Peter Strathdee, Ram Sudama and Alan Hart regarding their preferences for initials on their stamps. James Moser, Peter Strathdee and Ram Sudama had replied with their preferences. A response is pending from Alan Hart.

The stamps for these Members will be ordered and sent out accordingly.

·        Treasurer’s Report:

Roy Sluyter assured the Members that the finances were in good order. He was unable to print out reports in time for the Meeting but details could be made available on request.

At the time of the Meeting, there were 9 Members yet to pay their Annual Dues.

Roy Sluyter informed the Members that a cheque for the Insurance of the premises would be handed over at the earliest.   

6) New Business/Any Other Business:

·        Due to poor response from the Members, the offer for food provided by the Mission was not taken up.

·        There had been no feedback about attendance at the Port Security Meeting to be held on May 22^nd and 23^rd at the Westin Bayshore Hotel. Members expressed the view that the charges for attending were high and therefore restrictive.

·        The Australian Institute of Marine Surveyors had not sent any further intimation about the progress of the proposal for formation of a Federation of Marine Surveyors.

Charter Membership:

Roy Sluyter stated that he had talked with Richard Smith and it was proposed that the Members’ views be sought on the above matter.

Accordingly, the topic was included in the Agenda and a general discussion was initiated at this point. Roy Sluyter pointed out that the AMSBC was a publicly recognized independent association, operating under a Code of Ethics and held regular meetings to exchange ideas. This should satisfy the requirement for recognition as a professional body.

He also pointed out that obtaining a Charter status would be quite expensive and the AMSBC had no income other than the Membership fees. This restrictive expense was the same reason why the AMSBC could not opt for a Group Insurance Policy.

Roy Sluyter then asked Capt. Jones to elaborate on the history of these endeavours for Charter status. Capt. Jones started with telling the Members about the reasons for forming the AMSBC, beginning with the objection to foreign Surveyors attending vessels for the transport of cargoes out of BC.

At that time – 25 years ago – the AMSBC had employed lawyers from Nanaimo to lobby for registering the Association in Victoria through a Private Members Bill. The Bill did not go through due to objections from the Underwriters Association and Longshoremen’s Union.

The Bill was not a total failure as the AMSBC succeeded in pushing for foreign Surveyors to be stopped from exclusively attending vessels in BC. Foreign Surveyors could attend provided that they were operating second to a local Surveyor assigned to the vessel.

The Letter to the Attorney General at the time, along with a brief history and an article from the Pacific Yachting magazine was handed over by Capt. Jones and is forwarded to all Members along with these Minutes.

The AMSBC almost folded up then due to the financial situation arising from having to pay the lawyers’ fees of around $27,000.00. According to Capt. Jones, some Members got together and contributed from their own pockets to finally pay the lawyers 18 months later – including the interest accrued.

Ram Sudama asked whether there was the requirement for 50 Members to apply for Charter status. The general opinion was that 50 Members was no longer a requirement but there were other restrictions such as qualifying and periodical examinations involved. Ram offered to look up the requirements for a Registered Society and has since forwarded his views along with the forms for this option.

Capt. Jones expressed the view that the demands of the profession itself are the biggest impediment in getting all the Members together at a given time. With the present state of communication and information technology, however, it was felt that Members could take a more active role in expressing their views and offering suggestions on line. The possibility of a Web based forum was suggested.

Phil Oldham pointed out that the situation has remained unchanged for small boat Surveyors whose businesses are constantly threatened by any newcomer who advertises to conduct these Surveys. There are no requirements or checks for qualifications and experience. In this respect, the AMSBC had proposed to raise the profile of its Members by sending letters to the various institutions concerned with shipping and small boats and Phil inquired whether that had been done.

Cecil Noronha recalled the above proposal and offered to look up the details in previous Minutes.

The details were found in the Minutes of the Board Meeting and General meeting held in November 2005. Extracts are as follows:

Board Meeting – November 4^th, 2005 –

8). Letters to Institutions and Shipping Agents:

Further to raising the profile of the Association in the Business Community and as a service to its members, it was proposed that the Association should send a letter of introduction and subsequently include on a mailing list; the following institutions/ agencies:

·         Chamber of Shipping

·         BC International Commercial Arbitration Centre

·         Association of Marine Underwriters

·         Canadian Board of Marine Underwriters

·         International Union of Marine Insurance

·         Insurance Brokers Association of BC

·         Business Development Bank of Canada

·         Canadian Power and Sail Squadron

·         Fishing Vessel Owners Association

·         Vancouver Board of Trade

·         Vancouver Exporters Association

·         Western Marine Community Association

·         Canadian Shipowners Association

·         Council of BC Yacht Clubs

·         All Local Shipping Agents

General Meeting – November 16^th, 2005

9.    Letters to Institutions – Two more names were added to the list of Institutions where

       the Association proposed to send out letters of introduction. These are the Yacht

       Brokers Association and the BC Marine Trades Association.

7) Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 20:00 hours.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 17^th, 2008 at 19:00 hours at the Mission to Seafarers.

Schedule of Meetings: