Minutes of the General Meeting held November 20th, 2008

The Mission to Seafarers, Vancouver, B.C.

In Attendance:

Alistair Beaton

Pat Haliburton

Capt. Ieuan Lampshire-Jones

Capt. Nelson Ng

Philip Oldham

Roy Sluyter

Richard Smith

Peter Strathdee

Ram Sudama

Capt. Don Tranter

Tim Ellis - Guest

Regrets:

Capt. Augustine Rebello

1) Call to Order:

The President, Alistair Beaton called the meeting to order at 19:05 hours.

As the Honorable Secretary was absent Richard Smith agreed to record the minutes.

The President extended a warm welcome to a Mr. Peter Strathdee, a new member from Campbell River and also to a guest, Mr. Tim Ellis, who is considering joining our Association as a Member.

2) Agenda:

The proposed agenda for the Meeting was read out by Richard Smith.

There were no additions / amendments proposed and the Agenda was accepted as read.

3) Minutes of Previous Meeting:

Having distributed copies of The Minutes of the previous General Meeting held on September 17^th 2008, The President asked that attendees read through them.

MOTION: “To accept the Minutes as distributed” proposed by Don Tranter SECONDED: Ram Sudama.

VOTE: All in favour.

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

Alistair advised that he has been in contact with a minister of the Provincial Government in Victoria regarding Charter Membership and that he and Richard will meet with him in the future to discuss this issue further.

5) Executive Highlights / Director’s Reports:

The Honorable Treasurer advised that as of November 8^th we had the following funds on hand:

Chequing account:        C$3,837.77

ING Savings account    C$5,481.31

Our membership comprised of 23 members who are in Good Standing and 7 who are not in Good Standing.

Roy advised that member Pawell Urbanski has not paid his dues for 2 consecutive years now.

Richard suggested that it was time for the secretary to contact him and request that his stamp be returned to AMSBC forthwith.

MOTION: “To accept the Treasurer’s Report as presented”  - By Richard Smith

SECONDED: By Ram Sudama.

VOTE: All in favour.

The Membership Director advised that there have been 15 enquiries regarding membership including an application from our guest, Mr. Tim Ellis.

Pat informed us that Mr. Matt Kirkbus (?) is anxious to join AMSBC but admits that he has no experience. It was suggested that Mr. Kirkbus’s application should be brought before the Board at their next meeting as is normally the case for all new applicants.

Pat advised the meeting that an application from Mr. Tim Ellis had been processed by the Membership Committee and that following this the Board had agreed with the committee that Mr. Ellis be accepted as an ordinary member.

MOTION: “To accept Mr. Tim Ellis as an Ordinary Member” made by Pat Halliburton.

SECONDED: By Richard Smith

VOTE: All in favour.

Alistair duly welcomed Tim as a member of AMSBC.

6) New Business:

o       Alistair will be traveling to the UK in early December to attend a meeting, hosted by the IIMS (International Institute of Marine Surveying) to discuss the formation of a body to represent Surveying Associations from around the world..

o       Alistair advised that the Company of Master Mariners of Canada – Vancouver Branch has invited our members to join them at their Christmas party to be held at the Mission on the evening of December 6^th 2008. Tickets are C$30.00 each and can be obtained from Captain David Bremner of the C.O.M.M.

o       Richard reminded everyone of the upcoming spring seminar in April 2009 that will be put on jointly by the BC Branch of The N.I. and the C.O.M.M. the topic covered will be the ongoing concerns regarding the liability being heaped upon ship’s masters.

7)                  Any Other Business:

·        A question was raised from the floor regarding our Membership Points System and whether it was being maintained. Alistair responded by saying that it is not currently being maintained.

·        Richard reminded members of the most interesting meetings including mock arbitrations that are being put on by the VMAA (Vancouver Maritime Arbitrators Association). Both he and Alistair had recently attended one such arbitration and found it to be both educational and entertaining. As members of the VMAA we encourage our members to attend these meetings.

·        Richard advised that the AMSBC web-site has been undergoing some clean-up and re-vamping and apologized for any disruptions in service. Once again he made an appeal for members to send in their contributions to keep this valuable tool fresh and interesting.

The 2009 Boat Show is scheduled to run in the week leading up to and including February 7^th 2009. For this reason our AGM will be scheduled for Saturday February 7^th 2009

8)                  Closing:

At 20:00 hours, there being no other business on the agenda or items to discuss, a motion was made by Philip Oldham “that the meeting be closed”.

This was seconded by Captain Don Tranter and accepted unanimously by a show of hands from all attending members.

9)      Next Meeting: Our next General Meeting will be held at 19:00 hours on Wednesday January 21^st 2009 at the Mission to Seafarers.

10)  Following the meeting all those present retired to the lounge in the Mission where we were able to watch a pre-release copy of a documentary produced by the Discovery Channel about the Port of Vancouver. This was kindly made available by Nelson Ng who also has a starring role in this production. Our thanks to Nelson for providing this to us.