top of page
ToTT_Logo.png

Annual General Meeting 2023 MINUTES

Sunday 9th July 2023, 1pm at Putney Town Rowing Club


Download a PDF copy of the minutes here:


Minutes prepared by Olivia Moore, Club Communications, Putney Town RC, on behalf of Jennie Amin, Secretary, Putney Town RC


Attendance

Membership: 70 eligible members attended to vote, including the Chair.

No “non-eligible” members attended.


Attended from 2021-22 Committee:

  • President: Geoff Adams

  • Chairman: Geoff Adams

  • Treasurer: Bill Desmond

  • Membership Secretary: Polly Fraley

  • Vice-Captain (men): Rudi Tilko

  • Vice-Captain (development): Amber In der Rieden

  • Social Secretary: Chiara Pieretti

  • Bar Steward: John Hickling

  • General Member: Mary Mortimer

  • General Member: David Oswell

  • Communications officer: Olivia Moore


Trustees: James Davey and Ninian Eadie


Notable apologies from the 2021-22 Committee:

  • Secretary: Jennie Amin

  • Vice-Captain (women): Ele Culley


Please note: there was no acting Captain for this year in situ.



Agenda
  1. Introduction and welcome

    1. Record of agreement of minutes from 2022 AGM

  2. Election to General Committee for 2023/24

    1. Voting- happening

    2. No chairman going forwards for it. Geoff will update all later

  3. Confirmation of trustees

  4. Chairman's report

  5. Captain's report

  6. Treasurer's report

  7. AoB


 
Appendices
  1. Treasurer’s Report 2021/22


 

  1. Introduction and welcome

    1. Record of agreement of minutes from 2022 AGM

      The Secretary confirmed that the minutes were issued after the 2022 AGM, and re-circulated with the Notice to the 2023 AGM, and that no comments had been received. The meeting voted in favour of accepting the minutes as a full record of the meeting.


  2. Election to General Committee for 2023/24


  3. Election to Committee 2022/23

    The Chair asked if any other members, not already nominated, wished to stand for election. No members chose to do so, and so the ballot was finalised.

    The Chair confirmed that registration for voting had now closed.

    The results of the election were confirmed later in the meeting:

    • President: Geoff Adams

    • Chairman: 2 votes for Amber (thinking about it)

    • Captain: Jim Allan

    • Treasurer: Bill Desmond

    • Secretary: Kirsten Clayton

    • Membership Secretary: Joy Bartoli

    • Vice-Captain (men): James Freeman

    • Vice-Captain (women): Emma Fadlon

    • Vice-Captain (development): Brian Day

    • Bar Steward: John Hickling

    • Social Secretary: Rebekah Griffiths

    • Communications Officer: Olivia Moore

    • General Member: Mary Mortimer

    • General Member: Katie Moore


  4. Confirmation of Trustees

    The Chair explained the purpose of the Trustees, and proposed that James Davey and Ninian Eadie remain as trustees.

    The meeting voted in favour.


  5. Chairman’s Report

    The Chairman’s report was presented (ask Geoff for a copy and copy and paste it across - same with the Captains’ reports!):

    • Notes-Geoff not elected to chair.

    • 2022- centenary year with centenary events throughout the year- Henley row past, centenary dinner & BBQ.

    • Refurbish changing rooms & toilets- thanks to Sarah R.

    • 10 years of fundraising & permissions- embarked on balcony developments.18 weeks of work to go.

      No questions or comments were raised.


  6. Captain’s Report

    The Captain’s Report was presented (No Captain was nominated for this year).

Women’s Vice-captain’s Report:

Over the last few years as women’s captain I have been really proud of the progress of the squads and progression and development of our female athletes at Putney Town. I’m going to run through a brief update if what we have achieved this year - please clap and cheer for all of the good stuff we have done!


We kicked off post committee last year with a plethora of pot hunting and some regatta fun across all squads. Medalling in Henley T&V regatta for our senior women 4- and a number of successes in Staines.


September flipped back to head races with 9 athletes across senior and masters squads competing across the tideway course. The sun was so warm that a quick swim at the milepost on the way home wasn’t too much of a shock! This was closely followed by Pairs head where we saw a number of pairs and doubles compete wrapping up the small boat competitions before the winter.


The Masters Women headed to Boston fielding two eights, with a special guest from Austin - Julia, for Head of the Charles, a 3.2 mile course. The racing was exciting with excellent coding from our two local coxes. Thanks goes to Mary for all of the coordination and Liz for organising a fabulous celebratory dinner.


Meanwhile, the senior women started their season strongly with a gold win for their coxed four and silver win for their four minus at Upper Thames autumn head. Fours head and vets head saw some great racing across the senior and masters squads. Back to the tideway for fours head and vets head before finishing up the season at Wallingford head. Fours head saw our three senior women’s fours compete with our fastest boat finishing 5th and 2 fours and a quad competed at vets fours head to finish off masters racing before Christmas. The seniors women had their last race at Wallingford and managed to boat a coxed four before the rest of the race was cancelled due to bad weather.


We kick started 2023 with a senior camp at Ely based at the Cambridge university boat club for a blustery set of outings which provided a great base for the season ahead. Our first head race was Quintin which was a great start to the racing of 2024.

The first grand finale of the winter season saw 5 women’s boats in Women’s head of the river race. For our development women’s squad it was some athletes first experience of both WeHorr and head racing. Our senior women placed 53rd and 186th overall and our masters women came in 4th and 8th in the Masters entries.


The next finales of the winter season was Vets Head with our dev women’s eight, masters D eight and masters c quad. All squads were pleased with their results ahead of the summer. April was camp time for the senior and masters women’s squads. The Senior women held a mini camp on the tideway to start their regatta prep. For the masters, their 5th time in Cerla, Spain provided much of the promised sunshine and mirror like water. This has been the largest camp yet with 21 masters women supported by James and our guest coach Jules who were joined by 20 masters men and Matt. There was plenty of regatta practice, refinement of tech skills and seat racing to prep for the summer! Massive thank you to all of the organisers and the drivers, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to have such as successful camp. Wallingford was the first regatta of the season, with the SW taking 3 coxed fours to bank some side by side regatta experience. Our super sculler, Kate represented Putney Town at Borne Regatta and raced a strong race despite her opponent having a cheeky 10 seconds head start.


Next stop was Nottingham city where the four minus and coxed four finished fourth place in the A finals and the eight finished second place in their final to round of a great day of racing. Then on to Twickenham with the Senior Women racing an eight and four minus, confidently steered by a Caroline in her first steers race. Our masters Women raced a quad narrowly missing out to Tideway scullers and Kate had a strong race in her single. The development women finished the day with their first ‘away’ race, an exciting semi final progressed through to a final against Kingston where they narrowly missed out on the win.


Closer to home we had a win at Barnes and Mortlake by Amy in her single whilst the masters competed in Masters Champs at Nottingham with a notable win from Mary in her non-champ G-K single and some close races for the other masters women’s sweep and sculling crews including some exciting finals.


To finish the season we hit the Henley’s. Henley Women’s qualifiers saw our senior women’s eight miss out on qualifiers by 0.7 of a second and the coxless four steered the course impeccably. We fielded a Henley royal senior women eight.


I’m hoping you are all still awake, if you could nudge the person each side of you that would be

much appreciated. Lastly but no means least, the thank yous. Please can we stand up for the

final round of applause. I would like to say a massive thank you to:

  • Firstly, the vice captain group that has helped with all the coordination, cover the captains role and be the main point of contact for questions throughout the year.

  • The coaches for their relentless organisation and patience throughout the year.

  • The coxes and super subs whom without we would not race or train.

  • And to everyone that has volunteered throughout the year to ensure Putney Town remains a community and the friendliest club on the tideway.


Development Captain’s Report:

As Dev Captain it is only appropriate for to start with our L2R programme. The ink on the ballot

papers had barely dried, and I was set to work to deliver the L2R course; email the hundreds of

applicants, organise the open days, do presentations, get people on ergs and assist coaches

John and Ele with the selection of our ultimate group of L2R groups. Once that was done it was

time to press the magic PTRC volunteer help button.


And volunteering you did! It is without a doubt one of the very best things about our club, and

L2R truly embodies our club spirit. We love our sport and we love introducing new people to the

sport. L2R is an integral and essential part of our club as it contributes to growing our club into

the vibrant and welcoming place that it is today. Not only that, delivering these courses to the

community is part of our lease agreement with the council, and directly impacts our rent. Your

contribution to L2R is invaluable, and you contributed in so many ways. Driving launches,

coaching, coxing, rowing, helping on the open days, and so much more. Thank you.


After some exciting end of L2R races we had a celebration in the bar with los of food and

laughter. It was very rewarding to see the participants had had a good experience and that so

many of them had decided to join the club and move into the Dev Squads. In the DW they were

coached by Brian Day, with coxing support from Simon Maxwell and the DM were coached by

Nicki McMillan on the water and by Paul Debois on the ergs. Thank you to all of those involved

for your efforts and support. It is great to see the athletes grow and develop, tackle their first

races and see their desire to compete and improve increase over the year.


The other Captains addressed the rowing, races and more. I would like to briefly address our

club and community spirit. Over the last few years we have received an increasing number of

requests from members to set up a coached recreational squad. The idea that has been

discussed with the GC is to create a squad that offers a place for members who enjoy training,

who wish to develop and be coached on the water, who enjoy being in a squad, but who do not

necessarily want to race, do not want to attend each week or be committed to a race squad

training programme. It would be a mixed squad, open to rowers and scullers. We are working

on the details and will communicate these to the membership in due course.


It has been a challenging, but good year for the VC’s. Having to add on top of our Vice Captain

workload, the Captain’s role. For me personally that meant dealing with much of the Head Race

visitor correspondence & organisation, club admin and seemingly endless emails and generally

finding ways to make everything work. Needless to say, like rowing itself, this is a skill that

takes time to develop and grow.


We all know that the more hands on a boat when lifting it, the lighter it feels. And the same

applies to our club.. It takes many hands to run this ever changing club.

Our GC members occupy rather visible volunteering roles. There also other support roles,

independent of the GC, like the Safety Officer (Paul Debois) and the Welfare Officer (introduce

Chiara Pieretti). And we mustn’t forget our cleaner Reyna who attends every Monday and

Friday. But there are many, many more of you who make the club tick along, quietly working

away in the background. Thank you for all you do.


Finally, this club is ambitious, robust and positive, and from the moment I joined in 2018 it was

immediately obvious that the members truly make things happen. From tasks as small as

finding the correct wing nut or heel restraint, to huge projects, like building the new steps

outside the club, maintenance projects, the new balcony etc.


I am very excited to be part of it and am curious what the future holds for our club. I would like

to thank all the members of the General Committee for their contributions this year, and in

particular a special thank you to Ele and Rudi for being fantastic VC’s.


Amber In der Rieden

VC Development 2022-2023

No questions or comments were raised.


7. Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer’s Report

Year End Report to April 23


The Treasurer's report was presented to the meeting with key points as follows:

  • Strong year - donations carried on to 2023

  • Strong membership numbers - new development rowers from L2R

  • Two new 8+s which the club is now paying off

  • PLA Grant received for new electric outboard motor

  • Increased revenue on bar & internal events; the centenary celebration helped with income

  • New changing rooms cost £24K

  • Completion of the development project and associated costs

  • Regattas, events, L2R, membership all add to Income

  • Coaching, events, depreciation and refurb has meant the need to spend money

  • Changes this year:

    • Higher electricity & gas

    • Richmond council costs

    • PLA costs

    • Insurance costs increased

  • Mitigating circumstances:

    • Boatmen - much more ‘in-club’ fixing of boats son reducing third party costs

    • Events

  • Development project - balcony is being installed now-ish

    • Middle of August - club should be back back to using the boat house (below)

    • ○inal phase is the fitting out underneath it

    • Can’t put the lift in this time around because we don’t have funds but the foundations are there for when we can raise the money

  • The 100 Club- £4000 raised to buy things to fit out new spaces after work has been done

  • Larger spaces for members - eg the outdoor balcony space

  • Lots more events planned

  • Space for storage & bar bits


No questions or comments were raised. The Chair proposed that the accounts were accepted by the membership.


The meeting voted in favour of the motion.


8. AoB

  • Athlete development plan update

  • Brian Day raised the issue of the athlete development plan and raised the question of reviewing it for next season.

  • No further items of business were raised, and the Chair closed the meeting.

11 views

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page