The AGM was opened at 10.25 a.m. and the chairman John Amery welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Rob Neale, Jimmy Briggs and a letter of apology had been received from Eddie Painter which was read out to the members.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM

The minutes had been circulated previously and were approved by Jimmy King and Hugh Rathbone as a true record. The only matter arising was a reminder that 2005 was our 25th anniversary and we had agreed to do something special at the Chesil Masters.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John reported once again that we were maintaining a healthy membership and our finances were on a sound footing.

There were individual reports on various activities we have promoted throughout the year but he thanked the various organizers who had helped us run the events:

Nick Haward with the Daiwa Irish pairs had done a major job this year by moving the headquarters to Dingle and new accommodation. It had been a great success and he congratulated Nick and his team. Dates had already been set for 2005.

Eddie Painter had run the Individual League with the final at Felixstowe. This had been a close result with Andy Gallagher having two zone wins just holding off Steve Adams, Robert Tuck and Syd Wisdom who all had a first and a second. There was to be a discussion later into the meeting about this event, we had already agreed to continue the £1000 sponsorship for next year but unless support increases we may have to reconsider future sponsorship.

Darren Phillips with the Challenge matches. This year has seen a rise in applications which had made the task much easier. He was pleased to report that we won the match in Belgium quite handsomely and were looking forward to taking on the Forces at Cardiff in early December. He wished the team well.

Keith Morley who runs the National Sea League with the final having been held at Stranrear. This was Keith’s first national final event, going into it with some trepidation, and now having got this first one under his belt he would be more comfortable with future events.

SAMF continues to play an active part in the International scene, Chris Clark is chairman of the international selectors, with Dick Penny and himself as selectors for the shore events. He was pleased to report that they had got it right this year with the following results:

World Shore , Men                 Gold medal

                                                Individual Gold          Steve Almark

                                                Individual Silver         Ian Golds

                        Ladies             Gold Medal

                                                Individual Silver         Pauline Ferry

                                                Individual Bronze       Sherryl Bellfield

These matches were hosted by England and fished at Weymouth. Many SAMF members gave up their time to help steward the event and they were grateful to them all.

                                    Juniors             Bronze medal

                                    Youth              4^th position

Home Nations,            Men                 Gold

                                    Juniors             Gold

The SAMF match team represented England in the World Club Championship in Sicily but sadly had a disastrous last day which saw their medal hopes fade as they finished 7^th.

He finished by thanking all those people who ran qualifiers for us, especially Dick Penny and of course all our thanks go to Andy Steele who continues to do more work than the rest of us put together. 

SECRETARIES REPORT

Andy started by saying that he felt this had been a disappointing year for several reasons and that match fishing in general appeared to be in the doldrums:

Membership had fallen to its lowest for several years with 408 members of which 29 were life members, and just 3 juniors. However this was still relatively healthy and had been partly die to low numbers of new members joining to fish the Masters.

We were struggling for numbers to fish the Masters which had resulted in this years prize fund being lower than usual.

Both the National Sea League and the Individual league were suffering low numbers of participants.

We had to persuade non members to represent us in the Challenge matches.

However there was some good news and Andy congratulated the team that had done so well in Belgium, and the World championship teams, especially Steve Almark and Ian Golds for their individual successes.

He went on to thanks to Darren Phillips, Eddie Painter and Keith Morley for their continued efforts in running their events, Dick Penny for his work with this years Masters, and once again a big thanks to John Amery for his continued support.

Andy finished by also thanking the membership for their positive support for the federation.

TREASURERS REPORT

SAMFs net worth has decreased to £9766.86, from last year, a difference of £958.59. This is the first time that we had made a loss for several years and takes us back to the same figure as at 1966. However there are a a number of reasons for this, mainly because membership was down reducing income by £1375.00. Also the expenditure includes the purchase of a new digital camera and printer/photocopier. However we are still in a healthy position when you consider the sponsorship we do i.e. Individual League, Irish Pairs, World Club Championships and 50% of the cost of challenge matches. We will have to keep a close eye on things but it was recommended that the subscription rate of £15.00 remained the same for 2004.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

We had received one resignations from area representatives, Dave Wright from Anglia,  Ian Bowell, with help from Colin Provins were duly elected to cover this area

The following people were elected:

John Amery – Chairman

Chris Clark – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North East – Tom Parkin

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Mick Flynn

Anglia – Dave Wright

Sussex – Dick Penny & Angel Wolfenden

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter, assisted by Hugh Rathbone.

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS

Nick Haward was absent but had left a comprehensive report with the secretary. Once again the competition had gone smoothly and well supported by 69 pairs. This year the HQ and accommodation had moved into Dingle which had gone down very well with the competitors. The choice of new venues is also welcomed by the competitors, however the move to 100% measure and return for the specimen hunt had stirred up a few arguments. Next years competition had already been organised for the 17^th – 24^th September, along the same lines as last year.

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES

SAMF will once again sponsor the final with £1000. The 2005 final will be at Blackpool on the 14^th, 15^th & 16^th October. There is the possibility of sponsorship from Greys.

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

Keith Morley reported that next years final will follow the Masters and will be in Eastbourne in 2005, and he would be contacting Dick Penny over the arrangements. One major concern was the fact that the North Wales team were not being allowed into local leagues. The view of the members was that we should be insisting that local leagues accept them, however this was not a decision to be taken at this AGm and should be a matter for league secretaries.  

CHALLENGE MATCHES

We are concerned that not many people are applying for these matches. Fished as they are as pegged, catch and release and bait issued, they provide valuable experience on this type of fishing for our members. Remember, we fund 50% of the cost of these events so it does not cost an arm and a leg to participate. All our members are eligible to apply, so don’t be shy to put your name forward. As well as keenly contested matches the events are also good on the social side and many new friends have been made.

WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

John reported that SAMF have been selected to send a team to represent England in the 2005 World Clubs Championship in Portugal, on the Atlantic coast in late April. Applications for the team were being sought. These events are run on exactly the same format as the full- blown World Championships and provide an ideal opportunity for our members to sample this level of competition. The World Clubs could well be a stepping stone for future England team members.

NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL FUND

Once again Mark Rogers was due run this match which was planned for 2^nd January on the Parade at Hythe. He was being helped by Peter Owen at Folkestone Angling.

Fishing was 1.30p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Registration 11.30 a.m at The Fountain.Pre book only, no bait bans, £25 all in. 

FINAL 2005 – PROPOSALS FOR CHESIL

Hugh Rathbone gave his proposals for the 2005 Masters at Chesil on 12^th & 13^th November (subsequently changed to 5^th & 6^th November). Arrangements are the same as usual, with the HQ being Freshwater Holiday Park. The main points being:

• No freeline floatfishing
• Catch and release to weight to length.
• Bait will be restricted to Lug, king ragworm, fishbaits (not shellfish) squid/cuttle, no additives.
• No grounbaiting.
• A shortage of able bodies will mean we need volunteers to peg the beach.

The proposal to restrict bait generated a discussion on whether this was right, one comment made was the secretary had reported a lack of juniors in SAMF and to restrict the baits would help to encourage the younger anglers. It was also stated that the rules for fishing SAMF matches should always be the same. A vote was taken which was very close – 35 against restricting baits, 38 for, which meant that this years proposals were accepted, however John said that this should be the subject of a debate at next years AGM.

ALF

There was no change to the ALF fund as reported at the last AGM.

PROPOSALS AND RULE CHANGES

We had not received any proposals or rule changes.

 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

A concern was raised about the possibility of rod licenses being issued to sea anglers, and John explained the official NFSA position on this matter.

A discussion was held on the merits of using the catch and release system which we had used for the first time in the Masters. In general the members felt it was a god system and that we should continue to use it, however they were concerned about the split into ¼ s and ½ s and that we should move towards metric. This would help anglers being accurate with their additions. 

John finished by thanking Eastbourne A.A. for their assistance over the weekend, the meeting closed at   11.30 p.m.

The AGM was opened at 7.40 p.m. and the chairman John Amery welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Chris Clark, Dave Wright and Paul Fenech.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM

The minutes had been circulated previously and were approved by Jimmy Briggs and Dick Penny as a true record. There were no matters arising.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John reported that once again this year SAMF continued to enjoy a healthy membership and that our finances were very sound.

We continued to increase our activities for the membership and since the last AGM we have had the first two Individual League finals and he congratulated Colin Richards for the 2002 win and Paul Stevens for winning this years final. Next years final has already been arranged and SAMF would once again sponsor it with £1000.

The National Sea League had run into problems with the organisation this year, which had threatened the final in Clacton, resulting in John having become involved. He thanked Richard Holgate and his team members for all their help and support. A meeting was held at the event to thrash out the difficulties, hopefully resolving these difficulties and moving on successfully. Keith Morley had volunteered, and was accepted, to take over as the new secretary and he is now working on the 2004 final which is being fished in Loch Ryan.

John reported on our continued success in the challenge matches, having beaten Belgium at Selsey and the combined forces at Bridlington. Unfortunately the latter event had been a shambles, first we were given dates which clashed with other events resulting in us failing to raise a team. Then we were given dates in October, and at short notice with the help of local members from Humberside we eventually raised a team of 15 anglers. It was a scratch team, which fortunately was good enough to maintain our winning record, BUT, John was very disappointed in our member’s response. SAMF puts funding into the event and we always have a good rapport with the competition, so it is up to members to apply for the teams. He does not want to see the fixture disappear, but equally we will not be ringing round in the future begging people to make up the team.

We again attended the World Club Championship in Yugoslavia, not so successful as last year as we could only manage 11^th place out of 17, but it was a good learning curve.

John also congratulated our members who had made up the world championship team, having won the title in Portugal, which was a particularly pleasing performance. Also earlier this year England youth had become champions at Bridlington and the England casting team also won, meaning that England had 3 teams at the top of the world.  In the home countries shore championship England took silver medal.

SAMF members had played important parts in all of these.

John finished by expressing his thanks to those people who pit the effort into running events for us: Nick Haward for the Pairs, Eddie Painter for the Individual League, Darren Phillips for the Challenge matches, Dick Penny and all the area representatives who run qualifying competitions for the. And Andy Steele who does more work than the rest of us put together.

SECRETARIES REPORT

Andy started by saying how surprised he was that he was still in office considering that he had given more than 5 years service and that he had announced in April 2003 that he wanted to stand down. However, everything was still going well and SAMF continued to be in a healthy position, as we would see from the treasures report. We have 440 members this year of which 28 were life members.

Andy also expressed his disappointment at the apparent lack of interest in the challenge matches saying that it was several years now since we used the selection committee, having to now ask members to represent us, even to the extent at having 2 non members in the last team at Bridlington. However he congratulated the 3 successful teams, especially the Forces team which had been thrown together at the last minute, and Paul Jefferson for being top angler.

Support for the Individual league was not taking off either, and Andy reminded the members that SAMF put a lot of cash into sponsoring all these events. He also congratulated Paul Stevens for winning this years’ Individual League final. 

Andy was hopeful that this next year would see the introduction of a successful website, something that had been given a ‘back seat’ in the list of priorities.

He finished off by thanking Darren Phillips, Dick Penny, Eddie Painter and John for their assistance, Keith Morley for taking over the National Sea Leagues and Nick Haward for continuing to run the Irish Pairs. He also thanked members for their support and in particular those that had encouraged him to stay on as secretary.

TREASURERS REPORT

SAMFs net worth is £10725.45, which is an increase of £289.49 from last year. Making a small profit like this shows that SAMF is in a very healthy position when you consider the expense we have incurred this year.  We have sponsored 3 challenge team events and the world club championships, committed to continuing the sponsorship of the Individual League Final prize fund, and the Third Party Public Liability insurance continues to be a major outlay.

This expenditure has been covered by the increase in subscriptions to £15.00. Also after long negotiations with Angling Times we agreed to go 50/50 on the sponsorship deal they pulled out of for the 2001 sea league final, and we have now received £500.

It was recommend that the subscription rate of £15.00 remained the same for 2004.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

We had received two resignations from area representatives, Paul Fenech from the North East and Mick Davies from Kent. Tom Parkin and Mark Rogers were duly elected to cover these areas respectively. The following people were elected:

John Amery – Chairman

Chris Clark – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North East – Tom Parkin

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Mick Flynn

Anglia – Dave Wright

Sussex – Dick Penny & Angel Wolfenden

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS

Nick Haward was absent but had left a brief report with the secretary. Once again the competition had gone smoothly and well supported by 80+ pairs. Next years competition had already been organised for the 18^th – 25^th September, along the same lines as last year, however the HQ and most of the chalet accommodation is moving to Dingle.

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES

SAMF will once again sponsor the final with £1000. Andy pointed out that with this sponsorship the prize list was excellent and he hoped more people would organise leagues. They only need to be a member to do so, they do not need to be the official area representative. 2004 final will be at Felixstowe, 16/17^th October.

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

Keith Morley reported that next years final had been organised for Stranraer. He had been up to the area recently and had spoken to local organisers. Correspondence to league secretaries would been sent in the next month. The final will be fished 7/8^th May.

CHALLENGE MATCHES

No date received for the Combined Forces match, the Belgium challenge is in September 3/4th and applications have been requested in the recent Newsletter. 

WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

These are to be fished in Sicily early May. Applications for selection had been requested in the newsletter.

NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL FUND

Andy thanked Mark Rogers for running this years match in Kent and we had received a further £30 for the fund. A volunteer is being sought for the 2004 match.

FINAL 2004 – PROPOSALS FOR THE SOUTH EAST

Dick Penny discussed his proposals for next years final to be held at Eastbourne on the weekend of the 26^th November, which was accepted. After discussions it was agreed that Dick would look at the possibility of running the matches into darkness to improve the fishing, however this would mean that we would have to bring the date forward one week.

Dick penny also pointed out that this would be the silver jubilee of the event and we should think about doing something to make it special.

ALF

There was no change to the ALF fund as reported at the last AGM.

PROPOSALS AND RULE CHANGES

We had not received any proposals or rule changes.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Ian Hopper asked for clarification on the qualifying procedure for the National Sea League final. John replied referring him to the minutes from the meeting in Clacton.

Jim Briggs asked Keith Morley who he had been in contact with over running the National Sea League final in Stranrear. Jimmy was concerned that he was the area representative for SAMF and he had not been involved. Keith agreed to speak to Jimmy outside of the meeting.

It was also suggested that the National Sea League final be run into darkness, which the organisers will consider.

Meeting closed at 09.00 p.m.

The AGM was opened at 7.45 p.m. and the chairman John Amery welcomed everyone to the meeting. Before proceedings began he asked for a minutes silence in remembrance of our vice President John Browning who had died recently.

APOLOGIES – The only apologies received were from Chris Clark

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM – The minutes had been circulated previously and were approved by Dave Wright and Paul Fenech as a true record. There were no matters arising.

CHAIRMANS REPORT – John report that SAMF continued to enjoy a healthy membership and the finances were sound. He explained about the introduction of the Individual league and that we would continue to sponsor the final next year with £1000.

John also told members about SAMF sending a team to the World Club Championships, he was delighted to have won the silver medal and congratulated the team. He explained about the lack of funding from the NFSA and that SAMF had contributed towards the costs of team members. 

John went on to Explain about SAMFs major contribution to the NFSA selection process and reminded us that every member of the England teams were SAMF members.

John thanked the secretary for coping with the ever increasing workload, and also other committee members who share in the working of SAMF: Nick Haward, Eddie Painter, Darren Phillips, Ian Bowell, Dick Penny, Sid Wisdom who had organised this years Nigel Robinson match and all members who ran qualifying matches.

John mentioned two issues, bait restrictions and measure & return size limits that were on the agenda later. He finished by thanking all members for their continued support.

SECRETARIES REPORT – Andy started by saying how fast the last 5 years had gone and that it was with regret that he was giving notice that he will be standing down in April 2003. SAMF had achieved a lot during this period. He explained that now was the time for everyone to consider a successor for the role.

Andy said he was very grateful for the support he had received during his time as secretary and that he would be leaving SAMF in a healthy position. Membership had grown to an average of 400 members per year, 25 of which were life members, but disappointingly only 2 juniors. Of the things that had been achieved during the last 5 years the following were the most noticeable:

-          Introducing a catch and release policy for all SAMF matches.

-          Much closer links with the NFSA.

-          Introduction of the Individual Leagues.

-          Extending the Forces Challenge to include the Police and Fire Brigade.

-          Sending a team to the World Club Championships.

-          Introducing life memberships.

Andy also explained about the increasing workload coming through the office and thanked Darren Phillips, Dick Penny, Eddie Painter and John for their assistance.

Not everything had gone smoothly and the problems surrounding the third party public liability insurance this year had proved to be a major headache, this was to be discussed in more detail in the treasurers report. Another area of concern was the decline in area representatives and match organisers.

Andy finished by saying he still wanted to be involved in SAMF and thanked everyone for the support they had given him.

TREASURERS REPORT – SAMFs net worth is £10435.96 which is a slight decrease of £342.00 from last year. However there are a number of reasons for this: 16 months since the last AGM, £950 to cover AT sponsorship (£500 of which will be repaid), Sponsorship of the Individual League £1000, Third Party Public Liability insurance up £1.75 per head, Challenge team expenses of £961 & computer repairs of £463.

Even though we are still in a healthy position the committee proposed to increase subscriptions for next year to £15 which was unanimously agreed. This was the first increase for many years and would cover the increase in insurance and give more financial help to match team members. It was also unanimously agreed that we would pay for every individual to be insured by the Northern Federation insurance scheme irrespective of whether members were covered by the NFSA as individual members.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS – We have received two resignations from area representatives, Leigh Field from the North West and Chris Smith from North Wales. Bill Lindfield and Mick Flynn were duly elected to cover these areas respectively. The following people were elected:

John Amery – Chairman

Chris Clark – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North East – Paul Fenech

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Mick Flynn

Anglia – Dave Wright

Sussex – Dick Penny & Angel Wolfenden

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mick Davies

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS Nick Haward was absent but had left a report with the secretary, which he briefly outlined. Nick had taken over from John and this was the first he had organised. Once again the competition had gone smoothly and well supported by 80+ pairs. Nick had introduced a few changes to aid our conservation policy and was trying new venues to create interest. The weather had been unbelievably good which had not harmed the fishing, Andy finished by congratulating the winners, Peter Fairclough & Martin Sherwin.

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES Eddie Painter gave a report on this years final to be fished on Chesil this December which will be contested by 40 qualifiers. He also told us about the leagues already set up for next year, and explained now was the time to take action if any member wanted to start a league. Next years final is to be organised by Dick Penny on 11^TH and 12^TH October and SAMF will once again sponsor the final with £1000.

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE Ian Bowell gave a report on last years final and the rational behind the decision to move next years final to Clacton, which is on 3^rd & 4^th May.

NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL FUND John thanked Sid Wisdom for running this year’s event in Preston that had put £97 into the fund, which now stands at £1533.09. Mark Rogers volunteered to organise next years match on the Parade in Kent, and Andy said he would contact him about the details.

FINAL 2003 – PROPOSALS FOR THE NORTH WEST Bill Lindfield proposed next years final to be in the River Mersey on 29^th & 30^th November. He told members about his plans for the event and answered questions about the fishing. In the absence of any other proposal this was unanimously accepted.

ALF John explained that the fund, which stands at £11338, seems to be a substantial amount but probably would not be enough if we had to use legal services to fight a case. However the way the fund was set up it could only be used by Sea Anglers.

PROPOSALS AND RULE CHANGES

Earlier John had spoken about two issues which had provoked quite a difference of opinion amongst members – bait restrictions and catch & release size limits. Darren Phillips had produced a paper on these subjects which had been circulated as far as possible prior to the meeting. John explained that he wanted to have an open forum on these subjects so that the committee could take the views of members into consideration for future events, and that no decision was to be taken at this meeting. Darren presented his document to the members explaining the rationale behind his views. There followed quite an intensive debate and it was quite obvious that there were strong arguments on both sides.

To bring matters to a close Tony Burman made a proposal that SAMF did not have any further bait restrictions and that all future matches be fished catch & release to a minimum size limit of 18cms. Several members seconded this and Darren accepted that this was a good compromise. A vote followed 26 for the proposal and 15 against, therefore the proposal was carried.      

SAMF had received a written proposal from a member and seconded by several members to reduce the number of hooks from 3 to 2. The rationale was to conserve fish stocks & bait beds, help measure and return and let others see that we were making a contribution to angling. After a brief discussion a majority vote was made against this proposal.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS Mick Flynn offered a vote of thanks to the secretary for his work during the last 5 years.

Meeting closed at 09.30 p.m.