CARISMA 5th AGM, 5 August 2003

Attending: Massimo, Duncan, Jack, Vicki, Raheela, bioon, Becky,o Chrin Turner, James, Malcolm, Clio, Davina, Anna, Floriado, Mark

Minutes

• Introduction: Massimo welcomed everyone to the meeting
• Financial report: Mark presented the clubs finances for the past year. The clubs balance has increased throughout the year and the club is now in a healthy position financially.
• Massimo made a series of points:
  • A change in the club ethos towards encouraging people dedicated to learning Kick boxing has lead to this current healthy financial position.
  • It has also led to a general rise in the general level of training over the past year.
  • The Sunday class will have to change location soon as Chesterton Community College will be closed on Sundays
  • The club would like to run more activities like the AGT and seminars, possibly in conjunction with other clubs.
  • Becky S and Robin W have both been appointed to the position of Carisma associate assistant instructors. An instructors course is planned for the near future to discuss issues relating to running classes.
  • Discipline: Some things have been highlighted as being distractions from the smooth running of lessons and were bought to the clubs attention. These are excessive talking in class, and also play-fighting.
  • Massimo expressed his thanks to everyone gathered for their help in running the class over the past few months.
• The Annual General Training: this will be held on the weekend of the 20th-21st September, and will consist of 5 hours of training on both days. Massimo's Master, Master Bottini a seventh dan black belt, will be coming to Cambridge, along with three of his black belts, to help run this training session. Massimo emphasized that this will not be like a regular training session, but will be aimed at a level that will allow everyone to participate thoroughly for the two days. The AGT will be open to anyone with a basic grounding in martial arts.
• Vacating Chesterton Community College: Not only is CCC closing over the summer, but it is getting too expensive for the quality of venue provided. For the short term it was agreed to move the Sunday class to Kelsey Kerridge. A decision on the long term location of this class is to be taken by the committee in the future.
• Members of the Committee: currently the committee consists of:
  • President: Massimo
  • Treasurer: Mark
  • Competition organizer: Robin T
  • Extra position: Melvin Burton
  • Extra position: Robin Wesson
  It was noted that instructors form a majority on the committee and it was wondered whether it might be beneficial to have more non-instructors/lower belts involved. No lower belts or non-instructors offered themselves for any of the positions and the general consensus seemed to be that the current committee is doing fine. It was also pointed out that the decisions that the committee takes are relatively low key and any major decisions are debated at either the AGM or an extraordinary general meeting. It was also suggested that positions on the committee might have a limited lifespan (say 2 years) at which point they would automatically be up for a formal re-election.
• A.O.B.:
  • Robin T mentioned out success at competitions and encouraged anyone interested in supporting to come along. The next competition is on 14th September. Anyone interested to talk to Robin T. Massimo also advertised the sparring class on Mondays as a way to prepare for competitions and to practice the techniques learnt through out the week.
  • Beginners: Currently we are only accepting beginners when the membership dips. Massimo is happy for this policy to continue and no one seemed to object.