MINUTES OF THE SFCA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT THE KIRKINTILLOCH MINERS CLUB ON 25 th MARCH 2014

Committee Present:

Apologies:

Clubs Represented:

Apologies:

Gus BrindleSaul GardiinerRonnie ArmstrongRon WoodsJohn RaeAllan PellowHeather LauristonFraser SimpsonRosalind Cassidy

Robert WatsonChris Paton

Scottish Carp GroupMagiscroftCentral OrchillLanarkshireDams to DarnleyPAAS

Monklands

Chairman Vice ChairmanHonorary TreasurerPolicy OfficerDevelopment OfficerChild Protection OfficerEquity OfficerFish RecorderLadies Development Officer

Honorary SecretaryInternational Team Manager

Item(a)

Discussion and Decision(b)

Action (c)

1. Opening Remarks

1. Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming all those present and thanking them for finding time to attend.

2. Apologies had been received from the Honorary Secretary, International Manager and Monklands who were unable to make the meeting.

3. The Chairman informed those present that, as his Christmas Message and the draft Annual Business Plan contained a full summary of the past year from the Chairman’s perspective and were available on the website, he would limit his opening comments to what he saw as key issues currently facing the Federation and the Priorities for Action for the coming year. He again urged Clubs and members to read the Annual Business Plan and engage with the Executive Committee on issues that were important to them or their members. So far the Chairman had received just two responses to the consultation on the Annual Business Plan and one of these was simply to pick up grammatical/spelling errors. This either meant that the Executive Committee was truly gifted and had adequately covered every issue of concern to the membership, or either the Plan wasn’t being read or coarse anglers in Scotland just weren’t bothered if it didn’t directly affect them. He stressed that to be effective the Executive Committee needed feedback as without it we are just operating in isolation. He then briefly went through the PFAs for the coming year which are detailed in the Annual Business Plan. Membership and increasing the number of clubs and coaches

would again be the major driver for 2014-15. The final version of the Annual Business Plan will be issued as soon as the comments from the recent sportscotland Audit were received from KPMG and any action points had been included. In the interim period the Executive Committee will begin to work from the Draft Plan.

4. The Chairman then gave a brief update on the Loch Fitty project with SRG. Sadly, as many would already be aware, shortly after the last AGM SRG went into receivership. The result was that all of the work that we have done to try to secure the future of coarse fishing on the Loch Fitty site had come to nothing. On the upside, with the plans to drain the Loch now shelved, at least for the short term, the site had simply been secured and the fish left to get on in peace. SRGs business was now in new ownership and it was the Chairman’s intent to try to identify a new point of contact and to re-open negotiations on access to the fishing in the coming months. Information will be published on the website as it becomes available. John Rae informed the meeting that linked to the comments of the Chairman, he had however not given up on the development of the old settling ponds on the old SRG Poneil site at Douglas to create a small coarse fishery to coach local children. This may now however need to be approached in a different way through the local Rural Development Council and he said that he was looking for a club or group in the South Lanarkshire area to lead on the issue. Clubs or groups interested should contact him at development@sfca.co.uk.

5. As most of the key on going issues were going to be covered in the Agenda the Chairman ended his opening address by committing the Executive Committee to continuing to engage in every area to ensure that it is best placed to influence policy makers and protect the future of our sport.

2. Matters from Last meeting.

1. Minutes of the last meeting had been published on the website and were agreed as a true record of proceedings.

Proposed by: Lanarkshire Seconded by: SCG

2. There were no matters arising from the previous minutes.

CARRIED

3. Election of Officers

1. The Chairman informed the meeting that there were currently no posts due to return this year and thus no election of officers was required. He did however remind member clubs that in accordance with the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Plan they had the opportunity to elect a non-Executive Director to the Executive Committee. The role of this post was to provide external scrutiny back to the membership on the running of the SGB and to ensure that it was operating in the best interests of all members. This post had not been filled for a number of years and the Chairman strongly encouraged member clubs to put forward nominations to the Honorary Secretary.

4. Officers’ Reports

1. Marketing and Media. Work on the website, and in particular addressing the areas that still had no content, have proven very difficult this year and was one of the areas where the Executive Committee accepted that they had to do better. The problem as always was obtaining suitable images and information. The Vice Chairman reminded the meeting that the Executive Committee were all volunteers and could not hope to be able to produce all of the data and images themselves or indeed stories for the Facebook page and urge clubs to engage and assist in this area. Despite this the website remains very popular and the Facebook page had continued to attract more traffic. Of the 789 members who joined in 2013, over 85% had joined using the on line membership application process and paying through PayPal. He then went on to encourage clubs to use the Facebook page and indeed the website to promote and market their clubs and events. Catch reports and photographs were most welcome as they were a great way of encouraging visitors to the pages and indeed more youngsters out onto the bank. . 2. Finance. The meeting was then taken through the Balance Sheet and Income and Expenditure for the year from 1st April 2013 until 21st March 2014 (copy attached). The Chairman reminded the meeting that the financial year does not end until 31st March and that an audited copy of the final accounts would be published on the SFCA website by the end of April. The SFCA remains in a healthy position to meet it commitment and was at last becoming less reliant on the annual grant from sportscotland. Membership had again increased significantly in 2013 but it was again disappointing that almost 340 individuals who have previously joined failed to do so in 2013. Club and individual members all have a role to play in promoting membership. The Chairman then took the meeting through the proposed outline budget for the coming year. Expenditure would naturally be in line with Income as the Federation must continue to live within its means. The Chairman then informed the meeting that sportscotland had taken the decision to pay our funding on a quarterly basis, at least until the results of the KPMG Audit were received. He had been assured that this was not due to any concerns about the governance of the SFCA but that as funding was now allocated to the three SGBs against the One Plan, any failing by one reflected and impact on all three. While this seems extremely unfair given that we have exceeded all of our targets within the One Plan, there is little that we can do. The issue going forward is that with effectively only £1250 being paid on a quarterly basis, and most of our development activity taking place in the warmer summer months during the school holidays, we would need to dip into our GPF capital in order to continue to run the activity that we had planned. Should funding for any reason be subsequently withheld by sportscotland we would have an Excess of Expenditure over income for the year. The options were to accept that risk or cut activity and these will need to be considered by the Executive Committee over the coming weeks once the KPMG audit report has been received.

3. Policy. The Policy Officer then updated the meeting on all of the work that had been undertaken, and in some cases was continuing on a political level.

a. Lowland Canals Angling Ranger Project. Feedback from members over the last couple of years indicates that the quality of the fishing on the canals is deteriorating and that stocks of some species, especially pike, are in decline due to pot hunting. This initiative started with an approach by SFCA to Marine Scotland and Scottish canals in early 2013 for support to set up a scheme whereby volunteer “rangers” (this is the current working title) would patrol the towpath to encourage anglers to buy SFCA memberships, fish according to the rules, and in general behave responsibly. The weakness of current Scottish freshwater fisheries legislation means that a “control” model would be unlikely to succeed. However, we believe a great deal can be achieved by an approach based on informing and educating anglers on the bankside. For the minority who are not receptive to persuasion, we would seek to collect information on problem locations and try to target any more directive action that might be available. There was a pause of several months following our initial discussions with the prospective partners, but dialogue resumed towards the end of 2013 and has moved ahead positively. We now have commitment from SC and MS to provide funds and other resources to employ a paid “Co-ordinator” to set up a pilot from June 2014 until March 2015, with outline agreement to continue to support the initiative for at least another year thereafter depending on initial results.

b. Wild Fisheries Review. When the 2012 Aquaculture & Fisheries Act was going through the Scottish Parliament SFCA raised concerns that it did not deal with key problems regarding the protection of coarse fish stocks and the way in which access for freshwater angling is regulated. We were advised that the Scottish Government would soon carry out a wide ranging review of the management of freshwater fisheries in Scotland and that this would enable us to air these issues. The promised Review has now commenced, and is being led by Andrew Thin, outgoing Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage and shortly to become Chairman of Scottish Canals. The full terms of reference and further background information are at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishreview . Andrew Thin has already met informally with a range of stakeholder groups, including Gus and myself on behalf of SFCA. He also intends to invite interested parties to “round table” discussion meetings at 18 locations across Scotland between April and June, and in addition will be issuing an open invitation in April to anyone who may wish to submit written contributions to the Review's deliberations. In order that

SFCA has a clear and consistent policy line that is widely supported by our members, covers all the main issues of concern to coarse anglers, and is backed up by hard evidence of the problems, the SFCA Committee has agreed a draft policy document which includes specific proposals and comments on issues which we believe are appropriate to the Review. We posted the draft on the SFCA website around a week ago inviting comments and asking members if there are any other issues they wish us to raise. As yet no comments or suggestions have been received, but you can still send them to me (at policyofficer@sfca.co.uk ) up to 31st March. We would also urge individuals and member clubs:

(1) to let us have detailed information (dates, places, and ideally also photos) of any recent examples of:

illegal nets, traps or setlines used to take coarse fish; systematic pot hunting for coarse fish using ordinary

fishing tackle; culling of coarse fish, whether by nets etc or “catch &

kill” policies by fishery owners

fish kills or losses among coarse fish populations resulting from drainage works or other actions to artificially alter water levels.

(2) to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves to contribute written comments and/or attend the “round table” meetings mentioned above. We will be in touch directly about this.

This Review is the best chance we will have in a generation – maybe longer - to influence the way coarse fish and coarse anglers are treated in Scotland. It’s crucial that we make the most of it. Please take the time to help us do that.

4. Coaching & Development. The Coaching & Development Officer then gave an update on activities that the Federation had been engaged in over the past year which had again been extremely busy.

2013 Started full of promise with the introduction of the new National Progression award in schools being rolled out for the first time, also there was the commitment by Scottish Coal to develop a site for use as a coaching and competition venue.The NPA has been a distinct success with three schools choosing to be assessed on coarse angling skills, and another school having a coarse angling day out as part of their course.The fly in the ointment for the year was that within two weeks of announcing the Scottish Coal deal they went into liquidation. So it was back to square one trying to find a venue and someone to

develop it in partnership with the SFCA.The SFCA once again exceeded the targets set by sportscotland for training new UKCC Level 1 and Level 2 coaches, and in the coming year in addition to meeting the coaching targets we hope to train three new SQA Assessors.On the coaching front by 2015 all SFCA coaches shall be licensed by the Angling Development Board, this will ensure that all coaches are insured, disclosure checked, trained to UKCC level and have trained in child protection and first aid. The aim of the licensing is to instil public confidence that all coaching delivered would be to nationally agreed standards for quality and safety.The club angling program was delivered to over two hundred and fifty participants on venues across Scotland, these included Barrhead Dams, Forth and Clyde Canal, Orchil, Magiscroft, Newmills and Springwater, with participation from schools, after schools groups, youth groups, angling clubs, disability groups and social inclusion groups. This program is very popular and it is to be hoped that we can find a bit more funding this year to increase the participation and the geographical spread of the events.We have once again been invited to become involved in coaching for disability and schools groups in the Dumfries and Galloway area, this shall be a return to an area where in the past we had very strong links through the Barony College.We also took part in various open events where people could come and try angling for the first time or to have advice on improving their angling skills. These events are also very popular with over one hundred and fifty participants of all ages.The coaches were all invited to Continuous Professional Development courses for first, aid child protection, club angling improving your coaching styles, and also a skills day with various current internationalists. These were all well attended.

For 2014- 2015 we are introducing a new certificated series of awards known as the Cast Awards, these consist of seven different skill levels from the very basic to advanced level, and shall be used to encourage people of all ages to participate in coarse angling. They shall also be used as pre course evidenced learning, for anyone considering progressing onto the UKCC coaching pathway. We have a program of ten club angling events planned, four UKCC coach training courses, three coach CPD events and up to eleven schools involved in the NPA Angling and The Aquatic Environment courses. In addition we will be running coaching open days during the Stirling International Angling Festival, Dams to Darnley open Day, Possilpark Greenspace open day, and the Falkirk Wheel Event.

We shall actively endeavour to find any interested party or parties with whom we can form a partnership to develop a Federation Fishery.

5. Competitions and International Performance. In the absence of the International Team Manager, the Chairman provided a brief overview of competitive angling over the past year. The

International Team Manager’s formal report is included below.

The Junior International Team Coach, Allan Pellow, then delivered the following report on Junior International performance:

a. Junior Celtic Cup 2013 (10th and 11th August 2013):

Position TeamDay 1

PtsDay 2

Pts Overall Pts1st Wales 12 10 222nd Scotland 11 15 263rd Ireland 19 17 36

On 10th and 11th August 2013 the Scotland Junior International Team fished to defend the Celtic Cup at Bron Eifion fishery near Criccieth against Wales and Ireland. The seven man team representing Scotland travelled down on Wednesday, 7th August, for two days of practice before the two day event. The team consisted of Peter Dick, Josh Trueman, Scott McAuley, Curtis Craig, John Baird, Dylan Duncan and Scott Laird.

Practice went well and Scotland had worked out a few tactics that produced carp “on demand” over both days and the team were confident going into day one.

Day one. Everything went to plan and Scotland took the lead with 11 points, one point clear of Wales with 12, followed by Ireland on 19 points. Scotland had 3 section wins and 4 second places.

Day two. Didn’t go plan and Wales dominated the sections beating Scotland by 5 points.

In the end Wales won the match Scotland came second and Ireland third. Scotland had put up a good defence of the Cup but unfortunately it wasn’t to be this year. The Wales manager later said “I want to congratulate you and your team on providing an epic weekend of match fishing”.

All three management teams agree that the Junior Celtic Cup is an event that we wish to see continue and grow.

We would like to thank all of our supporters and sponsors; The SFCA, Scottish Sports Aid, Strikemore Baits, Clarkson Commercials and Daiwa

b. U23 World Championship 2014, Assen, Netherlands:

Nominations from: Josh Trueman, Dylan Duncan, John Baird, Peter Dick, James Dornom, Curtis Craig.Squad selected: Josh Trueman, Dylan Duncan, John Baird, Peter Dick, James Dornom.Support staff, A.Pellow, John Baird Snr and Mark Trueman.All arrangements are underway. Everything is priced reasonably

accurately except bait. Total expenditure expected to be approximately £5500 with a deficit at the moment of £2000. We received a Grant from SportsAid Scotland for £1000 others include a Grant from SFCA of approximately £2000 depending on particular expenses such as entry fees etc. We have received notice of a grant from Orchill Central Coarse Angling club for £250 which is very generous. Orchill is arranging to send a cheque and we will reply in writing afterwards. We have a potential sponsorship pending with a bid in progress for amounts ranging from £400 - £2000. If we do not receive the funding the deficit will be made up by individual contributions.

c. Celtic Cup 2014 at Magiscroft August

Nominations from: Josh Trueman, Dylan Duncan, Scot McAuley, Curtis Craig, Ewan Whitehouse, Dylan Resterick, John Rushforth. Need 1 or 2 more nominations to allow flexibility in Team selection.Arrangements are being made by Chairman.

d. Training Sessions for Juniors

Dates communicated to Chairman and International Manager are; 10th May, 28th June and 5th July. Both teams will be present to practice on the Main Loch at Magiscroft. I would like to request support from the International Senior Team to assist on all three days as well as from management.

e. Identifying New Talent

Our New Talent Pathway is structured to enable young anglers from all age groups to have an opportunity to develop performance capabilities by entering at one of four levels.

(1) Club recognition and referral is aimed at the 10-13 years age group usually coached by club coaches or parents. Clubs are encouraged to put forward talented individuals for consideration by Junior Team staff and entry to the Scottish Junior Championships.

(2) Participation in the annual Scottish Junior National Championship is encouraged for ages 10 – 18 years. This is attended by Junior Team staff to help identify potential talent for selection to the Celtic Cup. SFCA coaches are present for all age groups U14 and U18.

(3) Cup selection and participation in the Celtic Cup operates to engage anglers in full International competition circumstances. Training sessions are held each year accompanied by senior internationals. The training sessions are also aimed at selected individuals identified at National Championship level. Those individuals are able to attend the coaching sessions provided.

(4) The latest identified development structure is the introduction of an under 23 World Championship Team. Again coaching sessions are held annually incorporated within the Celtic Cup arrangement. However there are more opportunities to have informal training sessions as the anglers are more capable and independent.

Finally our plan is to identify potential coaches in our over 18 years age group to assist and take up coaching roles for younger anglers and attend all events.

f. Recommendation

The Scottish Junior National 2015 should be brought forward in the calendar to allow individuals to be identified before the Celtic Cup each year. Possibly Easter or May.

The following is the formal report from the International Team Manager:

This year’s report covers both the domestic and international match fishing review.

a. Domestic Match Fishing. Domestically match fishing continued its strong growth, particularly the open matches which now see an average of 50 anglers which would compare favourably with any match in the UK. 2013 also saw the second Match Angler of The Year competition; a point based league system where anglers gain points from all the various matches throughout the country throughout the season. This was won for the second consecutive year by Scottish International James Woodrow. 2013 also saw a strong Scottish League won by Magiscroft who will have the chance to compete in this year’s World Club Championships. On the open match front there were several well attended matches throughout the season including very successful Junior, Ladies, Seniors and Veterans National championships and new for 2013 a Feeder Championship. 2013 also saw Daiwa continue with their strong support of Domestic Match fishing in Scotland supplying prizes and tackle vouchers in all matches. 2014 looks to be an exciting year as domestic match fishing continues to grow. It’s also sees the continuation of an exciting new rule where the SFCA will pay the match entry for Junior Anglers and underpins our commitment to grow the Scotland team of tomorrow. It will also see the continuation of the strong Daiwa sponsorship. We have two major challenges in 2014. Firstly having no Match Secretary represents a risk. Whilst a temporary solution has been found sharing the match organising amongst member clubs and fisheries it does not give the continuity that is required. We are grateful that Brian

Doherty has kindly agreed to manage the administrative task of collating the results and Stuart Dalgleish has kindly agreed to update the various websites with results and my thanks go to them both. A priority however has to be to get a Match Secretary this season so next season can start to be planned. Secondly, with the emergence of a strong open match scene and strong fishery leagues the SFCA league has reduced in its size. I think we are approaching the stage of investigating alternatives to the league as a mechanism for qualifying for the World Clubs and I will table this for next season.

b. International Match Fishing. A mixed year for our International Teams. From a seniors point of view we’ve now established ourselves as a well-respected strong World International Team. This has meant we are invited to more and more prestigious international events which does bring considerable costs to the anglers. The team (of Jamie Masson and David Corcoran) competed in the prestigious and televised Fishomania Home International and finished an excellent second and picking up the £5k second prize. Having led for most of the event they were extremely unlucky not to win however the £5k prize was a welcome addition towards the team costs of the World Championships. March 2013 saw the team compete in the Sensas Challenge at Packington Sommers and Barston and we also competed in the 2nd Maver Challenge. This year’s World Championships saw a disappointing result for the team at 20th. Whilst this was a significant improvement on the previous year it was not where we expected to be. A difficult peggy venue resulted in a match totally dominated by England. Coupled with some bad draws both in practice and for the match itself saw the team go into the match not as well versed on the venue as we would have liked. That said we saw an excellent individual performance by David Corcoran and Colin Hart made his World Championships debut. Lastly the Celtic Cup which sees the continuation of the link between the senior and junior teams and an opportunity for juniors to move up into the senior squad. This is an example of clear pathways for the junior team and recent examples include James Dorman and John Baird Junior who both have gained senior international caps in recent years. The Celtic cup also saw a Scotland debut for Stuart Dalgleish. From a results point of view the juniors finished a very close second in Bron Eiffion, in August whilst the seniors won in Port Talbot in October, following the cancellation of the second day due to dangerous weather conditions. In accordance with CIPS rules the results at the end of Day 1 stood. 2014 will see us compete in the same events including hosting the Celtic Cup in August which will be known as the Stirling International Angling Festival. We will also see the juniors compete for the first time at the Word Championships which is great news.

One of our main focuses will continue to be fund raising which is now at a critical level for the team with sportscotland not providing funding for Elite Performance. This year will see the introduction of a £1 international levy at all SFCA matches which will go towards offsetting the cost of the various International Teams. This will measure was in response to advice to the International Manager following a meeting with sportscotland and will bring us in line with other Scottish sports. Fund-raising for the foreseeable future will remain one of our main challenges as competing at these events continues to be an extremely expensive way to represent your country.

c. Thanks. There are a number of people I would like to formally acknowledge and thank for their support. Firstly, Daiwa for their on-going sponsorship of Domestic Match Fishing in Scotland. Secondly, David McAuley, Simon Murray and Tommy Lauriston for their excellent roles as match secretaries. They have been integral in the rise of domestic match fishing in Scotland and they leave the roles with our formal thanks. Thirdly, sportscotland for their support and advice on fund raising in particular for the junior team. Fourthly, Gus Brindle for his support as coach to the International Team, Alan Pellow and Ronnie Macleod for their Coaching of the junior team, plus the people that come a support the international team at all levels, especially Stuart Dalgleish and Steve Spurr. Lastly the anglers themselves whose continued support, focus and commitment is second to none often at great personal expense.

6. Fish Recorder. The Policy Officer in his final act as Fish Recorder then provided the following report:

Scottish Record Coarse Fish

There have been two claims submitted since the 2013 AGM. The first a 1lb 9oz Crucian Carp caught by Gavin Postlethwaite which, having been verified as a true Crucian, has been accepted as the official Scottish Record. The second has only been received in the past week and is for a 6lb 6oz still water chub caught by John Whitelaw. This claim is still being processed.

Daiwa SFCA Specimen Fish Competition

With less than a week remaining in this years’ Daiwa Specimen Shield Competition there are three fish in contention to win their captors the fantastic prize of £500-worth of Daiwa tackle kindly donated by the Wishaw based tackle giant. In addition to the two fish put forward for Scottish Records, there is a 26lb 2oz Mirror carp caught by Paul Rogers.

The Executive Committee along with a representative from competition sponsors Daiwa will meet in early April to select the winner who will be invited to Daiwa HQ in Wishaw to select and receive their prize from Stephen McCaveney.

7. The Chairman closed the item by thanking all of the Executive Committee for all of their efforts over the past year and thanked Ron Woods in particular for the considerable amount of personal time that he had given to represent the Federation at political level meetings and putting himself in the firing line at his own expense. Most of these meetings take place during the working day and, without his help, the Chairman simply couldn’t attend them all and Coarse angling would lose its voice in vital areas that had potential to impact on the future of our sport.

5. Constitutional Amendments.

1. There were no proposals for Constitutional change submitted for consideration at this AGM. The Constitution will therefore remain unchanged but will be re-issued dated as at the date of this meeting.

Proposed by: Magiscroft Seconded by: Dams to Darnley CARRIED

6. SIAF. 1. The Chairman gave a brief overview of this year’s inaugural Stirling International Angling Festival which would see more than 500 anglers from 9 nations compete in all three disciplines over the period of 6th – 9th August. The event will be centred on Stirling which would host the International Distance Casting competition on the Field below Stirling Castle. There would be an International Shore Angling competition on Loch Fyne, an International Rivers Game Angling Competition on Rivers around Stirling and the Senior and Junior Celtic Cup Coarse Angling Competitions at Magiscroft. In addition, the SFCA would host the Scottish Ladies National at Orchil the same weekend and there were a number of Loch Style Game Angling matches in aid of Help for Heroes also taking place. The majority of the competitors would be accommodated at Stirling University and there would be a major tackle show and activity event on at the weekend at Stirling’s Bull ring which would be the Hub for the whole event. The Chairman informed the meeting that in addition to offering practical tasters sessions at Magiscroft, the SFCA would also run an activity and information stands at the Hub in Stirling over the weekend. Both of these would be staff with Licensed UKCC coaches. The event was an excellent opportunity to showcase the SFCA and promote the sport of coarse angling in Scotland and he encouraged all clubs and members to come along and support not only the teams but the overall event.

6. National Progression Award.

1. The Chairman then provided an update on the National Progression Award in Angling and the Aquatic Environment. The Chairman had continued to take the lead for the Angling SGBs and was extremely pleased to announce that, thanks to a lot of work by Eric Dawes from ADBoS and Martyn Haines from Barony College, the Level 3 pilot had been a great success with the

children taking the qualification now nearing their final assessments. The enthusiasm of the teachers and support workers from the schools involved in the trial had been incredible and their help and willingness to sharing resources and ideas through the University’s online teaching site Moodle, had help to shape the course ready to go fully live in September this year. Also commencing this September will be the pilot of the NPA level 4, with many of the children who have completed the Level 3 going on to the next level. The challenge now for the SGBs would be to identify and train their coaches to be able to deliver and assess the practical angling elements of the NPA qualification to ensure that the standards set and Externally verified by SQA. This piece of work had the potential to significantly increase the number of young Scots coming into the sport of angling and we must now start to consider how we can ensure that there is a structure of clubs and competitions to support them going forward.

7. Single SGB Agenda.

1. The Chairman informed the meeting that he, the Vice Chairman and the Policy Officer we due to meet with sportscotland in the coming month to look at options for the future structure of governance within Scottish Angling. It had become fairly evident that sportscotland are determined to force the single Angling SGB through and we must therefore all work to ensure that we were in the strongest possible position when it happens and this means encouraging all coarse anglers and all coarse angling clubs in Scotland to join the SFCA. We all have a role to play in this and we cannot just sit back and leave it to the Executive Committee. We must ensure that if we are part of a single SGB we retain the ability to represent the interests of our members and coarse fishing in general whenever access to or protection of coarse fish is threatened and effectively protect the future of our sport in Scotland. This means retaining the autonomy to engage and lobby independently on behalf of our members. With the three SGBs already working closely together on coaching and development and funded through a single plan and bid the single joint SGB proposal looks a natural next step to those outside the sport. Internally, we are all aware of the challenges surrounding nativeness of coarse fish and coarse fish culls by trout clubs and riparian owners and any new organisation would need to be structured in a way that ensured our ability to act on behalf of coarse angling interests. In closing the Chairman informed the meeting that no decision could or would be made without a full consultation with the membership and that more details would be published on the website following the meetings with sportscotland.

8. Membership Fees.

The Chairman informed the meeting that there were no plans to increase membership fees for 2014-15 and that the subject would be revisited by the Executive Committee again in the autumn. If it was felt that an increase was justified clubs and individuals would be consulted prior to any proposal being put forward to next year’s AGM.

9. A.O.C.B. 1. The Chairman reminded those present that membership

renewals were due as at 1st April and that he was currently in the process of emailing all past members individually.

2. There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 2255 hrs and thanked everyone present for finding time to attend and for their continued support for the SFCA.

Gus BrindleI G BRINDLEChairman, SFCA

Distribution:

WebsiteAll Club SecretariesAll Executive Committee membersSportScotland Partnership Manager