Saturday, May 09, 2009

Meet the new PAC Committee

Months of speculation ended at the PAC' s AGM in Nottingham today, when the committee which will run the club for the next three years was announced.

In his first address Tim Kelly, the club's new president, thanked the previous committee for their work on the club's behalf.
"When they came in there was a real buzz, it was obvious there was a new committee and things were happening," he said. "If we can build on that it will be a great thing.
"To go forward, I would like the aim of the committee to be to make things better for pike anglers.
"Some clubs have petty rules and things which get in the way of their fishing. You have fisheries where they have braided line bans and other silly things like that."
Tim said the club would strive to be more inclusive and attract more pike anglers who were not members to join.

Graham Slater, the club's new secretary, said his initial reaction on being approached was to turn down the post.
"But if everybody in the history of the PAC had said no it would have folded years ago," he said.
"I'm a bit disappointed I don't get to dress up as a secretary, but joking aside, there's part of m that's looking forward to it.
"There are going to be times when we might have difficult times and difficult decisions to make but that's what we're here for."

Events organiser Guy Micklewright said he hoped to build on the "great job" done by his predecessor Mark Skinner.
"There's more to events than Menteith and more to events than catching a big fish, great though that is," he said. "I'm hoping to increase events and improve the social side of things.
"We want them to be occasions when people can get together, form friendships and get as much from this as they get from the fishing itself."
Guy said he expected his legal qualifications to be of use to the club over the next three years.
"I'm a practising barrister and I hope there are skills I have which may be helpful in what we do in future."

Membership secretary Chico Winterton said: "I'm your new membership secretary, together with my helper Bryan Ashford.
"Filling John Cahill and Pete Green's shoes is not going to be an easy task, they've both been coaching me for months now so whether I fail miserably will be down to them."
Chico said an increase in membership subs - which had been held for three years by the previous committee - would be confirmed in Pikelines, becoming effective immediately.
"I'm going to be the harbinger of doom now," he said. "Every category is going to be raised by £3, meaning adult membership goes up from £19.50 to £22.50."
He added a new three-year offer gave members willing to commit to the club for three years the chance to save £7.50 over that time.

Advertising manager Ben Thomas paid tribute to the hard work of his predecessor Mike Kelly.
"Attracting advertisers is going to get more difficult, as Mike's explained," he said. "I've already experienced it, having made calls to a couple of advertisers before today.
"members have to let advertisers know when they buy from them that they got their phone number, address or website from the PAC."
Ben, whose role includes taking over organising the PAC Convention, said this September's event would again be held at Stoneleigh.
"There will be new advertisers coming in and taking stands at Stoneleigh," he added. "Next year, we'll have to wait and see but we're going to keep it where everyone can get access to it."

Webmaster Mike Skipper thanked outgoing web supremo Dave Lumb, who set up the PAC website, for his hard work over the years.
"Everyone who looks at our website says it's a very well thought-out and content-rich site and I intend to try and add to it," he said.
He added the club would also be making more use of social networking media like Twitter and Facebook.

Mark Skinner will be remaining on the committee to take over the role of products manager, with help from Gary Hodd.
"Mick's done a great job, I'm going to try and sell the book so those who've not already got one better buy one as we've only got 1,000 left," he said.

Chris Bishop will remain as press officer until after the Convention, when a successor will be appointed.

John Synnuck will remain as treasurer for the first year of the new committee's term.
"I'm very enthused with the group of people I'm going to be working with," he said.