Andy Symons - BMFA

Andy, I have ran a couple of club admin training sessions this past week and will be doing a few more too. Next one will be after Christmas though, now on annual leave for 2 weeks. I have also made a start on some short videos about using the portal. See https://bmfa.org/justgo-bitesize-club Will be more added on my return. You will find it very straight forward though, certainly makes the job easy. Would have loved it back when I was membership secretary of 2 clubs with a combined membership of approaching 300.

No it isn't. Doesn't cost a penny.

Hi Martin It was emailed to club secretaries 3 times, on the website as a newsflash and emailed to every member. Not really sure there is much more we could do. edit - Just checked the stats, it was sent to every member we have an email address for, over 28000, 94% deliverability rate, 60% opening rate.

That's not true. There is no cost for sitting in the comfort of your own home and joining the AGM using Zoom which has been available as an option for at least the last 4 years. It was all very clearly explained in the information that was sent to all club secretaries and indeed all members by email.

Not many I suspect. I wouldn't sit on the committee of a club that wasn't affiliated, nothing to do with Article 16 though, purely because of all the extra protections, insurance s and benefits. Its a real no-brainer. Still ultimately a choice for the club though.

This is entirely wrong. the Article 16 authorisation applies to all individual members of the BMFA and not the club. Whether the site is legally flyable is absolutely nothing to do with whether the club is affiliated.

Yes

It is rare to read something so far removed from reality. We actually have more freedoms now when it comes to heights we can fly at than we did before. i suppose sometimes the blinkers just won't come off. Oh well.

As a BMFA member with an aircraft below 7.5kg there is no stated maximum height other than maintaining visual line of sight. For over 7.5kg it's either 400ft, or higher if the site has a BMFA Permit to fly over 7.5kg aircarft above 400ft. So the same as 10 years for under 7.5kg, same as 10 years ago for over 7.5kg without a permit, but higher if a BMFA site permit is issued, in effect we have more freedoms now than 10 years ago.

I have to say that is some advanced level doom-mongery. If the powers that be wanted us out of the shared airspace we would already be out of it. As it stands the effects on us so far have been minimal and I very much feel that going forward apart from some adaptation to the reality that airspace is only going to get busier there will be a minimal effect for the majority of model flyers. The BMFA have worked very hard both in Europe and the UK over the past years to ensure the effects have been minimal and we will continue to do so.

You may be a little late for the next auction as the catalogue is almost finished, however if you drop an email to [email protected] he may be able to squeeze stuff in but you will almost certainly need to get things to him tomorrow to get them catalogued.

https://bmfa.org/caa-review-of-uk-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-regulations

From the BMFA Members Handbook. 10.3 The Club Safety Officer If it is considered to be appropriate, a Club should appoint a competent CLUB SAFETY OFFICER whose duties would be to ensure that both the BMFA and the Club Safety Codes are followed. However, a Safety Officer acting alone has an almost impossible task and some form of infrastructure should be set up within the club to help the designated officer. The most successful way to do this is to make the task of Assistant Safety Officer part of the duties of every Committee member. These Assistants then report to the designated Safety Officer when required. This will keep the Safety Group to a manageable size but will ensure that there is a recognised safety presence at most flying sessions. If it is felt that this might not be enough, you can appoint other responsible club members as assistants too. Examiners, Instructors or senior club members might all be candidates. It is not recommended that you appoint ‘all club members’ as their own safety officers. Such an approach loses the focus of a smaller group and can become ineffective. Clubs should educate and encourage their members, particularly new or junior members, to conform to Club safety requirements and should have no hesitation in disciplining persistent offenders.

Not at all, CL is pretty much exempt from all the regs as is everything under 250gm if it doesn't have a camera as long as you avoid FRZs

Everything is actually still quite simple and generally works too.

You are not subsidising them. Not one penny of the £42 you paid for your 2023 membership was used to subsidise them. However as I mentioned previously you have still benefitted indirectly, the BMFA didn't have to spend some of the pennies you paid to hire venues that we would have had to previously because we were able to use Buckminster. Buckminster has also proved very useful in promoting model aircraft flying and helping to put our sport in to the public eye. Something all model aircraft flyers benefit from. In years when the BMFA makes a surplus of over £10k £10k will be transferred to the National Centre reserve. But only if there is a healthy surplus, the BMFA does have some other income streams apart from membership subscriptions though and £10k is probably a lot less then would have to be paid to hire venues annually that now no longer need to be hired. Your subs are not used to fund Buckminster. Clubs are not forced to have 100% BMFA membership, it is a choice they make to affiliate because they consider the benefits of affiliation are worth it. It's actually a bit of a no-brainer when you consider all the benefits that otherwise the club would have to pay for.

Any BMFA member in Wales can attend the BMFA Wales AGM, just register using the link in the email.

Notifications go out from the BMFA system 28 days before your Operator ID expires which is the earliest we can renew it. The CAA system sends a reminder 21 days before expiry which is the earliest it can be renewed through the CAA. If you message me your details I can take a look for you.

It's the way of the world.

Sponsorship and the Buckminster reserve. The accounts for Buckminster have always been kept separate and the policy is not to use members subs to fund it, even though we all benefit from it indirectly as mentioned previously.

No money from the main BMFA income, (subs), is used to fund Buckminster those that use the centre and people travel from all across the country to do so, pay to use it.

Very little to do with a small minority flying wrongly/illegally, or any airport issues in my personal opinion, changes were coming before any of that just so a busier airspace can continue to be shared safely. If anything is to blame it is simply the march of technology. The task for the BMFA is to continue to fight to keep the affect on our activities to a minimum. Something that we have had some success with so far.

Indeed that is the case. However, there was no stopping it, the advance in technology which is already leading to a busier airspace was always going to mean there would be some impact on us. Thankfully it has been quite minimal thanks to a lot of hard work over many years.

The opportunity to fly lawfully.

Before Buckminster became available the BMFA quite often had to hire venues for a number of events. Many of those events, a prime example being the Schools and Universities Payload challenge, are now held at Buckminster meaning there is a substantial expenditure that is no longer needed in venue hire which doesn't show in the accounts. Having a National Centre has also meant there has been opportunities to showcase our sport that were otherwise unavailable too. Income at Buckminster was quire badly affected by some atrocious weather this year with a number events cancelled. Having a National Centre also adds massively to the credibility of model aircraft flying as a sport, which h too.as great value