Chairman's introduction.

          At the Rosemary Foundation Christmas Fayre at East Meon on the 28th of November 2015, the club committee presented a cheque for £500 to the Foundation on behalf of the club. A photo of the presentation and a letter of thanks from the Rosemary Foundation were displayed, and can be seen on the Notice Board page of this website.

          With winter planting, many of our farms are unavailable for detecting, so we have a limited list for this month. If you use these farms, do make sure that you detect only on those fields suitable, e.g. not seeded.

          The next club meeting will be on Wednesday the 13th of January 2016. This will be our Annual General Meeting. The membership will need to elect a new committee for 2016. The position of both Chairman and Secretary will be vacant, so these positions will need to be filled. Also. we need at least two other members to serve on the committee.

          Membership renewal.  The cost remains at £10 for the year. In order to renew you membership you will need to provide you membership card so that it can be updated. You wil also need to show you current FID or NCMD insurance certificate.

        FID membership. An essential part of club membership is that insurance under either FID or NCMD is required. Some members who have tried to renew their FID membership recently have experienced difficulties,  e.g. they have made various attempt to pay and have received nothing in return,  with no response when they attempted to contact FID. The suggestion was made that member join the NCMD instead.

Arrangements were made for the usual Christmas visit to the farms to take bottles of wine and a Christmas card to the farmers.

A farm was added to the dig list for the 3rd of January 2016. Details are available on the Members' Only page of the club website. Please update the pink sheet that was given out at the meeting. Please note:- the digs list will now only be published on the Members' only page of the website in future. The password for this page will be changed after the AGM. If you have not got the password after this date, then contact the club via the phone number on the pink sheet or via email.

Thank you to all who donated prizes for the 'Christmas' raffle. the raffle continues to be the main income for club funds, so please buy a ticket when at the meetings.

Reminders -

     Our FLO will next attend the club meetings in February ( Wednesday the 19th 2016. If you have any finds that you wish to record before then, you will need to take them to the FLO office in Winchester.

    The club AGM will be held on the 13th January 2016 - usual venue, usual time. Please think about whether you could be the next Chairman or Secretary and be prepared to volunteer at the AGM.

  The club Christmas dinner will be at the Langbrook Farm Inn, Havant, PO9 1SA on Friday 11th December,-start time 7.00pm

Announcements:-

     The Rosemary Foundation Christmas Fayre is to be held at the East Meon Village Hall on the 28th November 2015 from 10.00am to 12.30pm.  The club will be there to present a donation to the Foundation. Please support this event.

     The club Christmas Dinner will be held on the 11th December. This meeting was the last chance to book a place as the number of people attending has now to be given to the venue. 21 members/guests are booked for this event.

     The club AGM will be held at the January 2016 meeting on the 13th of January. The committee for 2016 will be elected at this meeting as usual. You are asked to consider nominations for, or volunteering as, a committee member. We will require a Chairman, a Secretary, A Treasurer , a Farms Liaison Officer and up to three other committee members.

     One of our members has found a gold coin, which may be treasure. This has been reported to the coroner, as required by law. The coin has been handed to our FLO and we await the outcome.

    The digs list for the next 4 weeks will be found on the Members only page of solentmdc.co.uk With most arable fields now seeded with winter crop we are reduced to mostly pasture for these 4 weeks.

     Our FLO attended the meeting with a young student and was kept busy with a number of interesting finds. The next visit by the FLO is in February. With the reduction in funding, the FLO is only able to attend every three months.

     Club funds continue to be provided by the raffle as held at this and every other meeting. Donations of prizes are always welcome.

     A correction to the digs list is required. i.e. the next club meeting will be held on the second Wednesday of the month as usual. This is Wednesday the 9th of December 2015, not as stated on the digs list 'pink sheet'.

Our chairman was not present at this meeting, so the notices were presented by another committee member.

   This years Christmas dinner will be held at the Langbrook Farm Inn. Anyone wishing to attend needs to  decide on their menu choices and  inform the club by the next club meeting at the latest. Details are on the Notice page of this website.

   The club secretary has announced that he will not be standing for re-election at the club AGM in January, so it is time for members to consider who will take over this role in 2016. Also, the club chairman will have completed his year in office and a new chairman will need to be elected.

   Two club members went on the Tisbury Rally, as advertised on this website. A brief report has been posted on the solentmdc.co.uk website on the Photo Gallery 2 page.

   Due to some problems at Site V, detecting permissions will have to be re-negotiated for this site.  Also, part of Site H has a new owner and detecting permissions will have to be re-negotiated for this site also.

Please note, the Rosemary Foundation Christmas Fayre will take place in the East Mean village Hall on Saturday the 28th of November 2015. The club plans to be there to present a cheque for £500 to this charity. members are asked to come along to this event and show their support for this charity.

Our FLO, Katie Hinds, plans to be at our next monthly meeting, - in November, - so bring along you finds for identification and recording on the PAS.

The raffle, held each month, continues to keep the club funds in good order and we hope to have sufficient in the charity fund to present the £500 cheque to the Rosemary Foundation at their Christmas Fayre. If the charity fund is insufficient, the fund will be topped up using the club funds as agreed by the committee and the membership.

The monthly meeting on the 13th of January will also be our Annual Genera Meeting. The new club committee will be elected at this meeting. All members should now think about choosing a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and at least two other committee members as well as a Farms Liaison Officer.

Next monthly meeting,-  Wednesday 11th November 2015. Usual venue, usual time - your very last chance to book a place at the Christmas Dinner!

        Members were, once again, reminded that they must, by law, and for insurance purposes, sign in when attending club meetings.

       Two members attended the Tisbury rally on the 6th of September, run by the Chilmark and Clifton Foot Beagles. A report on this rally will be posted on the solentmdc.co.uk website shortly.

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       The main topic of the Chairman's address was the current problem at one of our farms. There is a twofold problem in that firstly the farmer was not told in advanced when we intended to hold a dig on his land and, secondly, some detectorists claiming to be Solent club members were detecting on the farm although they were not in fact club members, or were former members who no longer belonged to the club. The agreement with the farmer is with the club and thus bona-fide paid-up members, not individuals. The farmer was on the point of removing permission to detect if the situation was not clarified. The farmer was claiming that he had had no contact from the club for at least two years, but this is not correct, although contact with the farm may have been with family and/or employees at the farm that the farmer was not aware of. Also, there were some Health & Safety issues because the farmer had been spraying the fields with chemicals. It was agreed that the secretary would write to the farmer with apologies and explanations. Also, the Chairman would discuss the situation with the farmer and the gamekeeper.

    Since the permissions to detect on our farms is based on the club's support of, and donations to, the Rosemary Foundation, it was agreed that we would need to continue to donate the two £500 donations per year by any means possible. In practice this may require some of the club's funds to be transferred to the charity fund in order to get sufficient money available. It was agreed that the club would make a donation of £500 to the Rosemary Foundation at there Christmas fayre at East Meon on the 28th November 2015. The above decisions were proposed and seconded formally by the committee and then by the membership present.

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    The club Christmas dinner this year will again be at the Langbrook Farm Inn, Havant. Four possible dates have been posted on the 'Notice' section of this website along with the menu for the occasion. Members should contact the club with their preference for date and their menu choice. Please bear in mind that it may be impossible to satisfy the first choice date for everyone! The meal is free to members, but guests must pay.

   As part of the Financial Audit of the club, the secretary is attempting to record all the clubs assets. Known so far are, - 5 Viking 5 metal detector, a finds display cabinet, some display boards used at events where the club is represented, a club history photo album, and a passport photo cutter. No assets of any significant monetary value have been identified. If anyone knows of any other club property, please let the secretary, or a member of the committee, know.

The raffle was held as usual. Please donate those unwanted gifts etc to the club for the raffle.

There were a significant number of finds to be shown by members this month. Some from our farms and some from private individual permissions and some from beach detecting. Please not that our Finds Liaison Officer will be visiting the club every three months from now on. (The next visit being scheduled for November). This, if you haven't heard, is due to the reduction in funding of the PAS.  As we now have even less contact with the FLO it is worth noting that treasure trove items must be reported to the coroner (not the FLO) within 14 days.

          "You must report all finds of Treasure to a coroner for the district in which they are found either within 14 days after the day on which you made the discovery or within 14 days after the day on which you realised the find might be treasure. Your local Finds Liaison Officer can assist you in determining whether a find constitutes potential Treasure and can report the find to the coroner on your behalf."

The next monthly meeting of the club will take place on Wednesday 14th October 2015.

The chairman's report included the following.

           Attention was drawn to the Tisbury Rally on Sunday the 6th of September 2015, as detailed on the Notice Board page of this website. The club is prepared to finance the transport to this rally, but it requires someone to organise a minibus for the day. Anyone willing to do this please let the secretary know.

      Each year the club pays for a  Christmas Dinner for all members. This needs to be organized soon or venues will be booked up. Anyone willing to organize the event this year please let the secretary know. 

    There is a club dig for the next four Sundays. Please read the details on the digs list carefully as, at this time of the year, the situation at farms is changing quickly, almost on a day-to-day basis. Anyone attending one of the scheduled digs needs to check the fields suitable for detecting.

    It was brought to the members attention that the budget for the Portable Antiquities Scheme ( PAS ) has been reduced by 50%. This means that our FLO will only be able to attend our club meetings every three months, rather than every two months. Members can take finds direct to the FLOs office for recording if required. Any item that is, or could be, treasure-trove needs to be reported to the Coroner within 14 day, so if we rely on our FLO to do this we may need to report direct to the FLO rather than wait for her to attend our meeting.

    Two successful searches for valuable items were reported, both involved lost finger rings. one had been lost in a garden and one along a road. Well done to those members who spent time and effort to recover these rings. In one case the successful recovery resulted in a substantial donation to our charity, The Rosemary Foundation. Details of this will be posted on this website later.

    Quite a number of rallies are being advertised on the website at the moment by organizations such as Southern Seekers, Midweek Searchers, Dorset Detectorists and, of course, Dean's digs. mMembers should look out for these rallies on the internet.

    We are entering a period of change with regard to permission to detect on farmland. Farmers are favouring organizations that pay them substantial sums of money for just one or two days permission. Those of you who attend Leisure Promotion events will notice some changes in their events as well. Permissions from farmers for individuals to detect one their land at any time is becoming more difficult to obtain. This is partly due to the fact that farmers are having an increasingly difficult time financially. Members need to be aware that the reason we have permissions to detect on our farms is because we support the Rosemary Foundation. We must be sure that we continue to make our donations to the Foundation one way or another.

    The club continues to finance itself by means of the raffle held at each monthly meeting, so members' support of this is essential to the clubs own finance.

  As a result of the reduction in funding to the PAS, our FLO's next attendance at our meetings will be in November.

The next meeting will be on the 9th of September 2015. Usual venue, usual time.

Some members will have been on Dean's Searchers digs. It was noted that on Saturday the 11th of July the Searchers dig will be at Weston farm, - as advertised on Detecnicks web site.

           Searchers Metal Detecting
           Saturday 11th July 2015
           New farm at Weston, nr Petersfield
           Please contact Dean for details of site & directions
           Dig fee is £15 per day. Tea and coffee available on the day.
           Dean 07801 456712

No other notices or announcements, except that our FLO is due to attend the August meeting. The news is that funding for the PAS is to be reduced ( again ) and some FLOs may attend club meetings less than the current every two months. Members will be kept informed of the situation.

On the 6th of July 2015 Tim Loughton  (Conservative, East Worthing and Shoreham) asked the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the continued viability of the Portable Antiquities Scheme after changes to its funding by the British Museum.

Ed VaizeyMinister of State (Culture Media and Sport)  Replied that :-

"The 2015-16 resource allocation given to the British Museum by my Department includes funding for the administration of the Portable Antiquities Scheme and allows the British Museum to determine how the Scheme is resourced within its overall funding settlement. The Portable Antiquities Scheme, which recorded its one millionth find in 2013, continues to be a hugely valuable resource which broadens our understanding of history and archaeology and allows full public engagement with the process. I have made no assessment of the impact that the changes in funding arrangements have had on the Scheme as I believe it is right that the British Museum has more freedom to make its own decisions on spending in this area."
 

See the guardian report    http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/10/uk-treasures-under-threat-british-museum-cuts

In spite of limited land being available, some good finds were shown.

Next meeting,-  Wednesday 12th August 2015.

Chairman's intro,- ---------------

An audit of the club's accounts for 2014 has been carried out. The report is available to any member and can be downloaded from the Member's Only page of Solentmdc.co.uk.

Our FLO, Katie Hinds, will next visit our club at the August meeting.

One of our farmers had lost a piece of farm equipment and a member had attempted to find it, but had not succeeded. The club needs to organise several member to detect the area to help find this item.

Leisure Promotions are advertising a rally in the Metal Detecting magazine. This will be on the September the 6th. See the Notice Board page of this website for details.

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Dean's rally as advertised on the Detecnicks website may be of interest to members.

Saturday 13th June 2015

New Farm at Chiddingfold

Please contact Dean for details

Dig fee is £15 per day. Tea and coffee available on the day.

Dean 07801 456712

Next meeting will be on the 8th July 2015, usual time, usual venue.

              Katie Hinds, Our Finds Liaison Officer was in attendance at this meeting to identify and record finds. She was accompanied by Sally Worrell. Sally is known to many of our members, as she was Hampshire FLO and attended our  meetings. Sally is now  National Finds Adviser - Prehistoric, Iron Age and Roman Artefacts for the PAS. Please note, - Katie's next visit the club will be at at our August meeting.

             At this time of year most fields have been seeded and thus are not available for detecting. Also lambing is taking place and grass is grown for silage. So no land is available for detecting this month, with the exception of some pasture on the first Sunday in June. We will be monitoring the farms and will let members know as soon  land becomes available again.

         On Saturday the 16th of May there will be a dig in the Petworth area organized by Searchers Metal Detecting. Details of this ar available on the digs list for this Month. On Sunday the 6th September 2015 there is a rally at Tisbury in Wiltshire. For details of this see the Notice Board page of this website.

      Change to club rules. There was a proposal to change rule 19, which deals with the annual audit of the club finances. At present it requires that 4 committee members and the treasurer are carry out the audit. The change allows for just two committee member to perform the audit ( with the treasurer being present)..

Rule 19 proposed to read -

19) The club finances and yearly balance must be audited at least once a year by two committee members ( with the treasurer being present ), and the findings recorded, in writing, as part of the club records.

This change was proposed and seconded. It was then approved by a majority vote of members present at the meeting.

       After the usual raffle was held the meeting got down to the business of discussion of finds and presenting finds to the FLO for identification and recording. The raffle is the only source of club funds, so please support it. Any prizes donated will help with club income. Those old detecting magazines, unwanted gifts, etc will be welcome. On the subject of the raffle, at the June meeting six free tickets will be available, two each for the first 3 members to email me with their name and club membership number under the subject heading 'raffle'.

     The next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday 10th June 2015 at the usual venue, usual time.

      At this time of the year crops are being planted and lambing is due to start so farmland is becoming unavailable for detecting. Between now and the next meeting there will be two weeks when farms will not be available. The club's schedule of digs is posted on this website as usual.

   At the  last meeting a request was made for an additional committee member and also someone to help with the raffle. Two members offered their services. The new committee member was proposed, seconded and agreed by the membership present.

   Members were advised that local digs, organised by The Searchers, and open to anyone, are advertised on the Detecnicks website at  http://www.detecnicks.co.uk   ( rallies page )The cost is £15 per dig.

   In September a rally by the Chilmark & Clifton foot beagles is planned for Sunday 6th Sept 2015. Details are on the Notice Board page of this website.

  Three club members carried out a search of a private garden in Winchester at the request of the owner who was interested in the history of the land. An email thanking the members has been received. Although nothing valuable was found, the owner was interested in the bits of social history dug up.

            Our chairman brought our attention to the following:-
A new, Royal Navy, special edition of the £2 coin, with the current portrait of the queen, has been issued by the Royal Mint. These are on sale via their website for £10.
However, 100 visitors to HMS Belfast will be given one of these coins in their change.
These 100 coins, having the current portrait of the queen, may become one of the rarest coins in circulation.
But note, - there is no mintage limit on the striking of these current portrait coins, so many more could be produced, depending on demand.
These £2 coins, but with a new portrait of the queen, will go into production in March this year.
So, check your change. If you find a Royal Navy special edition £2 coin bearing the older portrait, it may be worth much more than face value.
 

     The list of paid-up members for 2015 has been finalized and three vacancies exist. Membership will be offered to three people at the top of the waiting list, but under the new rules of membership recruitment which includes proposal and acceptance by the existing members.

  Please note that our FLO will be attending our next meeting ( on 13th May 2015 ) so bring along your finds for identification/recording in the PAS.

The Chairman reported on a garden search which had been carried out by three club members at a house near Winchester.

One more committee member is needed to complete the committee for 2015. During the meeting a member volunteered for this post.

 Please note, membership renewal for 2015 is now completed.

There was a request for someone to assist in the purchasing of prizes for the raffle. During the meeting a member volunteered for this activity. Also a request was made for members to donate prizes for the raffle.

Notice was given of a rally to be held on Saturday March 14th at Lavant, West Sussex. Details are posted on the Notice Board page of the website.

________________________

Our FLO, Katie, was in attendance at the meeting and was kept busy with finds recording. She was accompanied by Joanna, a young student learning the skills of a finds Liaison Officer. The next meeting Katie will be attending is the May meeting on 13th May 2015.

Please note,  the next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday the 8th of April.

   This meeting started by electing a new club Chairman. The new candidate was proposed, seconded and voted in by a majority show of hands.

The new Chairman started the meeting my covering the following topic.

1) Once again all members are reminded that they must sign in when attending a general meeting. Please sign both the club signing-in list and the RNA Club book.

2) A vote of thanks to the retiring chairman for his three years of service was proposed, but as the retiring chairman was not present, this would be repeated at the next meeting.

3) A member who had received a bouquet of flower following a family bereavement had sent a 'thank you' to the members.

4) Members were given details of the Rotary Spring Rally to be held on Sunday the 22nd March 2015. The site is North of Swindon off   M4 junction 15/16 and would be on arable fields. Cost £16 in advance or £20 on the day. For full details see  the Notice Board page of this website.

5) Members were reminded that a club such as ours requires third party/public liability insurance. The committee organized such insurance for 2014 and it has been renewed again for 2015.All members must also have their own individual insurance for their detecting activities, through either the FID or the NCMD. Without this insurance your membership is not valid.

6) Due to various problems that have arisen in the past year, the committee feels that the rules of the club must be extended/reassessed  and made clearer to cover many eventualities not covered in the past. When these new rules are formulated the membership will be informed and will need to ratify them.

7)  Once again members were reminded that membership renewal should take place at the latest by the February meeting. Anyone who did not renew their membership on or before that occasion please note!

8)  Our FLO will be in attendance at the March meeting. All items given in for recording, at her last visit in December 2014, have been dealt with. Anyone requiring there items returned before the March meeting can collect them at the office.

This concluded the Chairman's remarks and, as always, the next item on the agenda was the raffle. Many thanks to those of you who have provided raffle prizes.

  There are still sites available for detecting each Sunday, but please keep to the scheduled list of digs.

 For those of you who are not too familiar with using the Internet, or would like a guide to finding your way around the club's website, your webmaster will be producing a simple guide which will be available at the next meeting. If you would like such a guide but will not be at the meeting then email me and I will forward one on to you. With postal costs as they are it is very costly to provide information via the postal system, so over the past few years the club has relied on the website to do this. If you are not able to use the Internet and do not have an email address, please let me know.

Next meeting, - Wednesday the 11th March 2015.

                                                          Annual General Meeting

          Agenda.

         1) Apologies for absence.
         2) Chairman's report.
         3) Treasurer's Report
         4) Election of the committee for 2015.
                   Chairman.
                   Vice Chairman.
                   Treasurer.
                    Secretary.

              Additional members to cover the following tasks:-

                    Farms liaison.
                    Consultant ( Long membership person )
                    Other club business.

         5) Any other business.
         6) Conclusion of formal AGM business.

1)   Apologies for absence were received from four members.

2)   Chairman's report.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Chairman started by welcoming new members.

The annual membership fee remains at £10 for 2015.

At the start of 2014 the existing committee were re-elected to serve another year in their respective positions.

12 new members joined at the start of 2014, maintaining our maximum membership of 50 members.

In January 2014 the club took out Public Liability Insurance to cover eventualities not covered by our individual FID/NCMD insurance.

We were fortunate during 2014 as there were only 5 weeks when no farms were available for detecting.

Charity Donations during 2014,- £50 to a club member for the 'Rocky Rollers' sponsored mobility scooter run.

                                                £100 to the Royal Naval Association Club.

                                               £1000 to the Rosemary Foundation. £500 at Easter and £500 at Christmas.

At Christmas, a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine was presented to each of our landowner.

As a club, we did not attend any rallies this year.

Our Christmas meal was at the Langbrook Farm Inn, Havant, and was enjoyed by all 35 members who attended.

This year saw the takeover of FID by the Central Searchers. members were able to renew their FID membership with few problems.

We continued to have a good relationship with the PAS through our FLO Katie Hinds.

The membership were reminded that detecting on our farms could only take place on the sites, and at the times, specified in the monthly schedules, i.e. the 'digs list'. To detect on a farm or at a time not included in the digs list could cause the club to lose permissions and could bring the reputation of the club and of metal detecting in general into disrepute.

The Chairman announced he would be standing down after three years of service due to impending retirement.

 3)   Treasurer's report.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

         The club continues to be in a good financial state, although in 2014 we borrowed from the club funds in order to top up our charity donation at Christmas. The sum of £174.65 was shown on the accounts and was now cleared.

         An additional expense during 2014 was the cost of the Third Party/Public Liability insurance that we now have renewed. The need for such insurance was explained by the Treasurer in relation to individual FID membership by most members and SMDC's current non affiliation to NCMD.

          The end of year accounts can be viewed in the Member's Only area of the solentmdc.co.uk website.

                                  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

        4) Election of the committee for 2015.

      Five members volunteered to serve on the committee for 2015. These were proposed and seconded by the membership and consisted of,  -  Treasurer, Secretary, Consultant, plus two other members. A Farms Liaison person was also elected. See the 'Member's Only' page for details.

         5) Any other business.

        No items proposed under Any Other Business.

         6) Conclusion of formal AGM business.

       The formal AGM business was concluded and the normal monthly meeting started.

There was the  usual raffle and general discussion of finds and metal detecting in general.

    The next meeting will be on the 11th of February 2015 at the usual venue.   Our FLO, Katie, will be at the February meeting and may bring a young archaeology student with her. Get your finds ready for recording on the PAS !