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    The Chairman reported that on Saturday the 5th of April 2014, five members of the club committee attended the Rosemary Foundation Easter Craft Fayre at East Meon village hall and presented a cheque for £500 as a donation to the Foundation. Photos of the presentation have been sent to the Foundation  and hopefully one may be published in the Foundation newsletter. The Foundation was, once again, reminded that if they could make land available to the club, then it would be a further source of income to them by way of donations from the club.

      As most farms have seeded their fields and the lambing season is under way, there are fewer farms available for detecting. Although there is only one week with no farm on the list between now and the next meeting, next month will see a shortage of land to detect.

One member reported that there was the possibility of a rally at the end of September.

The FLO attended the meeting and was kept busy with finds.

Club monthly meeting, 12th March 2014.   This meeting was attended by 32 members and 1 guest.

New members were welcomed to the club. The chairman stated that the club now has the maximum of 50 members as permitted by the rules. No more new members would be considered until the end of 2014, and then only if some vacancies had been created. New members would then be by referral and would need to be proposed and seconded by existing members before acceptance.

A note to members, - a hand trowel has been found on one of our farms. Contact the club if you think it is yours,

The news of FID is that it will be taken over by Central Searchers. The following details are all that is known so far.

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Announcement from Central Searchers, re. FID takeover.

FID ANNOUNCEMENT TO FID MEMBERS. March 2014.

      As most of you are aware Colin Hanson passed away in late January. At the time we decided to look into offering an alternative 3rd party liability insurance so there was a choice of groups to go with. Out of politeness and etiquette we contacted Colin's family, with various discussions over the past month. We have taken over FID itself with the family's blessing.

     At present the whole system is on a card file index so there is a lot of work to transfer data onto a database, so please understand we have lots to do so please have patience with us if you have outstanding payments for renewal etc. we will deal with them ASAP.

     You were informed by Elaine that you will be covered until the end of this year, which is still the case, this will give us enough time too sort things, change  all the stationary with all the new details, etc. for now we will adapt what we have.

     For this year you will not receive any bulletins, these will start again in 2015 if all goes to plan. We did not take over any finances from Colin and his family, all that is left in the account will be donated to cancer research as requested by Colin, so we are starting completely from scratch financing things ourselves. 

    We will be having a dedicated phone line installed the number is yet to be issued, you can get us on mobile number 07944 464822 or email fid.cs@virginmedia.com. This is so that it separates it from our home life and Central Searchers.  

At Elaine's request do not contact her any more regarding FID all enquiries to us. 

CSFID

27, Webb Road

RAUNDS

Wellingborough

Northants

NN9 6HH 

Kind regards Richard and Gill Evans.

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Once again members are reminded that they must sign in when attending the monthly meeting. Both the Solent MDC club sheet and the RNA club book must be signed.

Our club charity funds are in a healthy state and it is proposed that we make a donation to the Rosemary Foundation at their Easter Craft Fair at East Meon on Saturday 5th of April 2014.

One of our members would like some information on the effectiveness of the long narrow   ( foot ? ) search coils that are available  - for example. :-The Tesoro CleanSweep Search Coil - This Tesoro Coil measures 18 inches long, 3.6 inches wide (with scuff) and weighs in at 1.8 pounds. The CleanSweep's sensitivity is consistent from toe to heel and is designed to cover a large area quickly. Depth figures range between a 4" coil and a 7" coil. comes complete with lower rod and coil cover

Anyone with knowledge/experience of this type of coil, please pass it on the members. 

      The raffle continues to provide income for the club. The annual membership fee and the raffle income are the only source of funds for  the club. All other income, for example, the dig fees, are put in the charity account. While on the subject of the raffle, don't forget to bring in those unwanted items to donate as prizes. Old detecting magazines are welcome, especially as we have new members, some of whom have only just started on this interesting hobby of metal detecting.  

   There were an unusual number of interesting finds this month. The remainder the meeting was devoted to discussion of these finds. Members are reminded that Katie Hinds, our FLO, will be at the April meeting.

    It has been pointed out that the Guestbook/Forum pages of our website are not used by members so I will attempt to make these more  comprehensive and user friendly, and look forward to your contributions.

The following letter has been received by our FID members.

  The FID insurance will be valid until the end of the year, but after that we will need to obtain alternative insurance for our individual metal detecting activities. One way would be for members to join NCMD. This would keep us in line with the club rules. The club will advise when the situation with FID becomes clear.

    Our own insurance to cover Public Liability for all other club activities is now in place and cover commenced on the 31st January of this year. members were invited to inspect the documentation for this insurance.

     Information on the 18th Rotary Spring Metal Detecting Rally were presented. This can be seen on our Notice Board web page.

    Members were informed about a useful website, - www.gridreferencefinder.com

   Please note, our FLO will next visit the club at our April meeting.

The Annual General Meeting:-

No apologies for absence were received.

Chairman's report,- The chairman welcomed the new members. Some of the main events of 2013 were, A new FLO ( Katie Hinds ) started with us at the beginning of the year, the Brighton Club rally at Scallow bridge,-  a talk by Hampshire constabulary on 'Crime in the countryside', with special reference to ,'Nighthawking', and the Christmas dinner at the Staunton Arms Harvester. There were two charity donation made this year, £100 to the Royal Naval Association Club and £500 to the Rosemary Foundation.   The committee have re-written the club rules, with special reference to,- taking on new members and obtaining public liability insurance for the club. These revised rules will be put before the membership at this AGM.

Treasurer's report. The treasurer presented the end of year balance sheet and stated that the funds were in good order, although there was some way to go before we had enough in the charity account to present another donation of £500 to the Rosemary Foundation.

Election of the committee.

The committee will now include a Vice Chairman and so will be composed of,-

     Chairman

     Vice Chairman

     Treasurer

     Secretary

     Farms Liaison member

     Committee member 6

   The existing committee were re-elected to serve during 2014, with Committee member 5 becoming Vice Chairman.

Changes to the club rules.

The new propose new club rules were presented to the membership and accepted by majority vote with no objections received. The new rules are now published on the Solentmdc.com Website.  The main changes to the rules are,-

             -  a return to the former method of recruiting new members by referral by existing members and all new members to be proposed and seconded by other existing members. Also, the area from which the club accepts members is defined as an area of radius 20 miles of Waterlooville. 

             -  the committee must arrange and maintain club insurance to cover public liability for club activities.

             -  members must attend a minimum of 4 monthly meetings, during the year, in order to qualify for their membership continuation in the following year.

                -   The information to be displayed on membership cards defined and membership cards to be dated for the year in which they are valid.

           Any Other Business

    In order to comply with club rules and to be covered by club insurance, three permanent club guests will need to be made honorary club members.

   There being no further business raised, the formal business of the AGM was concluded.

   The Finds Liaison Officer, Katie Hinds, was at the meeting to advise and record member's finds.

    At the end of the year there were 12 vacancies for membership, so 12 new members were recruited from the waiting list. Therefore the club has it's full complement of 50 members and will not be considering any more new members for 2014.

    The monthly raffle continues to bring in funds for the club and members are reminded that, apart from our membership fee for the year, this is our only source of income for the club.

    Important notice for members,-   Katie Hinds our FLO will not be at our March meeting. Her next visit will be at our April meeting.