Saltfleet Haven Boat Club Minutes
General committee meeting at the clubhouse 15/12/2018 12.00pm
Attendees
Phil Allen (Commodore)
Ray Gilbert (Buoyage Officer)
Mick Francis (Berthing Officer)
John Carter
Pat McCarthy(Secretary and Acting Treasurer)
Terry Daffin (Second Buoyage Officer)
Lee Bryson
Pete Shepherdson
Apologies
Dan Jefferson (Vice Commodore)
Proxy given to the Commodore
Minutes of previous meeting approval
Agenda
1. Security camera installation
2. Clarify waiting lists re Pat Larking
3. Clarify whereabouts of Interim Committee's minutes
4. Mr Casey's request for an apology from Mr McCarthy
5. Co-opting new committee members to replace Mr Keery and Mr
Harrison (new members to officially join in the new year)
6. New evidence re Mr MacDonald's disciplinary meeting
Meeting opened at 12.00 pm. PA suggested recording the meeting to make minute taking easier. All agreed.
Item 1
PM reported that the security camera was ready to go and that the club was signed up to a phone network. All agreed that the camera should run for a trial period to estimate data usage. PS volunteered to be first point of contact when security problems arose, as he lived closest to the club. All agreed to site the camera at the slip, and LB agreed to make a bracket for mounting.
Item 2
Pat Larking mooring. MF (berthing) clarified the current state of the waiting list. Pat Larking was offered a mooring but felt it would have been too difficult to take it due to operations on his knees. It was suggested that he keep his place on the list and wait for a berth with easier access. All agreed and PM agreed to talk to him about it.
Item 3
Whereabouts of interim committees minutes. PS was very helpful and agreed to take a look at home, although he had never been responsible for minutes. JC said he may have kept copies and would check and report back ( JC found copies which he delivered to the secretary). PM commented that he had only received one file from Mr Derner. It only contained the membership forms and a list of members.
Item 4
Mr Casey's request for an apology from Mr McCarthy for a comment he had made to the members, after an anonymous letter was circulated to the members which attacked Mr McCarthy.
Statement from PJ McCarthy re the anonymous email to members.
On 30/4/2018 an email was sent to all the members from an anonymous source clearly targeted at myself. My immediate reaction was to simply ignore it, but I did feel that it was unfortunate and annoying for the members. I wrote a very short message of apology to the members, in which I said that the email had been sent by a member of the previous committee. The author of the anonymous email failed to BCC the list of members he had sent it to. This means that all the recipients names and and email addresses were visible at the top of the email. It is quite a simple matter to work out whose names were missing. It seems unlikely that the author would send an email to people who were already aware of its content, unless they were checking that it had been sent. The email also contained several references to subjects, the details of which would only have been known to ex-committee members, so I feel confident of the source. However, I would prefer to let the matter drop, as I cannot see any benefit in pursuing it. I did not name anyone, and will not name anyone, which is why I do not think it necessary to apologise.
The committee agreed that an apology was not necessary.
Item 5
Glyn Hind and Sam Brummitt were asked to join the committee to replace two members who had resigned midway through the year - Mr Keery and Mr Harrison. They did not attend this meeting but will join the committee at the next meeting.
Item 6
New evidence regarding Mr MacDonald's disciplinary meeting of 15/11/18. Mr McCarthy left the meeting having previously declared an interest.
Below is a copy of the letter sent to Mr MacDonald. Copies of emails and scans that were presented to the committee are attached as separate files.
Saltfleet Haven Boat Club
9/12/2018
Mr W MacDonald
Fern Cottage
North End Lane
Saltfleetby
Lincolnshire
LN11 7SP
Dear Mr MacDonald
Regarding an email you claim to have sent to Mr McCarthy on 28 May 2018:
You submitted a print of the email at the disciplinary meeting (15 Nov 2018) as evidence that you had sent Mr McCarthy the SHBC website username and password. The date of the email was not visible and simply writing the date on the copy is not acceptable.
On 18 Nov 2018 we asked you to forward the original email. We were then advised that a screenshot would be more conclusive. We asked specifically for a screenshot of the original sent email. Instead you sent a screenshot of a forwarded message which was open in the 'compose' window. This is not a screenshot of the original sent email, and is easily editable. The page was also scrolled down which meant important information was still missing including the date.
We then asked again for a screenshot of the original email. You sent a screenshot of an email which had clearly been edited. The screenshot had been brought into an editing program and then saved again before sending. It also clearly shows that the bcc'd recipients had been edited out with a grey box. The recipients whose details were covered with a grey box were Mr Derner and Mr Casey. Those details are visible in the printed version of the email you presented to the committee.
The main reason you gave for not releasing the password and username to any committee member who had requested it, was that it was too great a security risk to give it to anyone via email.
Your email 26 Nov 2018:
“I trust that you will understand that the security of the SHBC website lies primarily with appointed administrator. If the security information is not adequately protected the website can be rendered prone to abuse and potentially a total loss of control. It is therefore fundamentally important that any transfer of such security information is carried out with due diligence and care. Both I and others, find it astonishing that the Committee could be so reckless as to request such information by means as insecure as email.”
Mr Derner and Mr Casey (neither of whom were committee members) were copied into an email containing that very same sensitive data. You then tried to hide the evidence with a series of deceptions and edits to emails. Mr Derner and Mr Casey's involvement in this matter raises more questions.
Regarding Heart Internet:
You were asked by Mr Jefferson during your disciplinary meeting if Heart Internet had ever contacted you regarding your refusal to hand over control of the website.
You answer was no. In fact, Heart Internet had contacted you more than once regarding this matter and what you told the committee was totally untrue.
On 6 June 2018 Isobel Wilson wrote:
“Hi Christopher, thanks. The other party has responded to our ticket regarding the domain and has given permission to transfer the domain but they have not given permission to transfer the hosting package also. We have contacted them again to ask them for permission to transfer the hosting package as well. We will get back to you when they have given permission to transfer the hosting package as well as the domain”
On 18 Nov 2018 Stefan Veilkov wrote:
“Thanks for contacting us.
The initial contact to Mr. Macdonald was made on 01/06/2018
Let us know if you have any questions.”
On 19 Nov 2018 Dan Wood wrote:
“We received confirmation on the 5/6/2018 for the migration and responded back in your ticket on the 6/06/2018 once we'd confirmed some more details”
On 5 Dec 2018 Mr Chris Lenthal wrote:
“I was asked by members of the Saltfeet Haven Boat Club commitee if i could intervene and help getting the website controll back from a member i had passed the details on too , i contacted Heart internet who took all my details but could do nothing to release the website and hosting back to me untill they had contacted this person'.This would take a number of days and numerous emails but i was finally told that they could help.”
This irrefutable new evidence of your clear intention to deceive the committee puts you in an untenable position. Altering and forging documents that you wish to be considered as evidence in any walk of life is a very serious business. The committee will take legal advice and consider its options.
Philip Allen
Commodore
Peacock Farm Barns
28a Main Road
Long Bennington
Nr Newark
Nottinghamshire
NG23 5EH