TEST AND ITCHEN ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held at the Kimbridge Estate Office
Friday 16 June 2023, 1100-1200

PRESENT Clay Brendish (Chairman), Vicky Reed, William Sleeman Eva Cowburn
Jonathan Durrant,  Jem Dunn, Robert Miles, Andrew Hoad, Lord Riberio, George Seligman, Harry Wells, Jonathan Siegle, Keith Fisher, Ron Dadswell, Nigel Sheppard,  Seamus Lyons, Simon Bladon, Howard Boardman, Duncan Potts

There were some technical issues that delayed the start of the meeting by a few minutes and subsequently precluded some members from joining the meeting later. Fourteen members joined by Zoom link and 7 attended from the board room at Kimbridge. Those attending gave approval for the meeting to be recorded and subsequently uploaded to the T&I website.

1. APOLOGIES
Peter Balls, Nigel D’Oyly, Chris Ellerington, Phillip Ellis, Roger Henderson, Will Liddell, Dillie Malherbe, Bill McClintock, Anthony McEwen, Chris Mitchell, Peter Orrock, Tony Richards, Andrew Tillard, Nicholas Parkhouse, Neil Freeman.

2. MINUTES
The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Friday 18th of March 2022 were
approved.

3. ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
The Chairman, Clay Brendish, was stepping down and a new chairman, Jonathan Durrant, was to be elected. In addition, 3 new directors, Nick Parkhouse, Duncan Potts and William Sleeman stood for election and Neil Freeman stood for re-election after a 3-year term. All appointments were approved unanimously. Clay remained in the chair until the end of the meeting.

4. FINANCIAL STATEMENT
The meeting approved the report of the Directors and the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.

5. CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
Clay announced his resignation as Chairman of the Board in a statement shared with all members prior to the AGM. He summarised his year as the Chairman and wished
Jonathan good luck. Clay shared a heartfelt thank you to Ingrid Burt for helping out earlier this year when staffing situation changed. He also wished to record his thanks to Monica Howard, the Association’s bookkeeper, for her support and resilience during that period. He asked that members take note of his statement. Finally, Clay thanked the members for allowing him to be their chairman. Clay will remain on the Board for up to one year.

6. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Jem had been in post for three months and had, therefore, not submitted a written report, but rather, felt that a verbal update on recent activities would be more appropriate. Since his arrival, the majority of effort had been in managing the internal governance of the Association with Board meetings, the AGM, statement of accounts and annual report taking up much of the time. In addition, the 2022 Rivers Report had been compiled and published. Jem thanked Ingrid and Charlie Burt for their support and hard work, without which, he felt there wouldn’t be a 2022 Rivers Report. He had also drawn together the stocking questionnaire data for the sub-committee’s action. He reflected that he had been trying to meet as many people as possible, including the Environment Agency local team, Wessex Rivers Trust, the Watercress and Winterbournes project, the Upper Itchen Initiative and many more.
Whilst Monica Howard continued as the bookkeeper, there was a need for more
administrative and communications support and Eva Cowburn had been recruited into this role. Jem felt that there were many competing issues affecting the rivers and that we needed to prioritise where to apply effort to best effect. He noted that we could collaborate better across the various organisations working in the sector, so it was important that the T&I had an appropriate strategy. The stocking policy debate will continue and we will be engaging the EA regarding the recently published Itchen Salmon Delivery Plan.

7. STATEMENT FROM NEW CHAIRMAN
The new Chairman, Jonathan Durrant, introduced himself and reflected on his time
working in the chalkstream environment. Jonathan is the manager of Timsbury Fishery and began work in the Test valley 34 years ago after completing his training at Sparsholt College. He is passionate about fishing, the environment and, especially, water quality and quantity. Jonathan felt that, owing to their global importance, preservation of the chalkstreams was extremely important – there were challenges but also opportunities. He was keen that the T&I works to foster a sense of ownership and stewardship amongst 3 communities and to increase the Association’s revenue base. He recognised that working collaboratively with stakeholders was key to success.
Finally, Jonathan thanked Clay, not only for appointing him to the Board 10 years ago, but for all of his hard work and dedication to the Association for so many years.

8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
George Seligman expressed his thanks to Clay for all the work he has done for the
Association over the years.

9. CLOSING THE MEETING
Clay thanked the members for participating and closed the meeting, wishing everyone a great fishing season.