The faithful stalwarts and some new faces gathered a little further south this year for the National Association of Boat Owners Annual General Meeting, which has traditionally been held in the Midlands. The venue was Shipton-on-Cherwell close to the Oxford Canal and the date, the 17th of November.
In his Chairman's Report, Stuart Sampson said his 'holy grail' was proper consultation: "When you get that right, everything else follows that much more easily. It is a bit like good surface preparation for a coat of paint - if you don't do it properly the paint just flakes off - but you do have to be a bit abrasive at times. Proper consultation is when you get a satisfactory explanation as to why any advice you give is not followed."
The meeting then learnt about the healthy financial state of the association. When asked why it held such high reserves, the treasurer, Stephen Peters, explained that they were primarily in case the association had to incur high legal costs to further boat owners' interests, e.g. having to initiate a judicial review. This was followed by lively and informed debate about how to give the association a higher profile and encourage more people to benefit from its work by joining, plus a wide ranging discussion on the many issues facing boaters at present. These included, hot off the press, copies of BW's new Minimum Customer Service Standards, which gained a mixed reception.
Judging by the rapt attention, all the subjects were close to everyone's hearts, the only interruption being a brief one from a member's dog.
Disappointingly perhaps, NABO's new elected Council has no fresh faces and the same officers were selected for 2007/8 during the lunchtime 'huddle' (actually a formally conducted and minuted inaugural meeting of the new Council), except that Howard Anguish would take over from Tony Haynes, who has stepped down as Vice-Chairman due to declining mobility.
After an excellent buffet lunch, the guest speaker was John Edmonds, wearing his hat as Chairman of IWAC. "Eyewhack is exactly the same as eyewhack", the meeting heard, "Except that it now advises Government (not just Defra) instead of British Waterways and has lost Amenities from its title." Without ever lapsing into jargon, and spiced with his inimitable humour, John explained the new function of the Inland Waterways Advisory Council and its latest report. Handing out CD-ROM copies, he recommended starting at Section 11 - ever one to cut the c**p and get to the hub of the matter!
Whether the new IWAC will fulfil the role of an independent regulator that has been on NABO's wishlist for a long time, only time will tell. However there was an open invitation to open channels of communication between the two organisations.
Perhaps the only problem with NABO's AGM was for those who missed out by not coming.