Posted by Tim Perks (safety@dwrace.org.uk) (from 213.123.19.88) on 21 July, 2001 at 19:29

Copied direct from the official DW site:-

AGM 2001
The Annual General meeting of the Devizes to Westminster Organisation Ltd was held on Saturday 14th July at the new Wokingham Watersports Centre at Dreadnought Reach in Reading. President, Peter Begent , welcomed over thirty members to the first AGM since the constitutional changes introduced last year. After normal business addressing minutes and previous accounts, the Chairman of the Team Leaders gave his report. He emphasised the tremendous progress made by the team in building bridges between the authorities which run the canal and river whose support is vital for the wellbeing of the annual Easter race. He spoke of the real sense of grief felt by all involved with the event over the decision to cancel this year's race as the country was gripped by the Foot & Mouth epidemic but drew strength from the support received from all quarters. One of the major steps forward this year has been the successful negotiations with St Thomas' Hospital to provide a base for the Westminster team following the ongoing development below Westminster Bridge. The whole organisation was grateful to Gil Rooke for the time and effort spent on securing our future home and Tom hoped that St Thomas' would benefit through their role as joint charity beneficiaries with NCH for the 2002 event.
Tom then introduced each of the Team Leaders who made brief presentations on the work of their respective teams and answered questions from the members. Of particular interest was the state of the entries at the time the race was cancelled which stood around sixty crews - it is hoped that many of these will take up the challenge again in 2002. There were also questions regarding the state of the river this Easter which had been monitored by members of the Team to test the new contingency plans.

After a short break the meeting reassembled to elect the team for 2002. Results were as follows:

Directors:
Tom Armitstead
Paul Ralph
Colin Mackinlay
Company Secretary:
Cherry Bapty
Team Leaders:
Chair: Tom Armitstead
Event Coordinator: Paul Andrews
Communications: Tony Roberts
Resources: Tamsin Phipps
Finance: Julie Roberts
Publicity: Sally Peake
Safety: Tim Perks
Following the elections, Peter Begent introduced Peter Burbridge who was invited to show the members the results of his work on redesigning the DW website. It is hoped that the new format will be more user friendly and present a more modern image . It is intended that future leaflets and adverts for DW will follow a similar theme. It is hoped that the new pages will be ready soon at www.dwrace.org.uk and definitely in time to capture the interest which will be shown in British canoeing at the time of the World Marathon Championships due to be held at Stockton in August.
Before the meeting closed, Allan Bennett drew attention to a longstanding servant of DW who has retired from active involvement. David Keane paddled the race in the early 1950s and went on to design many different boats in his endeavours to improve the times of leading crews. He has been an active member of the organising committee ever since paddling the course and is always to be seen at Easter making a photographic record of the event. David still maintains the archive of results and his enormous experience and knowledge of the race has been an enormous asset to race organisers for half a century. It was proposed that David be elected an Honorary Vice President of the organisation in recognition of his work - we all hope he will accept this honour. It remained for the President to close the meeting and wish us all every success in running the 2002 event.