As intimated in the last Shavings edition, this AGM was my last as President, and I wish the new President Andrew Campbell a successful reign.

The WBA Annual General meeting was held at Albert Park on Sunday 24 July 2016 on a cold but clear day. The conditions obviously influenced the member’s choices, as there were plenty of warm clothes, lots of hot food, but no boats on the water.

The 36 intrepid members attending included two new members , Bob Morgan and Robert Tolano - welcome to you both and we hope to see more of you.

As usual we held lunch at 12.00 followed by the AGM. Reports were given by the office holders and as these were accepted by the members , the current committee was stood down and the election of new office bearers was conducted by Geoff Carroll. None of the nominations were challenged so all nominees were declared elected for the coming year of 2016/17.

I also had the pleasure of declaring the two recipients of the "Bell" award – one being retrospective for the previous year.

The 2014/15 Bell award was presented to Peter Batchelor for the development of our web site and the continual growth of it. A well-deserved recognition. Peter demonstrated his editorial investigative skills by pointing out that although the box containing the Bell Award was clearly his, the Bell itself had someone else’s name on it! Embarrassing!

The 2015/16 Bell award was presented to Penny Braybrook for her work in sorting out the library, restocking and developing the catalogue and initiating a new storage system for the magazines. Penny swapped Bells with Peter and the mystery was resolved.

My personal thanks for the contributions to the excellent lunch which was enjoyed by all, and to everyone involved in setting up the meeting room and tidying up afterwards.

Although the day was not conducive to boating, David Stott brought his latest project for viewing, the mini hydro powered by a rotary Sachs engine. The hydroplane and the demonstration of the rotary engine attracted a lot of attention despite the cold weather. The boat’s next outing will be on the water when a test pilot is found!

Cheers, Chris Kelly.