Appeal goes out to all anglers to get involved in running the sport - Nigel Duncan
Chairman Gus Brindle has appealed to anglers to put the annual general meeting of the Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling (SFCA) in their diaries as there are key issues to discuss.
The event is on Thursday, March 26 at the Alona Hotel at Strathclyde Park, and Brindle said voting rights, election of officers and even how future decisions are made are the major talking points.
He said: “I would therefore urge all member clubs and any interested parties to attend. There will again be a number of key appointments that need to be either re-elected or filled.”
Brindle is keen to increase the size of the executive committee to reduce the burden on appointment-holders and therefore make volunteering for these positions more attractive.
Overall, the latest published figures indicate that there are 1,684 individual members of the SFCA, and that number includes 449 juniors.
The number of adult and concessionary memberships has recovered a little this year, but Brindle said there are still a lot of individuals who have decided, for one reason or another, not to re-join.
The fact that junior membership has continued to grow, however, is a positive sign and is testimony to the work of the coaches and the programmes that have been run throughout the year.
Dunfermline-based Brindle aded: “If you have, for one reason or another, decided not to renew your membership, we would love to know the reasons behind your decision.
“Please let us know if there is something that we are doing, not doing, or if there is something that we are not providing which has contributed to your decision not to re-join.
"Only by knowing what is wrong can we hope to address it, so please email us with feedback, good or bad, to [email protected].”
He called on members to continue to promote membership of the SFCA by encouraging all the anglers then know to join.
And he reminded anglers that SFCA membership provides free fishing across the Lowland Canal network and free public liability insurance cover for all their fishing activities.
It also allows us the SFCA to evidence a large, active, and engaged membership when raising issues with Sportscotland, Scottish Government and other key stakeholders.
Brindle also advocated promoting membership of Angling Scotland so that angling has a single representative body, with sufficiently large membership to be able to make ministers sit up and listen.
The chairman, who has been in post for 20 years, said: “Angling Scotland is the only angling body in Scotland that has a remit under its articles to represent the interests of all anglers and all disciplines of angling.
“Estimates suggest that there are somewhere in the region of 400,000 recreational anglers in Scotland today, and tens of thousands more who visit the country to fish each year.
“If all of these anglers could be persuaded to join Angling Scotland, we would have the numbers to force debates in the Scottish Parliament, with potential to make real change and progress in addressing the ever-increasing number of threats to our fisheries and fish populations.
"To make this a reality, we need all of you to join.
“The cost of Angling Scotland membership is £5 per year and helps the three disciplines to work together and bring the weight of all anglers in Scotland to bear in a single representative voice for our sport.
“I cannot overemphasise the importance and value of being able to bring the weight of significant membership numbers to bear when lobbying on behalf of angling and anglers.”
Membership, incidentally, now runs for a calendar year from the date of joining or renewal.
Sea fishing now and the popular Edinburgh New Year Shore League continues with match five of six at Joppa with registration at the Bridge Street car park from 6.15pm to 6.30pm. Postcode is EH15 1TQ.
This is the penultimate match and fishing is from 7pm to 10pm.
The final leg is at Newhaven West, basically the Western Harbour Breakwater (EH6 6PA) on March 6.