This is a very late year in review for 2018.The annual printing of the membership cards has reminded my dim grey cells that this task needs attending to as well.A poorly grandchild plus a new grandchild has kept me very busy and offline and just about managing to get out ,clean up some areas and rescue some old coins and artefacts too.Given the choice when you have got limited time , getting out in the fresh air metal detecting always wins over sitting down typing away at a computer screen .But my apologies to all and sundry for my poor time management skills and delay in getting this year in review done.
The year just gone has seen a spectacularly warm and dry summer ,pointing to a future climate trend which will not be good for our hobby and indeed the environment as well. Thankfully most of our members were able to find marshy areas in those very dry months ,whilst others taking advantage of low water levels and safe waters did the annual summer season of river detecting ,which they have been doing for many years .
It has also been a year when the Assocition finally achieved what we started off at our 25th Anniversery year.We took delivery of two lovely new metal detectors for our members free use just before Christmas .We have recieved permission from the family of one great former metal detectorist to name one machine in their honor and we will go public with both ,when we have reached agreement for the same with the second family.Sincere thanks to the family of this former great detectorist and ambassador of our hobby for their permission.Currently each member is recieving training on the detectors as they are very advanced machines.We are very grateful to the supplier for the two machines and the huge discount recieved and we look forward to hearing that our members are buying their metal detecting consumables from this very generous distributor for many years to come.We must also thank the public for their contribution towards these two lovely free machines and for our members who handed in their contributions.I must admit that it did take a long time but we finally got there .Its such a pity that we hear of so many other clubs and associations making so much money out of their members and not even offering them the use of a free quality metal detector.
Some of our members along with other independent detectorists in one part of our fair county are settling into the second year of a protracted dispute with their local council ,over the introduction of a very unfairly introduced local ban on the use of all types of metal detectors.The association is helping out our members to the best of our ability and with what few resources we have.Its really a David and Goliath situation there ,and I’ve been informed only one Councillor is seriously interested in their situation ,and the sad thing is that already some children have allegedly suffered needle stick/sharps injuries whilst playing in these council parks .We do sincerely hope that the children affected will be given a medical all clear soon and we do hope that some agreement can be reached for all the detectorists affected ,for the public who have lost items ,but most of all the children who play in these areas.
Thankfully our lovely hobby of metal detecting continues its very safe trend for its participants.However we are very concerned that a new metal detecting television programme called “River Hunters” could have another another “Time Team ” effect on our lovely hobby , and put lots of inexperienced new metal detectorists in risky and dangerous situations especilly if they try and emulate this tv show.In our collective opinion only very experienced metal detectorists should detect in rivers and water ,and all possible precautions should be taken. We do have to offer condolonces in this section to a participant of one of our related hobbies and activities and that is to the family and friends of Mr Gordon McGhee of Colchester Essex, who was a well regarded Numatist. Sadly Mr McGhee was killed during an alleged robbery of his rare coin collection.We also have to offer our sympathies to the editor and contributors of UKDN as we have heard that they will no longer be publishing their great and regular monthly metal detecting WORD magazine.We are so sorry to see this great monthly publication ceasing production and publication ,and we are disapointed to see that we are one of the few metal detecting clubs ,associations to publicly thank them for all their great work and great editions over the years .
I always take this yearly review to have a look at the number of metal detecting clubs and associations in Derbyshire.Unless I’m mistaken all clubs are still operating and one new club has been formed.Its very hard to know as some clubs “went under the radar” post PAS introduction.Currently at the moment there is an important consultation process regarding ” Treasure Trove ” laws and it will be interesting to note the number of “clubs ” and “associations” that make submissions.I just want to take this opportunity to thank all our association members for their responses and our collective submission in this consultation process will be made very soon.
Im pretty sure that everyone agrees with me when I say that our lovely hobby is heading in the wrong direction ,especially with these rallies and “megarallies.We have all seen the television and social media pictures and film footage.Stupid stunts such as leaping out of planes ,people being buried alive, to advertise metal detectors.Rally marshalls using powerful drones to “buzz” people at rallies and other rally event staff weaving in and out of detectorists in powerful luxury SUVs.If any of those actions went wrong ,lives could have been lost .However following a complaint from a female detectorist I personally now believe that metal detecting rallies have sunk to a new low.I have reviewed the film and social media footage of an event at a detecting rally,and have been very disapointed at the behaviour of the metal detectorists towards the lady models at the event.We have written messages of complaint to the three organisers of the metal detecting event ,about the behaviour of the metal detectorists at this part of the event , the inappropriate clothing of the lady models and the fact that some of the lady models appeared to be very young .The event was attended by many companies ,magazines ,celebrity detectorists and organisations ,and we’re very surprised that none of them have made any negitive /disassociation comments about this particular event which occurred at a recent metal detecting rally.We ask all detectorists not to support or attend rallies or megarallies.These events are not good for the future of our lovely pastime.Detectorists ,small clubs are being forced off permissions by rally organisers and the relationship between the landowner and individual detectorist,small clubs are being eroded If you want to contribute towards a charity ,please give the money directly to the charity yourself ,rather than going to a rally.
I always take the year in review ,to thank all the organisations who safely dispose for us the huge amount of rubbish,heavy metals ,batteries that we collectively remove from the ground each year.I also want to thank the land owner who continues to give us the use of our free to use to all members club detecting land in Derbyshire.A big thank you to all members who supported our selected charities who facilitate our lovely hobby of metal detecting ,with their foreign,old currency and brass keys.Please keep up this good work.A big thank you to Linda for continuing to supply everyone with free to read metal detecting magazines.This year we have reduced our chosen publication titles from two to one ,so there won’t be many magazines in circulation.This was done because it was felt that the quality of the magazines had reduced and that there was far too much advertising.However Linda is still saving us collectively a large amount of money so we don’t each have to buy a magazine and just think of all the trees we are saving.
Our website has not been as busy this year .This is partly due to there being less posts ,but also finding it more difficult to advertise our association on forums ,magazines and other websites We will try going forward to remedy all these issues and to advertise more successfully.Our security features have been very effective and there have been very few troll attacks so far,but we are still visited by these individuals ,however the damage to the website and the association has been negligible.A very big thank you to WordPress for the use of the free website and for their excellent security features.
Everyone knows and supports our annual commeration for the victims of the Tunisian terrorist attack.This year it has been a difficult year for the families and friends of the victims due to legal proceedings.However we will still commerates the victims in this way but in future this lovely event will have moveable dates.This years commeration dates have not been decided yet but we will give other clubs and individual detectorists in Derbyshire or coming into Derbyshire to Detect enough prior notice on this site ,so that they can leave those weekends free to support us in this lovely commeration event.
Going forward I just want to remind all association members that our ideas and suggestions box needs filling ,so that our association stays fresh and active.We look forward to the very important “Treasure Trove ” consultation process and we hope that our collective proposals are listened to when decisions are being made.Finally I just want to thank all our members for their continued support and to wish them a safe and sucessful metal detecting year ahead especially with our two free to use top quality metal detectors !
John Potts
Association Spokesperson
