Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 8 June 2022 at 4pm at Burghclere Down Community Hall
36 members were in attendance
- Apologies for Absence.
Judith Entwisle, Jane and Bob Leishman, Pauline Broad, Cecil and Lesley Rose, Leslie Ward.
- Minutes of the AGM held on Wednesday 23 June 2021
Acceptance was proposed by Judi Weston, seconded by Barbie Morrey-Stone and agreed unanimously.
- Report by the Chair
Having had a quick glance at my AGM report for last year, I mentioned that we were hoping that we would not have to wait too long before we could return to face to face monthly meetings and the good news is we made it!
This brings me on to comment about the impact covid has had on our lives in general and how Anton u3a has responded. My first thank you must go out to our unsung heroes, the Group Leaders. From the outset and where possible, Group Leaders used Zoom to keep in contact with their members, other Group Leaders telephoned, set up chat groups and kept in contact via the Newsletter and website. It has been a time when so many of us have increased our IT skills. Perhaps this is something that we should see as a positive aspect of the various shutdowns. Despite all the IT available Group Leaders were chomping at the bit to get back to together again and yes once again we made it!
Another big thank you is to Wilson who quickly found speakers who could easily adapt to Zoom or a Burghclere Down delivery. We even met in the hall and our speaker Zoomed into us. Additional IT help came from Clive and Chris, I am so glad Anton u3a took on that challenge.
I mentioned the Anton u3a Newsletter earlier on and I’m pleased to say thank you to our Editor Tricia who has kept us on our toes and reminds us to keep everyone up to date with what we have been doing. I’m expecting to get a reminder soon!
There are so many members I would like to identify and thank for their hard work however I will try not to ramble on but just mention a few: Annie for organising the picnic, Norma for organising the Christmas Lunch, Robert our website manager, tea and coffee makers. All these people have taken on tasks that have benefitted us and they are much appreciated.
Last but not least I will thank the Committee: Ann, Anne, Barbie, Chris, Di, Tessa, Wilson and Clive who have worked hard to keep Anton u3a viable through exceptional times. I purposely left Clive till last as he needs to be singled out for a little extra praise. Clive completed a further year of secretarial duties than he was required to do, and has helped with the Website when Robert was unable to manage it. Additionally, Clive has volunteered to take on a feasibility study to see if using the national Beacon finance and membership database will assist officers in their tasks.
Mentioning Beacon is a nod to the future and what it will hold, it looks like we will have a busy and varied time. Barbie has managed to secure a stand on the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the High Street on 3 June 2022. The aim of the stand is raise awareness of Anton u3a and hopefully encourage some new members. By the time of our AGM this will be old news, we will update the members of our efforts at a later date.
To celebrate the u3a’s 40th anniversary we are going to hold a themed picnic on August 10th 2022. Barbie has kindly volunteered to organise the event and already has plans in place and recruited volunteers to help on the day. More details will be revealed later through our monthly meetings and on the website.
We also need to consider how much involvement Anton u3a would like with our National and Regional networks. Wilson, Clive and I have connected at various times, it was easier for me when I joined in Zoom meetings as now the regional meetings tend to be some distance away. A positive point of joining these meetings is to see how the Groups are dealing with issues such as recruitment and IT. Many of the groups state that filling committee posts is one of their hardest tasks. This rings true with our much smaller group. We are sadly losing Chris our treasurer, Clive our secretary and Ann a committee member. It is vital to have these officers to keep Anton u3a viable so once again I will ask for volunteers to come forward. I would like to see Anton u3a continue but this will not be possible without active members and a committee.
Finally, I would like to add a big thank you to my husband Michael who has to put up with my u3a tasks and the occasional rant. He does make an excellent car parking attendant though!
- Adoption of Accounts
Chris Coffin presented the accounts for the year ending 31 March 2022. A copy of the Accounts is attached to these Minutes.
Treasurer’s Report. Even if you’ve only had a quick glance at the accounts, you will have noticed that there are some red figures near the bottom of the page, this is because we have run at a deficit – £1,468 in the year just ended and £151 in the year before.
In the early stages of lockdown, we were doing very little: we couldn’t meet in person, we hadn’t discovered the wonders of Zoom, and the Committee felt it appropriate not to collect a subscription for the 2021/22 financial year.
However, things did pick up and although there was little activity in 2020, by 2021 we were almost back to normal, thanks in no small way to the use of Zoom. Thanks to those who made it possible for us to have a monthly speaker and to those who enabled group activity while we were unable to meet in person. The cost of having a Zoom account is shown in the figures before you, as is another new cost – bank charges. Charges were introduced last November by HSBC and to keep these down we have asked people to pay by bank transfer. That has not been possible for all, but the response generally has saved that particular cost from being more.
And of course, other costs have been rising. We now pay £19, rather than £18, for hiring this room each month, and we are finding that speakers do expect a little more. Faced with these costs, and aware that we would have a deficit, the Committee felt the answer had to be NO when a couple of groups, trying to manage a situation where numbers had not quite recovered following the pandemic, asked whether we could offer financial support, so No because waiving subs had already meant a subsidy of £10 per member.
This rather challenging situation could be met because we had reserves of £5,000 as we went in to lockdown, but we are now left with £3,500. Part of this (as shown on page 2) is money that has been accumulated by groups so the true figure is a little over £2,700. The committee doesn’t wish to run the reserves down any further, and feels that members should be asked to approve an increase in subscriptions which would apply from April 2023. And as indicated in the agenda Clive will be setting out the case for this.
Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by Pete Duncan, seconded by Lynda Stockings and agreed unanimously.
- Membership Fees. The Secretary told the AGM that due to financial pressures
highlighted in the Treasurer’s report, the Committee had concluded that Membership fees would need to increase from April 2023. As the financial position was difficult to predict, it had been decided to ask members to approve an increase to between £12 and £15 per year with the final decision made nearer the time.
Proposed by Tessa Cross, seconded by Michael Leonard. Carried 35 in favour, 1 against
- Election of Committee and Officers
Chair
Carole Leonard proposed by Clive Ward, seconded by Michael Leonard and elected unanimously.
Vice-Chair
Barbie Morrey-Stone was proposed by Leslie Ward seconded by Ann Truss and elected unanimously.
Treasurer
David Weston was proposed by Robert Kemp, seconded by Michael Leonard and elected unanimously.
Secretary
Jean Saunders proposed by Lynda Stockings, seconded by Barbie Morrey-Stone and elected unanimously.
Committee members
Tessa Cross, Wilson Carson, Di Burrows and Anne Bray, were re-elected to the Committee without contest.
Janet Bentley and Lynda Stockings were elected unanimously.
- Any other business
None raised
The meeting closed at 4.45pm.
Clive Ward Carole Leonard
Anton u3a Secretary Anton u3a Chair