Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held at Crispin Community Centre and Via Zoom.
Wednesday 20th October. The meeting started at 7.05pm.
Our Chairman David Atkins started the meeting by welcoming everyone in the room and also those online, he said it is a delight to be able to meet and see friends physically as well as virtually. He gave a special welcome to two of our newest members, from the Gulliver family Sarah and Evie.
PRESENT: David Atkins DA, Catherine Atkins CA, David Brunt DB, Veronica Brunt, Peter Fry PF, Barbara Fry BF, Jacqui Knight JK, Francis Knight FK, Isobel Knight, Mark Lewis, Jenny Lewis, David Mozley DM, Hilary Mozley, Marina Richards MR, Paul Badman, Kay Strain KS, Tom Winn TW, Kay Winn, Sally Wood SW, Sarah Gulliver SG and Evie Gulliver.
APOLOGIES: Gabbie and Martyn Butler, Barbara and Martin Cowell, Gill Davey, Brian Read and Julia Welch.
Minutes and any matters arising of last AGM held on 31st October 2020: DA checked that those present had read the minutes from the previous AGM and that they were a true and fair record. DM proposed that the minutes were correct, and FK seconded. Agreed by all members by a show of hands. No matters arising.
Chairman’s Report: (A copy of the report was sent to members prior to the meeting) DA checked that everyone had received a copy of his report. In summary he spoke about three main points.
1. The association has been able to keep in contact with our French and German friends via Zoom during the last year. There have been three such meetings and all have been good fun and it was a delight to both see and hear from our fellow Twinners. We look forward to having more meetings in the coming months. Such meetings via Zoom will help us in planning future visits.
2. The committee has met each month via Zoom and DA thanked them all for their support and desire to both keep in touch with and to update our members. Special thanks to our Secretary JK and our Treasurer MR for their continued work in those roles. DA also thanked the members who supported our Bric-a-Brac stall in July and the Water or Wine stall at Merriman Park Fun Day.
3. DA said that we hope to be able to resume visits next year and that the key to the Associations future success still lies with increasing our membership. We received a grant of £1k from Street Parish Council to help with this. He said that the way lies in targeting families and we are looking to do this through the schools. Families are not the only additional members we want to see - anyone with the right motivation is welcome - but families offer a longer term and vibrant future.
DA asked if there were any comments. No comments. KS proposed the acceptance of the report and DB seconded. Agreed with a show of hands from members.
Treasurer’s report and presentation and acceptance of the annual accounts: (A copy of the accounts was sent to members prior to the meeting) MR presented the accounts for the financial year ending 31st August 2021 as checked by the accountant.
Current account balance £7207.06
Reserve account balance £8059.19
MR proposed the acceptance of the accounts and TW seconded. All in favour by a show of hands. DA thanked Chris Ford for inspecting the accounts.
MR proposed the level of subs for next year to stay at £15 per member 18yrs and over. There were no comments to this proposal and the motion was seconded by SW. All in favour by a show of hands.
Voting to elect the Chairman: DA thanked those who had already sent their votes for nominations to our secretary. Voting at the meeting would normally be by a show of hands but a secret ballot may be held if requested by at least 4 members. No requests for a ballot were received and the voting by show of hands proceeded.
TW our current Vice Chairman was on Zoom and did not have sight of the room to see the votes. It was agreed before the meeting that DA would hand over to JK to conduct the election of our chairman.
Once DA had left the room JK reported that no other nominations had been received by post or email. By a show of hands with no abstains or against votes David Atkins was re-elected as Chairman.
DA was called back into the room and thanked everyone for their continued confidence “I am delighted to continue in this role, and I hope that I can bring the necessary energy to lead us for the next 12 months that are critical to the association as previously mentioned this evening”.
Voting to elect Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary: DA stated that TW has decided not to seek to remain as vice chairman, a role he has had for the last three years. On behalf of the Association DA thanked TW for having filled this role and personally thanked him for all his help advice and support over the last two years. In response TW said that it has been a pleasure to be Vice Chairman and also a pleasure to work alongside DA.
BF had been nominated for Vice Chairman – She left the room for the vote to be held. The vote was carried out by a show of hands. The motion was carried, and Barbara Fry was elected as Vice Chairman and called back into the room and she joined the top table.
JK who had been nominated for Secretary left the room. Jacqui Knight was re-elected by a show of hands as Secretary.
MR who had been nominated for Treasurer and had joined the meeting by Zoom was asked to leave the room. Marina Richards was re-elected by a show of hands as Treasurer.
Members are invited to volunteer to serve on the management committee with a target of at least 10 members:
Members volunteering to continue to serve on the committee for the coming year are:
Catherine Atkins
Paul Badman
Peter Fry
Francis Knight
Kay Strain
Sally Wood
DA thanked them. Ideally the Association needs four new Committee members and he outlined what it entails:
There are 11 meetings per year generally on the fourth Wednesday of each month. There is no meeting in December. Candidates need to have a willingness to bring suggestions and ideas to our events – be they hosting, visiting, social or fund-raising and have a willingness to help organise these activities with others.
David Mozley volunteered from the room to join the committee.
Anyone else who would like to join is very welcome; please contact either DA or JK.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 24th Nov and the venue will be decided nearer the time.
Lottery: TW stated that this year’s lottery had seen a record amount of numbers sold. He has enjoyed doing the lottery for a number of years but is now going to stand down. KS has volunteered to take over the running of the lottery and TW said he hopes she enjoys doing it as much as he has. DA thanked TW for running this as it is an important fund-raiser for the Association.
October Lottery Winners:
1st no.30 Cameron Richards £20
2nd no.47 Trevor Sinner £10 – donating to Oxfam
3rd no.46 Suzie Atkins £5
Plans for 2022: DA stated that we would like to give an update from both Gravenchon and Isny but as importantly he would like to get a sense from the members as to how you are all feeling about participating in either hosting or travel next year. He stated that future visits to Europe will need the Association to have additional documentation in line with EU regulations which is unrelated to Covid, this was outlined at a previous meeting and when we organise trips in the future, we will need to make sure these guidelines are followed.
Gravenchon update: Please see the attached corrected School holiday timeline.
JK gave an update to the members that there have been discussions with Sharon in Gravenchon about us travelling to France next year. Unfortunately, Sharon had stated that the week commencing 18th April after Easter, is not an option because of French Presidential Elections and the wide use of public buildings for voting over the two weekends in April.
The other option is Spring Bank Holiday week, 30th May onwards that includes the Queen’s Platinum celebrations, but this could be problematic for both sides. The French because of a Bank Holiday for Whitsun and the UK’s two bank holidays for the Jubilee. Sharon is checking with their members if they are wanting to host in Whitsun week, but it is felt that many people may be going away on holiday both in the UK and in France during this time.
This leaves two other options when school holidays coincide which are in August or October.
JK added that she felt it is important to keep the exchanges in school holidays as children are not allowed to take time off school during term time and this is especially important with a new family recently joining the Association. SG said that hopefully with the exchange being further into the year we will all be in a better place by then and so enabling more members to travel. FK stated that in a previous year there had been exchanges with both Gravenchon and Isny in the same month and as some members exchange with both it had been said that this had been too much to take on. It had previously been stated that Isny were looking at August to visit us and so this would leave October as the more sensible option for us to visit Gravenchon. The members in the room agreed it wasn’t a good idea to have two exchanges in the same month. We will wait to hear from Sharon and have further discussions.
Isny update: BF gave an update that Isny have pencilled in the first week in August as a preferred time for them to visit Street. There have been recent emails, and this is still the case. Nothing has been booked so far but this will hopefully happen.
It was decided that JK and BF will send out emails in the New Year to gauge interest from our members to see who would potentially like to participate in exchanges in 2022.
AOB:
SW talked about holding another Bric-a-Brac near Christmas. It was discussed whether this would be appropriate due to the fact that Street is holding a food festival around Christmas time instead of the usual Christmas Cracker event. BF stated that she still has Bric-a-Brac for a stall. CA said she thought that before Christmas would still be a good time to hold another Bric-a-Brac. it was agreed that DA would look into booking a stall on a Thursday market day in December. If anyone has any appropriate items for a Bric-a-Brac stall, please get in touch. SW said that she felt it would be good if we held a stall more regularly at the Thursday Street Market in the New Year.
The Associations new Display Board was brought along to the meeting and DA said that it had been a good focal point at the Merriman Park Fundraiser. This has been a good investment utilising some of the grant received from Street Parish Council. Thanks to JK and FK for putting the display together. See photo at the end of the minutes.
DA asked the members present their thoughts on a Christmas Social. Previously we had a sit-down meal. FK thought that it was better to be able to mingle and chat and so a buffet would be good for this. SW suggested a fun Christmas quiz. DB suggested music. SG suggested organising a beetle drive. DA suggested in terms of rooms the United Reform Church and Mission Church were appropriate and after a discussion these were the preferred options. DA will make enquiries.
DA closed the meeting and thanked KS and SW for the teas, coffees, and biscuits. He thanked everyone for attending the meeting either in person or via Zoom.
Meeting Closed at 7.50pm
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 24th November 2021 at 7.30pm