ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2004
Minutes of the 25th AGM
Held at the City of London University at Northampton Square
On 24th January 2004
Minutes: The minutes of the last AGM were read to the meeting.
Matters Arising:
Bernard Amps name was mentioned as Treasurer – this should have read Rhod McAusland.
Keith Pearson asked the Chairman to explain how there are 3,500 active members when the membership number is up to 10,000. Ian replied that we never reissue a number and 3,500 are fully paid up members.
Chairman’s Report:
4th time as Chairman
1.Bookstall – Richard and committee would like to thank Alan McMasters, Rose Mint, Pauline and Jack Earrey for their help. Fairs that bookstall will visit in 2004 will be in next Cockney Ancestor.
2.Members’ Interests – CD has been issued, but some confusion over separate Members Interests on website and CD.
3.Branches
Barking & Dagenham – George and his committee had a busy year. Attended Forest Group, Barking Town Hall Family History day, launch of Frogley CD and Eastbury Manor. Despite all this attendances at the branch still low.
Bishopsgate – thanks go to David Webb, Jean Smith and the rest of the committee for organising today.
Havering – attendances in excess of 100.
Newham & Redbridge – this is our problem branch. Attendances fell to a single figure at one meeting. Executive would like to thank George Smith for stepping into the breach as branch chairman temporarily. If there is no improvement before end of March the branch will have to be suspended.
Computer Group – about 60 members. Well done to Jack, Carol, Maureen and Derrick.
4.Membership down this year to 3389 (307 overseas, 235 new members). Membership secretary, Mary Greene, resigning on 31/8/2005. New Members Secretary, Jack Jackson would also like to resign. Replacements needed for both.
5.Projects
Hackney 1831 and West Ham 1891, both CD’s on sale with over 100,000 names on each.
1851 West Ham will soon be available. Our thanks to Essex FHS for their help on this project. Thanks also to Christine Patient and her team for Frogley.
NBI – 2nd release due later this year – our thanks to Pauline Earrey, Wayne and her other helpers for this.
6.Cockney Ancestor Editorial Team – thanks to the 5 people who put this together.
7.Internet – Jan Hart our webmaster could not be with us but our thanks to her.
8.Honorary Life Membership was awarded to: Barbara Coker, Arthur Cook, Peter Fernando, Joan Hardinges, Wendy Jones, Colleen Richards and Brian Manning. (Proposed Malcolm Commander, Seconded Ian Whaley – voted unanimously). Also Honorary Life Membership for Pauline and Jack Earrey for all their work for the Society. (Proposed: Ian Whaley, Seconded Vera Bangs – voted unanimously)
Treasurer’s Report
First year as Treasurer and has been an auspicious year. Society has had troubles and has managed to go from a £28,000 profit to a £10,000 loss.
It has been necessary to change printer for CA because of increased costs, not meeting deadlines and also laxness in sending invoices. This has led to having 5 invoices for the CA this year rather than 4 thereby increasing printing costs this year. The new printers are delivering on time and being paid on time.
Membership and bookstall takings have been down, had to find £11,000 for storage for the books. We are looking at ways to change this, cheaper storage, online bookstall and credit card facilities for paying membership fees and bookstall online orders. Gift Aid should give us about £2,000 back.
We need more volunteers to work on projects as these can be published to earn the Society revenue.
Our reserves are still good - £35,000 in the Filby Fund.
Question – Are we getting near to outgoings being the same as fees? John Reynolds replied that CA now costs £2 per copy to send out to each member. Membership fees need to go up by £2 across the board in September 2004. The Editorial Sub Committee will be recommending to the Executive that relevant adverts be inserted in CA to help cover increased costs – these will be extra pages, magazine not reduced in size.
David Groen asked why Gift Aid was not shown in accounts – Bernard replied they would be in next accounts as these only went up to 5th April.
George Smith asked what is being done to reduce £11,482 storage bill. Ian said we are looking at Yellow Box Storage Company at a charge of £200 per month.
Peter Fernando asked what proportion of membership had claimed Gift Aid – Mary Green replied about one third.
Melissa Ford asked when branch Treasurers would be getting together for a meeting? Bernard replied that he had not forgotten and would do this as soon as possible; in the meantime they should carry on as before.
Bernard has managed to get Auditors fees down from £900 to £500.
The accounts were proposed by Bernard Amps, Seconded by Ian Whaley and adopted.
Election of Officers
Position_______Candidate_______Proposed by__________Seconded by
Chairman ______Ian Whaley______Bernard Amps__________Debbie Earrey
Treasurer ______Bernard Amps____Pauline Earrey__________Ian Whaley
Secretary_______Vera Bangs_____Malcolm Commander______George Smith
Membership Secretary____Mary Greene
Projects Coordinator_____Colleen Mitchell
Vice Chairman__________Malcolm Commander
All proposed by Ian Whaley and seconded by Vera Bangs
All the above were voted into office by a majority.
Election of Auditors – Bernard Amps proposed Clockhouse Accounting, Clock House, Romford who have agreed to audit the accounts for under £300 per year. Seconded by Jacqui Crompton and agreed by majority vote (one abstention).
Any Other Business
John Roach asked that the bookstall attend the branch more often and perhaps bring only one copy of each publication to cut down on boxes. Ian replied that this is Richard’s decision.
Roger Levior asked about the £2 increase in fees. Ian replied he would come to that later.
Brian Westwood asked if the society could produce a sweatshirt – these together with scarves, ties etc are already sold on bookstall.
Jean Vagg wanted to know how many people present had computers? Ian asked for a show of hands for who had NOT got a computer – about a third present. He stated that CDs are being produced because books are very expensive to print, microfiche costs have also increased and we have our own CD copier. We plan to have an in-house database, which can be searched for a small fee. Rod Moffit stated that Libraries charge £1.50 per hour now for Internet access. David Groen said that they do not let you use your own disks either because of viruses. Richard Chapman says that he already runs a service for the Hackney 1831 where he will look up names for a cost per page.
George Smith asked if the Computer Group could attend Barking Branch if they move their meetings to Saturdays to help generate members. He was advised to approach Jack Jackson as the Group used his equipment and this would be his decision.
Pauline Earrey asked if Executive was going to take charge of future AGMs. Ian Whaley replied that next year hoped to run AGM as a Family History Fair where other societies and organisations can attend. This will generate more revenue for the society and help AGM pay for itself as this year AGM has cost Society about £10 per head to run. It will also conform to our Charity status.
David Groen asked the committee to consider holding the AGM at another time of year and to change the constitution if necessary. This has been considered before and the meeting is held in January for accounting reasons and we may be stuck with January but will discuss at next Executive meeting.
Ian Whaley proposed raising the subscriptions in September 2004 to £12 for individual membership, £13 for family membership and £11 for institutional membership. Seconded by John Reynolds. The majority voted approval, there were 10 votes against and 3 abstentions.
Meeting closed with a thank you to the Exec from David Groen.
