The Chairman's report for the East of London FHS Annual General Meeting is reproduced here to provide more information to prospective members about the aims, goals, and accomplishments of the East of London Family History Society and for current members who might find it convenient for reference.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
20th JANUARY 2001

Ladies and Gentlemen:
It gives me great pleasure this afternoon to give you this, my first report as Chairman of the Society. I took on this role as chairman from John Reynolds, and the one thing I asked for was that he did not leave me to get on with it. Well I'm pleased to say that he did not, and I would like to start by saying thank you to him for all his help and guidance through out this, my first year. Thank you John.

I am sorry to say that Vera Bangs has decided, for personal reasons, not to seek re-election as our General Secretary. Vera has been the Societies Secretary for the last 3 years, and on your behalf I would like to thank her for all her work. Her input at meetings will be sorely missed.

Membership
I am pleased to report to the meeting that membership has again increased over the past year, with the society having 3765 paid up members by the end of the membership year last September, this included 758 new members. Currently the society has 3492 paid up members, which includes some 385 new members. Unfortunately some members seem to have trouble in remembering to renew each year, despite receiving a renewal notice with your Summer CA. and I regret to say that renewals are still coming in at a steady rate nearly six months into the membership year.

This causes problems not only for the membership secretary, but also for the CA production team, who have to forecast the numbers of magazines to be printed each quarter. We therefore regret that from this meeting we can no longer guarantee to supply back copies to members who fail to renew their membership within a reasonable time scale. Under the present constitution, members will recall that members, who fail to renew within six months, are deemed to have resigned from the society and that there details are purged from the database.

This decision has been taken with reluctance, but with due regard to the high cost of reprinting and magazine storage.

Jacqui Cromptom, our membership secretary for the past two years, has decided to take a break. She has held, not only this position, but has also held a considerable number of other jobs within the society’s executive over the years. I am pleased to report that her assistant this year, Mary Green, has agreed to take over the role from next September, for which we are all extremely grateful.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jacqui, on your behalf, for her hard work over the years, and wish her well for the future.

At this time I would also like to thank Pauline & Debbie Earrey, Jack Jackson, Mary Green, John Reynolds and Jean Blow, the team who ensure that your "Cockney Ancestor", is sent out on time each quarter. Jacqui has asked me to especially thank Jean for taking on the filing, and by the way Jean, there is another pile, when would you like it.

Members Interests
This year our Members Interest Fiche, that was sent out free with CA No.88, has provided an exciting new research tool for our members. From the comments received by the Committee it was also very well received. However, the cost of this production was such that it has now been decided to make this a bi-annual production, and not an annual one as first envisaged. So please ensure that for future editions, your particular Registered Interests, are kept current together with any changes of your e-mail or home address. All such amendments are to be sent directly to Eileen Pullin at the address shown in CA.

At this time I would also like to thank Eileen Pullin, our Members Interest Secretary, for all of her hard work. Our thanks also go to Terry Roberts and Enid Thoroughgood, for all of their work in producing the quarterly Members Interests Booklet, which still goes out with the Magazine.

Courier Service
Pam Woolcombe, who took over the service this year, tells me that she has processed 182 birth, 107 marriage and 71 Death certificates, with a further 22 documents relating to wills & census returns. Providing this service has meant Pam has been able to donate over £480 to society funds. She continues to provide an excellent service for our members, for which we are most grateful. She is normally able to obtain the documents within 10 days, and would welcome more requests this coming year.

Cockney Ancestor
Unfortunately, Joan Renton, our worthy editor is unable to be with us today, but she would like me to thank all those who have sent in their well-researched articles, which have again enabled her to receive yet another award from the Federations Elizabeth Simpson Award scheme. This time she was HIGHLY COMMENDED, and it is the 5th award she has received in as many years. Joan said and I quote, "I don't make these stories up, they are sent in by our members and I thank them all for their discoveries, which have often taken years of hard work to find, and for sharing them with us".

To celebrate our 21st year, the 4 covers of CA were changed to depict buildings of note from within our area. They were produced from the penmanship of Malcolm Commander. These were so well received that Malcolm has offered to continue creating his pen and ink drawings from old photos or drawings for as long as he can. Well done and thank you Malcolm.

This time last year, John Reynolds, our past chairman, asked for a volunteer to take over as editor, as Joan wanted to move on and do other things. Unfortunately no suitable volunteer was forthcoming, so thankfully Joan offered to carry on for the time being. But we must find someone ASAP, as Joan will not be able to carry on indefinitely, so if you feel you would like to have a go, please, contact Joan and talk to her, you will find her address is in CA.

Projects
The year 2000 proved very successful for our teams of volunteer workers. We have been able to finalise and publish the following projects.

The East of London Sources vol 2.

Stoke Newington 1841 Census, which apart from its contents includes a beautiful example of an early Victorian map.

Hackney 1851 Census. This was a joint project between ourselves and The London & North Middlesex Family History Society. The end result consisted of 2 booklets, each containing a total of 6 fiche, and has proved a tremendous success for both societies.

Virginia Street Chapel 1832-1840. This Catholic Mission was founded in the middle of the 18th century, and the above dated register is one of the few registers still to be found. The original work had been transcribed by the Catholic FHS, and was presented to us for publication by Nigel McCarthy.

Our next publications should be The Hackney 1831, and the Romford 1841 census. Further down the line are the 1891 census for Hackney and West Ham, but for these you will have to be patient, and if you can't, then might I suggest you contact your branch project co-ordinator, and see what you can do to help speed things along.

Computer Group
The group have arranged a full and varied program of computer related subjects to stimulate even the novice amongst us. The use of the data projector at meetings for demonstrations and talks has greatly improved the presentations, and brought added interest to the group as a whole. The group now attracts an average of 50 members each month.

Internet
Here we had a major change, Dave Jordon, our Webmaster, decided it was time for him to move on. In his own words, "At a certain point you lose some of that energy and your ideas get old". Dave had been at the helm since the outset and carried out much of the development work over the years.

It all started in 1994, when along with Ken Smy and Bruce Murdock, Dave started to explore exchanging information over the Internet. Then with the help of John Reynolds, Tony Benton and the Executive committee of the time, our website was born on the 3rd March 1996. During that 1st month, an average of 3 people visited the site. In Dave's last month, which was August last year, the average was 84 a day, with a total of 84,000 in the 4 1/2 years that he was its Webmaster.

On your behalf, the Executive Committee would therefore like to confer Honorary Life Membership, of this society, on Dave Jordan, in recognition of his outstanding work for the society over the last few years.

So the search was on to find new blood, with fresh ideas, and the ability to take the site up to the next level of development, Despite some initial concerns about finding someone suitable, I can report to the meeting, that we found, as Dave put it, "a volunteer beyond our expectations". This was Jan Hart member number 7742. She came with an excellent I T background, having been an Internet user for over 4 years, and is a full time I T tutor and network manager at a college in Leicester.

Since taking over Jan has rationalised the navigation around the site by redesigning the pages, the finished look being quite professional. She has also been ensuring the links to our site are up to date, and submitting the site to various search engines so that it can be easily found.

Lastly Jan would like to thank Dave Jordon, Tom Ebert, Chris Dixon & John Reynolds for all the help in making the transition over to her a smooth one.

Bookstall
Well stocked, second to none, the best selection, admired by other societies. What can one say about David Filby and the Bookstall that has not been said before, (even that has). He has brought so much money into the society, (over £80,000, at the last estimate), and that is just on sales from the bookstall. How many members have joined as a result of the free advert David gives to the Society, when he attends the various fairs around the country, what would we do with out him.

Well, I am sorry to say that we are about to find out, sooner rather than later than we would have hoped for. Because David has now asked us to find someone else to take over the running of the Family History section of the bookstall. He will, in the short term, continue to take the bookstall to fairs like the S.O.G. on behalf of the society.

David has now run the bookstall for well over 20 years, and through his efforts has seen it grow from taking a few pounds a month, to taking an average of over £2000 a month. But at the same time it has also taken over his home.

As many of you will be aware, owing to changes in the hours he has to work, David has been unable to get to the weekday meetings last year. Also he had trouble keeping up with the mail order service, and at the end of last year asked for some help. Jack Jackson offered his services and has been visiting David's House, compiling the orders and sending them out, but even this has not given David enough breathing space.

Due to this, various options are being considered by your executive committee on ways in which to proceed. The options open to us are, find someone to take on the role from David, to close the bookstall, or find premises to house the stock, together with suitable volunteers, to enable this vital service to continue. If anyone has suggestions or ideas on our options, please contact a member of the Executive or your Branch Committee

The one thing that we need as a society to succeed are volunteers, it may be in a small way, making tea at a meeting, or putting the chairs away (that's where I started), to something quite big, like editing our Cockney Ancestor (yes we do need a new editor). It could be something you do sitting at home, checking, inputting data into a computer, or it may need you to go out to a record office or local library. It could also be assisting to run the society by sitting on one of the branch committees; they are always looking for helpers with new ideas.

Depending on how we proceed with the bookstall, we may need people with decorating skills to fit out some premises and others to staff them. If you can help the society in this, or any other way, please make it known to a member of your branch committee, or write to me, my address is in CA. Lets not leave it to the few who do.

There is one person that I think has got an input into every area of the society, he prints the labels for your CA, he set up the membership database and the members interests one as well, he organises the printing of the booklets for the indexed projects, he prints the paper copy that gets put onto the fiche, he has assisted with the web site of the society, he keeps those that do supplied with tea & coffee when they descend on his house, to stick the fiche into the booklets, e.g. the Hackney 1851 census, where some 12,000 fiche were put into 1,000 booklets.

For these, and all the other services and jobs and help he gives, I and your committee, would like to propose that we confer an Honorary Life Membership of this society, on John Reynolds. Thank you again John.

 

Ian Whaley
Chairman EoLFHS
January 2001