Hungerford & District U3A |
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Annual General Meeting 12 July 2022
Minutes
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Hungerford and District U3A held on July 12th 2022
Venue; Corn Exchange, Hungerford
43 members attended, which exceeded the quorum.
Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from 13 members with 7 absent members asking the Chair to vote on their behalf.
Previous Minutes and Matters Arising
The minutes of the AGM held on 5th August 2021 were approved.
Chair's Report
The Chair's written report is appended. The membership currently stands at 137. The committee is in need of more help and volunteers will be very welcome.
The Chair's report was approved.
Treasurer's Report
Treasurer's Report and accounts are appended.
The membership fee will be maintained at £16 but may have to be reviewed if costs continue to rise rapidly.
The accounts were approved.
Election of Officers
Brian Davis (Chair), Jeff Riggs (Treasurer) and Linda Pateman (Secretary) were re-elected to continue in post.
Other committee members are Sylvia Breadmore, Margaret Barter and Jenny Knight.
Elaine Outlaw will join the committee.
Questionnaire Results and Discussion
BD had circulated a questionnaire and received a response from more than 50% of members. 85% were interested in group activities and 50% in general activities. Interest was evenly spread between different types of 'outings' (rather than just theatre trips). The most popular price point (to cover transportation and entrance) was £60pp. JR mentioned that the cost of coach transportation has risen to approximately £25 per head.
A wide range of new groups were suggested but with practically no common requests. It is proposed that a minimum of 3 interested members would be needed to enable a new group to be considered.
AOB
A vote of thanks for the Committee Members for their hard work during the last year.
Notice and Agenda
This is a formal notice that the Hungerford & District AGM will be held in The Corn Exchange, Hungerford on Tuesday 12 July at 10.45am.
The venue will be open from 10.15am and representatives of the various active groups will be on hand to discuss their activities and recruit new members where opportunities exist.
The agenda for the AGM includes the election of officers. These positions are open to all members but, as there have been no new nominations thus far, the existing officers have agreed to remain in post for a further year. Any last minute nominations for the officer positions (including the vacant vice-chair) will be accepted up to the start of the meeting (a proposer and seconder will be required).
Following the formal business, we are pleased that Tony Strafford, the ex-Beefeater, will be giving a talk entitled ‘The Ladies of the Tower’.
Agenda
- Apologies for absence
- Approval of the Minutes of the 2021 AGM, held on the 5 August.
- Chair’s report
- Treasurer’s report and Accounts
- Election of Officers (subject to nominations received up to the start of the meeting):
- Chair: Brian Davis
- Vice-chair: vacancy
- Treasurer: Jeff Riggs
- Secretary: Linda Pateman
- Questionnaire results and discussion
- Any other business
The officers require a formal vote of approval
Voting
If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to register your vote for item 5, please email or write to The Secretary (details below) with your apologies for the meeting and how you would wish your vote to be cast. The Chair of the meeting will then act as your proxy and make the vote for you.
You can write a separate email or letter or simple forward this note to The Secretary (secretary@hungerfordu3a.org.uk) with a clear indication of which way you wish the Chair to vote. Please make sure your name and, if possible, your membership number are clearly shown.
Linda Pateman
Secretary
Tel: 01488 668563
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Hungerford and District U3A
held on 5th August 2021
Venue; Croft Hall, Hungerford
32 members attended.
Apologies for Absence
Apologies received from 35 members.
Previous Minutes and Matters Arising:
The minutes of the previous meeting, held by email on 24th June 2020, were approved.
Chair’s Report
The Chair’s written report is appended.
Brian Davis reviewed activities during the last 12 months, which had been seriously curtailed due to pandemic restrictions. Some groups had managed to continue by using facilities such as Zoom, while others had suspended their activities. It was hoped that all groups would be able to return to normality in the near future.
BD thanked the retiring Treasurer, Barbara Riggs for all her hard work on behalf of the U3A, and thanked all committee members for their efforts during the last 12 months.
No questions were raised.
Treasurer’s Report and Accounts
Treasurer’s Report and Accounts are appended.
Fees for the last period were reduced, and the Membership period was extended. This resulted in a small loss, easily covered by the reserve funds with a final balance remaining of £2800.
Iris Lloyd asked about funds owing to individual Groups. These funds remain available but have not been separately listed in the accounts.
The accounts were approved.
Membership Fees will be £16pa from the start of the new Membership year in October 2021.
Election of Officers
Brian Davis was re-elected as Chair; Linda Pateman was re-elected as Secretary; Jeff Riggs was elected as Treasurer.
Any other business:
Vote of thanks from the floor to the Officers and Committee.
Chair’s Report 2022
While we did hold an attended AGM last year in August, some Covid restrictions were re-introduced from November due to the emergence of the Omicron variant. This would mainly have required general meetings to be held with people wearing masks and with windows and doors open – in the winter! Consequently, no further get-togethers were held until after the restrictions were finally lifted in late February.
Two well-attended ‘coffee mornings’ were achieved in March and May, with the second including an interesting and amusing talk by Warren Ashton on “Metaphors, Clichés and Phrases”. We now plan to try to arrange general meeting events each month, with speakers on alternate months, starting in September.
A successful outing to Arundells, former home of Sir Edward Heath, in Salisbury was arranged in May. However, we were forced to cancel a Theatre trip due to a lack of uptake of tickets (it is not financially viable below a certain number of participants), and we will be discussing this with the results of the recently arranged questionnaire at the AGM.
Most of our groups are running regular meetings – some still using Zoom video conferencing, a facility which now seems part of our culture. One group managed to keep going throughout and that is the regular walks which now try to run two a month. The committee did review the possibilities of adding further groups and we are still seeking feedback as to whether these are required. As it happens, Hungerford is already well served with a number of ‘specialist’ organisations which seem to fill the potential gaps.
We currently have 136 members and, although small compared to some U3As, it is certainly a viable number for us to continue. However, we are running into a problem which I have touched on during the year. Officer posts may only be held for a period of 3years and, unless we have some new volunteers, we will not be able to fill these posts next year and, constitutionally, would be forced to disband! I hope some of you reading this report will be able to assist.
Our age profile means that we, inevitably, lose members during the year and our condolences go to their families. As a committee we will particularly miss our ex-Treasurer, Barbara Riggs, and we are grateful to Jeff Riggs for taking on that role. My thanks to all the Committee for their hard work during the year.
Brian Davis
July 2022
Treasurers Report and Accounts
Jeff Riggs
July 2022