Baddow & Galleywood

February 2016 AGM and Speaker

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND A TALK ABOUT J’S HOSPICE

Alan Sheahan, Chairman, opened the Annual General Meeting of Baddow U3A on Wednesday, 10th February, 2016 by welcoming 88 members and two guests.

After safety notices he referred to the minutes of the previous AGM in February 2015 which were approved by members.

Alan gave his Chairman’s report stating that since being established in l998 B & G U3A had continued to grow and this year had seen two new Groups, Holiday Italian and Cribbage, being formed. Work was continuing on updating the website and there had been 26,000 ‘hits’ since it was first set up.

Roy Brackley, Treasurer had circulated copies of the accounts for the year showing a very healthy balance. This had enabled the Committee to recommend keeping the annual subscription to £12 – the

cheapest annual subscription in the area at a price unchanged for seven years. There being no points arising from the accounts they were duly approved by the members.
The present Examiner for the accounts was John Weir and members duly approved his appointment to the post for the next year to February 2017.

The Chairman said he was standing down at the meeting as were Gill Flynn and Linda Warner. Alan paid tribute to those standing down and also to the other existing committee members who have offered themselves for re-election together with a new nominee, Ian Pitwood. The members duly approved all the nominations.

Alan thanked all the Committee members and Group Leaders who had helped him during the year. The only major concern Alan had was the lack of candidates coming forward to serve their U3A. Without a Committee there could be no U3A in Baddow & Galleywood and he urged anyone who was willing to serve to put their names forward.

In connection with the website a competition had been held for a new design for the front page. The Chairman was pleased to announce that the winner of the competition was Bruce Sinclair At this point Bruce was asked to step up and receive his prize from the Chairman. The prize, a voucher for six bottles of wine was subsequently given back by Bruce to the representative of J’s Hospice to enable that charity to use it to raise funds.

At this point the Chairman handed the meeting over to the Speaker Secretary, Brian Moss who welcomed the speaker from J’s Hospice, Andrea Wise.

Andrea said she had been associated with the Hospice for 16 to 40 year olds with life limiting conditions, for 15 years and was passionate about it as her daughter who had cancer 2 years ago had been in the Hospice. She explained that people sometimes have to leave a hospice because of the age range for patients. They do not necessarily go into a hospice to die but it cannot be right to have old and young in one hospice. Andrea said J’s needed bigger offices and space to accommodate their needs. Palliative care and respite care are necessary to improve the quality of life and are priorities for J’s. At present J’s are working with 148 families from all walks of life.

Mums and dads can go out with the help of J’s. Once a month they have a meeting at the large independent church at Danbury. This is a large building able to accommodate a wide range of activities. Over a three year period people have been taken to football – not an easy thing to arrange and carry out. One person with cystic fibrosis was helped in hospital to plan his own funeral. New situations create new demands for patients and loved ones.

Andrea continued by explaining that J’s has to raise £1,500.000 a year or £200 per hour. J’s runs a charity shop in Clacton – donations are welcomed locally and are then delivered to the Clacton shop. They also have a sponsored cycling day in May – Pedal for J’s.

Andrea concluded that J’s Hospice was always seeking helpers and funds – for very good causes. After answering questions from the audience, Andrea was given a good round of applause for her presentation on the work of J’s Hospice.