AGM Minutes2024 (unapproved)
MINUTES OF GRANTHAM u3a ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD AT THE GUILDHALL, GRANTHAM
2 pm, 19th February 2024
Formal notice of the AGM had been given at least 21 days prior to the meeting and all joining details had been emailed/posted to members beforehand.
Chair, Steve Potts, welcomed everyone to the meeting. With an attendance of some 80 members and Proxy voting from 33, he declared the meeting quorate.
Members had received the papers for this meeting either online or by post, and it was hoped they had had a chance to study them.
1. Apologies: were received from June and John Baker, Jean Braybrook, Lecia Chapman, Tricia Daniels, Milly Halford, Val Head, Josephine Hewitt, Annette Irish, Jackie Mann, Anne McHale, Carolyn Midgley, Jean Millner, Jean Pritchard, Maria Sharp, Cora and Chris Townson and Linda and Kevin Weston.
2. Approval of Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held 21st February 2023 (Resolution 1). No comments, corrections or amendments had been received.
Proposed by Andrew Weston
Seconded by Maggie Ambrose
Carried All who had been present were in favour.
The Chairman then signed the Minutes as a true record.
He then apologised for not being able to implement the TAM resolution as it has proven to be beyond the scope of the Beacon software. However, it is believed that work is under way to make private subscription possible.
3. Chairman’s Report
And so to the chairman’s report. This is my fourth and final annual report and it has been a privilege, and for the most part a joy, to help lead this valuable organisation.
We ended 2022 with 553 members and by December 2023 we had 571 just a slight increase. But that doesn’t tell the full story because around 120 of those were new members, which I think sounds much healthier.
Thanks to the efforts of our membership secretary, Angela Rose, supported by Andrew Weston, some 77% of members have renewed online with 23% paying through the card machine. So thank you to Angela and Andrew for bringing us closer to the 21st century - and for providing a warm welcome to members at monthly meetings and coffee mornings. They have proven a very good front-of-house team.
Our thanks go, as always to, our groups co-ordinator, Janet Hine, for her enthusiastic endeavours in creating new groups and in putting broken ones back together again. We have started 6 new groups this year: Beginners' Guitar, Crafts, Recorders, More Crime Detection, Philosophers and Fun Jive. All have made very promising starts.
In addition the New Age Kurling group closed but was swiftly re-started with a new leader and venue. This has all taken a great deal of work on Janet’s behalf. And the Singing group has also been successfully re-animated with a new Musical Director.
Sadly the Acoustic Guitars group has decided to continue privately, thus depriving us of an opportunity for new members. However this is partly mitigated by the new Beginners' Guitar group, who should perhaps now be called “Improvers”.
We currently have around 40 interest groups, and a big thank you to all those who lead and organise them. Without you the Grantham u3a would be a mere shell. A really big thank you!
We have run a complete programme of monthly meetings with a variety of speakers and entertainers. We continue to experiment with different formats to try and enhance these events. Our thanks go to John Foulkes-Jones for organising these meetings together with his team of assistants, particularly when a speaker lets us down and a replacement has to be found at short notice.
The monthly coffee mornings at St Wulfram’s Church continue to attract significant numbers and are a great way to introduce new members to the organisation. We had a memorable move to Grantham House in the summer, with perfect weather for sitting out in the grounds. Our thanks to Di and Doug Hale for the work they do to make the coffee mornings so enjoyable.
If you’ve never been to a coffee morning, give it a try; 10am-11:30am on the fourth Tuesday of each month at St Wulfram’s Church. Where else can you get unlimited coffee (or tea), biscuits in such elegant surroundings and with delightful conversation, and all for just £2?
One of the tasks we’ve set ourselves over the past few years is to raise the awareness of u3a within the Grantham community. In the UK there are more than 1000 u3as with some 430,000 members. That makes it more than twice as big as the WI; yet it seems to often go under the radar. To try and improve our visibility we haveplaced more articles in the Journal and local Link magazines and have been successful in getting several items in these publications. Our thanks to Caroline Bowman who has acted as our interface to the Press.
In addition in the past year we held an advertising event at the Civic Society’s Heritage Day and with leaflets at the St Wulfram’s Christmas Tree Festival, and Grantham Indoor Bowls club. In each case we have agreed to advertise those organisations by way of a quid pro quo. If you know of other groups that might be interested in learning about u3a, please let one of the committee members know.
I suspect that, in fact, you are our best adverts. Word of mouth recommendations carry so much more weight. So please continue to mention u3a when you speak with your friends.
On the less glamorous side of the organisation our thanks also go to our secretary, Nelson Porter; our Minutes Secretary, Fiona Robbins; our Beacon and IT expert, Andrew Weston; our researcher, Linda Daniel; Carole Troops looks after the Website and cooks exceedingly good biscuits; and our Treasurer, Tony Hine (of whom more later). Thank you all for the work you do in keeping Grantham u3a lively and legal.
Finally a thank you to you, our members, without whom this whole enterprise would be pointless.
The u3a is built on the principle that lifelong learning can bring about a healthier and more enjoyable post-employment life.
As I wrote in this month’s newsletter, u3a is not an organisation for those who only want to receive. We all have life experience and expertise that we can bring to the party. It’s in sharing our ideas, knowledge and ourselves that we achieve the aims of the founders.
The strap line “learn, laugh, live” sums up very well what u3a can aspire to achieve for its membership. So “thank you” to you all for being part of u3a in Grantham.
There being no questions, the Chairman continued to introduce the Treasurer.
4. Treasurer’s Report
Before I let Tony speak, can I thank him the efforts he puts in on our behalf to keep Grantham u3a financially legal. Tony is in the sixth and final year of this office and will constitutionally be required to stand down in 2025. So we will need to find a new treasurer during the next 12 months. I hope someone suitable is listening! Over to Tony.
The accounts for the year to 31 December 2023 have been independently examined and circulated to members. The Statement of Financial Activities shows a deficit of £1,829 on general income and expenditure. Major items of expenditure were the capitation fee of £2,132 and Beacon support fee of £532 paid to the Third Age Trust, the cost of the national newsletter at £1,117, speakers £966, venue hire £1,560, and storage rental to Grantham Museum of £600.
The committee continues to try to reduce our reserves to a more reasonable level in accordance with charity advice. The recommendation from the Charity Commission is that reserves should not exceed six months expenditure, in our case around £6,000, unless funds are being accumulated for a specific purpose. For this reason, the annual subscription remains at £10 for 2024. The budget for the current year predicts a deficit of around £1,500.
The accounts also show the income and expenditure of groups, which must be included as all such items constitute charitable funds. I am grateful to group leaders for maintaining their own financial records and supplying these to me for incorporation in the accounts.
As already indicated, I am entering my final year as Treasurer, our constitution limiting my term of office to six years. If anyone is interested in taking on this post, please do let the committee know. It would be good to find a volunteer sooner rather than later to ensure a smooth handover.
Approval and Acceptance of the 2023 Accounts (Resolution 2)
Proposed by John Downs
Seconded by Anne Rudderham
Carried All in favour apart from one abstention by proxy.
I should like to thank Richard Claxton for again carrying out his independent examination of the accounts in a prompt and helpful manner and have no hesitation in proposing his reappointment for 2024.
Resolution 3 Appointment of Richard Claxton as independent financial examiner for 2024
Proposed by Nigel Pantling
Seconded by John Sheppard
Carried All in favour
The subscription for the following year, in this case 2025, is set at the annual general meeting in February. For the last two years, the committee has proposed a maximum annual subscription to avoid the need to call an extraordinary general meeting should the agreed figure prove to be inadequate. For this reason, we are proposing a maximum figure of £14, with the expectation that the actual figure will be lower than this, and hopefully be retained at the current figure of £10. A draft budget for 2025 indicates that this should be possible.
Resolution 4
To approve that the member’s annual subscription will not exceed £14.00 and at the Committee’s discretion may be less than that, with effect from 1st January 2025
Proposed by Pam Down
Seconded by Chris Anderson
Carried All in favour
5. Election of Committee - The constitution allows a committee of up to 15 members. As we have fewer than this we do not need an election as such. These candidates have all been proposed and seconded by members of Grantham U3A who are not committee members.
To elect the following people en bloc as members of the Committee (Resolution 5):
Linda Daniel, John Foulkes-Jones, Janet Hine, Tony Hine, Jenny Lewis, Nelson Porter, Fiona Robbins, Angela Rose, Angela Summers, Carole Troops, and Andrew Weston
Although we do not need an election I’d like us to show our support for them by a show of hands.
6. Any Other Business (as advised to the Secretary prior to the meeting). No Other Business had been received prior to the meeting.
The Chairman closed the meeting at 2.25 pm and thanked all for attending.
John Foulkes-Jones addressed the meeting to pay tribute to our outgoing chairman and proposed a vote of thanks to Steve. There then followed a performance from the Grantham u3a Guitar Group during which members were offered tea/coffee/ biscuits.
Signed ……………………………………………………… (Chair) Date ………………………