Welling

AGM Minutes 2021

Welling U3A Annual General Meeting

21st October 2021

St.Stephen’s Church Hall

Deepdene Road, Welling

DA16 3QL

Committee-Present

Co-opted members

In attendance
Pat Perry
Pauline Reed
Jill Thomas

Apologies
Irene Preston
Elizabeth Newitt
Patricia Sabine
Jenny Chatt
Tricia Covington
Patience Saunders
Pat O’Brien
Pat Scarff
Mary Finn
Eileen Russell
Karen Stirk
Sandra Anstead
Joan King
Chris Solly

61 members were physically present with another 6 virtually

MINUTES

Maria welcomed members to our 7th AGM. Phil was in charge of the virtual meeting.
She reminded everyone about health and safety, toilets, fire exits, phones to be turned off.
Apologies for absence were noted.

Members were provided with paper copies of the previous minutes. They were advised to note the constitution change last year regarding the social as well as the learning aspect of the U3A.

There were no matters arising and the minutes were agreed unanimously.
Proposed: Marlene Harmer. Seconded: Lisa Knightsbridge

CHAIR’S REPORT
Maria reflected on her “initiation in fire” as Chair. Having previously held the post of Speaker Secretary, she took on the role of Chair. It has been a whirlwind experience. Her first year as Chair was as expected but then the Covid Pandemic hit in March 2020 and it changed everything! She had organised all of the 2020-2021 speakers for that year. Then promptly had to cancel them all with huge disappointment to all.

Maria’s aim was to continue the great work started and maintained by Pauline Griffin, our former Chair and the Committee. With the other hardworking members of the Committee, Maria has helped to oversee the new way of communicating with members, as no meetings were to take place due to COVID restrictions! The use of the online meeting platform of Zoom has been proved a useful and necessary alternative. She set up the Zoom Pro Package with agreement from the Committee, which meant that meetings were not cut short as they are with free subscription. A Zoom chat with out chosen Charity for the year – Medical Detection Dogs- was organised by Maria. They hopefully will return for an actual meeting in November. She also organised a few coffee online morning chats on Zoom which members enjoyed and were pleased to see their friends on screen. We have been holding Committee meetings online and many interest group meetings online and this has proved successful and enabled members to keep in touch. We are now holding Committee meeting last face to face.

Members not on email were given a committee member as their contact. Members were regularly phoned with email content and a general chat.

Maria has attended London Regional Delegates meetings, LRU3A IT/Webmasters/ Peer Group meetings in her time as Chair, some face to face prior to COVID, but mostly online. A lot of information is gathered from other branches so we keep updated as a U3A. All feedback has been given to our Committee to help us. This has helped liaising with other U3As regarding best practices and ways to improve our group.

Maria has sent many emails via Beacon and used it extensively to communicate with members very successfully. Pauline Griffin, as Beacon manager has continually used Beacon to update and inform members at regular intervals.

Maria has produced the majority of the Risk Assessments for our interest groups and events, ensuring they are U3A compliant and meet our insurance criteria.

Maria thanked Irene Mitchell for her hard work as treasurer which enabled us to purchase a Zoom Pro Subscription and other essential resources. She managed to recoup GiftAid from a number of previous years and this included many hours of hard work. Thanks were given to Pat Pitney for all her hard work as Vice Chair, Newsletter Editor and Groups co-ordinator during this difficult time. Thanks went to all the post-holders for their hard work and commitment. Thanks also to Marisa Miller who manages the website, Janis Rudland for sending out get-well cards and Pauline Williams for her work as Hall Manager.

Our chosen charity for 2019/20 was the Medical Detection Dogs and a donation was given to the Charity as a thank you for the talk, given online by Baiju McCubbins earlier this year.

Again this year we received a grant from the East Wickham and Welling War Memorial Trust towards the hall rental.

Pauline Griffin is stepping back from the Committee, Irene Thorley is taking a step back from her role as Visits Co-ordinator. Kathy Dersley is stepping down from her role as Secretary as she has reached the end of her term of office. Maria is relinquishing her role as Speakers Secretary to concentrate on her role as Chair. Pat Pitney is looking to step down from her role as Vice Chair.

Maria said she has thoroughly enjoyed her time so far as Chair and said that it had been possible because of the support of the wonderful committee she has had this year. She thanked all the members for their support during this difficult time.

Treasurer’s Report
Combined assets for Social Account and the Main Account:
Cash at Bank- Main Account £3810.80 Social Account: £514.78=£4325.58
Cash in hand- £79.42 Total Assets- £4405.00
Copies of the profit and loss account could be found in the report which Irene suggested members read.

Standing down of Committee Members
Post holders may only serve for 6 years in post but may remain on the Committee in other roles.

Kathy Dersley – Secretary, Tricia Covington – Membership Secretary – both were thanked for their efforts over the years.

Post Holder Elections
Marlene Harmer as President took over the meeting as the Committee retired
Nominations for Chair – Maria Guest- Naharnowicz
Proposed – Pat Hobbs Seconded – June Findlay
Carried unanimously

Nominations for Vice Chair – Pat Pitney
Proposed – Irene Thorley Seconded – Rose Dawson
Carried unanimously

Nominations for Secretary – Pat Perry
Proposed – Marisa Miller Seconded – Marlene Harmer
Carried unanimously

Nominations for Treasurer – Irene Mitchell
Proposed – Jarka Rome – Seconded -Sara-Jane Ladbrook- Hutt
Carries unanimously.

Remaining Committee Elections
Jill Thomas, Lisa Knightsbridge, Pauline Williams, Pauline Reed and Marisa Miller
Proposed Maria Guest- Narharnowicz Seconded Kathy Dersley
Carried unanimously

Maria then took over the Chair and the meeting proceeded as normal.
Maria mentioned the difficulties continuing to use St Stephen’s Hall were presenting especially regarding parking. An approach Danson Youth Centre was ruled out as they couldn’t offer a suitable time. The Westwood Masonic Centre is currently being investigated and members will be kept informed. In view of likely increased costs it was proposed the annual membership fee be raised to £20 in order to cover increased hall costs and money we pay to U3A for each member. A vote on the increase was taken and was carried unanimously.

Pat Pitney drew attention to a return of 2 popular events about to start:
TLC – Tea, Latte and Chat - will resume meeting on the second and fourth Tuesday 10.30 am at the Brewers Fare. First meeting 26th. October
Sunday Lunch – (for members on their own) will resume meeting on the fourth Sunday of the month at the Nag’s Head at 12pm starting on 28th November.
Pat is also looking for members for the Creative Writing Group. Contact her for more details.

The next AGM will be on Wednesday 22nd June 2022.