16TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 3rd MAY 2023 AT SARRATT VILLAGE HALL AT 10.30 a.m.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

1. Welcome: Chairman Don Sutton welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Apologies: Penny and Richard Bulgin, John and Katherine Cadle, Tony and Joyce Gower, Bruce James, Anne King, Rita Musk, Irene Oulsam, Alan and Sue Wharton

3. Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting:

3.1 Motion: that the Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting, having been previously circulated to all members, be approved and signed by the Chairman.
Proposed by: Mike Lawton
Seconded by: Sue Bussey
Members present agreed by a show of hands

Resolution: that the 2022 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting were duly approved and signed by the Chairman as a true record of the proceedings

3.2 Matters arising: None.

4. Chairman’s address resume:
(The full report is archived with these Minutes)

Don was pleased to report that after Covid lockdown relatively few members have left our u3a, and having gained a few new members our overall membership has remained fairly constant. Attendance at our monthly meetings has also recovered to pre-pandemic numbers. 

He reported that we tried to continue using hybrid Zoom at our general meetings but for various technical reasons we had to abandon the experiment.

Our recent technical innovation of introducing the use of a scanner to read the bar code on membership cards as a means of registration at monthly meetings is proving a success. It is linked to the Beacon system which is a computer programme set up specifically for u3a’s, and is used by the Committee to keep membership and finance records and also to send out emails to our members.

Don thanked all the members of the Committee and the Interest Group Contacts for the time and effort they put into our u3a, particularly mentioning Jean Machin and Susan Roberts.

5. Presentations:

Presentations were announced for the following:

Jean Machin – Committee Member and Programme Secretary
Susan Roberts – Committee Member and Meetings Registrar
Sue Sutton – Refreshments Organiser
Margaret Wakeling – Local History Group

The following members were not present but were mentioned by the Chairman:

Stan and Pam Hough – Interest Group Contacts for the Wine Appreciation Group
John Cadle – Local History Group
Irene Ouslam – Interest Group Contact for the Music Group

6. Annual Financial Report:

6.1 Accounts for the year to 31/12/22, which have been independently examined by John Cadle, the Honorary Reporting Accountant, had previously been circulated to members and were presented by Pam Bushell (the Accounts and Report are archived with these Minutes).

Pam reported that the total income was £20,639.43 and total expenditure was £20,389.11 giving us an in-year profit balance of £250.32 This together with the balance from last year gives a total balance of £9,863.21. This includes a total of £2,390.29 being the monies held in the u3a account and cash held by various groups (a total of £2,390.29).

The current membership fee is £15.00.  There have been no capital purchases during the year.

6.2 The motion to accept the accounts as presented was:
Proposed by: John Malin
Seconded by: Roger Kemp
Members present agreed by a show of hands
Resolution: The accounts were accepted as correct.

6.3 The motion that John Cadle be accepted as Honorary Reporting Accountant was:
Proposed by: Pam Bushell
Seconded by: Maureen Toppin
Members present agreed by a show of hands
Resolution: John Cadle will continue as Honorary Reporting Officer

7. Election of Officers and Executive Committee:

The posts of Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer are for election this year. Based on nominations received, the following were duly proposed for a period of 2 years: 

7.1	Chairman: Don Sutton
Members present agreed by a show of hands

7.2	Vice Chairman: Roger Kemp 
Members present agreed by a show of hands

7.3	Treasurer:  Pam Bushell 	 
Members present agreed by a show of hands

7.4	Executive Committee members are elected annually.  Following nominations the following members were proposed for election:

Penny Bulgin, Sue Bussey, Sally Lewis, Benny Michel, Colin Plummer and Janet Taylor. 

Members present agreed by a show of hands

9. Interest Group Co-ordinator’s Report: 
(The full report is archived with these minutes)

Sue Bussey reported that due to the Covid pandemic there was a decline in the number of active Interest Groups. Only 24 were active in 2022 as opposed to our peak year of 2012 when there were 35.  Despite this, during the year the Groups held a total of 342 meetings with a total attendance of 3462.

After giving attendance figures for the various Groups, she announced the formation of  three new Groups: Classic Books Group in 2022, and in 2023 MOTO 2 and Wine Appreciation 2.

She added her sincere thanks to all who have helped in running all our Groups throughout the year.

10. Any other business: Don asked the meeting how many members looked at our website and at least half said they did.
	
11.  The next Annual General Meeting: Date to be advised in May 2024

The meeting closed at 11 a.m., followed by a talk by Guest Speaker Corrine Price on The Swiss Garden at Shuttleworth””.

Signed …………………      				 Date …………………..