Registered Charity – No. 1139443

18TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON  7th MAY 2025 AT SARRATT VILLAGE HALL AT 10.30 a.m.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

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

2. Apologies: Pam and Terry Esom, Anne King and Benny Michel

3. Minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting:

3.1 Motion: that the Minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting, having been previously circulated to all members, be approved and signed by the Chairman.
Proposed by: Lesley Grottick
Seconded by: Linda Clough
Members present agreed by a show of hands

Resolution: that the 2024 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: There were none

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

Don began by saying that it has been a great privilege to serve as Chairman for the past four years. He was pleased that our membership had remained at a similar level to last year and that significantly more members are attending the monthly meetings and enjoying the wide range of interesting talks

This year we introduced the facility for members to pay their subscriptions by bank transfer, which went surprisingly smoothly. The use of the Beacon system has continued to be expanded with a number of the groups using it to email their members. Several Committee Members have taken part in workshops to learn more about the system. Our website – in common with other u3a’s – has been updated

Don thanked all the Interest Group Leaders for the work that they do and the Committee for all their efforts. He felt that to have new Committee Members with fresh ideas for the future would be extremely beneficial 

He concluded by thanking Roger for agreeing to stand as Chairman, and wished him all the best in the role. He also thanked Sally for offering to stand as Vice-Chairman

5. Presentations: These were made to the following:

Benny Michel  - Committee Member and Web Manager

Linda Clough and Mike and Julie Hawkins – members of the Jaunters Group who had arranged interesting outings 

6. Annual Financial Report:

6.1 Accounts for the year to 31/12/24, 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). She thanked John and everyone who helped with the finalisation of the accounts

Pam reported that the total income was £21,163.93 and total expenditure was £21,997.60 giving us a loss of expenditure over income of -£833.67. This together with the balance from last year gives a total balance of £8,126.23. This includes the balances (approximately £2,000) held by various groups

The current membership fee is £15.00. However due to rising costs – mainly for speakers - the Committee will be reviewing the membership fee during the year. If it is felt that a rise is needed the Committee will notify members for a vote to be taken at next year’s AGM

This year we have purchased a new computer for use mainly in the hall for the main meetings
Pam was pleased to report that John Cadle has volunteered to continue as Honorary Reporting Accountant

Lastly, although she has agreed to stand for a further term of 2 years, Pam announced that she will not be standing after that, so a successor will need to be appointed. She invited anyone interested in taking over the post to contact her

6.2 The motion to accept the accounts as presented was:
Proposed by: John Malin
Seconded by: Sue Bussey
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: Ian West
Members present agreed by a show of hands
Resolution: John Cadle will continue as Honorary Reporting Accountant

7. Election of Officer 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 – Roger Kemp	
7.2 	Vice-Chairman – Sally Lewis
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, Judith Cleveland, Linda Crawley, Sally Lewis, Colin Plummer, Janet Taylor, Clive Turner and Ian West 
Members present agreed by a show of hands

8. Interest Group Co-ordinator’s Report: 
(The full report and statistics are archived with these minutes)

Sue Bussey thanked all the Interest Group Contacts for playing their part in various ways in keeping so many groups running so successfully 

During 2024 there was not much change in the structure of the Groups of which there were 26. Margaret Roberts hosted a new Family History for Beginners which she has run once and plans to repeat sometime this year

During the year 406 Group meetings were held, compared with 361 in 2023, with an average attendance of 9 members at each meeting. Total attendance was 3616 up from 3421 the previous year. This time Bridge has overtaken Gardening in the total number of attendances over the year. The Bridge Group logged 556 attendances over Gardening’s 465, and their players met 51 times during the year. The Italian Group were second with 41 meetings. She hoped more Interest Groups will be formed in 2025

9. Any other business:

Linda made a request for more volunteers to help with refreshments at the main meetings

Don suggested to the meeting that perhaps the Newsletter could be produced quarterly instead of bi-monthly. By a show of hands the members indicated that this would be acceptable. He also asked more members to submit copy to give variety to the newsletter

Roger then thanked Don for all his hard work as Chairman and presented him with a gift in appreciation
	
10.  The next Annual General Meeting: Date to be advised in May 2026

The meeting closed at 11.05 a.m. followed by coffee and a Quiz devised by Don

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