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The chairman, Diz Dexter, welcomed everyone to the meeting, which was held in the Marquee at Whinstone View. She asked those present to share a short silence to remember those Old Scholars who had died during the preceding year and also to send thoughts to those members who, for whatever reason, are experiencing difficult times. |
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The President Martyn Gaudie gave his presidential address and the chairman thanked him for sharing his experiences at school and his life as a Quaker and conscientious objector and his life as a farmer in both Ghana and the UK. |
| 1. |
Greetings and apologies for absence have been received from: Joe & Beth Tillott; Ann Gardner; June Dunn; Kitty (Harth) & Bruno Andreis; John Wallace; Wolf Brassloff; Jacqueline Pumphrey; Anne Gale (Thompson); Liz Alexander (Roberts); Dorothy Newby (Danby); Heather Dennis; Ruth Sinclair (Coates); Mike Wardell; Mary Banks; Neil & Sue Fox (Turner); Linda Renwick (Knott) and Sonia Dunn.
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| 2. |
The Minutes of the 117h A.G.M. were taken as read from the Magazine and approval was proposed and seconded by Jenny Summerfield (Smith) and Dorothy Dawson (Easton). |
| 3. |
There were no matters arising. |
| 4. |
Jill Wheeler (Rhodes) read the Secretary’s report which reminded everyone that the Committee had, as usual, worked hard, with care and enthusiasm, to ensure the Association, the Reunion and the Magazine all continue to flourish. |
| 5. |
The Records Secretary’s report was given by Dick Dennis who advised that total membership stood at 635 plus lost Life Members: 61, total 696 down from 711 in 2005. There were 13 new members during the past year but the drop in total membership was largely a result of OS who allowed their membership to lapse.
The ever popular Website received an average of 422 ‘visits’ per day in the 12 months June ’04 to June ’05 but this has risen to an incredible 485 daily ‘visits’ from June ’05 to June ’06. There are now 1,200 pages on the AOSA website, regularly accessed by visitors from all around the world.
The e-mailing list stood at 342 OS names, down from 380 in 2005, probably as a result of OS changing their e-mail addresses and not letting us know.
‘Spammers’ have discovered the ‘On Line Visitors Book’ which is aggravating because the site has to be cleaned out every day.
Diz Dexter gave a special thanks to Dick who continues to be the Webmaster. |
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William Pine presented the Treasurer’s report. William had produced copies of the figures which he distributed to the members at the meeting, which was very helpful. He thanked Clifford Weschenfelder for auditing the accounts. The Chairman’s Appeal has raised £3648.33 to date and this has improved the finances considerably and maybe an appeal could be tried again at some time in the future. The loss for this years reunion is £915.50 (This figure added in October 2006) |
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Editor’s report. Jim Slater gave his first report and thanked Gill Jackson for gathering the news and those who had helped in the collation and distribution of the Magazine. He said he was learning quickly about the production of the magazine and that the next magazine was already underway. |
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There were no questions regarding the 4 reports so acceptance of them was proposed by Mary Kidd (McClure) and seconded by Gill Jackson (Hinds.). |
| 9. |
Retirement of Officers.
Lou Trotter Executive and Nominations Member; Diz Dexter Chairman; Jill Wheeler Secretary; Dick Dennis Records Secretary are all due to retire. Suzanne Potter (Morgan) gave a vote of thanks to them all for their time and dedication to the Association.
The chairman asked if there were any nominations for the above posts and as none were forthcoming Diz and Jill agreed to stay on for another full term, Lou agreed to stay on for one more year only and Dick agreed to stay, once more, on a yearly basis.
Tessa Snowdon (Greenwell) proposed and Gill Jackson (Hinds) seconded this arrangement. |
| 10. |
Re-election of Officers willing and able to remain in Office. Committee Member and Reunion Coordinator - Jenny Summerfield (2004 – 2008);
Nominations Committee * Louis Trotter (2002-2006) Diz Dexter (2003 -2007)
* Suzanne Potter (2004-2008) *indicates also Executive Committee Member
School committee: William Pine (2003-2007); Representatives Jill Wheeler (2003-2007). The above are all within their years of office. The two below have agreed to serve a further term in office. Chairman: Diz Dexter (2006-2010), Secretary: Jill Wheeler (2006-2010), Reunion Coordinator – 2006 A very successful Reunion was once again organised by Jenny Summerfield and she agreed to continue in this post, this decision was received with loud applause. Dorothy Dawson (Easton) proposed the acceptance of these posts and this was seconded by Margaret Carnegie (Wilkinson) and all were in favour. |
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Re affirmation of District Secretaries. All District Secretaries have agreed to remain in office. |
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Nomination of President Elect.
Jenny Summerfield said it was her pleasure to introduce the next President, who as history dictates must be a lady this next year. The lady in question has already served on the Committee and it was she who instigated the Reunions at Whinstones. The nomination of Tessa Snowdon was received with much applause. The Nominations Committee has got it right again. Proposed by Jenny Summerfield and seconded by Diz Dexter and passed unanimously. |
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Future Reunions. As decreed in the Constitution the next reunion will be the last full weekend in June – 23rd and 24thJune 2007 and will as usual be at Whinstones View, Great Ayton. The Chairman, Diz, reported on the instructions of the O.S. at last year’s AGM to look into other venues for future reunions. Jill and Sonia had spent time in the locality looking at alternative venues. Joyce Spinks (Dobbing) had written to Jill with her findings which were very useful as Joyce has a good knowledge of the area. Jill and Sonia looked at various places but did not find anywhere which would surpass Whinstones View, for facilities, ambience and setting. They had both reported to the Committee that it would, in their opinions be very foolish to relinquish such a pleasant venue on the possibility that somewhere else might be better, although this did not satisfy all OS. At the AGM Diz said that their elected Committee had made the decision on behalf of the Membership, taking into account the information from William that we can continue to absorb the losses for about 20 years. |
| 14. |
A.O.B. Roy George told the meeting that there were other possibilities for reunions. If we changed the date from last weekend in June (a prime wedding date) then we could possibly hold the reunion in a conference type room. It was pointed out that the autumn reunion had been disbanded because of lack of support and although the weather was not to be guaranteed in June it generally was better than earlier or later in the year. To change dates would necessitate a change in the Constitution. There was a discussion whether the Committee had the last say in this matter or whether a vote should be taken. A vote was taken and showed that 14 members voted to look at changing the date and 23 voted to keep the Reunion date the same. Dick spoke saying that the Reunion works at Whinstones and that this year again, Old Scholars had come from all parts of the UK and from Canada, New Zealand and Italy. The Committee are working to make the annual loss as small as possible without compromising the quality of the Reunion; they would, of course, appreciate ideas for further improvements from members, but it is difficult to make changes which suit everyone as the needs of the more mature are different to those with young families. Roy suggested that badges with names (in fairly large letters) would be a good idea and that it should not be too difficult in this age of computers. Dick said he would work something out for next year. |
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Martyn thanked everyone who had made the weekend such a success |
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There being no further business, the meeting closed at 3.40.pm. |
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Jill Wheeler (Rhodes 1949-56) |
