AGM 2021 Minutes
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
Held on 15th November 2021
Warwick School
Present:
Dot Holtom, James Viggers, Ian Gibbins, David Marshall, Dave Compton, Ian Macafee, Mark Langstone, Lindsay Rushton, Mike Page, Graham Crump, Mark Langstone, Ian Macafee, Derek Holland, Keith Madderson, Chris Evans, Adrian Levett.
- Welcome and apologies for absence
Mark Langstone chaired the meeting, opening at 7 pm. Apologies were received from Don Rushton, Dave Fenton, Sarah Brook-Taylor
- Minutes of Meeting for the 2020 AGM
Approved. Proposed Mike Page, seconded James Viggers
- Matters arising from the Minutes
Nil
- Amendments or adjustments to this agenda.
Nil
- Chair’s report (Mark Langstone) – attached
- Secretary’s Report (Ian Macafee)
- We did not halt, but changed what we did during the last COVID year. The online course generated useful skills and presentation approaches that we can selectively retain for our post-COVID world
- The resumption of face to face training, although at a low level, was important and it is to be followed by a well attended/booked Spring course
- The changes in roles and new people on Committee are extremely welcome, but we are part way through the changes we need. Simplification of some parts of the Officer roles, shadowing Officer and Committee roles, and division of roles to make it easier to recruit volunteers to step in – all vital
- Engagement with all parts of the membership – need more and the Committee will be looking at the ways in which we can do this.
- Treasurer (Dot Holtom)
Bank balance at time of report £9557-25
Accounts approved – proposed Graham Crump, Seconded Adrian Levett
- Election of Group Officers
Chairman: James Viggers (nominated by Ian Macafee, seconded by Sarah Brook-Taylor)
Treasurer: Dot Holtom (nominated by Ian Gibbins, seconded by Dave Compton)
Secretary: Ian Macafee (nominated by Mark Langstone, Seconded by James Viggers)
Committee: Retiring by rotation and standing for re-election: Mark Langstone, James Viggers
Committee members not retiring and confirmed in continued committee membership:
Graham Crump, David Marshall, Ian Gibbins, Chris Evans, Dot Holtom, Ian Macafee
Above nomination/ second (nominated by Keith Madderson and seconded by Mark Langstone)
Committee member retiring and not standing for re-election: Sarah Brooke-Taylor. The Committee records its sincere thanks for Sarah’s contribution to the Membership Secretary role. The Committee also remembers the sad loss of Christine Johnstone during the year.
- Subscriptions
The meeting decided to leave the current Group annual membership subscription at £10 and to give the Committee the authority to raise subscriptions during the following year if needed.
- AOB
– Lindsay Rushton passes on Don’s best wishes to the Group
-James Viggers made a presentation to Mark Langstone as a thanks for his service as Chairman.
-Mike Page observed that Colin Upchurch always, at this point, proposed a thank you for all the volunteers who make the Group activities possible
Meeting ended at 20:15h
Ian Macafee
Group Secretary
AGM 2021
Chairman’s Report
I often start with ‘well what a year it’s been’ , I think this year I can finally say it for the last time and it has been what a year.
In the middle of COVID when we were allowed to do some driver training we started a virtual training course but didn’t have a very good uptake, although training had to be suspended again we did manage to get the associates to test eventually as well as a few associates from the previous course. We have had 5 passes with 3 Firsts and 2 new trainee observers.
We finally managed to restart the course in September back at Warwick School and have a keen band of presenters raring to go.
Although we haven’t managed to get that many associates through this year as a group we have achieved a lot I think.
We have had a few observers retire over lockdown which was a shame but thank them for all the work they did for us and wish them the best in the future.
On a sad note the sudden death of Christine came as a shock to the group and her commitment as course coordinator and signing off of our accounts that she had done for countless years at no cost was very much appreciated.
Although we have had a few challenges of finding a replacement Chair that has now been resolved and a bit of succession planning with Chris Evans joining committee as Vice Chair with the view of standing for Chair at the next AGM.
As always a massive thank you to the committee who make what I do possible and enable the group to function the way it does.
A special thank you to Dot for standing in as course coordinator and finding someone new to sign off our yearly accounts. Although the group has a few minor challenges to work through I am confident that it will continue to strive to be an outstanding group in the eyes of the IAM.
Sarah who takes care of our membership is standing down this year after doing a fantastic job over the years especially with gift aid so thank you Sarah.
Our group is quite unique in that we have 13 NO’s 8 of which are Masters, 1 LO and 2 trainees which is credit to Ian and the team for keeping standards high.
We have also managed to get all of the National observers 5 year retest done that had lapsed over lockdown.
The biggest thank you of course goes to all of the observers who turn out weak in week out to pass on their vast knowledge and without them the group could not function.
The observer of the year is Pete Thornett for his contribution of endless hours of patience in a tough year.
It’s looking like the January course is going to be a busy course with the amount of enquiries coming in which will satisfy Ian’s worry of not enough people!.
We are still limiting numbers in the classroom as COVID isn’t going to disappear anytime soon.
Everyone seems to be comfortable with in-car training even with the extra pressure of having trainee observers as well which means we can get them hopefully signed off by the end of this course which will raise our observer numbers.
Although I am standing down as chair I will still be supporting the committee and be an active observer and I also know the IAM has a couple opportunities for me so watch this space.
That just leaves me to say again thanks to all that have supported me as Chair over the years and I couldn’t have done it without you but have thoroughly enjoyed my time ( well most of it ) and have learnt a lot along the way and have no doubt it will carry on as a successful group.
Stratford and South Warwickshire Group of Advanced Motorists
Treasurers Report for Annual General Meeting
15th November 2021
Due to Covid, there is not much to report for the financial year to 31st March 2021.
Looking at the Income and Expenditure sheet
For the Income:
Subscriptions were down by £875 due to there being no courses run during the financial year and our only other income was from the Gift Aid claim.
This gave us an income of £1,160, a decrease of £1,011 over the year
For the Expenditure:
The only costs incurred against Courses was the £60 Microsoft Licence fee that we pay yearly to enable us to use PowerPoint for presentations.
Observer costs included costs for the new edition of Roadcraft, along with ensuring every Observer had PPE for when they undertook any observing roles, etc
All other expenditure is as expected with not much activity going on within the Group.
This gives an expenditure of £1,116, a decrease on last year of £1,834 giving us a slight surplus for the year of £44.
Turning to the Balance Sheet:
As you can see, we have Fixed Assets of £107, and Current Assets of £9,688 which leaves us in a very healthy position at year end.
I would like to thank the Chairman, and all of the Committee members, for their help and support throughout the year.
Very sadly, we lost Christine Johnston this year who had audited the accounts, at no charge, for the last few years and had been of immense help to me personally with the accounts. We had to find an Accountant to take us on and I would like to express thanks to Richard Smith at Ollis & Co for undertaking the task and auditing the Accounts for us.
These are the accounts that I present to the meeting.
Dot Holtom
Hon Treasurer
14/11/21