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We had a good turnout for the AGM and 'live' auction which followed - some 23 members and guests in all. The meeting started with the President leading a minutes silence in memory of members and past members who had died during the year. The AGM started with Approval of the minutes of the 53rd meeting with no matters arising and apologies. These were followed by reports from the Hon. Treasurer, Hon. Secretary, Packet Secretary, London Meetings Organiser, Newsletter Editor, Membership Secretary, Publicity Officer and the Newsletter Despatch. The salient points from these reports were as follows. The President recorded the names of some of those members who had died during the year. He went on to say that we had held our full quota of meetings during the year and that the Committee had met on several occasions. He thanks the various officers for all their hard work and mentioned that during the past year our Newsletter had become a Journal. At the same time its quality had improved and we have now settled down with using colour where appropriate. In presenting his report the Treasurer stated that the Society's financial situation remained strong and he had little to add to last year's report other than 'more of the same' ! Cashflow throughout the year has remained positive, on the expenditure side the large increase in room hire worked its way through as expected and planned improvement to the Journal have taken place. Overall there has been an increase in spending of 6% which he regarded as being within acceptable range. His budgetary forecast includes a loss for this year due to exceptional items such as an unspent library budget carried forward and the 2006 weekend away. However, he forecast small surpluses thereafter and is unlikely to recommend an increase in subscriptions before around 2013/14! The Secretary commented that he wrote the equivalent of an 8 page article each quarter when preparing the Society News Supplement. He also liaised with US member Karl Winklemann who hosted the Society website to keep that up-to-date. He had sent out the occasional e-news update which appeared to have been well received. Will members please keep him updated as to changes in their email address. Together with Peter High, he was looking after the accumulations of the late Ben Ferguson and was slowly disposing of these through the live auctions. It was anticipated that the remainder would go in the October weekend away live auction. The two Society competitions still attracted a worthwhile number of entries each -but we could always do with more. So please make the effort to compile an entry. The Packet Secretary reported that during the year 17 packets were circulated with gross sales of £2,600 - a net profit of £318 was realised for the Society. 9 packets were currently in circulation. However, he stated that he was very short on good material with 2 members supplying almost 75% of the material circulated. He urged members to search out their surplus material for the packet; there were almost 70 members receiving the packets. A member complained that some members hung on to the packets for far too long - Ian reminded members that they should review and despatch the packet to the next member as quickly as possible. The London Meetings Organiser stated that meetings had gone reasonably well with a regular attendance. As regards the programme he was always willing to accept suggestions for future meetings. The main problem was getting confirmation of meet dates from the UJC - they were not always able to confirm meetings dates for the following year until well into the year. The Journal Editor reported that he had completed 5 journals with a sixth in the course of preparation; he had changed printers early on due to poor quality reproduction especially illustrations. He had incorporated colour when justified - either the centre four pages or the outer pages. He gave a breakdown of articles and encouraged members to write an article - otherwise he would be 'forced' to write more Naval articles! Finally he asked for members views on reproducing articles from other publications. The Secretary responded and stated this had been discussed at the last Committee meeting who favoured wherever possible having original articles but recognised that the final decision lay with the Editor. Colin mentioned in his report that he would like to keep his copies of the Journal in binders, but that when he floated the idea in the Supplement a short time ago he received very little response. The question was asked if Colin was prepared to handle the binders could the Society authorise the necessary expenditure and then offer then as near at cost as possible. A straw poll of about 10 members present welcomed the idea. John Daynes asked that the matter be referred to the Committee and this was agreed. The Membership Secretary stated that since the last AGM only six enquiries about membership had been received - and not all responded. The number of new members had increased by 11 during the year (of which 6 joined via the internet). Taking into account deaths and resignations our numbers show a slight increase, but there is a need to maintain publicity through philatelic publications, which was the role so ably carried out by the late Keith Fitton. The Journal Despatcher gave a breakdown of the Journals despatched during the year (4 issues) and detailed figures on the last Journal in terms of numbers despatched (345 - this includes exchange and complimentary copies). He said that new inland and overseas postage rates came into force on 3 April and this would add approximately £18 to the postage bill for each issue. However, in August the Post Office is to introduce 'pricing in proportion' (i.e. according to size). The good news is that the Journal would fall into the standard large letter category and second class rate would actually be 7p cheaper than the current rate for anything over 150 grams. The new scheme does not apply to overseas mail. There had been no nominations for the Harry Cope Award for Literature so far; nominations were invited from the membership. The President is called upon to award the Alan Brown Trophy each year at his discretion. Peter announced that it was not an easy task as there had been many good articles during the past year. However, he chose John Garner's "The Occasional Memoirs of George Cook - a POW at Changi 1942-1945" which gave a detailed insight into one soldier's life as a prisoner of the Japanese. Peter went on to say that it must have been difficult to even keep a diary, let alone hide it from the Japanese. A proposal from the Committee to alter General Rule 11 to allow for the President to serve for three years rather than two as currently stipulated was carried. The current President (Peter O'Keeffe) has been given the option of either serving for an additional (third) year or else standing down following the completion of his second year. All officers resigned at the AGM and were eligible for re-election; with the exception of the Publicity Officer post all were willing to stand again and officers and post holders were duly elected. There were no takers for the Publicity Officer post which remains vacant. However, Ian Muchall gave notice that once he became President he will relinquish his position as Hon Auditor appointed under General Rule 14. The Society is, therefore, looking for an individual to become a future Hon. Auditor. The Committee proposed Edmund Hall to fill the Vice-President vacancy and he was duly elected to the post. The Postal Auction Manager proposed two changes to the Auction Terms & Conditions - add new Rules 4 and 5 and renumber existing rules accordingly. The AGM accepted the new rules, which were as follows: 4. Bids less than RESERVE or 80% of ESTIMATE will not be accepted. Nick Martin provided a summary of the planned activities and arrangements in respect of the Peterborough weekend away - 6th-8th October. Details were on one of the Society webpages and were contained in a flyer sent out with the Spring Journal. Members were encouraged to attend and book with Nick if they had not already done so. Finally John Daynes asked about the "Butt" covers - the Society had sold a quantity of covers on behalf of Colonel Bill Butt and the remainder had been donated by Bill for Society funds. The Treasurer responded stating that sales had amounted to no more than £100. The Secretary said that he had the remainder and these had been brought to Society meetings - he would do so again for future meetings. He also agreed to write to Bill on behalf of the Society thanking him for his donation of the remainder. |
