HUDDERSFIELD BIRDWATCHERS’ CLUB

MINUTES OF THE 56th  ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HELD ON  TUESDAY 1st NOVEMBER 2022 at 7.30 pm

 

 17 members were present.

 

1   APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

 

Apologies were received from,, Alf King and Mike Wainman, Ian Ibbotson.

 

2   The minutes of the  54th AGM had been placed on the forum prior to this meeting and were unanimously agreed as a true record.

 

3   There were no matters arising

 

4   THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT

 

Dave Sill said that this year was back to normal after the turbulence of the Covid Pandemic period and thanked everyone for attending the meeting. He said that as usual the number of members was always a concern, as is the case with many clubs such as ours. He was also concerned about future costs.

 

5   THE TREASURER’S REPORT

 

The Treasurers report was presented to the meeting by Roger Ranson. It was noted that the Accounts showed a deficit of £28.79. However cash in bank stood at £6,878 which still leaves us with over 3 years expenditure at pre-pandemic levels. The Chairman added that there was still the Gift aid to come.  Roger also said he didn’t know why the year end was 30th June and not in October in time for the AGM .The Chairman said it was because some years ago difficulty was had in getting the accounts ready for the AGM so the date was pushed forward to June to give more time to prepare them. 

Roger also said that the projected expenditure for next year was over £2000 and something needed to be done to reduce costs. The committee had considered this at it’s recent meeting and thought that the best way of achieving this would be to reduce the number of indoor meetings rather than increase subscriptions. After much discussion  it was proposed by Hazel Sill and seconded by Heather Chippendale that we would cut the meetings down to eight or one a month for the year 2022/2023. A vote was taken with ten agreeing with two against, so the proposal was carried. The Chairman said it was not set in stone and could be looked at again in the future but much would depend on the number of paying members.

 

 

6   THE RECORDER’S REPORT

 

Dave Sill presented his recorders report, sightings had been coming in well and there had been no problems. He had taken some sightings from the various online sites where appropriate. He asked members to send records in as early as possible in order that work on The Annual Report could  begin at the earliest in the New Year.

 

7   MEMBERSHIP REPORT

 

The Membership secretary reported we had 52 paid up members including life members, This is around the same number as last year at this time and said that the number would still rise.

 

8   ELECTION OF HONORARY OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS (TO SERVE FOR 2 YEARS).

 

The proposals set out in the Agenda for the Election of officers were unanimously agreed

by the members and Hazel Sill would continue as secretary and membership secretary and Joe Walker would continue as a committee member to serve for two years.

 

 

 

9   APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR

 

The members agreed unanimously that Mike Wainman, who had kindly agreed to do so, would continue as Auditor.

 

 

10  INDOOR MEETINGS

 

Dave Brierley said it would be a lot easier to find good quality speakers with just eight to find. He was thanked for finding the speakers for this year as it was never an easy task.

 

 

11  WEBSITE/FORUM

 

Ian Ibbotson reported that things were going well, were updated regularly  though we just needed more things for the front page and he said he would put more about the next speaker on that page.

 

12  A.O.B

 

Roger Ranson proposed a vote of thanks to Hazel and Dave Sill particularly Dave for all the hard work they had done and this endorsed by all the members.

 

The meeting finished at approximately 20.10hrs. and was followed by an interesting talk about ‘a visit to India’ by Dave Brierly.

 

 

 

 

Hazel Sill 8.11.2022