THS

AGM 2008

Tewkesbury Historical Society

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Tewkesbury Historical Society AGM 2008

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Society held on 24 April 2008 at the Tewkesbury Methodist Church Hall.

Present.

The President (John Dixon) together with a number of members and guests.

Apologies for absence.

Were received Nora Day, Janet Devereux, Jane Flude, Richard & Eileen Hart.

Minutes.

The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 26 April 2007 were reviewed and approved and signed as a correct record.

Proposed by Bill Rennison and seconded by Cliff Burd.

President’s Report.

The President gave his report on the past years activities of the Society using the Power Point Projector.

Too much of the President – John Dixon reported that he promised to stand down as President after 20 years.

Committee –the Committee Members met during the year to debate a number of issues. The meetings normally lasted two hours and were very enjoyable. John Dixon gave his thanks to the Committee.

Flood – most the copies of past Bulletins were ruined in the flood; however, the insurance company had compensated our loss thanks to Auditor’s insistence that we produce a List of Assets with our balance sheet.

No Jerrard Award – the Bulletin was produced too late.

Bulletin 16 – is selling well and is the subject of the Woodard Award.

Meetings – John Dixon said that he had enjoyed all the meetings; obviously local memories very popular but President felt that we should aim for a balance and he was pleased at the good turn out for the academic talk on Black GIs

Church – The Committee had decided that the Church was the best place to hold the society meetings. However, they are dependent upon having a technician present; John thanked Pete Stych and his team. The society does make a contribution to the Church. Ken Flude had purchased large hot water flasks in order to serve refreshments at the meeting.

Woodard Database – John Dixon reported that this goes from strength to strength and it is all down to the support of the members.

Life Membership.

John Dixon thanked Audrey Pound very much for the 2007-2008 and the 2008-2009 Programme of Meetings that she had put together. The 2008-2009 Programmed is as follows:

September 2008 – Alleyways of Tewkesbury

October 2008 – Weapons of the Wars of the Roses

November 2008 – The Legacy of Frosts and Floods

March 2009 – Thomas Walker

May 2009 – Memories of Tewkesbury

John Dixon proposed that Audrey should be made a Life Member of the Tewkesbury Historical Society and all members present agreed.
In recognition of the work Audrey had contributed to the Society over the past 17 years she was presented with a map of the Borough of Tewkesbury.

Tewkesbury Register.

John Dixon thanked David Willavoys for organising the indexing of the Tewkesbury Register and also thanked Wendy and Gordon for their loyal assistance.

Non-Committee Activists.

John Dixon also thanked those other members that also served the Society as follows:

Ann Wicken for Poster Distribution and Refreshments.

Penny Last for transcribing the Index of the Tewkesbury Register.

John Pocock for research transcription.

Joan Smith for research transcription.

Wendy Snarey for attending meetings on behalf of the Society.

Website.

John Dixon reported that a very important part of the Tewkesbury Historical Society was the website and Derek Benson managed this. More and more ex-pats were becoming involved in the Society as a result of the website. There had been 3,036 hits this year.

Publications.

Out of Print Stocks of Bulletins 1-4, Harry P1 & P2 and Doddo are now empty and are replaced only when ordered. Henceforward, Fleet Graphics will produce all ‘out of print bulletins’ digitally and to a small order of 10 at time, even though it is slightly more expensive. This ensures that the Society funds are not tied up in unsold stock.
In Store – From 1996 until 2006, it was deemed necessary to print Bulletins with the traditional printing press and the only way in which the Society could bring the Unit price down was to print 300 copies. The Society clearly cannot sell 300 copies of its anthologies and thus the Society was left with unsellable amounts of the bulletins. It is hoped that these will trickle down each year as Messrs Alisons can sell back numbers but is unlikely that it will sell the stock in a decade. It is clear that the retail price for Bulletins 14-15 is too high despite their prize-winning qualities. The other outlets only manage to sell more populist booklets and the most recent copies of Bulletins as soon as they are published. The Society publishes an annual Index to encourage researchers to seek back numbers and this is available on line. The Society has sold 2 consignments of composite volumes this year and so it will probably be only available online in future. The recent addition to the website of ‘PayPal’ as a means of paying for publications should encourage more sales abroad. Therefore, it would seem sensible to ask the Committee to sell Bulletins 5-15 @ £1 each to members and £2 to no-members at meetings to try to reduce the stock to around 30 of each.
David Willavoys book on Tewkesbury Hospital was a success.
Cliff’ Burd’s new book is to be launched.
Tony Skelsey is possibly going to produce a book on the History of Tewkesbury Cemetery.
Dave Wathen’s memories might be another publishing possibility thanks to Bill Treen.
The Future – the Committee has agreed that future publications will be produced digitally and will be smaller in size. They will retail at £5 each. Only 100 will be produced in the first instance and then they will be reordered as necessary. Doddo was published according to the Committee policy of the Society: the author and Society paying half the costs with the sales going first to the Society before the author is reimbursed. Bulletins 14-15 have won the County Brian Jerrad Award.

Bulletin 17 – the editorial standard will be the same. It will consist of 44 pages of texts and photos. Derek Benson is undertaking the typesetting and it will be produced in a PDF format. It is to be digitally printed and will require approximately £600 outlay from the Society. Sam Eedle has produced a number of sample covers to show members and non-members attending the AGM. The intended publication date is 22 May 2008.

Commemoration of Ending of WWI.

John Dixon reported that he was getting a team together to work on the above project and he had applied for a grant from the National Lottery. At this stage, he lacked photographs.

Secretary’s Report.

Glos. Record Office – because of budget cuts the Record Office intended to scale down some activities and it could mean that the Office was to be closed on a Monday. There will be formal consultation with researchers during April, May and June 2008. The revised hours will be advertised with a view to introducing them in September 2008.
The ‘What’s beneath your Feet’ project involving transcribing information from the Inclosure Awards is ongoing by volunteers.
The Completed Awards and Map images are now available on a dedicated PC in the searchroom. Tewkesbury is one of the ones transcribed. It is understood that the system is on a split screen so the researcher can view the actual image and transcription. Taster sessions have been organised.
Regional Local History Day is a Lydney park on Sunday 6^th July 2008 from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. Details can be found on the Gloshistory Website/Events.
Local History Afternoon – 4^th October 2008 at Sir Thomas Rich’s School Gloucester. The theme is Gloucestershire Poets and Authors including John Moore of Tewkesbury.
John Dixon thanked Wendy Snarey for attending the meetings.

Treasurer’s Report.

John, Acting Treasurer, reported the financial accounts for the year 1^st April 2007 to 31^st March 2008. The Accounts are attached.

The balance at the end of the financial year is £5,206.29. The balance net of flood insurance money was £532.52p.
Membership stood at 78 (79): Expats 6: Family: 28 Individual: 38 Life: 6
John paid particular tribute to the work of Alison’s Bookshops in selling our Bulletins and asked the Secretary to write thanking him (Mr. Ian Nicholson, owner).
The use of ‘PayPal’ contributed £114 to our funds.
Acting Treasurer’s recommendations to the committee would be:

Membership subscriptions – as 2007
Meeting Entrance fees – as 2007
Bulletin

smaller, cheaper but as good quality
Purchase new stock upon order using flood insurance money
Increase prices for postal sales/PayPal

Acceptance of accounts proposed by John Dixon and seconded by Cliff Burd

The Treasurer reported that the accounts had been audited and found to be correct by Mr. Cecil Hallett, former manager of a High Street Bank. Having stated that he was willing to be re-appointed, he was thereupon elected by the Society.

Proposed Cliff Burd and seconded by David Willavoys

Election of Committee.

The following members having signified that they would be prepared to continue, were re-elected to form the Committee;-

John Dixon , Cliff Burd, Janet Martin, Ken Flude, Audrey Pound, David Willavoys, Sue Norman

Proposed Cliff Day and seconded Audrey Pound

Programme.

Thanks were given to Audrey Pound for arranging the speakers throughout the year with most of the programme for 2008/09 nearly completed.

Bob Woodard Research Award.

The President welcomed Mr. David Evans and Mr. John Loosley to the meeting and invited them to announce the winner of the award for the best article published in the 2007 Society Bulletin.

Mr. Evans praised the Bulletin and congratulated the people responsible for it; he thought the cover was excellent as were the photographs illustrating the articles. The award was made to Janet Devereux for her contribution entitled "A Land of Hope and Glory?". Unfortunately, Janet was not in attendance at the meeting as she was out of the country, John Dixon will present the Trophy and Medallion to her at the meeting on the 22 May.

Date of next AGM.

It was agreed to fix the date of 23 April 2009.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 8.30 pm.

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