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Minutes of the 23rd Annual General Meeting
Held at The
Link Hotel, Loughborough
on
Saturday 10th September 2016 at 1100hrs.
INTRODUCTION:
The meeting was
attended by 45 members and proceedings were opened at
11:00 hours by our Chairman, Rod Goddard, who welcomed
everyone to the Branch AGM, especially our friends
from Königslutter. The Chairman then read out the Act
of Remembrance followed by mentioning those members
who had passed away since our last meeting.
This was followed by a minute’s silence for reflection
of our fallen comrades. The Branch Standard was
lowered by our Standard Bearer, Tom Neal.
APOLOGIES:
The Secretary, Clive
Sanders, read out the apologies of those members who
for various reasons were unable to attend.
MINUTES OF 22nd
AGM:
The minutes of the
22nd AGM having previously been circulated on the
branch website and in the Listening Post were taken as
read by the meeting.
PRESIDENTS
ADDRESS:
The Vice-President,
Rod Goddard, began his address by welcoming everyone
in attendance and thanking them for making the effort
to attend the 23rd Branch Reunion. He then gave an
address on the future structure of the Royal Corps of
Signals, which had now completed its move to be part
of the new ‘Super-Garrison’ centred on Beacon Barracks
in Stafford. He then moved on to the Intelligence
Corps, which he reported as currently having 36% of
its personnel ”either deployed on or directly
supporting over 10 separate and diverse operations”.
TREASURERS REPORT:
Clive Sanders, on
behalf of our Treasurer, John Rosson, read the
Treasurer’s report on the branch’s current financial
situation. This showed that for the year ending 31 Dec
2014, the Branch Finances stood at £4457.58p. However,
by 31 Dec 2015 the account had declined to £3415.45p.
This was mainly due to a donation of £698.45p, made by
the Branch to the Bürgermeister of Königslutter, which
has been forwarded on to the Rudolf Diesel School for
children with special learning needs in Königslutter.
The Secretary, on behalf of the Treasurer, then stated
that it was hoped that this reunion would raise funds
to improve the financial position of the Branch
Accounts, so please dig deep in your pockets at this
evenings Raffle.
SECRETARY’S
REPORT:
The Branch Secretary,
Clive Sanders, started his report by giving a BIG vote
of thanks to Dick Pickup, the branch’s Loughborough
Reunion Coordinator, for the wonderful job he had done
in arranging, rearranging and in some cases cancelling
bookings for this year’s reunion. He reported that the
branch now consisted of 443 members. He also thanked
Tom Perkin, our web-site manager and Marlene Brooks,
the editor of our association magazine, the Listening
Post, for the continuing excellent work they are doing
to support our association.
ELECTION OF
OFFICERS:
BRANCH PRESIDENT
Due to the passing away of our previous Branch
President, Major General Peter Baldwin, there is a
vacancy for this office. Our Chairman, Rod Goddard
nominated Major General Tim Inshaw for this post. This
nomination was Seconded by Mac Peden and unanimously
carried by the members.
BRANCH TREASURER
The current Branch Treasurer, John Rosson, stated that
if any other member wished to take on the role of
Branch Treasurer, he would not stand in their way, but
the members expressed their confidence in the
wonderful way that Debra Nicosia, in the name of John
Rosson, was fulfilling this role and unanimously asked
John to pass on the thanks of the members to Debra.
BRANCH SECRETARY
Due to the current Branch Secretary, Clive Sanders,
requesting to stand down from the office, there was a
vacancy for a new Branch Secretary. The Chairman, Rod
Goddard, reported that he did have a volunteer, in the
persons of Charlie and Jud Charlesworth and Tom Allum
proposed that they take on the duties. This proposal
was seconded by Jim Husband and the members
unanimously backed this proposal.
ANY OTHER
BUSINESS:
The first item of AOB
was where to hold our reunions in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Rod Goddard, suggested that the 2017 and the 2018
reunions should both be held in Königslutter. The main
reason for this was that our 2018 reunion will also be
the celebration of our 25th anniversary and he felt,
that this very special event should take place near to
Langeleben in the town of Königslutter. Heini Feddeck
added that the Schützenkönig from Königslutter has
extended a special invitation for us to attend the
2020 Schutzenfest in Konigslutter. This will be in
order to join with them in celebration of their 550
anniversary. It was therefore proposed by Mike Sposito
and seconded by Robbie McCallum that the 2017 and 2018
reunions be held in Königslutter and the 2019 reunion
be held in Loughborough and this proposal was carried
by a large majority of the members.
The next item of AOB was the state of the Branch
Finances and there was much discussion about costs
paid by the branch and how the branch financial state
could be improved. No clear decisions were made at the
end of the debate, but it was suggested that a
collection could be organized at the 2017 Königslutter
to help bolster the Branch Finances.
The third item of AOB was a suggestion by Rod Goddard
that there be a Service of Rededication at the
Memorial Stone in Langeleben. Hopefully a band can be
found to provide music for this occasion. This was
agreed by a majority of the members.
The fourth item of AOB was a talk by Ilona Hawxwell on
events in Königslutter during 2017. This was followed
by an address by Horst Funke, during which he made a
presentation to the Branch Secretary.
The next item of AOB was initiated by our Chairman,
Rod Goddard, who suggested that a plaque be added to
our bench in the National Arboretum to commemorate our
much missed President, Maj. Gen. Peter Baldwin. Rod's
suggestion quickly gathered the support of the members
and it was agreed that a plaque should be obtained for
the bench with a target cost of £25.00.
Finally, Rod Goddard thanked Tom Neal for serving as
the Branch Standard Bearer, more or less since the
branch was formed. The members responded with an
enthusiastic round of applause for Tom. Rod then asked
for a member to volunteer to take on the duties of
Standard Bearer and much to the approval of the
members, Robbie McCallum was eventually persuaded to
volunteer.
2017 REUNION:
The provisional dates
for the 2017 reunion were agreed as 28th - 30th August
2017, but this was dependent on the dates of the 2017
Königslutter Schützenfest.
The meeting closed
at 1235 hrs.
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