University of the Third Age Moraira-Teulada
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on
7th March 2016 at Salon G.L., Teulada
It is confirmed that the President and the Deputy Secretary attended this Monthly Meeting as voted in at the AGM on 1st December 2014.
Jill Cole made the First Call for the AGM at 10.30am as this is what must happen half an hour before the Elections in case there is an insufficient proportion of the membership present to hold an AGM.
Jill pointed out the emergency exits to everyone, in case of an evacuation of the building, checked that members had their mobiles switched off, and also checked that everyone had signed-in and had picked up a raffle ticket.
The Synopsis of the Meeting held on 1st February 2016 was read by David Haxon. The full Minutes had been posted on the Website and were proposed by Don Roberts and seconded by Glyn Walters. The members approved the minutes with a show of hands.
President’s Address
Jill started by expressing condolences and best wishes to the friends and families of all those members that had passed away this year or who are ill at the moment and said our thoughts are with them. However, for the committee the biggest shock of all was the sudden passing of committee member Shirley Baehr, and Jill called for a minute’s silence to remember Shirley and the other members who have passed away this year.
Jill said that most people will have read the tribute that John Hopwood and Margaret Roberts had put together for the Newsletter, Website and local press, and said that there was a Book of Remembrance for anyone to sign at the back of the room.
Shirley had always been an enthusiastic member of U3A and spent a lot of time setting up groups, was one of the founder members, was one of the first to volunteer to help organise events, always supported the groups in committee discussions and would be the first to offer help to anyone. Shirley will be missed by everyone especially those on the committee.
Jill said that as this would be her last meeting as President she found it difficult not to be able to thanks Shirley for the past year’s work, but that she wanted to thank all the rest of the committee and the members for the support she had received over the last two years. Jill said it had been a great experience that she had worked with such a great group of people. Jill said she had loved being President but times change and new blood is needed to ensure that this wonderful organisation can continue to evolve and grow. To enable this volunteers are always needed to join the committee or run Groups thus ensuring that U3A Moraira-Teulada continues for many years hence.
Jill thanks the committee and the Group Leaders for all their hard work in ensuring the continuing success of our U3A.
Reports
Treasurer’s Report. This was read by Carin Derksen.
February 1st, we held the following amounts
Contingency € 4.000,00
Deposit account € 6.000,00
Current account€ 8.049,73
Cash in hand € 1.001,11
Total€ 19.050,84
Income
Feb 1/ renewals 408 2040,00
18 new members 81 810,00
+ 2.850,00
Expenses
Feb 1 creative writing group 66,00
drama group 25,47
golf group 320,23
newsletter printing 42,00
raffle gift and speaker 100,00
salon rent & coffee 134,00
Feb 18 membership/ stationary 13,60
las chicas group 95,90
Feb 23 las chicas+gardening group/mic 169,00
-/- 966,20
Today, March 7th, we hold the following amounts
Contingency € 4.000,00
Deposit account € 6.000,00
Current account€ 9.249,73
Cash in hand € 1.684,91
Total€ 20.934,64
There were no questions regarding the treasurer’s report from the members.
Travel Group.
Carol Mantle said that all the day trips on offer are full, but that more are being planned.
The Christmas shopping trip to Barcelona from 29th November to 2nd December has only two places left.
The trip to Lisbon from 19th to 26th September which includes 3 nights in Lisbon, 1 night in Merida and 1 night in Ciudad Real will cost €585. This is to include flights, airport transfer, half board stay and lunch on the return journey.
The trip to Cambodia and Vietnam in February/March 2017 will cost approximately €2500, and although it is full, as it is such a long time in the future it is worth adding names to the reserve list.
As ever full details of all trips can be found on the website.
Cultural Events.
The Cultural Events for March were read by Beverly and Hugh Stewart.
9th March. Concerts Costa Blanc presents Aida in conjunction with the Valencian Opera House.
11th March. Jazz at the Parador presents The Prototype Organ trio at the Javea Parador.
11th March. Sounds Familiar is presenting Let’s Face the Music at the Ondara Theatre-
16th March. Teulada-Moraira Lions are presents “Satchmo”, by Manhattan Jazz, a tribute to Louis Armstrong at La Senieta, Moraira.
20th March. There will be a piano recital by Haochen Zhang at Palau Altea.
21st March. The Royal Opera House will broadcast live at Cine Roma, Alfaz del Pi and at Condado Theatre in Denia the magnificent opera Boris Godunov. There are many forthcoming broadcasts during the next few months and full programme details can be found on the website.
17th March. Now the Cine Jayan in Javea is also offering opera screenings and the first will be Il Trovatore at 8pm. For more future screenings please see the website.
There are many more advance notices for April, May and June, so please look at the website for more information.
There were no reports from the Group Coordinator or the Member/Committee Liaison, so the meeting continued with Jill thanking the 28 Group Leaders who had attended, she was very pleased that so many had come to the AGM.
Audited Accounts for 2015
Carin Derksen said that the Audited Accounts had been placed on the Website for the last two weeks, so that the members could study them at their leisure. Carin referred to several points in the accounts, and when she had finished asked if there were any questions or queries from the members. There were none, but Carin added that she would be happy to answer anything by email, if members had a concern about anything. A copy of the Audited Accounts is attached to these Minutes.
Travel Group Accounts
Carol Mantle read out her report and said that the Travel Group Accounts had also been posted on the web.
In 2015 the Travel Group continued to be as popular as ever with the membership. Providing a wide variety of Trips at a cost that appealed to the widest possible audience within our membership has always been the Groups main aim
• The accounts record the Income and Expenditure for each Trip. The records for each Trip have been audited and confirmed as correct.
• On the whole most of the Trips realise more income than expenditure. This is because the Trip cost is based on forecasted take up of the Trip, whereas in practice the take up has been higher than forecasted.
• At the end of the 2015 the total funds held in the Travel Account was €1,745.27 being the working capital of the Travel Group for this year. As at the end of December no money was held on account for future Trips.
• Working capital at the end of 2014 was €19,971.46 most of this being monies held on account for the Prague Trip and the working capital of approximately €1,000. This figure rose in 2015 by approximately €745 which means the Travel Group have maintained a healthy balance against unexpected expenditure in future.
• The Travel Groups planned budget for this year includes the costs of running the Travel Group and the majority of these costs are those incurred in providing printed material for Trips. The budget also includes keeping a healthy balance in the account to ensure that we have funds in case of emergencies which may occur on any of the Trips. We have experienced several emergencies on Trips so the Travel Group is well aware of the necessity of ensuring such funds are available.
• Finally, I would like to thank Ian Brown for Auditing the Travel Group Account.
Regarding Paragraph 4, Carol said that a larger balance was being maintained due to the fact that the group is undertaking more adventurous trips, which could entail more unexpected expenses.
Jill made the Second Call for the AGM at 11.05 and said that the first thing to be done before the Election was the approval of the Accounts for 2015 by the membership.
TThe Accounts were approved by Colin McNae and seconded by Hugh Stewart, and approved by the members with a show of hands.
Jill then handed over the second part of the Meeting to Brian Nicholls as Election Officer. Brian had stepped in at the last minute only that morning as the original Election Officer, Peter Griffiths, had hurt his ankle and was unable to attend.
Brian introduced himself and said that at each AGM the U3A Constitution requires a new Committee to be elected for the following year’s administration. The AGM had been moved to March so that the previous year’s Accounts could be approved by the members. As this meeting is deemed to be a legal process, Brian said he would read from his notes.
Brian said that the list of the Nominees and Proposers were available on the Committee Table if any members wished to see them. There were no contested posts, so the procedure was quite straight forward and only required a show of hands for the votes to be registered. If it could be seen that there was a large majority of votes for the nominees, he would not call for votes against.
Some of the outgoing Committee had agreed to restand for election. Brian asked the members if they were happy to vote as before and they indicated that they were, this meant that a show of hands to register the vote FOR was all that was required.
The Voting would consist of two parts. Part one would be for the four executive posts which have to be voted on individually. The executive positions are those committee members who are legally required and identified for a specific role. Part two is for the remaining posts and can be voted for en bloc. These are committee posts which are created to fulfil management tasks as required.
Brian asked if there were any questions before the voting began, and there were none.
The outgoing Committee Members for 2015 who are either retiring or re-standing for election are as follows:.
President Jill Cole
Vice President David Haxon
Treasurer Carin Derksen
Secretary Yvonne Romaine
Deputy Secretary Margaret Roberts
Deputy Treasurer Steve Higham
Membership Secretary Pat Clarke
Deputy Membership Secretary Prue Jackson
Travel Group Treasurer Carol Mantle
Discounts Liaison John Hopwood
Speakers Liaison Eileen Haxon
New Members Liaison Shirley Tuckey
Press Liaison John Manley
Member without Portfolio John Freeman
Member without Portfolio Lynn Clark
The Election
Part One. The following nominees stood individually and were voted for separately.
The President. John Hopwood was the nominee. There was unanimous vote in favour of John.
Vice President. David Haxon was the nominee for this position. The members voted unanimously for David.
Secretary. Christine Crossfield was the nominee. The members voted with a majority for Christine (Titch.)
Treasurer. Carin Derken was the nominee. The members voted for Carin with a majority.
Part two
Brian read out the nominees and positions for the rest of the committee posts, and asked the new nominees to stand and make themselves known to the members.
Deputy Secretary Margaret Roberts
Membership Secretary Pat Clarke
Travel Group Treasurer Carol Mantle
New Members Liaison Shirley Tuckey (absent)
Deputy Treasurer Steve Higham
Deputy Group Coordinator Lynn Clark
Speakers Liaison Eileen Haxon
Press Liaison John Manley
Member without Portfolio John Freeman
The Group Coordinator’s position will remain vacant for the time being in deference to the passing of Shirley Baehr.
Brian called for a show of hands for all these positions to be voted for en bloc; there was a unanimous vote in favour of all the Nominees.
Brian said that the voting procedure was now concluded and asked if there were any matters arising from the election, there were none. He then handed over the rest of the Meeting to the new President, John Hopwood.
Any Other Business
John Hopwood gave many thanks to Brian for his efficiency in conducting the Election at such short notice.
John thanked the members for their confidence in voting for him but regretted that he was the only candidate so really there had been no option. as no one else had volunteered for the post. He found it a little sad that an organisation with a membership of over 1600 at the end of last year, is not able to find anyone willing, or able, to take up positions of responsibility, though it is understood that those who do not reside here permanently would have difficulty. John said that he would try and serve the association to the best of his ability.
John thought that the members might be interested in the history of the U3A and said it was founded in 1973 in Toulouse by a Professor who aimed at improving the quality of life for older people. Only 5 years later there were more than a 100 U3A’s still mainly in France, and the idea quickly spread to the International Association of U3A of today in more than a 100 countries, with the membership in Spain being the most vibrant.
John said that he has had the opportunity to work with the past President, Jill Cole, over the last two years and has always received good advice and full support which he greatly valued. John had admired the way she had handled committee meetings in a decisive, conscientious and unflappable manner. She had very able in refereeing disagreements within the committee and responding in a fair way, and John felt that our U3A had been very fortunate to have had Jill as President.
John asked Vice President David Haxon to make a presentation to Jill on behalf of the members.
Jill replied that it had been a pleasure to work with the committee and thanked everyone for the gifts and received a round of applause from the members.
John thanked David and said that he hoped that David could be the next President, as had been the intention for this coming year. However, David is President of his urbanisation and there will be some time consuming work t be done in the near future possibly including the need to spend time in court.
Jill had already thanked the committee members for their hard work over the last year and John added his own thanks as well. Having been a committee member himself for two years he was fully aware of the commitment that they all make, and the amount of hours that are committed by them. John hoped that he would receive their continuing help over the coming year.
John then added a few words about the late Shirley Baehr, who with her husband Laurence, had become good friends with John and his wife Sue.
John said he felt fortunate to have known her so well, and had met and made many friends through them. He had received a tremendous shock when on the morning of 22nd February Laurence called with the news of Shirley’s death. Shirley had been such a vibrant and dynamic person yet managed to combine this with being gentle, considerate and caring. John added that there are few people who will be so greatly missed.
There were many representatives present from the various groups that Shirley supported, but John said that his own group, the U3A Music Group, would miss her particularly as she was always an enthusiastic supporter of them. John said most of the current members of this group were present in order to pay their respects.
Laurence had phoned the day before the meeting to express his thanks to all those who had given him so much support at such a difficult time.
Before the meeting ended John said he hoped members would forgive him if he didn’t remember their name, if he made the occasional mistake, or a wrong decision and that he hoped for the members’ tolerance and understanding.
David Haxon drew the winning raffle ticket which was for a €50 restaurant voucher for Ca Pepe. The winner was Jan Garbey.
There was no further business.
The meeting closed at 11:40
The next Monthly General Meeting will be held on 4th April 2016