University of the Third Age Moraira-Teulada
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on
6 March 2023 as Salon G.L., Teulada
Prudence Jackson made the First Call for the AGM at 10:00 as this must happen half an hour before the Elections if there is an insufficient proportion of the membership present. Prudence then welcomed all members to the meeting and ran through the safety and emergency procedures.
Tony Old read out a synopsis of the minutes of the 6 February 2023 meeting. As is always the case the full minutes had been posted on the website, acceptance was proposed by Sue Hopwood, seconded by Noleen Cummins and approved by the members via a show of hands.
Presidents Address:
To avoid duplication the content of Prudence ’s address is covered in her End of Year Report below.
Treasurers Reports
Annette Warr gave a brief rundown on the U3A accounts for February. As is always the case these are on the website. At the end of February we had 32,558 Euro in the bank and cash in hand of 3,000 Euro. It had to be remembered of course that 10,000 Euro of this was our contingency fund and there was also some money held against future trips.
During the month we had paid out the majority of cash owed to creditors following communication with them. Annette thanked Stephen Higham for his efforts on this issue.
Annette thanked everyone for their support.
Election of Auditor for 2023 / 2024
Our existing Auditor, Ian Brown had confirmed that he was prepared to continue for the coming year and this was proposed by Colin McNae seconded by John Hopwood and approved unanimously by those present.
Groups
Most groups are now active once again, with many interesting and informative events taking place.
We are looking at a gentle zumba class for our members and discussions had been held with Kimberley Harrison who was also looking at starting a gentle exercise class. At this stage, she would offer our members a discount for her existing classes for a limited period of time to see how much interest there was. This would be advertised.
Our Dining Out group is one of our flagship groups and more hosts were needed to stage the various events.
There was a very current issue with the Bowls Group about to lose their home due (they have said) to the venue closing because of the impacts of BREXIT. Some options were being looked at by David and Eileen Haxon.
Social Events
Tony Old explained that there had been a full programme of social events in the year following two years of restricted activities, and he was pleased to say that they all received excellent support.
On 11h February we held our second Valentines Dinner at Satari’s which was attended by 70 people, who reportedly enjoyed another great meal, along with some great entertainment also from Duo Intermezzo, who gave another one of their trademark performances.
We are now preparing for one more very special event at Font Santa, that is another “Party in the Park” with an ever popular Hog Roast. This will be in celebration of the coronation, and we have managed to secure Duo Intermezzo to play, along with Black Glitter for those looking to dance away their barbecued pork lunch and wine!
This will again take the form of a “Street Party”, and hopefully we will recapture the fantastic atmosphere we had las June which was attended by over 270 people and made an afternoon to remember!
For those who are fans of Bella Luna, who had originally been booked for the Coronation event the good news is that they will be performing for us at our planned Christmas Dinner Dance at Salones Canor on Friday 8th December this year.
Tony concluded by explaining that places for the “Coronation Party in the Park” will shortly be made available.
Travel
David Haxon asked for help in operating the “day trips” although the long haul trips are moving on well.
A trip to the Benidorm Palace was a possibility later in the year along with the possibility of a trip to Jordan in 2024. More trips are being planned, and members are encouraged to look out for trips that they may be interested in and also think about trips that they might want to see organized.
Membership/Committee Liaison
With his usual gusto Stephen explained that he had nothing to report.
2nd Call
Prudence made the 2nd Call for the AGM
Presidents End of Year Report
It is a year since the last Committee elections, and I would firstly like to thank all members of the Committee for their hard work and support over the last year.
During the year, there have been many noteworthy achievements. For the first time payments of membership fees were in the main paid by bank transfer. Payments can still be taken in cash at General Meetings, but most members seemed to prefer the flexibility of paying through their Bank accounts. This also applied to payments for events and travel trips. Many thanks to our Membership Secretary, Patricia Clarke, Treasurer, Annette Warr and Travel Treasurer, Stephen Higham for dealing with the multitude of entries in our bank account.
We also held our first concert. This one was in aid of Ukraine, and along with other events meant we were able to raise €4000 for Ukraine. A big thank you to everyone who helped with this.
As COVID restrictions eased, we were able to offer more social events which included a Valentines dinner, a Xmas dinner dance and a very popular hog roast held in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. Many thanks to Tony Old and his team of helpers for these events.
Travel trips were also made possible, and we now have a new Travel Group leader, Coral Guise Smith, who led a very enjoyable trip to Barcelona last year and has others planned for this year. David and Eileen Haxon also helped us get our shopping fixes with trips to Ikea, La zenia, and other one day trips
Our charity of the year last year was Make a Smile, and thanks to David and Eileen Haxon for organizing events including the hugely popular quiz nights.
On top of all this our group leaders have been working very hard getting their groups back up and running after the pandemic. Our U3A continues to thrive as a result of the work put in by those who volunteer their time and skills
Approval of Accounts
Annette Warr was pleased to report that our finances remain healthy with a net cash position of 21,530 Euro after taking into account deposits held against future trips and refunds due for cancelled trips. This is virtually unchanged from the year before.
Apart from membership subscriptions of 15.340 Euro income figures reflect the various activities throughout the year, with the corresponding expenses accounted for as expenditure.
In addition, monies were raised for the Make a Smile Charity and the Ukrainian Refugee Appeal and she thanked everyone for their generous donations.
She explained that detailed information was available in the Accounts posted on our website, where the audit report will be posted shortly. The accounts will then be proposed for approval at our next full General Meeting.
Vote of Thanks to the 2023 / 2024 Committee
A vote of thanks to the outgoing Committee was approved by a show of hands.
Election on the Committee for 2023/24
As Election Officer, Peter Griffiths took over the second part of the meeting. He explained that as there were no contested posts, the procedure was quite straight forward and only required a show of hands for the votes to be registered,
Peter confirmed that all the outgoing Committee Members for 2022 / 2023 were all standing for re-election.
The Election
Part One:
The following nominees stood individually and were voted for separately.
President – Prudence Jackson. A Majority vote in favour of Prue
Vice President – Tony Old. A Majority vote in favour of Tony
Secretary – Paul Sankey. A Majority vote in favour of Paul
Treasurer – Annette Wall. A Majority vote in favour of Annette
Membership Secretary – Patricia Clarke. A Majority vote in favour of Pat
Groups Coordinator – vacant.
Part Two:
Peter read out the nominees and the positions for the remainder of the Committee posts and asked the nominees to stand and make themselves known to the members.
Deputy Secretary – vacant
Deputy / Travel Treasurer – Stephen Higham
Social Events Officer – Tony Old
Members without Portfolio – Eileen Haxon, David Haxon. Dennis Ainscough and Raymond K Guise-Smith. It was noted that Dennis and Raymond were unable to attend the meeting due to holiday commitments.
Peter requested a show of hands for all these positions to be voted for en bloc and there was a majority vote in favour of all the Nominees.
The post of Membership/Committee Liaison Officer was a non-voting committee role and did not require a vote. Stephen Higham will fill this role for 2023/24.
Peter confirmed that the voting procedure was therefore concluded and asked if there were any matters arising from the elections. As none were raised Peter returned the microphone to the President for 2032/ 2024, Prudence Jackson.
Introduction from the 20234/24 President
Prudence thanked Peter Griffiths for conducting the election of officers and all present for electing her as President. She considered it to be an honour and a privilege to serve as your President, and she would do her utmost to ensure that your U3A continues to thrive
Her wish list for this year is to fill our vacant positions as there are too many people doing more than one job, which dilutes our efforts. The more help we have, the more we can offer to our members. As it is we still have a lot to offer with our groups, our social events, charity events and our trips
She asked that if you know of anyone who would benefit from what we have to offer, please encourage them to join
In closing she looked forward to a successful year for our U3A in 2023/2024
The AGM closed at 11:00
President – Prudence Jackson
Secretary – Paul Sankey
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