Minutes of Letsbuzz AGM: Saturday 28th April 2018
Present: Bob (117), Jean (82), Sue (255), Christine ((137), Sandra (261), William (262), Jane (118)
Apologies: Diana (165), Rosemary (115), Graham (259), Valerie (258), Barbara (208), Annabelle (182)
Matters arising from 2017 minutes
It was agreed that we will suspend sterling subscriptions for another year.
It was agrees that we will continue to send out the newsletter as a print copy. Any members who would prefer to only read it on Cyclos or who would like an email copy sent to them instead of a printed copy can let Jean (82) or Jane (117) know (if they haven’t already done so).
Matters arising from the 2016 minutes
At the 2016 AGM the matter of whether the buzzard subs paid cover the running costs of Letsbuzz. This matter was brought up again after the last AGM and it was decided that buzzards for all work done for the membership should be claimed. This was done and Joan reported that buzzard subscriptions did cover the work done by members (see Buzzard treasurer’s report).
Officer’s reports
Buzzard treasurer
Joan produced a very comprehensive report (see attached0
Membership
Bob reported that we now have 49 members: 4 have joined since last year and 5 have left.
Contact person
Jean said that she has received 4 membership enquiries but none of these has (yet?) resulted in new members.
She reported that there have been eight open meetings and there have been social events most months.
Sterling treasurer
Sonja sent in the accounts which had been audited by Dave (see attached)
Sue has been posting on Facebook regularly. The page has been ‘liked’ by both members and strangers.
Thanks were given to all officers for their work and reports and to Dave for auditing the accounts. A special thank you was given to Sonja who has resigned as Sterling Treasurer because she is leaving the area and so is also leaving Letsbuzz.
Election of Officers
As no one else volunteered to be coordinator, Jane and Jean said they would be happy to share the post. This was agreed by all.
Jean volunteered to take over as sterling treasurer – all agreed.
Joan has resigned as buzzard treasurer but there were no volunteers at the meeting. Joan kindly agreed to continue for a little while and Jane and Jean said that they would send out a message asking for a volunteer for the post. Members voted unanimously to agree to whoever volunteers for the post.
Thanks were given to Joan for her work as buzzard treasurer.
Newsletter distribution
Diana (165) and Bob (118) have both volunteered to help distribution and Sandra has volunteered to help with the delivering of the newsletters.
Social Media Officer (Facebook!)
Sue was happy to continue with this task and everyone voted for her to remain.
Publicity Officer
It was agreed that this should be the responsibility of all members.
Member’s Handbook
Bob has revised the member’s handbook. The draft handbook was put on Cyclos and discussed at meetings. Bob has incorporated the (two) responses from members into a final version which was agreed at the meeting.
Bob also revised the application form after Jean pointed out that on it, members sign to say that they agree to abide by the membership agreement before they have seen the agreement. The new application form has a revised membership agreement printed on it so that potential members can read it before signing. This also falls in line with new data protection laws. The offers and wants section has been taken off the application form as this was felt to be a barrier to people joining and because we no longer have a printed directory. The new application form was agreed.
The meeting authorised Bob to make minor amendments to both and thanks were given for his work on these.
A new email group.
One of the issues to come out of the survey and feedback at open meetings is that, although Cyclos has been a great success for buzzard banking, many members have had difficulty using it for offers and wants. This appears to have led to a reduction in trading. It has been suggested that we use the group email ‘Groups.i.o’. Bob was concerned that, as you have to sign into this email group every time you need to use it, members might find it too much effort and therefore not trade any more than they do now. He suggested that we circulate email addresses so that people can set up their own email groups. Jean was concerned that there might be a reason why this wold not be a good idea (none of us was technically minded enough to be sure) so it was agreed that Jena and Jane check before a final decision is made. In the meantime, it was agreed that we would go for Bob’s suggestion unless there was a good reason not to, in which case we would go with ‘Groups i.o’.
Fixing a date for the AGM
Bob proposed that we should fix a date for the AGM so that we knew in advance when it would be and could plan accordingly. This was agreed and it was decided that we would go for the last weekend in April so that we avoid Easter.
Thanks were given to Bob for chairing the meeting which was followed by cream tea and trading.
