This year's AGM took place at the Alfred East Gallery on April 18th.
Arrangement were put together under a certain amount of pressure: our speaker had to decline due to ill health ... and then our President Philip Hollobone MP was unable to chair the meeting due to Parliamentary business being rescheduled due to the funeral of Baroness Thatcher.
As it turned out, the business phase took up sufficient time that Phil's 'Yearbook' slideshow had to shown in a much truncated form.
In Philip Hollobone's absence, Richard Makins took the chair, and reviews of the yewar's business were presented by Committee Chairman John Wilson and Secretary Barbara Lewis. We enjoyed a mixture of media, the Membership debate being moderated by flip chart, the website and social media by slide projections ...
... and the activities review by a display board presentation ...
The main business of the day concerned the financial report which indicated that we had kept within our means other than in funding the year's main project, the new sign boards for the art Gallery ...
... and the invitation from the Treasurer, who was unable to attend, that we put up the subscription. a heated debate was unable to resolve for sure when the new subscription fee would apply, so fees for the 2013/14 season remain unchanged pending further considerations and clarifications from the Committee.
The intention is to put the fees up modestly, but the new rate now looks likely to apply from April 2014 - there will be plenty of time to clarify this before it takes effect.
Everyone was thanked for their input and attention was drawn to the range of events celebrating alfred east's centenary.