Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the RNIB, Judd Street, on Saturday 9 May 2009 commencing at 1130 hours.
Prior to the meeting, those present were issued with voting cards.
1. Chair's Welcome:
Martyn Wilson welcomed everyone to the meeting and especially to our
guest, Councillor Paul Chaudry, Deputy Civic Ambassador of the London
Borough of Newham.
2. Chair to Read the Agenda:
The Chair read the Agenda, and this formed the basis for discussion at
the meeting.
3. Roll Call:
Councillor Paul Chaudry; Martyn Wilson; Paul David; Richard Harrington;
Colin Howard; Alec Bridgewood; Jeanne Jackson; Ken Thompson; Garry
Wiggins; Irene Knowles; Russell Bailey; David and Timothy Bamber;
Kulvinder Bhogal; Chris Biles; Paul Chinnery; David and Jack Cox; Keith
de Jersey; Barbara Farrell; Pat Jordan; David and Paul Knowles; Charles
Peck; Fransisco Sarr; Stephen Thacker; Tyler Thomas; Derek and Phil
Troll;
4. Apologies for Absence:
There were no apologies for absence.
5. Notification of Any Other Business:
Charles Peck.
6. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2008:
Charles Peck suffered two seizures as the result of stress at this
meeting. The Website grant was received during 2006 and not
2007. Under "Chair's report", delete "railway stations" and
insert "underground stations". With these corrections, the
minutes were accepted as a correct record. Proposed by
Stephen Kingsberry and seconded by Garry Wiggins.
7. Matters Arising:
Under "Vice-Chair's report" it was clarified that the prize draw had
taken place. Under "Any Other Business" it was confirmed that
new tabbards had been purchased to replace the old tabbards.
At this point, Paul Chinnery read the minutes of last year's AGM on request.
8. Officers' Reports:
8a) - Chair:
Martyn Wilson said that last year had been one of the more momentous
years in the history of NTE. Phil Troll had
resigned as Editor and Development Officer. After
the resignation, the Committee awarded the Contract to Paul
Chinnery. Considering he was doing everything himself to run
the charity the Chair and the Committee expressed their gratitude to
him for doing this. Dave Durber had also resigned from the position as
Webmaster, and he was warmly thanked for the hard work he put into
developing the Website during the time he was with us. It was
improved considerably, and many people decided to listen to the
magazine through it rather than having tape or CD. Ken
Thompson agreed to be our new Webmaster.
Last summer, the Chair donated funds to the charity which meant the magazines could be produced on CD in MP3 format. This involved buying CD copiers, protective envelopes, postal wallets and CDs. However, there are still about sixty members who still prefer to receive the magazines on cassette. The Chair made it his personal ambition to find a new fundraiser, and through a family contact he was put in touch with Sue Murray of Purple Patch Fundraising in Leamington Spa, and she is now working for us under contract. We have, of course, continued with our collections at underground stations and Network Rail stations. He thanked everyone who had helped at these collections during the year. He was informed by the Treasurer that we ended the financial year with a small profit for the first time in several years. He concluded his report by thanking Phil Troll for the fantastic work he has done in producing NTE and other magazines for almost the last thirty years since he founded NTE in September 1979. NTE is now available through more outlets than ever before. Let us hope it can develop more in the future.
A question was asked as to what kind of agreement had been made with the fundraiser. In reply, the Chair stated it would be on a commission basis but not until she has raised a minimum of £2000. After this figure has been reached, we will pay her ten per cent. However, this type of agreement may have to be reviewed. Charles Peck congratulated the Chair for the professionally presented report. At this point, the Deputy Ambassador made a statement. He said he was honoured to be present at the meeting and to hear about how our organisation operates. He said the credit should go to the Committee members and supporters. He then presented Martyn with a plaque in recognition of the donation he made in order to purchase new equipment.
b) - Vice-Chair:
Paul David reported that the two media surveys were concluded towards
the end of the summer. During the autumn, he attended on
behalf of the Committee a Talking Newspaper Federation event in
Guildford which dealt with matters connected with
digitalization. Another outlet for NTE is now the Sanata web
radio, and in the early part of 2009 we were pleased to welcome
listeners to "95 The Mix" which is an Internet only radio station based
in Florida, USA. Our programme can now be heard via that
service every Monday and Thursday at 8 pm. UK time.
c) - Secretary:
Richard Harrington said he had enjoyed the past year as Secretary for
NTE. He had booked the two committee rooms at the RNIB, ably
assisted by our Chair. He had recorded each Committee meeting
before writing and distributing the minutes. We had complied
with the rules of the Charities Commission by holding a face-to-face
Committee meeting during the year.
d) - Assistant Secretary:
Colin Howard stated he had sent invitation letters for this meeting to
the Civic Ambassador and our Vice President. He had been
monitoring the E-group list which has not been very active.
There are currently thirty six names on this list. Charles
Peck requested to know why there has been no recorded version of last
year's AGM on the Website. In reply, Colin stated that at the
Committee meeting following the AGM it was decided by a majority that
it would not have been wise to put that recording on the
Site.
e) - Treasurer:
Alec Bridgewood was pleased to report that up to 31 March 2009, for the
first time since 2002, we have shown a surplus of income over
expenditure. This amounted to £439.21, mainly due to an
increase in donations from our own members and other
contributors. The largest gift was from our own worthy
Chairman, Martyn Wilson, who generously donated our new CD copying
equipment together with a year's supply of CDs, pouches and ancillery
equipment. The accompanying balance sheet shows a total on 31
March of £10,301.98 in our account. Thanks were given to
those volunteers who gave their time to attend our station collections
These collections raised £8590.97.
We have contacted another professional fundraiser who has offer to try
and raise funds for us. This time, we do not have to pay a
fee until the money is paid into our account. Alec said he
has decided to continue as Treasurer for the time being should the
majority present at this AGM wish to support him. The
receipts and payments accounts were then read.
Alec then read a statement from the NTE Auditor in support of his
treasurership. He also read a letter from Ted
Herbert. (note: a heated discussion then occurred relating to
the secretary maintaining a separate list of associate
members).
f) - Appeals Officer:
Jeanne Jackson apologized for not being present at the
meeting. She reported she had made every effort to get
donations this year. After a short discussion, it was
recommended that any member of NTE wanting to raise funds in their
local area should make an appeal on the magazine. The Chair thanked
Jeanne for her work.
g) - Development Officer:
Phil Troll said that during the few months he held this post volunteers
helped with collections. Further improvements had been made
to the Website by Dave Durber who intended to be present at the
meeting.
Paul Chinnery then continued the report. He stated that for
the first six months he was Assistant Development Officer assisting
Phil to produce NTE and Media Roundup. He provided a large
amount of fresh news and information for both NTE and Media
Roundup. He was more or less left to run the office on his
own at this time. In September we converted to CD magazines
which were very well received by the membership. He thanked
Martyn for the generous donation for the copiers. He also
thanked Charles Peck for his help in the office.
He had received a large response from members. The majority
of comments have been very complimentary. Membership to the
magazines has been constant throughout this upheaval. He had
attended a meeting with Chair Martyn Wilson and a new fundraiser which
went very well. She has applied to many organizations for
funds on our behalf. He thanked Stephen Kingsberry for his
continued good work in supplying quality interviews for NTE which the
membership enjoy.
A large part of his time has been taken up with the Planning Aid
Project. Work still needs to be done to finish this
project. He thanked the landlord of the Black Lion public
house for his permission to allow a collecting box on the
premises. He also thanked Dave Durber for his help with the
Website last year and our new Webmaster, Ken Thompson, for the complete
overhaul of this. He hopes to improve the magazines in the
future.
h) - Webmaster:
Ken Thompson replaced Dave Durber as our Webmaster during
November. He thanked Dave for developing and enhancing the
Site. He said that in future it will be possible for
listeners to podcast the two magazines. It should also be
possible to select individual tracks whilst on site.
At this point our guest left the meeting and pledged his support to the
charity in the future. Martyn cordially thanked him for
attending.
9. Resolutions:
The resolutions were read followed by a document received from the
Charities Commission.
Resolution 1 - Due to the breach of the Constitution on two different
occasions (Clause 10 Part 2) which deals with the right to appeal, I
propose a vote of no confidence in the entire Committee except Irene
Knowles who courageously refused to take part in an undemocratic
decision-making process, for clarification the said members are listed
below: Martyn Wilson, Paul Balster (known as Paul David), Richard
Harrington, Colin Howard, Alec Bridgewood, Jeanne Jackson, Steve
Kingsberry and Garry Wiggins. I ask that my and Dave Durber's (former
Webmaster of NTE) statements are read to the meeting before any
decision is made. I bear no malace to the said people,
instead I question their ability to carry out the best interests of our
organization.
An amendment was passed stating that Colin Howard's name should be
removed from those named in Resolution 1.
Resolution 2 - If the previous resolution is passed by the meeting, I
propose that due to the incompetence of the said members and the lack
of management skills these people will not be allowed to be elected to
the Executive Committee for a minimum period of three years from the
date of this meeting. Furthermore, I propose that as the said
members are directly involved in the outcome of this decision they
should not be allowed to vote on this particular resolution and must
leave the room whilst voting takes place.
Resolution 3 - I propose that the editorship of our two magazines
should be realocated to another person on the basis that the November
edition was not produced, the December edition was not received until
after Christmas, the January edition was very late and the February
edition did not appear by 1March 2009. Rather than creating
new items for the magazine, the current editor chose to copy many items
that were already produced and publicaly available as an easy way
out. Phil Troll proposed these resolutions and they were
seconded by Kulvinder Bhogal.
Phil Troll presented a report expressing his views regarding his
resignation from the position of Development Officer. This
was followed by a report from Dave Durber in which he expressed his
views on the matter in some detail. Both these reports are
available as separate documents. Stephen Kingsberry gave
reasons why he had resigned from the Committee in March and stated that
he would continue to produce recordings for the magazine. This was
followed by a discussion resulting from the two reports. A
vote of no confidence was then taken, as stated in Resolution 1,
although this is not legally binding the result was: in favour 10,
against 14 and 2 abstensions.
The Chair then reminded the meeting that Resolution 2 was no longer
relevant and Resolution 3 was a matter for the Trustees as stated by
the Charity Commission.
10. Election of Officers and Committee Members:
At this point Paul David took the chair for the election of the new
chairperson. It was stated by Phil Troll that as no other
nominations were received in writing eight weeks before the meeting in
accordance with the Constitution that all of the proposed Committee
members were automatically the new committee. The relevant
clause of the Constitution was read to the meeting as
confirmation. Chair: Phil Troll; Vice-Chair: Derek Troll;
Secretary: Irene Knowles; Committee member: Tyler Thomas; Committee
member: Dave Durber; Treasurer: Kulvinder Bhogal. There were
no more nominations. Therefore, the following were proposed
and seconded from the floor: David Cox: Committee member, proposed by
Derek Troll and seconded by Phil Troll; Colin Howard: Committee member,
proposed by Phil Troll. Publicity Officer: Tim Bamber,
proposed by Phil Troll and seconded by Irene
Knowles.
11. Any Other Business:
Charles asked why a new volunteer did not return to the office. This
matter became too personal.
12. Date and Venue of the 2010 AGM:
The next AGM will take place on 8 May 2010 at the RNIB, London.
The Chair concluded the meeting by wishing the new committee good luck.
Richard Harrington
Secretary
These minutes are subject to ratification at the 2010 AGM.
Copyright 2009, National Talking Express