Minutes of the  Annual General Meeting of the National Talking Express, held at RNIB, 105 Judd Street, London,  on Saturday 8 May 2010.  Commencing 11.15.Phil Troll, (Chair) welcomed everyone to the meeting;  and apologised for the late start, which was due to having to queue to purchase items from the Resource Centre.

He then proceeded to read the agenda.  After which, Charles Peck queried the order, stating the resolution should come after the elections and Colin Howard confirmed this, so we agreed to swap the items around.

Roll Call: - Philip Troll, (Chair), Irene Knowles, (Secretary), David Knowles, (Associate Member), Paul Knowles, (Member), Timothy Bamber, (Publicity Officer), David Bamber, (Acting Treasurer), Colin Howard, (Assistant Secretary), Paul Chinnery, (Development Officer and Associate Member), Charles Peck, (Member), Pat Jordan, (Associate Member), Gary Wiggins, (Member), Barbara Farrell, (Committee and Associate Member).

 
Apologies: - Apologies had been received from:  Ken Thompson, (Webmaster) Derek Troll, (Vice Chair), Kulvinder Bhogal, (Appeals' Officer), David Cox, (Committee Member), Geoff Kirk, (Associate Member).

Accepted.

Notification of AOB: - Charles Peck.

 
Minutes: - Minutes of the 2009 AGM had been read on NTE and were on the website.

Paul Chinnery pointed out that Stephen Kingsbury and his friend Wayne were not on the roll call.  We agreed to correct this and the minutes were accepted.  Proposed:  Colin Howard, seconded:  Irene Knowles.  Majority vote.

Matters Arising: - Associate Members' List:  Phil Troll said, following the comments made at last year's meeting, an Associate Members' list had been drawn up and had ten names on it.  Paul Chinnery said Geoff Kirk needed to be added to the list, which we agreed to do.    

Reports: -

 A: - Chairman's Report:  Barbara Farrell read the report on behalf of Philip Troll.

 
Chairman's Report, 10 April, 2010.

It had been a busy, but very difficult year;  and the committee had worked very hard and achieved quite a lot over the past twelve months.  The magazines are now tracked, making it much easier to navigate and there is now a contents review on Media Roundup as well as on NTE.  We also now have the facility to podcast.  Thanks to our Webmaster.  the magazines are now available on the Sonata, the Internet radio provided by the British Wireless for the Blind Fund and Talking Newspaper  Association.  There had been a few problems with it, but they had been sorted out.  The magazines are also available on other services for the blind.  Radio stations and other audio services.          

Due to financial problems, we had to cut Paul Chinnery's contract to three days instead of four, temporarily;  But he is now back to a four-day week, so we should be able to get the magazines out more regularly and on time.   

Tim B pointed out that the Talking Newspaper Association was now known as Talking Newspapers and Magazines.  This was noted.

 Chairman's Report: - Proposed:  Timothy Bamber;  Seconded:  Irene Knowles.

 
B: - Secretary's Report:  25 April, 2010.

Irene Knowles said the year had been a bit of a learning curve for her, as to how to write detailed, but not rambling minutes.    She said she had also dealt with correspondence, when necessary. 

She said we had held eight committee meetings during the year, seven teleconferences and one face to face, which followed last year's AGM.

She thanked the officers and committee for their help and advice. 

She said she had enjoyed her first year as Secretary and hoped that the charity would be in a much healthier financial position by this time next year.

So, here's to the next twelve months!     

Secretary's report: - Proposed:  Colin Howard;  Seconded:  Charles Peck.

C: - Treasurer's Report: - Acting Treasurer, David Bamber gave a detailed account of the financial position of the organisation, for the year ending 31 March 2010.  Incoming Resources Total:  £7467.71.  Outgoing Resources Total:  £11428.15.     Copies of the full report can be obtained from the Treasurer and are available by request.

Charles Peck pointed out that Alliance and Leicester was now trading under the name San tander

 Phil T said it was almost certain that the new committee would close the account as donations could be made online through the Charities' Aid Foundation.

He thanked David B for a very  thorough report and an appreciation of his hard work was shown by a round of applause. 

Phil T made one or two comments regarding the report.

Charles Peck asked if any members of the committee had looked into other ways of fund-raising?  Barbara F said she had only received three mobile phones during the year.  She also said she had been talking about NTE  on facebook and some of the people had looked at the website and were impressed, so maybe some donations would be forthcoming.

Phil T explained why we had subscribed to the Charities' Digest.    This was circulated to all libraries and Solicitors.  Donations may be received from this in the future.  We would be applying for some grants.

Irene K said she was going to look into having a collection in the Portsmouth area and other members were doing the same in their local areas.

David B was thanked for the £50 donation he had got from Traveleyes. 

Gary Wiggins suggested trying to do something at the Paralympics in 2012.  This would be followed up. 

Treasurer's Report: -   Proposed:  Barbara Farrell;  Seconded:  Colin Howard.

Auditor:  We agreed to David Rundle auditing the accounts again next year. 

D: - Development Officer's Report: - Paul Chinnery said he would like to mention a couple of important things from last year's report.

He said the fund-raiser resigned, because after last year's AGM she felt she could not work with the new committee.  She had just raised £90000 for the charity in Rugby, who had introduced her to NTE.

Planning Aid, the Young Persons' Guide CD had been launched at the Canal Boat Museum, Kings Cross, London.  Paul C had attended, along with other members of NTE. 

As a charity, Planning Aid had to raise funds to produce and distribute the cd's  and had chosen the RNIB. to finish that part of the project.

He went onto say underground station collections had taken place once a week, apart from a couple of times, when they had to be cancelled, due to illness.  He said that TFL had changed the way in which collections were arranged.  We now had to ask for the stations for which we wanted to be considered.  If we were lucky, we got them, if not we had to accept their choice. 

Since the Committee had decided to join the Fund-Raising Standards Board, mainline collections had resumed.  He said we had joined FRSB, because he had been told we needed to do so, if we wanted to collect at Network Rail stations.  Since November, we had collected at several mainline stations, with many more planned. 

He thanked Phil, Irene and Colin, from the current committee, and Martyn Wilson, Richard Harrington, Paul David, Gary Wiggins and Charles Peck, from previous committees, for their valuable help at the collections throughout the year.  Without their help he would not have written this report.  He had attended many collections voluntarily since last November;  and he would like to ask the membership to organise fund-raising events in their own areas.  In his opinion, the new  committee should seriously consider other ways to fund-raise, as financial results from rail collections were slowly decreasing.

NTE and Media Roundup had been produced each month, even though a couple of editions were half-length magazines.  Due to the Editor's ill health and personal problems, he had to edit a couple of editions himself.  He thanked Ken Thompson, (Webmaster), for the prompt up-loading of the online magazines.  He also mentioned the improvements Ken T had made to the website.

On a personal note, he mentioned the stressful time he had this year, due to the banking problems caused by the transfer of signatories on the charity's bank accounts, which had caused him problems with regards money owed to him for work done.

He had found it difficult to do the work required, when his hours had been cut.  However, thanks to those mentioned previously, his days had returned to four, when finances improved.  He fully understood and accepted the way the current committee dealt with Contractor's fees, despite it being different from the previous committees he had been on.

Phil T said he thoroughly agreed with Paul's comments about the improvements Ken T had made to the website and hoped the members appreciated the changes; and he formally thanked Ken T for the work he had done over the past year and he was sorry he hadn't been able to attend the meeting.                 

Barbara F said she was not on the list of collectors.  Paul C added her name to his list.

Development Officer's Report: - Proposed:  Charles Peck;  Seconded:  Colin Howard.

E: -   Webmaster's Report: - Ken T had not sent a report.

Paul C said Ken T had asked him to promote listening online and suggested he mention it on the magazines each month as this would save money for the charity.  Phil T said the advantages of listening online were that you could get a year's magazines to keep or just to listen too.

He also said he would like to archive all the editions, eventually.

Charles asked if it was possible to do a talk-back online?  Phil T said it could be done on an MP3 or it could be sent to the E-Group and Colin H was asked to do a talk-back about it for the magazine.  He said he would and he asked Phil T  to do a short article for his magazine, Tech-Talk, in the hope of getting some new and  younger members.     

Election of Officers and Committee: - Barbara F read the nominations. 

Chair, Philip Troll;  Vice-Chair, Colin Howard;  Secretary, Irene Knowles;  Treasurer,  David Bamber;  Publicity Officer, Timothy Bamber;  Committee Member, Barbara Farrell;  Committee Member, Paul Knowles. 

Proposed:  Francisco Sa;  Seconded:  David Knowles, who was at the meeting, so the nominations were valid.  There were no nominations from the floor, so the posts of Appeals' Officer and Committee Member would be advertised on the magazine and co-opted when found.

Resolution: - Phil T  explained the reasons for the resolution.  He said the regular Donors were less than ten percent, even though they were donating more than the requested £5, but the majority were not donating anything.  Because of the shortfall and not being able to guarantee the money collected would pay all expenses, including Contractor's fees, we were reluctantly putting forward the following resolution, which Barbara F then read.

  
Resolution for consideration at the 2010 A.G.M. 

To replace the existing Clause 5 of the Constitution with the amended clause below.

Proposed:  Philip Troll;  Seconded:  Barbara Farrell.

5.  Membership.

A: - Full membership of NTE shall be available to those, who wish to further the objects of the organisation, upon payment of an annual membership fee, initially to be £10, and subject to annual review by the executive committee, and to the Charity Commission's approval, will be due immediately after the  AGM, and each April thereafter.  Every full member shall have one vote.

B: - Subscription to all of our magazines, shall be free of charge to both full and Associate members.  For those who do not qualify for the free postal concession, and choose this method of delivery, postal charges will apply.

C: - Associate membership of the NTE shall be open to all who wish to further the objects of the organisation, and will be half the full membership fee.  Associate members shall have no voting rights.

D: - Full and Associate membership shall be by application to the Head Office.  Neither additional disability, Race, Age, Sex or Sexual Orientation shall affect considerations for applications for membership or associate membership.

E: - The Committee may by a majority vote and for good reason terminate the membership of any individual;  providing the individual concerned shall have the right to be heard by the committee, accompanied by a friend, before a final decision is made.       

F: - Anyone will be able to listen online free of charge, to our magazines and will be considered as listeners, but have no voting rights.

A lengthy discussion followed.  David Bamber read the clause in the Constitution, concerning Membership, to clarify the situation;  and to prove we were within our rights to review the membership system.  It was agreed anyone who had paid this year would automatically become a Member or an Associate Member, depending on the amount paid.

 We then took a vote.  8 for, 4 against.  Motion carried.   

The resolution would now be sent to the Charities' Commission for their approval.  Members would be informed and if it is approved, they would have a couple of months in which to pay the £5 or £10.

 
Any Other Business: - Charles Peck  referred to an incident at last year's AGM, and requested an apology from Phil T.  Phil T could not recall the incident, but as a gesture of good-will, and so it could be put to rest, he apologised. 

 Paul C raised the matter of the Patron and the President.  Phil T said David Kid Jensen had said he would be happy for us to have his name on our headed notepaper, if it would give the charity  some credibility, but he would not have the time to do anything.  It was agreed we would invite the Mayor of Newham to be our President as there was no longer a Civic Ambassador.  Phil T also said he had got permission from the previous committee to approach Trevor Bayliss to be joint Patron.

Date, Time and Venue of 2011 Annual General Meeting: - Two venues were put forward.  The Charrington Hotel, Bournemouth;  Proposed:  Colin Howard;  Seconded:  Charles Peck.  RNIB, London;  Proposed:  Phil Troll;  Seconded:  Tim Bamber.  A vote was taken:  5 for Bournemouth, 7 for London.

The 2011 Annual General Meeting will be held at RNIB, 105 Judd Street, London, on Saturday 14 May, 2011.  11AM for 11.30.      

Before closing the meeting, Phil T invited everyone to the Lucas Arms, which was about ten minutes walk.

There being no further business, he declared the meeting closed.  Time being:  13.32.

COMMITTEE RESPONSE

The current Committee felt it necessary to write this response as the statement in the Development Officer's report to the AGM was incorrect. Therefore, we are printing below the email we received from the Fund-Raiser.

Email received from Susan Murrey (fund raiser)

Due to the current economic challenges, I have had to take on extra paid work over the last couple of months to help my business, resulting in me having no time available to devote to fundraising for NTE. Although I appreciate we had agreed that a successful application made on your behalf would result in payment eventually, this doesn't help with cash flow in the more immediate term.

Since our last update, I have been trying to see if there is any way I can fit my current paying clients and doing NTE fundraising as well, but this just hasn't proved possible. I feel like I am in danger of not providing a good service to either you or my other clients if I continue.

I gave things another month to see if I could work things out, but I have concluded I need to use the time that I had allocated to the NTE project to bring in more paid work instead. So, it is with regret that I need to end our agreement. I will send a letter on headed paper to confirm this.

I'm sorry that I can't continue to work with you, but I just can't afford to spend time at the moment on any activities that don't generate more immediate income. I sent out quite a lot of applications in April, so it may still be that the money you were looking for comes through from that (as you wouldn't generally hear back for a few months) and if the situation picks up in future, I will get back in touch to see what your needs are at that time.

If you have any queries, or you have anything that you would like to discuss further, please don't hesitate to contact me. Otherwise, I would just like to mention that it has been a pleasure working with you and I'd like to wish you all the very best for the future.

Kind regards,

Susie

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