Annual General meeting 13th March 2012
The District Society
held its 13th Annual General Meeting on13th March in Foxearth
Village Hall when 17 members were present and, as has become traditional,
cheese and wine were served.
In the unavoidable
absence of Alan Fitch the Chair was taken by Justine Corney who read a report
prepared by him. Alan began by paying tribute to Tom Hastie whose contribution
to the Society had been immense leaving an enormous archive of research which
had now been placed on the Society’s web site. Reviewing the past year’s
activity, Alan mentioned the visit to Bletchley Park
as being especially memorable and enjoyable. He expressed thanks to the
President, the Secretary and Committee for their work, to Mrs Corney –
Treasurer since the beginning and now retiring – and to those who manage the
web site, provide the tea and coffee, organise the raffle and write up the
proceedings.John Geddes was welcomed and
thanked for assuming the role of Treasurer.
Mrs Corney presented
the financial statement for the year ended 28th February. The
Committee had recommended that the annual membership subscription should remain
at £10 but that the occasional visitor fee should be increased to £2; these
were agreed. The Committee was re-elected en bloc.
In general discussion
the need for membership figures to be boosted was raised with various
suggestions for more publicity. Reference was made to Tom Hastie’s regular
contributions to the Parish News in the Pages Past form. The Editor hoped that
this feature could be continued, possibly under a different heading, and
wondered whether the Society might be prepared to take this on. There was
support for the idea which the Committee will consider.
The President then
addressed the meeting firstly expressing his own tremendous admiration and
thanks for Tom’s work and the personal debt he owed him. Ashley explained that
any talk he gave always included material that Tom had unearthed. It was a
wonderful achievement that so much was now available world-wide via the
Society’s web site. Ashley pointed out that this month saw the 100th
anniversary of Captain Scott’s courageous but ill-fated expedition to the South
Pole – a successful attempt that saw the Norwegian Amundsen beat Scott to it by
barely a month. Extracts from Scott’s diary were read describing in harrowing
detail the cruel conditions brought on by weather and frostbite which led to
the death of these heroic men.
