1.The Chair called the meeting to order at 7.30pm.
2.The Chair welcomed members to the Annual General Meeting.
3The President Paul Ashmore sent his apologies as he was not able to come due to
Illness but hoped to be able to come next year.
Apologies for absence were received from other members as noted on register.
4.Adoption of minutes of the previous AGM as a true record, proposed by
Russ Mathieson, seconded by Peter Wheeldon and agreed by a show of hands.
5.The Chair’s report was given by Sheila Wheeldon
In the absence of our President, Paul Ashmore, it falls to me to welcome you to the Annual General Meeting of the Sleaford and District Twinning Association. Paul is undergoing cancer treatment at present but sends you his best wishes and his hopes for a good twinning year. I would like to take this opportunity to wish him a speedy and full recovery.
I would like you to pause for a moment at this point to remember Tony Baker, who died suddenly last August. Tony was elected to the twinning committee a year ago and was an enthusiastic committee member and the life and soul of every party. We all miss him.
2014 was, as usual, a busy year for twinning. We had the usual seasonal social events, designed to bring members together, but also a surprisingly good source of income. These included a quiz, a summer barbecue and a post-Christmas party.
The summer’s programme of visits was intensive, particularly for the small number of members involved in all three legs. I am going to cheat here I have distributed accounts written by two of the participants of these visits for you to read at your leisure. All I shall say on the topic is that, despite the wettings we got in both France and Germany, both visits were enjoyed by all.
For our weekend as hosts, you will have to make do with my memories and I will share them here!
At the end of July we played host to a large group of visitors, including the French saxophone orchestra. The logistics were a challenge but in the end the weekend went well, thanks in no small part to Cameron, whose account of the trip to Germany I have just shared with you. He looked after the saxophonists on Friday, ferried people here, there and everywhere all weekend and generally supplied the extra pair of hands that committee members often need to grow during such visits.
In the course of the weekend we departed from tradition by having our whole-group soirée on the Friday. The New Life Conference Centre did us proud, as did Sleaford Town Council, our co-hosts for the evening. We enjoyed good food and good entertainment and the ice between hosts and visitors was well and truly broken by the end of the evening.
Saturday was spent at Heckington Show and, as before, hosts collected their tickets and organised their day as they chose. Most saw the show, wilted in the heat and returned for the concert in the evening. This latter was a revelation to many of our guests, unfamiliar with the Last Night of the Proms, but they joined in with gusto! For the French that was more or less the end of the visit. The majority spent Sunday morning with their hosts, the saxophonists played Boules and then had lunch at No 20, and they left in the early afternoon.
What is fast becoming the traditional garden party for the German guests took place at Jane Sanderson’s house in Great Hale this year and was apparently enjoyed by all. It was followed by time with hosts for the German group, who were here until Monday afternoon.
On Monday the German group, ferried by some of the hosts, met up at Wollaton Park to enjoy the sunshine and share a lunch and a walk before being taken to East Midlands airport for their late afternoon flight.
A big thank you from me and my fellow committee members to all the hosts for making sure their guests have a truly positive experience.
I will just add, with a touch of smugness, that the weather for our friends’ visit to Sleaford was great! We disprove the myth of the British weather year after year.
An Annual General Meeting is the opportunity to look back over the events of a whole year. I am not going to dwell on our fund-raising efforts, except to say that a small core of active members have raised a considerable amount while enjoying social gatherings. Good food, often contributed by the participants, is a key element of these events, along with a generous dose of wine and beer. Peter will show you how funds stand in a short while, but I must take this opportunity to thank the Bridge Day helpers, who have now hopefully recovered from an exhausting day, the bakers who ensure that the food, in particular the desserts, is stunning, and Mavis and Derrick Dann, who produce the tickets and scorecards for the Bridge Days and sell at least half of the tickets.
All the activities I have talked about so far have an impact only on the small core of people who are actively involved in twinning; the loyal supporters, the hosts, the fund-raisers, the travellers. Our job as an association is, however, much broader. Our remit should be to bring the sort of contact with different cultures that we take for granted into the community at large. This is the truly exciting bit of being part of this organisation and the one where we can, in a small way, have an impact on Sleaford and its surrounding villages.
- In the course of 2014 the association, for the third time, spent a morning with Year 5 at the William Alvey School, providing and serving a French breakfast, making sure that every child asked for that breakfast item by item in French, and taking part in a language-based activity in the 3 Year 5 classes after the breakfast. We intend to extend this to other local schools in 2015.
- We were instrumental in making sure that the same Year 5 children’s questions about life in France were answered by someone French. (A huge thank you for this to Valérie, who answered dozens of e-mails!)
- We took two primary school teachers to Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf so that they could see at first hand the way the Kita and Grundschule there work and how effective their child centred learning is. That they also made some valuable links was a bonus.
- We worked with the twinning association in Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf to arrange accommodation and a work experience placement for a former Carre’s student who is studying Law and German at University and wanted to improve her everyday German.
- We liaised with Kesteven Morris, as a result of which they went to Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf to dance at a local festival. Several of them are still in contact with their hosts from this visit and are excited that they are travelling to Sleaford to visit them in September.
- I have managed to generate interest (though no more) through a series of pictures published on the local Facebook page. The storks on the chimney in Altlandsberg got more than 700 views! Today’s picture may get as many.
Some links progress less well. I think the High School exchange has probably fallen by the wayside since Ruth left, as has German in general, and I am not sure if the rugby club are pursuing the invitation they received from the French.
6.Treasurer’s report was given by Peter Wheeldon who presented the balance
sheet. Adoption was proposed by Emrys Davies and seconded by Christine
Tomlinson.
7.The following officers were all willing to serve a further term and were duly elected
en bloc:
ProposerSeconder
Chair:Sheila WheeldonRuss MathiesonJan Mathieson
Secretary:Barbara ThomasRuss MathiesonJan Mathieson
Treasurer:Peter WheeldonRuss MathiesonJan Mathieson
Again we were unable to elect a full complement of committee members, but Christine Tomlinson was elected.
8.Election of Examiners of Accounts: it was agreed that Trevor Newton and Debbie
Scott be re-appointed, proposed by Peter Wheeldon and seconded by Barbara
Thomas.
9.The meeting closed at 20.25pm.
Signed as a true record of events:
Proposed:
Seconded: