AGM Round Up

2016 OUGS AGM Round Up

At the AGM on Saturday 16th April in Scarborough the issue of the status of Associate Members enfranchisement was resolved as the membership present carried the change to the Constitutional Motion to limit the enfranchisement of Associate Members — further details of the motion can be found within the AGM paperwork that was included with the OUGS Proceedings mailing). As a result of the motion being carried, the proposer of the original motion was asked if he would like to withdraw his motion, which he was willing to do, as enfranchisement for Associate Members had been achieved. Another motion carried comprised changes to the wording on the ‘Aim of the Society’ (section 2 in the Constitution). It was apparent that there were some ambiguities in the wording and these needed to be clarified. The new wording will be available when the Constitution has been amended and uploaded to the Website, and will also be published in the next POUGS issue in 2017.

Following these discussions and resolutions of Constitutional motions, officer elections took place. Both Don Cameron (Secretary) and Pauline Kirtley (Information Officer) were re-elected, each for another two-year term. Phyllis Turkington stood down as Membership Secretary, as she had served three terms in office. Janet Hiscott was duly elected as the new Membership Secretary.

The last major item on the agenda was the proposed increase in subscriptions, John Gooch, Society Treasurer, proposed an increase to £22.00 for Full and Associate members, £32.00 for Joint members, and that Family membership remain at £2.00. There was some debate from the floor as to how long it had been since the last increase, and Jane Michael stated that it was in 2005 when she was Treasurer. These increases were carried. This will require all members to cancel or amend their payment to the Society, which will be now due on the 1st of January. The cut off date for payment was also amended to the 31st January. There will be full details of these changes in the next OUGS Newsletter.

The date and venue of the next AGM is 13 May 2017 at the Hilton Hotel, Milton Keynes. There then followed a small presentation to Phyllis for her services as Membership Secretary. Full details of the results of the Moyra Eldridge Photographic Competition will also be published in the next OUGS Newsletter.

The Geoff Brown Memorial Lecture completed the AGM afternoon — a very informative talk by Professor Bill McGuire on the Tambora eruption of 1815.

On Sunday, in bright sunshine, about 30 members followed Will Watts to Cayton beach to look at the Jurassic coastal scenery and the Quaternary Boulder clay that overlies it. (Will had delivered a talk on the geology of the Yorkshire ‘Dinosaur Coast’ on Friday evening.) We walked to the south end of the beach to beat the tide and see the cliffs of Oxford Clay overlain by the Jurassic sediments, apart from those who were poking about looking for nice pebbles. Wandering back along to the beach cafe, more pebbles were removed from the beach and identified by Will and new OUGS President Steve Blake (replacing Tom Argles after two years).

Will took some of the party and had a cliff-top walk back to Scarborough, while others headed for town, the Rotunda, the William Smith walk and the dinosaur footprints!

Sue Vernon, Chairman OUGS