TYNEDALE

Charity Registration Number: 515733

Minutes of Committee held at 14.0024thNovember 2016 at 2CroftsAvenueCorbridge

Present: Alistair Sinclair, Sue Loader, Barbara Herring, Kevin Stephens,Shirley Guppy, Mike Worthington, Wendy Dale.

Minutes

Number / Activity / Action/Person
Apologies for absence
Elizabeth Porter
Minutes of 27November2016 the minutes were subject to 3 amendments and approved. / WD to send amended version to KS for the website
Matters Arising
  • WD will put out details of trips in the Priors room on December 6th. Washington Wildlife centre and Sunderland Glass Centre to be included.

Correspondence
None
Chairs Report
  • MW had written to the committee about the plan for him to return to the role of Chair in December and his concern that he would not be able to take on any regional requirements. The committee said they were content with his proposal as the priority is to chair Tynedale monthly meetings and the committee.
  • The final arrangements for the meeting in December were discussed. KS will visit the Abbey and check on which entrance is to be used so that it can be included in the newsletter. The committee will arrive early to ensure the signage is adequate and direct people to the rooms. SL to go to Trinity. There is no more parking but there may be spaces for those with blue badges. AS will bring the banner. EP will have the presentation on a memory stick for the Abbey laptop.
  • There was no decision on where the January meeting will be held; this will be made on December 15th. EP/AS will bring the costs of the Abbey to the meeting.
/ AS to bring the Banner. SL to direct people from Trinity
EP/AS to bring the costings of the Abbey to the Dec meeting.
Secretaries Report
EP had raised the distribution of regional information. It was confirmed this was done by KS in the Newsletter. If information arrived too late generally there would not be separate mailings but KS will use his discretion.
EP had raised convenors access to the webpage. KS is giving access where it is wanted and will respond to JS.
EP had identified Hexham Spaces as a PR opportunity but there was no appetite as there is little information available. WD and SL felt the dress the Christmas tree idea could have been something to have engaged in but we were too late. / KS to contact JS
Treasurers Report
AS presented the accounts to the meeting showing a surplus of £1,365.
AS presented a paper to assist a decision on standing orders. He had considered the implications of a fixed membership fee over 3 years and had looked at 2 options of £14 and £15.Taking the amount of expected inflation over the next few years, the figures projected from those two subscription rates would bring us into deficit by 2019, therefore it would not be prudent to fix a subscription value for more than one year at present."His conclusion was not to go with either.
AS had been in touch with the committee about printing a card for PR purposes like that of Newcastle U3A. WD had other printing requirements and it was agreed AS, WD and EP would meet to take these forward. / AS to convene a meeting with EP & WD
Website and Newsletter editor report.
KS had nothing to report.
There had been another request from a holiday company to advertise that had been rejected.
Programme Secretary’s report
Attendance at the November meeting was 55. The speaker was good and many went away with a better understanding of the Lottery.
BH suggested Dr Lynn Corner Director of Voice North be invited to speak.
KS suggested that we invite someone from the Regional Health Service to speak about the changes. It was thought that this should be a special event,
WD said that she had identified a special event about Northumberland Day (May 28th). She had been in touch with the promoter and suggested a coffee morning at Langley Castle The promoter has been in touch with Langley Castle and they will do it for £5 a head and she will speak. This met with approval. WD suggested it be opened to other U3As in Northumberland. WD to follow up. / WD to take forward plans for Northumberland day event.
Group Liaison Secretary report.
SL planning to run a dementia friendly event primarily for group convenors and invite Carolyn Armstrong to speak.
SL ought clarification of the term associate member as she wanted to use the term for someone who is a member of a local U3A but joins one of our groups.
It was agreed for Beacon the use of Associate membership was a good option.
Membership secretary’s report
1)Membership is 307
2)BH said her preferred approach to membership renewal was to write to every member and include a stamped addressed envelope for them to return the forms to her. There was concern that this would be expensive and there would still be a need to get Membershipcards out. It was agreed that the matter would be discussed further in January. If anyone has ideas for managing membership renewal they should let BH know by Dec 6th. BH will prepare a report on a way forward for the Jan meeting.
3)New members’ coffee morning is an approach that we will adopt next year and identify three dates for the year in January. / Membership renewal January meeting.
Regional Matters
1)BH gave positive feedback on the Forensic Day, the Brain day and the training days in Alnwick
2)The next Regional meeting is about the review of the Trust on 25th January 10.30 at Stannington and Graham Clark will be present to represent the Trust
3)BH has changed the venue of the Literary Lunch to the Beaumont Hotel on 5th October 2017. She is aiming to get 100 people to the lunch and is working with the Forum bookshop Corbridge to identify a speaker.
Items for future meetings
  • Subscriptions
  • Membership renewal
  • Publicity material
  • Venue for monthly meetings 2017

Date of next meeting
The next meetingwill be on the 15December atHigh Mead, Leazes Lane, Hexham NE46 3AE / 15.12.16

SIGNED

DATED