Saturday 30th October 2021:
ZOOM AGM
Due to the ongoing Covid situation this was our second AGM in a row to be held virtually over Zoom. Thank you to all members who joined the meeting, and to those who cast their votes electronically on the various items on the agenda. Below is a brief summary of the meeting, along with the Chairman's report and a link to the full minutes which are available as a .pdf.
THE HEADLINES...
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Sadly our planned visit to see our Friends in Oignies earlier this year, normally the principal event in the twinning calendar, had to be cancelled again, for the second year running due to the ongoing health emergency. Fingers crossed that next year will be 'third time lucky', and we are optimistic that, with the relaxing of travel regulations, the visit should be able to go ahead in 2022.
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Peter Bloomfield, Association Treasurer reported a balance in hand of £4,556.03. Ideally, we would aim to have approximately £6000 before the visit to Buxton in 2023 in order to fund the hospitality for our guests from Oignies, and we hope to organise various fund raising events over the coming months.
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The membership subscription for the coming year 2021/22 of £22.00 per adult member is now due. A proposal to increase the annual subscription to £25.00 per adult commencing next year 2022/23 was passed by a members vote, which also included votes cast on-line by members not present at the meeting.
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Subs via Electronic payment if possible before 30 November please, via the Friends of Oignies account.
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Election of Officers for 2020/21
President: His Worship The Mayor of High Peak
Chair: Derek Thomas
Vice Chair: Ian Hamilton
Secretary: Sue Quas-Cohen
Treasurer: Peter Bloomfield
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Committee: Ian Calvert, Karen Done, Sue Hodgkinson and Chris Clegg (Publicity Officer).
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...And don't forget to visit the website regularly for all the latest news from the Friends of Oignies.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and thank you for joining us for our AGM, which is, for the second year a virtual event but we felt it important to hold an AGM and to give all members the opportunity to participate in the proceedings.
The year started with uncertainty yet optimism with the committee continuing to work towards the possibility of a visit to Oignies in 2021 and our hosting programme for 2022 - also considering the possibility that our visit to Oignies may need to be deferred to 2022 and our hosting would therefore be in 2023.
In the event of course, we were forced once again to reluctantly cancel this year’s visit although we are very confident that a visit will take place between 27th and 31st May next year. We have, thanks to the reducing pandemic restrictions, also been able to visit potential venues and make provisional bookings around the likely visit dates in 2023.
Our last fundraiser just before lockdown was a Dinner event in March 2020 with dancing to the Basin Street Jazz Band and I would like to thank Karen and Sue for organising a repeat of this popular event to bring us out of our fundraising dormancy on 26th November. Further details are on the website.
Thanks to Chris Clegg for once again producing the FoO Calendar, the 2022 edition is now available to purchase via our website. With the reduced fundraising opportunities due to social distancing, the calendar has become an important means of raising valuable funds for the Association.
Derek Thomas - Association Chair, The Friends of Oignies
Full minutes of the meeting
