Club Night Report

Wednesday 12th November 2014

Club Night Report for 12th November 2014 - observations by Harry Rock

The November meeting is the Annual General Meeting - there were 37 Members in attendance so, everything was in order for the AGM to proceed.

Mike Crawshaw opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.
The minutes from the AGM 2013 were accepted as a true record - as they had been previously distributed to the Membership. There were no matters arising.

Chairman's Report: Mike Crawshaw reported that the last year had seen a consolidation of the changes introduced in the previous year. A number of goals had been set - namely: purchase of additional equipment, upgrade to the audio/ visual system and balancing the annual income 'vs' expenditure. Mike was happy to say that these goals had been achieved during the year. He also mentioned the Jigs and Tools Special Interest Group and some of the projects they had been involved in. This SIG meets every month on the Thursday before the club meeting. All are welcome.
Mike concluded by thanking his fellow Committee members for their support and those Club Members who were not on the Committee, but who regularly helped at Club Events.

Secretary's Report: Arthur Kingdon reported that this was his first full year in the role and it had been much busier than he had expected. He wore several hats, with the most important one being that of Programme Secretary. This involved identifying and booking presenters, liaising with them prior to the Meeting and making sure things ran smoothly on the night. The Meetings which are the most difficult to organise are those which have in-house Club demonstrators and he thanked those Club members who had agreed to be demonstrators. He also thanked those who helped with the setting up and clearing up.
He advised that the Special Project, a Mace for Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council, was ongoing although progress was slow. The target was to have it presented at the Mayor Making in May 2015.

Treasurer's Report: Ellie Thompson reported that the Club had made a profit in its day-to-day running costs for the year and that we were healthily in the black at the bank. The all-day events/ training days and the two fairs we had attended during the year had all made a profit. The raffle was also a very useful contributor to Club funds - donations from Club Members were welcome.

Annual Subscription Fees: As we had made a substantial profit this year and our reserves were back above our target figure it was proposed that the subscription should stay static at £20 and this was agreed.

Election of Committee: Two members of the Committee were standing down (Ian Murray West and Roger Blake).
Standing for election were Bob Sawyer (Events Organiser) and George Gansbuehler (Raffle Organiser) - there being no further nominations - they were elected unanimously. Derek Walton volunteered for the essential job of Refreshments Officer.
Chris Frankum was thanked for her work as Librarian and Fred Lumsden was welcomed to that role.

Any Other Business: Vernon Hughes proposed a vote of thanks for the Committee and this was applauded.

There being no further business the AGM concluded at 1940 hrs.

The Show 'n Tell Theme for the evening was A Platter - the standard of the entries was high - with pyrography skills being particularly well represented.

This month's winner was Heather Crawshaw with a superb pyrographed platter in Sycamore - approx. 15" in diameter.
The tree design was inspired by a magazine advertisement.
Note: Heather specified that this had been a team effort - husband Mike did the turning!

The Display Table showed several examples of fretsaw/ scroll saw work:

The main event of the evening was an Auction. There were over 110 lots up for auction. A catalogue had been created and distributed to Club Members by Mike and Arthur, prior to the meeting.
Arthur Kingdon was the Auctioneer (ably assisted by four 'runners') - and he snappily worked through all of the lots in around an hour and ten minutes. All of the lots were sold - generating a sizeable contribution to Club funds!