Club Night Report
Wednesday 11th November 2015
Club Night Report for 11th November 2015 - observations by Harry Rock
Mike Crawshaw opened the meeting and welcomed everyone - especially our three new members and the visitors. Apologies had been received from Katherine Brown and Richard Balmforth.
The minutes from the 2014 AGM 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 he was now at the end of his third year as Chairman. At the outset, he had set a number of goals - the purchase of addition equipment, upgrading the audio/ visual system and to balance annual income 'v' expenditure. He was pleased to say that these had all been achieved.
We now had sufficient equipment to fully run the training days without borrowing too much from club members.
He also mentioned the Jigs and Tools Special Interest Group and some of the projects they had been involved in. He was planning to show a selection of the items produced at the December meeting. This SIG meets every month on the Wednesday before the club meeting. All are welcome.
Mike thanked his fellow Committee Members for their support and those club members who were not on the Committee, but who regularly helped at Club Events. He also thank the Membership for their support of the Training Days - especially the instructors and support of the raffle. Also, those Members who regularly helped with the hall setup prior to the meetings and with the clean-up at the end.
Mike and several other club members had attended the Royal Wootton Bassett, Town Council Civic Ceremony in October, where the mace and stand (produced as a group effort by multiple club members) was presented to the Mayor. This was well received. Mike particularly thanked Arthur Kingdon for his hard work in bringing it all together and for managing the entire project.
Secretary's Report: Arthur Kingdon reported that this was his second full year in the role and it had been much busier than he had expected - challenging and enjoyable. He had several roles to perform as Secretary, with the most important one being that of Programme Secretary. This involved identifying and booking presenters/ demonstrators, liaising with them prior to the Meeting and making sure things ran smoothly on the night. This task was getting more difficult, as a number of demonstrators were no longer offering evening presentations. We were also restricted by some price increases and the need to control travel expenses by not looking too far afield. He was pleased to say that he had now completed the programme for 2016 - which could be viewed on the club website.
During 2016 he has organised three all-day training days (February, May and November). Concerning the availability of attendees/ instructors he was keen to schedule the events for a Sunday - only to be met with some resistance regarding Sunday 14th February - he had underestimated the strength of the 'romantics' in the group! This event had now been moved to a Saturday.
He was pleased to echo the Chairman's comments about the mace project and its successful completion and presentation. He thanked the nine club members who had been involved. Arthur encouraged members to think about a possible project that we could promote during 2016 - preferably something local.
Arthur thanked a number of non-committee members - whose continued support contributed greatly to the smooth running of the club - Fred Lumsden (Librarian) and in particular Derek Walton (Catering Manager) who ensured we were all suitably 'refreshed' at break times. Finally, our long standing club reporter 'Scoop' Vernon Hughes - who writes the club report after each meeting. Arthur commented that he did make each of the professional demonstrators aware of the write-up/ report on the club website - with a common response being "Did I really do all of that on the night..."
Treasurer's Report: Ellie Thompson reported that financially the club was doing very well and had made a profit in its day-to-day running costs for the year. All of the costs for the year had been covered and we had healthy reserves in the bank. Costs continued to rise - for example: hall hire fees, demonstrator fees and refreshments etc. Club funds had been boosted by the results of the auction at last year's AGM. The all-day events/ training days and the four fairs we had attended during the year had all been profitable. The raffle was also a very useful contributor to Club funds - donations for prizes 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, the Treasurer proposed that the annual subscription should stay static at £20 and this was agreed.
Election of Committee: Two members of the Committee were standing down (Mike Crawshaw and Harry Rock). Both members were happy to stand for re-election - there being no other nominations - they were elected unanimously for a further 3-years.
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 1945 hrs.
The Show and Tell Theme for the evening was A Pestle and Mortar - although this was not well supported, the standard of the entries was very high!
| Third place was awarded to David Branscombe with this beautiflully finished item in Yew |
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| Second place went to Richard Branscombe with an artistic interpretation of the Mortar being 'laced' with steel staples down the outside (also in Yew) |  |
| This month's Show and Tell winner is Richard Branscombe with a Pestle and Mortar turned in Corian (plus SuperGlue to obtain the required size) |  |
Joe Kerrawn had two interesting boxes on the Display Table.
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These were made of spalted Sycamore with very effective (and different) leather inserts in the lid. These had been inspired by a demonstration by Simon Hope, where he had made use of leather offcuts from his bagpipe making activities.
The main event of the evening (probably?) was an Auction. There were 112 lots up for auction. A catalogue had been prepared and distributed to Club Members by Mike Crawshaw and Arthur Kingdon, prior to the meeting.
Arthur Kingdon was the auctioneer (ably assisted by three 'runners') - and he efficiently worked through all of the lots in just over an hour. All of the lots (bar one) were sold - generating a sizeable contribution to Club funds!
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