DRAFT Minutes of the East Grinstead & District Guild Annual General Meeting

held by Zoom on Saturday 12 December 2020

Owing to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which had disrupted church bellringing from 23 March 2020 onwards, the 2020 Annual General Meeting was held using Zoom (a software-based conference application).

A total of 21 members of the Guild attended the meeting:

Andrew Brock (Vice-President); Kate Wills (Chairman; Mike Bullett (Treasurer); Patrick Wills (Secretary); Iain Davey (Committee); Sheila Marsh (Committee); Alison Everest; Robert Everest; Elaine Farrow; Margaret Funnell; Lynda Johnson; Anthony Leeves; Karol Leeves; Stephen Pocock; Milica Reardon; Eric Roughley; Emma Tamkin; Barbara Taylor; Gail Terry; Oliver Thompson; Chris Westwood.

After the meeting closed it transpired that two members, Iain Davey and Stephen Pocock, had been unable to hear what was said during the meeting, and therefore were unable to take part in any discussions or votes. However, the meeting was still quorate with 19 members able to take part in the proceedings.

The meeting commenced at 6:00 pm.

The Chairman, Kate Wills, welcomed everybody to the meeting.

1.    Apologies for absence 

These were received from: Gavin Bennett; Ros Cowsill (Vice-President); Roger Cowsill (Vice-President); Trevor Crowhurst; Richard Dyson; Suki Edge-Partington; David Finch (Committee); Robin Grant; Jonathan Large; Ray Large (President); John Palmer; John Verity.

2.    Minutes of the AGM held on 9^th March 2019 at Crawley

       The Chairman said that the Minutes had been available to view on the Guild website for a considerable period of time and had been sent out to members by email before the meeting. No matters of accuracy were raised and the Minutes were adopted on the proposal of Emma Tamkin, seconded by Barbara Taylor.

3.    Matters arising from the Minutes

There were no matters arising from the Minutes.

4.    Chairman’s Report for 2019

Kate Wills said that her report had been circulated to members by email.  There were no comments from those present. Sheila Marsh proposed the adoption of the report, and this was seconded by Gail Terry. The report was adopted unanimously.

5.    Statement of Accounts for 2019

       The Accounts were presented by the Treasurer. Mike said that the accounts were quite straightforward, with the main expenditure for the year being the cost of the Guild Website. Sheila Marsh proposed the adoption of the accounts, seconded by Margaret Funnell, and all were in favour.

6.    Election of new members

No new members were proposed.

7.    Proposed Rule Change 

Proposed Rule Change:  submitted to the Secretary by the Chairman on 28 April 2020, proposing that Rule 5 be amended to reduce the necessary quorum from 18 to 12 members, as follows:

“5.        ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

A general meeting of the Guild shall be held annually (normally in March) to elect a President, Vice Presidents, Officers of the Guild, and to receive reports and transact other relevant business. No business may be transacted unless a quorum of 12 members is present."

The Chairman explained that the current Rule required approximately 33% of the membership of the Guild to be present at an AGM to form a quorum. By contrast, the Surrey Association rules required a quorum of 20 members from a membership of around 600, approximately 4%. She said that at last year’s AGM members had felt that the quorum should not be fewer than the number of members serving on the Committee (currently 12).

Kate Wills indicated that prior to the AGM Robin Grant had suggested am amendment to the proposed amended rule, so that “Vice President” reads “Vice Presidents”. She proposed this amendment which was seconded by Sheila Marsh and this was carried unanimously. She then asked that the rule change as amended should be adopted, and this was seconded by Sheila Marsh.

All present were in favour of the rule change with no abstentions.

8. Election of Officers for 2020-2021

The Chairman explained that although she was currently the designated Central Council Representative for the Guild, the new CCCBR rules allowed for any person to attend Council meetings. There were no volunteers to take over from Kate as Central Council Representative for the Guild.

The Chairman also explained that Patrick Wills had announced at the Guild Committee meeting in February that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020, though he would continue to maintain the Guild Website. As she had not been informed of any other officers who were unwilling to be re-elected Kate proposed that the election of Guild Secretary should be dealt with first. Nobody was nominated for the post.

The Chairman then suggested that the remaining officers should be elected en-bloc and this was done on the proposal of Mike Bullett, seconded by Margaret Funnell. All present were in favour. The officers for 2020 are therefore:

President: Ray Large

Vice-Presidents: Andrew Brock, Robin Grant, Roger Cowsill, and Rosalind Cowsill 

Chairman: Kate Wills 

Ringing Master: Kate Wills

Treasurer: Mike Bullett 

Secretary: VACANT

Committee Members: Iain Davey, Sheila Marsh and David Finch

Trustees of the E J Oliver Memorial Fund: Andrew Brock and Candy O’Donovan

Assistant Secretary: Rosalind Cowsill 

The Central Council Representative: VACANT

9. Any Other Business

The Chairman said that with the uncertainty caused by the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic there was no point in arranging a programme of meetings at this stage. There was broad agreement.

Kate thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 6:20 pm.