AGM Report 2012

 

THACS AGM 16th January 2012 held at Tewin Memorial Hall

  Chairman’s report for 2011

It’s been another busy and successful year for THACS.  We had a full and varied programme of events and all of them were well-supported, so thank you, members.

We organised and ran fourteen events during 2011. Each of them has been reported on in our newsletters, but its worth while taking a few moments on an over-view of the whole year.

1) Horticulture

We had several events for gardeners. There was a visit and guided tour of Margaret Easters’ garden in June and a visit to RHS Hyde Hall gardens in August.

There was also the THACS plant stall at the Tewin Village Fete in June. This raised just over £340, which we made up to £500 before passing it onto the Tewin Memorial Hall Management Committee.

2) Arts

Art lovers had a bumper year.

There was a talk by Barry Dodge on the Life and Work of Henry Moore in this hall in May, attended by more than forty THACS members.

In June, there was a visit to The Cult of Beauty exhibition at the V&A museum and a guided tour of Leighton House. This was originally intended to be a coach trip, but there was insufficient support for that. So, instead of cancelling the whole event, we just cancelled the coach and the ten THACS members went by train.

Fifty people took part in our visit to Kenwood House and Estate in July, and had guided tours of   both the house and the estate.

In November, forty-four people went by coach to the Royal Academy.  Nine of these had elected to have a shopping day in the West End, and the remaining visitors entered the Academy for what proved to be a very interesting Degas Dancers exhibition.

3) Crafts

The crafts were also well-represented.

There was a series of ten calligraphy workshops and three jewellery workshops.

Joyce Furssedonn gave a fascinating flower arranging talk and demonstration to about twenty five people in November.

4) Photography

Those interested in photography were treated to an informative and entertaining talk entitled Victorian and Edwardian Photographs by Bob White.

5) All

Horticulture, Arts and Crafts all come together in our shows.

The Spring Show in April and the Autumn Show in September were both well-supported and successful. In particular, the children and staff of Tewin Cowper School provided marvellous support for the Shows by preparing friezes to decorate the hall, as well as entering lots of the school children’s efforts in many of their categories.

The main aim of THACS is to promote and encourage interest in horticulture, arts and crafts, so it is particularly satisfying so many children had their work exhibited.

Our Spring and Autumn shows entail much hard work from the committee and other staunch helpers, who are always willing to support us in catering, setting up and clearing the hall. Thank you to these people and to the judges, who give us their valuable time and expertise.

6) Fun

Not everything we do is directly related to horticulture, arts or crafts. Sometimes it’s just good to have some fun and that was certainly provided by the THACS quiz night in October.

As I complete my third year as chairman, I would like to express my gratitude to the THACS committee. We have an excellent team, who work well together and individually. Our thanks also go to the numerous willing members and supporters of the society, who reliably help us with many diverse tasks. Thank you all.

Ray Keppler (Chairman)

 

Treasurer’s report for financial year

1st November 2010 to 31st October 2011

The 2011 financial year was successful and our funds are healthy and secure.

At the end of the financial year the cash surplus for the year was £679.46 compared with £1,215.28 in 2010 when there was a surplus of £646.00 on the Open Gardens event.

Deposits of £181.00 were received in 2010 for 2011, and deposits of £649.00 were received in 2011 for 2012. Removing the effect of these deposits over the year ends there was an income surplus of £211.46.

 

The Membership at the end of 2011 stood at 228 members compared with 214 members in 2010. Of the 228, 186 pay their subscriptions by standing order, making a savings on postage and administration costs.

Our Membership income of £1,125 covered the AGM costs, RHS Membership, the Newsletters, Printing and Sundry expenses, Gifts, plus the losses on our Spring and Autumn Shows. These expenses amounted to £1,097.44.

The Newsletter printing and postage costs for 2011 have increased by £9.58, which is the net result of increased postal costs, and 13 members electing to receive their Newsletters by email. Fifty seven members are now receiving their Newsletters by email

Income from Advertising was £273.00, an increase of £16.50 from 2010.

 

During the year we gave donations of £204.57, including £159.57 to the Tewin Memorial Hall, £25 to the British Legion, and £20 to two separate presentations.

The THACS plant stall at Tewin Fete in June brought in income of £340.43, which was paid in September to Tewin Memorial Hall together with a further donation of £159.57.

For use at the Shows, we purchased a triple safety screen for £556.49. This screen has given us considerable additional space for displaying our photography exhibits.

 

The RHS Hyde Hall visit gave a surplus of £185, and the visit to Kenwood House and Estate a surplus of £117. When pricing our events, we assume that 40 THACS members will take part, and the intention is to break even with the costs. For both Hyde Hall and Kenwood House, many non-THACS people joined the event and this resulted in the surplus amounts. 

It was similar for Quiz night, when most persons who took part were not THACS members, and the result was a £69.24 surplus.

Margaret Easter’s garden visit gave a surplus of £12.50, and her garden talk a surplus of £22.65, including the £15 deposits received in 2010.

The Life and Work of Henry Moore talk produced a surplus of £31.00

Nine Calligraphy workshops gave a £30.00 surplus, including the £60.00 deposits received in 2010.

Having achieved stable financial results for the year, the bank and cash balances to be carried forward at 31st October 2011 were

£6,248.11.  We shall continue to act carefully to ensure our Society’s finances remain secure.

Pat Fulford (Honorary Treasurer)

 

Election of Officers and Committee for 2012

The following officers were elected.

Chairman Ray Keppler

Treasurer Malcolm Allen

Secretary Nick Whiting

 

Anna Clark was Vice Chairman in 2011 but she has resigned from the committee. Anna has made an enormous contribution to THACS over the eleven years since it was founded. She has served as Chairman for four years, Vice-chairman for three years and Secretary for three years as well as being our perennial Show Secretary and organising innumerable events. She has nurtured THACS from its inception and guided it to become an established and successful society and that is a significant achievement. She already has the distinction of being our only Honorary Life Member.

We do not have a candidate for the role of Vice Chairman and so it will remain vacant for this year.

Pat Fulford has served as Honorary Treasurer for four years and has resigned from the committee. Pat has served on the committee for seven years and, in addition to her good work as Treasurer, she has maintained our membership records, successfully recruited advertisers for our newsletters and show schedules, organised the distribution of the newsletters, dealt with the administration of most of our outings, helped out at shows and just generally been extremely helpful.

Malcolm Allen was elected as the new Honorary Treasurer.

Doreen Lloyd and Kate Stott have resigned from the committee and so did not stand for re-election. Doreen served as Honorary Secretary for three years and stood down from this role at the last AGM. She remained a committee member but then decided that it was time to leave the committee earlier this year. Kate Stott served on the committee for five years in various roles including catering and organising the THACS plant stall at the village fete.

The remaining members of the committee, Terry Brand and Lynne Burgess were re-elected. Jim Hall had been co-opted onto the committee in 2011 and was duly elected. Graham Spring has been the independent examiner of our accounts for several years and this was formally recognised by electing him as our Auditor. 

 

THACS  committee members for 2012 and their contact details are given in the table below.

 

Name

Telephone 01438-

Address

Malcolm Allen

798749

47 Bishops Road, Tewin Wood

Terry Brand

718700

16 Lower Green

Lynne Burgess

798799

14 Bishops Road, Tewin Wood

Jim Hall

718505

5 School Lane

Ray Keppler

717545

15 Upper Green Road

Nick Whiting

717230

5 Churchfield Road

 

 

Appeal for help

Your THACS  committee for 2012 has only six members. This is dangerously low. Consequently, we have not organised any other events for 2012 and we are unable to commit to getting any more done.

Unless we have new committee members to take some of the load, we will have to reduce our activities which will be detrimental to all the members. If this situation continues, it will threaten the viability of the Society. So please come and help. If you would like to join the committee or are just curious about it, please let any committee member know.

We have plenty of ideas for other events. Our summer garden visits have been very popular, so it would be lovely if we could organise another one this year. We’d also like to hold more talks and demonstrations in Tewin Memorial Hall too. If you would like any of these things to happen and are prepared to organise them, then please let us know!

In addition to needing more committee members and / or people to organise events, we are always looking for new helpers for a wide variety of things, such as

  1. setting up and clearing the hall

  2. making  cakes for use at our events

  3. serving refreshments at our meetings

  4. providing plants for us to sell

  5. manning our plant stall at the Village Fete

  6. distribution of the newsletter.

If you are willing to help in any of these tasks, please let any committee member know.

THACS  is a thriving society and is well supported by its members and friends. Let’s keep it like that and help in whatever way we can.

 

updated AF 21/02/2012