University of the Third Age Moraira-Teulada
Minutes (V2) of the Annual General Meeting held on
4th March 2024 as Salon G.L., Teulada
A total of 70 members had signed in for the meeting.
Prudence Jackson made the First Call for the AGM at 10:00 as this must happen half an hour before the Elections if there is an insufficient proportion of the membership present.
The meeting commenced at 10.30 with Prue welcoming all members to the meeting and setting out the safety and emergency procedures.
Synopsis of the minutes of the February 5th General Meeting,
Tony Old read out a synopsis of the minutes of the meeting. As is always the case the full minutes had been posted on the website, acceptance was proposed by Steve Higham and seconded by Ray Guise-Smith with approval via a show of hands.
Presidents Address:
To avoid duplication the content of Prue’s address is covered in her End of Year Report below.
Treasurers Report
Annette explained that the February accounts were not yet finalised, once they are finalised they will be posted onto the website.
Annette explained that we currently had 35,959 Euro in the bank which was a considerable reduction as a result of paying for the Jordan trip. It had to be remembered that 10,000 Euro of this was our contingency fund.
The bank balance will be depleted over the next two years as a result of there being no subscription from existing members for 2025. This will however be offset by the number of new and lapsed members, numbering 97 so far.
The 2023 year end accounts have been passed to the auditor for audit. He hopes to complete his validation of them in the coming weeks and they will then be posted onto the website.
Election of Auditor for 2024
Our existing Auditor, Ian Brown had confirmed that he was prepared to continue for the coming year and this was proposed by Ray Guise-Smith and seconded by Tony Old. This was approved unanimously by those present.
Groups
A Group Leaders dinner was to be held on March 12th at the Javea Golf Club, a small thank you for all of their efforts on member’s behalf.
Prue asked for volunteers to help lead the Art and History Group as the current leader is approaching his 84th birthday.
The next meeting of the Film Group has been changed to April 18th and will be starting earlier than usual as the film on that day (Oppenheimer) is three hours long. Members should plan to arrive at 5.00 pm.
Social Events
Tony Old was pleased that there had been a full programme of social events in the year and that they had all received excellent and enthusiastic support.
At the most recent General Meeting Tony had explained that he had to step back from organizing social events as a result of medical procedures that he would have at some point.
He was delighted that Coral Guise-Smith would be organising a Summer Dinner Dance at Salones Canor on the 31st May with a garden reception, dinner, and dancing. Reception will be from 7.00pm, dinner at 8.00pm, followed by dancing until 11.30pm. In addition Coral will also be driving the organisation of our annual Christmas Dinner Dance on the 13th December 2024.
Along with these events David and Eileen Haxon had stepped in to organise a social event at Font Santa on 17th September for our chosen charity. The next in the excellent series of Quiz Nights will be on April 29th at Casa Lili.
Tony offered his thanks and gratitude to all those who had stepped forward to organise events for this year and maintain our social calendar, including Dennis Ainsley who had offered his services in whatever way he can assist.
Travel
Coral set out the position with regard to the trips that were in the pipeline but was very disappointed that one had had to be cancelled due to lack of support (only 15 bookings). It was important that the trips being planned were the ones that members wanted and she asked that if there were trips that members wanted to make they should be communicated to her. It was inevitable that some trips were repeats of previous ones and this might lead to a lack of support.
She confirmed that currently the various government agencies involved considered that the Jordan trip was safe to continue. There were two vacancies for this trip if anyone was interested in joining what she was sure would be a great experience.
Coral was thanked for her efforts in this area and also for stepping in to drive the Social events set out earlier by Tony Old.
Membership/Committee Liaison
Stephen took the microphone for the last time to confirm that once again he had nothing to report. He wished Dennis Ainscough well in taking over his role.
Prue presented Steve with an appreciation of his efforts over the years.
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2nd Call
Prudence made the 2nd Call for the AGM
Presidents End of Year Report
It is a year since the last Committee elections, and Prue thanked all members of the Committee for their hard work and support over the last year.
Our U3A ended the year with 1454 members, slightly down on the previous year.
We have just over 40 groups, offering a wide range of activities. The travel group had a number of successful trips, including Seville and the Costa Brava.
Excellent Social events had continued through the year including a very successful Coronation “Party in the park” and a Xmas dinner dance. Our charity of the year in 2023 was the Alzheimer’s day centre in Teulada. Over 4,000 Euro was raised for this charity during the year.
Her particular thanks went to David and Eileen Haxon and Coral Guise-Smith who had stepped forward to drive the social calendar which at one point looked to be in danger. She asked that for anyone who could assist with the delivery of the events to make themselves known as David, Eileen and Coral who already had commitments and would welcome the help.
Approval of Accounts
Annette Warr was pleased to report that she considered our finances to be healthy.
She explained that detailed information was available in the Accounts posted on our website, where the audit report will be posted shortly. The accounts will then be proposed for approval at our next full General Meeting.
Vote of Thanks to the 2023 Committee
A vote of thanks to the outgoing Committee was approved by a show of hands.
Election of the Committee for 2024
As Election Officer, Peter Griffiths took over the second part of the meeting.
Peter explained that as there were no contested posts, the procedure was quite straight forward and only required a show of hands for the votes to be registered,
All but one of the outgoing 2023 Committee were standing for re-election. Stephen Higham had decided to step down but nominations for his role(s) had been received.
The Election
Part One:
The following nominees stood individually and were voted for separately.
President – Prue Jackson. A Majority vote in favour of Prue
Vice President – Tony Old. A Majority vote in favour of Tony
Secretary – Paul Sankey. A Majority vote in favour of Paul
Treasurer – Annette Warr. A Majority vote in favour of Annette
Membership Secretary – Pat Clarke. A majority vote in favour of Pat.
Part Two:
Peter read out the nominees and the positions for the remainder of the Committee posts and asked the nominees to stand and make themselves known to the members.
Deputy Secretary – Carolyn Holley
Deputy Treasurer/ Travel Treasurer – Eileen Brown
Social Events Officer – Tony Old
Members without Portfolio – Eileen Haxon, David Haxon. Dennis Ainscough and Raymond K Guise-Smith.
Peter requested a show of hands for all these positions to be voted for en bloc and there was a majority vote in favour of all the Nominees.
The post of Membership/Committee Liaison Officer was a non-voting committee role and did not require a vote. Dennis Ainscough will fill this role for 2024/25
Peter confirmed that the voting procedure was therefore concluded and asked if there were any matters arising from the elections. As none were raised Peter returned the microphone to the President.
Introduction from the 2024/25 President
Prue thanked Peter Griffiths for conducting the election of officers and all present for electing her as President once again. She considered it to be an honour and a privilege and she would do her utmost to ensure that your U3A continues to thrive
There was a very pressing need for a Groups Co-ordinator as Prue felt that some groups were probably not getting the support that they needed. Along with this was the need for a Newsletter Editor with Sharon looking to relinquish the role due to UK commitments. Anyone interested in either of these roles should come forward.
We are all volunteers and the more help we get the more we can deliver for members, events do not plan and deliver themselves. As it is we still have a lot to offer with our groups, our social events, charity events and our trips
Prue asked that if members knew of anyone who would benefit from what we have to offer they should encourage them to join
In closing she looked forward to a successful year for our U3A in 2024.
The meeting closed at 11.08 am
President – Prudence Jackson
Secretary – Paul Sankey
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