A Fish & Chips supper enticed members to attend our delayed Annual Meeting this month – they were collected by two of our members and were served first, by the committee, which gave us all a chance to chat and catch up with each other.
Then it was on to the business of the evening. We started with our Treasurer’s Report; she explained like all Institutes we faced challenges as a result of the Pandemic and lockdown. Our income was down for the financial year ending 31st March 2021 and decisions were taken at National and Federation level to extend the membership year by three months. Whilst our expenditure reduced for the first few months of this financial year as lockdown impacted upon our activities, we embraced Zoom, which meant we incurred costs again for the latter part of the year. We are grateful to the Committee of Abbotts Ann War Memorial Hall for giving us a booking holiday. We were fortunate to receive a Grant via the Parish Council, which is ring-fenced for activities this current financial year and has been allocated already. We ended the year with reduced funds, but without having to resort to our reserves. Nevertheless, with membership numbers down this year we do still face financial challenges as we move forward.
Our Secretary, Gill Page, stepped down earlier than planned, but not before she summarised what we had managed to achieve in the last 18 months (since our last Annual Meeting). She was presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers in thanks for all her hard work.
Our President, Julia Rowling, who is remaining in office, thanked all those who had supported her in these challenging times.
Unfortunately, we had no volunteers to replace our Secretary, so our Treasurer is combing these roles for now, supported by other committee members. Our committee is now down to six members.
Our programme planners are working hard to plan as much as they can in these uncertain times.
As we do need to increase our membership numbers, we are having a recruiting drive and flyers will be distributed shortly around the village inviting women to attend our meeting on 28th October in the Village Hall. Although, we do need to have an idea of numbers attending for catering purposes, so if you plan to come along please let us know. Contact information is on the flyer which is also posted on this website.
This is to be an evening of Fizz, Canapés and Chat as we all get to know each other and see if we can tempt you to join. The meeting starts at 7.30 p.m.
