Minutes of Area Council meeting held on 11th September 2017 in Chapelfield Methodist Church.
Present –Helen George (Chairman), Alan Crabtree (Treasurer), Carol Timson (Secretary), Judy Cloke, Martin Dutton, Laura Edwards and Kevin White.
Action1. / Chairman’s welcome and opening remarks
1.1 / Helen welcomed everyone.
2. / Apologies for absence
2.1 / Apologies were received fromJenny Newcombe and Paula Waters-Bunn
3. / Minutes of the last NAA meeting on 19th June 2017
3.1 / No issues with the minutes of the previous meeting.
4. / Matters arising/Action Table
4.1 / Item 4.3 –Warner Textile Museum & Braintree Shopping Outlet on Saturday, 11th November 2017. Number increased to 32 persons. / HG
4.2 / Item 4.5– Kew Gardens and Hampton Court. Too late for this year, deferred to November 2018. / HG
4.3 / Item 4.6–Pantomime on 6th and 13th January 2018. Helen to put an article in the next newsletter with a deadline for purchase of tickets so that they can be resold to the Theatre. / HG
4.4 / Item 4.8 –Warner Brothers on 2nd December 2017. Carol apologised because she had not contacted Richards re timings for the day. Carried forward. / CT
4.5 / Item 4.10 – Article for newsletter re CSSC subscriptions. Helen gave the background as to why an article did not appear in AAA’s last newsletter. This was at the request of CSSC head office. / HG
4.6 / Item 4.22 – Christmas Market in Birmingham. Judy is awaiting a quote from Richards despite chasing. Need to plan so that there is no clash of dates in December next year.
Helen explained the notice that Paula was given for the Snape Christmas Spectacular, hence 2 events on the same day. Event organisers need to plan well in advance and get dates secured in the Events spreadsheet. We need to be better at communicating and making decisions about events in enough time to avoid clashes. / PW-B
4.7 / Judy provided feedback from the Buckingham Palace trip on 9th September 2017. 30 members and guests went on the trip. Successful and everyone enjoyed the day. Timetable would be changed should an event such as this be arranged in the future.
5. / Reports
5.1 / Secretary’s Report
5.1.1 / In response to the last minutes and Carol’s report, Helen contacted Suffolk & North Essex and now all our members receive a copy of their newsletter and Suffolk & North Essex members receive a copy of ours Helen will put an article in the next newsletter explaining that we ‘share’ events. Judy said that she receives a copy of the Hunts, Beds & Cambsnewsletter. / HG
5.2 / Treasurer’s report (items below not within the financial statement or report)
5.2.1 / When the payment is paid for the Gt Yarmouth Walk it will clear the balance held in the ‘Gt Yarmouth & Lowestoft’ account. Alan explained we are on track to have just under the 40% allowance of our annual grant to carry forward into 2018.
5.3 / Membership Secretary’s report
5.3.1 / No report received from Jenny.
6. / Grants & financial assistance.
6.1 / Current Applications:
Totalled £216.00, total for year to date: £889.20.
7. / ER December meeting & Christmas lunch on Friday, 8th December 2017
7.1 / Alan, Laura and Judy expressed an interest in attending. Laura will probably be a MoD DA representative. We await the official invitation to see how many AAA representative we can send.
8. / Organisers check list review
8.1 / Helen volunteered to review the check list and send out to committee for comments. However, a reminder that it is important to check that membership numbers are valid in plenty of time before a trip. This can be done by the organiser on the CSSC website through the tab ‘Volunteers’ / Membership Status Checking or via Helen or Carol. . / HG
9. / Quality Street
9.1 / Review of actions:
1)Succession Planning: Defer until Laura produces her report.
2)Helen sent her document re: Recruitment & Retention to CSSC head office but did not receive a response.
3)Social Media: Request for a volunteer to manage Facebook etc has been made in our newsletters unsuccessfully. Retain to next Quality Street Review meeting.
10. / Schedule for committee meetings
10.1 / Carol to prepare a schedule of proposed meeting dates up to March 2018 and to contact The Maddermarket Theatre to enquire about dates available in March 2018 for AAA’s AGM in the bar area. / CT
11. / Timetable for next newsletter
11.1 / Helen sent out the timetable this morning and she will be managing/producing the newsletter whilst Pauline is on holiday. / HG
12. / Future events
12.1 / Martin: Mentioned that it was Chatham Dockyards 150th anniversary in 2018.
12.2 / Kevin: Will make enquiries for Hatfield House when it opens next April. / KW
12.3 / Carol: Will investigate Saville Garden and a trip on the river/Frogmore House for May 2018.
London Day Out late January/early February 2018 using 2 drivers making the charge for members £10 and non-members £20. / CT
13. / Any other business
13.1 / Laura: We need to consider renewal of the Theatre Royal Corporate 2018 membershipand Pantomime tickets for 2019. Helen replied that once we have been informed of the corporate membership renewal cost, panto tickets and the year’s member use of the benefit we will email the committee for comments. / CT
13.2 / Helen: An issue raised when Helen met Paula was the disparity of discount for members for trips/events with a coach and those without. Upon investigation, it was found that on some trips with a coach members were enjoying a discount of some 50-60%. Helen will send her findings by email to committee for comment – please respond.
Martin said that the association historically made our business around coach trips. / HG / All
13.3 / Martin: If Helen and Carol do intend to resign their officer posts at next year’s AGM would it be prudent to advertise for new committee members and volunteers for the Chairman and Secretary posts in the next newsletter? The committee agreed – Helen will produce an article for the next newsletter. / HG
14. / Date and time of next meeting
14.1 / Agreed: Monday, 6th November 2017 at 1pm in Rosebery Court. Carol to make enquiries for a room. / CT
The meeting closed at 6.05pm
…………………………
Helen George
Chairman, NAA CSSC Date:
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