CHESHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST
50th Annual General Meeting
held at The National Waterways Museum
on Saturday 19th October 2013, at 11am
Present: Felicity Goodey CBE (President)
Chris Koral (Chairman)
10 Trustees
45 Trust Members (names recorded)
8 friends/relatives of Trust Members (names recorded)
Paul Booth (Mitchell Charlesworth Auditors)
13 Staff Members
Apologies for absence:
Apologies for absence were received from Damian Waters (Trustee) plus 20 members and MP’s (names recorded).
1. WELCOME BY CHRIS KORAL, CHAIR OF TRUSTEES OF CHESHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST
The Chair welcomed all the members present.
The Chair talked about his first year as Chairman, achievements of the Trust and changes that occurred during that time. He then handed over to the President of Cheshire Wildlife Trust, Felicity Goodey.
2. INTRODUCTION BY THE PRESIDENT OF CHESHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST, FELICITY GOODEY
The President thanked CWT members, spoke about the importance of membership in tough economic times, government funding cuts, a brief review of membership at present and last year, and where Cheshire Wildlife Trust are going in terms of a local focus.
3. MEMBERS PRESENT AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
The President asked that Members ensure they signed the attendance sheet. Apologies for absence which had been received prior to the meeting were already recorded but any apologies from today were added to the sheet.
4. MINUTES OF THE 49th AGM (30 September 2012)
The President asked those members present if there were any factual corrections to the minutes of the 49th AGM; None were raised. She then proposed that the minutes made available on the day and in advance on the CWT website were a correct record of the proceedings.
5. REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2013
The President handed over to Peter Young, who is Chair of the Finance Committee, to go through the accounts for the 12 month period ended 31 March 2013.
Report by Peter Young, CWT Finance Committee
Peter noted that this will be the 9th and final time he will report the Annual Accounts of the Trust, and expressed that they were the best set of results reported in many years. He noted that the Trust’s financial activities for the year are given in the Annual Review which went out with the The Grebe and a copy of the full accounts is available on the CWT website, with hard copies available upon request. He explained that he was happy to answer any questions and that he would report on the CWT statement rather than the Group Statement.
Peter reported that the Trust made a surplus for the year of £224K, of which £44K was on unrestricted funds. The balance of £180K was on restricted funds that tend to balance out so he concentrated comments on the unrestricted surplus. He noted that the main areas where the Trust’s finances have improved are:
· Increased membership income by £42K along with reduced costs of membership.
· Increased donation from CES of £48K compared to 23K last year. CES is continuing to perform well and the donation for this year is likely to be significantly higher still.
· Increased grant income, some of which has been able to fund costs that the Trust would otherwise have had to fund from other sources of unrestricted funds. The main grant income is for restricted funds to enable us to meet some of our objectives, and this work incurs broadly equivalent expenditures.
· Increased legacies of £26K and appeals of £45K.
· Increased income from the various events that were held to celebrate 50th Anniversary.
He went on the say that as a result of this successful year, the Trust has been able to build some unrestricted reserves. How these reserves are measure depends on how much of the stock of grazing animals is included. If just 20% are included the reserves amount to just over £100K, and if all are included the figure becomes £261K.
Peter explained that the Trust continued to be very successful in obtaining significant new grants to enable us to meet our objectives, with an increase of over £100K to £623K in the grants obtained during the year, and as mentioned earlier, has also increased income from memberships. However, these remain difficult financial times to raise funds from both grants and from increasing the numbers of members. Despite this Peter reported that he remains confident that the team of Trustees under Chris, and the executive team under Charlotte, will build on the past successes and be able to continue to grow the income and activities of the Trust over the next years.
He added that he is happy that Frank Kerkham, a member of the Finance Committee for the past several years, will be taking over as chair of the Finance Committee.
Finally Peter asked if there were any questions regarding the accounts to which attendees raised no questions.
The President asked for those Members present to approve the accounts.
Proposed: Rob Marrs
Seconded: David Ward
The proposal was carried unanimously by the vote.
The proxy votes received were in favour of approval of the accounts as presented to the 2013 AGM (8 votes for and 0 votes against).
6. ELECTION AND REMUNERATION OF AUDITORS
The President asked that the members officially re-appoint Mitchell Charlesworth as the Trust’s Auditors, with their remuneration to be decided upon by Council.
Proposed: Rob Marrs
Seconded: Stephanie Fitzgibbon
The proposal was carried unanimously by the vote.
The Chair confirmed that the proxy votes received were in favour of the appointment of Mitchell Charlesworth as the Trust Auditors, with their remuneration to be decided upon by Council. (10 votes for and 0 votes against).
7. ELECTION OF COUNCIL MEMBERS
Profiles of each Trustee standing for re-election were available on members’ seats (Appendix 1).
The President told members that Mr Damian Waters had resigned as a Trustee due to work commitments. The President then thanked the two Trustees retiring under Article 25, Peter Young and Stephen Ross, for two full, four year terms of service and presented both with a book (50 Years of Cheshire’s Wildlife) and certificate in recognition of their contribution to the Trust.
The President then asked if members were happy to consider the Council members retiring under Article 29. The President then asked for a proposer and seconder that:
i. Dr Jennifer Wood, Council member retiring under Article 29, be elected as a Council Member.
Proposed: Jean Dufty
Seconded: Margaret McCormick
The proposal was carried unanimously by the vote.
ii. Ms Caroline Jones, Council member retiring under Article 29, be elected as a Council Member.
Proposed: Richard Berry
Seconded: Margaret McCormick
The proposal was carried unanimously by the vote.
The results of the proxy vote, for the record were as follows:
In favour Against
Dr Jennifer Wood 10 0
Ms Caroline Jones 10 0
The President expressed her pleasure at welcoming the two new Trustees. It was requested that the new Trustees stand and introduce themselves, which they duly did.
8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
A member expressed her thoughts that educating children about wildlife is very important and she continues to engage her nieces and nephews by gifting them a membership to CWT, to both educate and continue to grow membership.
This completed the formal business of the meeting and the Chair formally closed the meeting at11.45am.
PRESENTATION OF ERIC THURSTON AWARDS
Eric Thurston was one of the stalwart volunteers for CWT, and the Trust’s annual awards are given in his name. The President introduced the awards. There are 4 award winners this year, Peter Young, Stuart Burnett, Mathilde Baker-Schommer and Dr Mike Tynen.
The Chair read out a brief profile of each recipient.
Peter Young
Peter’s main claim to fame is as a Trustee for the last ten years, especially as Chairman of the Trust’s Finance Committee since 2004. To an outsider this may not be the most obvious contribution to wildlife conservation. However, careful stewardship of our resources is critical, and members will know that CWT experienced some difficult times over the past decade, during which Peter’s critical scrutiny and incisive focus was crucial in keeping the Trust afloat. Amongst other things, Peter chaired some sixty meetings, led the process in selecting our auditors, and prepared and presented our finances to the membership at every AGM.
Outside the committee rooms, Peter led the Trust’s Mid-Cheshire Local Group for a number of years, until the group was dissolved through lack of interest and paucity of new members, and has always been a strong supporter of CWT’s field visits and Natural Know-How events. I believe that his stalwart service surely deserves recognition with an Eris Thurston Award.
Stuart Burnett
Stu’s contribution to wildlife monitoring, conservation and education in Cheshire has been immense. Not only has he been a great supporter of Cheshire Wildlife Trust but he is also a leading light in the Cheshire and Peak District branch of Butterfly Conservation.
His passion for both butterflies and dragonflies has resulted in him becoming one of the county’s experts in his field. The Cheshire Wildlife Trust are incredibly grateful to Stu for sharing this expertise. He has run numerous Natural Know How courses for us over the years, teaching butterfly and dragonfly identification skills. He has also run sessions for our younger members on our wildlife discovery days.
Stu was a key player in the White Letter Hairstreak project in Vale Royal which was a joint project with CWT and Butterfly Conservation. He set up and co-ordinates the long running butterfly transect on our Swettenham reserve and he helped CWT to develop the butterfly and dragonfly survey methods on approximately 10 of our other reserves.
Recently Stu has helped us to develop selection criteria for Local Wildlife Site selection and he sits on the Local Wildlife Site Partnership panel helping to assess sites against these criteria. Notwithstanding all the above he has also volunteered with Dormice surveys in the Wych Valley.
Mathilde Baker-Schommer
Mathilde has been at the heart of the Wirral’s wildlife recording team for more than a decade, following her retirement from the Wirral Grammar School for Girls. A passion for birds and botany finds Mathilde undertaking plant surveys and bird monitoring across a wide number of sites every year, including long-term monitoring at Thurstaston Common for the National Trust, with Wirral Wildlife’s Hilary Ash. Mathilde also plays a key role in the care of our Red Rocks reserve looking out into the Dee and Hilbre Island, including organising the wardening group and making personal visits to report any problems and concerns to the Trust’s Estate’s Team at Bickley Hall Farm.
Despite stepping away from the blackboard, Mathilde still keeps a hand in inspiring youngsters, acting as a school visits leader at New Ferry Butterfly Park and occasionally supporting the park’s events diary too. Added to all this, Mathilde remains vice-chairman of the Mersey Estuary Conservation Group, no doubt a continuing challenge as the estuary faces a new Gateway crossing, and the potential to be harnessed in the race for renewable energy.
Dr Mike Tynen
Mike Tynen, known to everyone at the Trust as ‘Dr Mike’ joined in 2002 as Aquatic Invertebrates Officer, a post he held whilst also volunteering and delivering contracts for CES. Mike is known to many as the County’s mud snail expert and has worked passionately and tirelessly to understand and protect this tiny under-loved mollusc living in the ditches of Gowy Meadows.
Since his retirement in 2011, Mike has continued as a regular volunteer; training staff and interns in aquatic recording techniques and identification and carrying our surveys at our nature reserves. Mike has also been a regular face at events, teaching children to pond-dip and passing on his knowledge to the next generation.
Outside of the Trust, Mike has been an avid biological recorder and has contributed significantly to our understanding of the diversity and distribution of rare aquatic invertebrates across Cheshire. Mike has discovered a number of previously unrecorded sites for the endangered lesser silver water beetle and recorded a species, the ‘hairy whirligig beetle’ not seen since 1907 during his survey of Hockenhull platts nature reserve.
Mike will shortly be leaving Cheshire for good and will be very much missed by everyone at the Trust so we take this opportunity to thank you for your time and dedication to our work over the years and wish you well for the future.
Peter Young, Stuart Burnett, Hillary Ash (on behalf of Mathilde Baker-Schommer), and Dr Mike Tynen all expressed thanks at receiving the award. A special note came from Peter, he explained that he was particularly honoured to receive the award as it was largely due to Eric that he joined the Trust. Peter went on to add that Eric was a lovely man, a great enthusiast and inspirational leader within the Trust. He added the following comments:
- Eric was Chairman of the MCG for 32 years and a trustee of the Trust for almost as long.
- He was an excellent wildlife photographer and speaker, who spent many evenings promoting the Trust through his talks.