Minutes of 59Th Berkshire KFA AGM Held on 11Th May 2013

Minutes of 59th Berkshire KFA AGM held on 11th May 2013.

Venue: Loddon Hall, Loddon Hall Road, Twyford, Berks, RG10 9JA.

Present: Executive Committee: Lesley Levey, Deborah Miller, Diane James and Janet Richmond. President: Carole Williams and Vice President Maureen Maude. Webmaster: Shirley Stallwood

Members: 49. Life Members: Diana Ilott, Jean Bond.

President’s Welcome

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this the 59th Annual General Meeting of the Berkshire Keep Fit Association. I would like to give a very special welcome to our Life Members, Jean Bond and Diana Ilott – it is always a pleasure to see them and we thank them for their continued support.

The present Executive Committee have worked hard throughout the year to ensure members are well informed of events in the Keep Fit world. The Vice-President, Maureen Maude, and I have been welcomed to the Committee meetings, consulted and kept well in the picture of all aspects of planning in the Berkshire Keep Fit Association.

The Training Committee have continued to work hard making sure everyone is up to date with their training and encouraging members to consider training as teachers.

My thanks must go to the Committee members for their work over the year. The present Committee is very small and they have worked hard to ensure you, the Berkshire members, are kept well informed of all developments and forthcoming events.

Thanks must also go to those helpers who have continued to give their time to make events such as this run so smoothly. Where would we be without the sound system, the raffle and not forgetting the refreshments?

I am pleased to say that plans are well in hand for the National AGM which is to be hosted by Southern Counties Region and is to be held in our county on Saturday 5 October 2013 at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, Lower Earley. Thanks must go to the working party which comprises of Janet Richmond, Lesley Levey, Jeanette Hughes, Elaine Holmes (the Southern Counties’ Treasurer), and me. The Berkshire Keep Fit Association can and will deliver, as was demonstrated at the Southern Counties Spring Rally in March at Newbury. We shall be looking to you, the members, for your support.

I would like to re-iterate that I continue to be proud to call myself a member of the Keep Fit Association. We are a unique group of people who have been fortunate enough to experience the friendship and support offered to each other within the Association and I am very honoured that you have invited me to continue as your President.

I will now hand over to Janet Richmond, the Secretary, to read the apologies.

Apologies: Apologies were received from Jill Hibbitt, Sally Capel, Angela Strong, Anne Mogg and Jean Stallwood.

Minutes of the 58th Annual General Meeting had been circulated to the members.

President asked for a proposer and seconder the Minutes were a true account.

Proposed by: Jeanette Hughes

Seconded by: Barbara Walker

Chairman Lesley Levey presented her report.

Chairman’s report 2013

Madam President Carole, Vice President Maureen and Life members, Diana Ilott, Jean Bond, Jean Stallwood and Jill Hibbitt, members and friends, a very warm welcome to this our 59th Berkshire AGM and thank you all for your loyal support in being here today.

Last year’s AGM was held on 12th May at St. Joseph’s College in Reading. A warm, sunny day following many weeks of solid rain kept many members away with only 47 members and 3 spectators attending, but those who did come along agreed that it was a fun day full of great exercise and lots of laughter. St. Joseph’s College was chosen because it had a stage, which is a great advantage when you are following a teacher, but generally was not as popular as Winnersh Community Centre, which had become too small for our purposes. Having listened to our members and after a huge amount of searching by Diane, here we are today!

Summer classes were held in the usual venues at Our Lady of Peace in Earley, and Woosehill Community Centre in ... Woosehill strangely enough! An excellent choice of 9 different teachers took a total of 10 sessions, 5 at each venue. They were great fun with an average of 19 attending each class this year. Thank you so much to all of the teachers and helpers who make these classes possible. And more to the point to all of the members who supported us. If you all hadn’t come along the whole event would have been a total waste of time! If you’ve never been to any of the summer classes you really should try them out. It’s a great way of experiencing very different teaching styles, and you may find one which you could add to your regular class each week.

The Christmas Celebration was held for the first time here at Loddon Hall in Twyford. The rain teamed down but spirits were high. Jeanette Hughes took the first session in her inimitable style, and had us working hard but laughing too. Maureen Maude followed suit with firstly a “hoe down” and then a line dance, working not only our bodies but certainly our minds as well! Finally, Andrea Turner from Oxford “Razzle Dazzled” us with a great routine which involved exchanging bowler hats. In some cases not so successfully! Smiles were certainly the order of the day and everyone seemed to agree it was a great event. This venue was also deemed to be a success, and we are doing our utmost to book it for future Berkshire events.

The Spring Rally this year was held on 2nd March at St. Bartholomew’s school in Newbury. It started with a fun, energetic session with Donna Ward, followed by a lively salsa and cha cha cha dance class with Oxfordshire dance teacher, Liz Lee Selleck. After lunch we were treated to absolutely fantastic displays by all of the Southern Counties’ County teams.

After sitting watching the displays, we were brought awake again by a rousing session by Jane Douglass. The Regional Display team produced by Jan Rance followed, before the day was brought to a close by Shirley Stallwood, with her excellent ‘Late Spring Moves.’ Shirley also invited all of the session takers and team producers on the stage for the finale, which was a lovely touch to end the day. If you didn’t come along you missed a superb day.

Once again this year Gerry Lowe and Sarah Lawson were invited to jointly produce the Berkshire County Team, the first performance of which was at the Spring Rally previously mentioned. This year the team consists of 14 members, who dance to a musically challenging item called “Before the Parade Passes By” by the Sid Lawrence Orchestra. Gerry and Sarah wanted to produce something which was fun, and I think they have certainly achieved it. I am sure you will agree when they perform for you later. Incidentally I would like to tell you that of the Berkshire County Team there were 3 new members who had never before even auditioned and therefore are brand new to this year’s team. Well done to them!

As you may be aware, this year we have been without a Communications Officer and we’ve missed one! Shirley Stallwood, our superb webmaster has very kindly been producing our programmes and posters for us, but we’ve missed out on advertising our events in local newspapers and websites. If you feel you could help out the committee in this respect then PLEASE let one of us know. It’s not that difficult being on the committee, honestly. I always said that I wasn’t a committee type person but look at me now! It will only take up a few hours every month, so if you do have a bit of spare time then please give it some consideration.

Shirley is doing an absolutely excellent job on the Berkshire website and if you haven’t visited it then you absolutely should. At this point in my report I was going to tell you about the site, but I thought that you might like a break from my voice for a while, and so would like to ask Shirley now to tell you what is on the site and how you can access it.

At this point webmaster Shirley Stallwood asked how many members had logged onto Berkshire website and went through the various links on the site which provided information about Berkshire KFA, events past, present and future. Shirley has worked hard on behalf of Berkshire KFA and the website is a great place to visit for all information relating to KFA. Searches for dance/exercise related sites brought KFA up on first and second pages. There is a link to the National KFA website.

We are truly grateful for everything which Shirley does for us, and I would now like to present her with some flowers as a token of our appreciation.

This is a busy year for Berkshire. Not only have we had the regional Spring Rally but in October, Southern Counties are hosting the National AGM. It will be held at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Lower Earley on Saturday 5th October. Full information will be included in your newsletters. If at all possible please do come along to that event. The eyes of National KFA will be upon us, so let’s make sure we prove to them that we are a region of dedicated keep fitters. Anyway, it’s going to be a superb day, so you’ll have fun. Don’t miss out!

As always, postage is still one of our biggest costs and many of you have kindly given us your email addresses so that we can send you notices and newsletters in this way. We do not pass on your contact details to anyone else. They are purely used for Berkshire to let you know what is happening. If you do have an email address but haven’t told us as yet then please do as soon as possible. There is a notepad by the Publicity Board for you to put down your details.

Sadly (well for me, anyway!) this is my last report as Chairman as my term of office comes to an end. I would like to say how much I have enjoyed my time on the committee, and that is true, not just a sales pitch! I would also like to thank each and every one of my fellow committee members for their help and support. I truly couldn’t have done it without you.

And so I end my report for 2012-2013.

President asked for a proposer and seconder of the chairman’s report.

Proposed by: Maureen Lomas

Seconded by: Shirley Stallwood

President asked Deborah Miller to present the Training report.

TRAINING REPORT 2013-2014

The Training Committee are Anne Mogg (Chair), Jeanette Hughes, Sarah Lawson and Deborah Miller.

Berkshire currently has 19 teachers and 2 trainers. At the end of this 3 year training period all Berkshire teachers had completed their training hours.

From January of this year all teachers now have to complete 18 hours of refresher training.

Winchester Teacher Training Course. All 6 students passed and we have a new teacher for Berks, Lesley Wyman. Congratulations to Lesley and we look forward to working with her soon.

The proposed Milton Keynes course was postponed due to lack of response. The course has been moved to Wheatley near Oxford where there are classes to attend. The starting date is 18 May.

The Berkshire Training Day was held in 17 March. The tutor was Monica Spalding , a Somerset Trainer. This day was divided into 2 separate sections of 3 hours each. The morning was a movement session to help teachers develop their choreography and the afternoon focussed on posture.

We held an extra training evening in November. This was due to the training hours having been increased leaving teachers short by 2 hours. Barbara Scragg tutored the evening which was attended by 12 teachers, the topic was More on Muscles.

In conclusion, thank you to all our teachers for their hard work and dedication to our association. Our standards continue to rise and our teachers are trained to a very high standard, teaching Youth Moves right through the spectrum to seated exercise. We provide healthy, safe exercise for all age groups and physical abilities.

Anne Mogg Chair Berkshire Sub Training Committee

11 May 2013

President asked for a proposer and seconder of the training report

Proposed by: Louise Ward-Gittos

Seconded by: Donna Ward

President asked Treasurer, Diane James to present the Treasurers’ report.

Treasurer’s Report for the AGM 2013

This is the Treasurer’s report of the Berkshire Keep Fit Association for the financial year 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013.

At the end of this financial year we are in overall profit, which is always good news. This is of course due to you, our members. All your support attending rallies and summer classes.

I will work down the Summary of Accounts in order, so you can follow easily. Hopefully you all have a copy, or sight of a copy over someone’s shoulder.

The first item is the outcome of last year’s AGM rally. I’m afraid we did make a loss at that event. This was due to a low number of members attending. I think the weather was to blame. It was a beautiful day, warm, with a clear blue sky. The previous week had not been very special. A few of us who were running the event said we would have preferred being at home pottering in the garden. On the accounts sheet it says a loss of £27.33, but it was a loss of £39.33. We had some photocopying expenses that had been drawn from the previous financial year.

Next item down - Summer Classes. Good to know they are popular, no loss moneywise there. Not only do they fill that gap when our other classes finish for the summer break, but also they are a very social event. I personally enjoy seeing and chatting with past friends, who perhaps I only meet at rallies. Friends you worked with in the past, in a County Team or an Albert Hall item. All those that attended the classes appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. Having a different teacher each week gives great variation. Our teachers did us proud.

Christmas Rally here in Loddon Hall. A new venue, worrying in case it does not work, but it appeared to be enjoyable, and was successful money wise, due to your support. Ideal venue for a Berkshire rally. Spacious, bright hall, large stage, separate area for stalls, kitchen facilities right on hand, and room or rooms for our display teams to change. Fair sized car park, what else could we want. It’s great to have found this venue, thank you Anna for recommending it. I have already booked Loddon Hall for our Christmas rally on 23 November, put it in your diary. It is a very popular venue so I had to be ahead of myself. They take bookings up to a year in advance, so once today is over I might get the committee to agree a date for next year’s AGM.