South Hampshire BS March 2020
Annual General Meeting

Jim Lawrie, our Chairman, opened the meeting at 8:00pm and welcomed all there. Apologies were received from Derek Ham

Before the main business started, the Chairman announced the death of Kevin Burnett and asked we all give a clap in memory of him.

The AGM

South Hampshire Minutes of AGM 2019: No copy available due to Tony Cash’s passing.

Malcolm Freemantle was presented by Andy Thorpe on behalf of L&SCBS their highest Award The Silver Star, and Pam Freemantle was presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers.

The President’s Report:

The President, Malcolm Freemantle, thanked everyone connected to the club for the work they did over the last year and the clubs continuing success.

The Chairman Report:

Despite a slight fall in attendance numbers, due to understandable reasons, the Club is in a healthy position. We have around 40 members and over £4000 in the bank. We have had other interesting programme of events and guest speakers last year, and again we have a full programme for 2020-21. This is due to the efforts of the late Tony Cash as the then General Secretary, the role is now assumed by Steven Murdoch, who set programme's for 2 years ahead. In addition to Tony’s passing in December 2019, we also sadly lost recently, a founder member, active supporter and past President of the Club, Kevin Burnett.

The 2019 Open Show was disappointing in terms of the numbers of birds benched - some 450 birds. we believe this was due to a variety of outside factors and not a negative reflection on the Club. However we still retain “Gold” Open Show status for our 2020 Open Show.

Your Committee is already working hard to make this a successful show, which will be held, in remembrance of Tony cash and Kevin Burnett. On a more upbeat note, the club was pleased to announce that the London & Southern County BS had awarded Malcolm

Freemantle, our President (and previous President), it’s highest award for his services over 60 years to the Fancy and development of the Clearwing variety of Budgerigar. In fact, Malcolm also wrote a book on The Art of Breeding Clearwings.

We are confident of the continued success of the Club as we move forward to celebrating our 40 year anniversary in 2022.

General Secretary’s Report: With Tony Cash's unfortunate passing their was No Report.

Treasurer’s Report and Membership:

Treasurer' Report and Membership updates - Peter Merritt took the meeting through the accounts highlighting the main features. In particular that the Club had made a profit of

£49.77 at the 2019 Open Show. This was significant as most Clubs operated at loss. The main reasons for our success was the Club members supporting the Club through sponsorship and donated birds to raise funds by auction. He explained that the Club’s finances were in a very healthy state, holding a bank balance of in excess of £4,000. We also have a membership of around 40. He also asked for approval on giving a Donation to The Blue Cross in Memory of Kevin, which all members approved.

Election of Officers:

Election of Officers - President, Malcolm Freemantle took the Chair for the election of the Chairman. Jim Lawrie was prepared to stay on for this year, and there being no other nominees, was re-elected as Chairman. He then resumed the Chair for the election of other officers' positions.

The Chairman put forward that the current committee individuals were prepared to stand for office again. There being no further nominations from the floor it was proposed by Mick Small and seconded by Chris Bellows that these appointments should be confirmed.

Open Show:

It was suggested that for the Auction of Birds we go down to 1 bird from a well known breeder, and have 3-4 birds from members with a box in front of each one so people can pay

£1.00 to put their name into the box of their choice and can have as many turns as they want. It was also mentioned we make sure we make full use of our Team Cages.

AOB:

The chairman explained that the Committee had been discussing ways to improve the club meetings, and they had come up with a few ideas like a monthly lottery where if members wanted they could put a £1 in for their name to go into a draw and at the end of the evening a members name would be pulled out and the winning member would take away the money

raised on the evening from the draw. Another idea was to have a points competition and give Awards out at our Xmas Event. Another idea is subsidised Aviary visits, which all members liked the idea of, so the committee will talk about how it will work and bring back to the members to agree with. Another idea that members agreed was to have a Seminar in June on a Sunday at our meeting Hall.

Steve Bailey suggested we have a General Knowledge Quiz evening.

Mike Freeborn also let everyone know that in 2022 the Club Celebrates it’s 40th Anniversary and our Chair asked people to think of ways to celebrate and I mentioned people can email the secretary ideas if they wish but one idea was to have a Gala Dinner and invite other Societies along. The AGM closed at 9:45 pm.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 9:55pm and thanked those present for their attendance and wished them a safe journey home.