Annual General Meeting - Held 16th June, 2001 - Dewsbury Canal Basin

Apologies for absence were received from - Avrill Lansdell, Joyce Greenwood, and David and Muriel Clough.

Present: Alan Robinson - President, Ken Parris - Chairman, Ian Wilson - Secretary/Treasurer. David Moore, Marion and Fred Stearman, Janet and John Reeve, Kerstin and Peter Fletcher, David Blackburn, Marie and Ray Hahn, Tony and Lorna Longshaw, Margaret and Ken Wood, George Proctor, Sheila and John Cooke, Colin and Diane Palmer, Jo Wilson, Martin Thompson.

The meeting was opened by Ken Parris.

Alan welcomed members and guests to Wakefield and said that the Friday evening dinner at Brewsters had been enjoyable. He explained that the Dewsbury's Canal Basins first restoration was in the 1860's and that the canal had been opened in 1760 and had been closed in the 1960's. He then went on to explain the programmes for the following days.

He welcomed Ray and Marie Hahn from New Jersey, America, and presented the President's Award and booklet to them as they had travelled the furthest to attend the Cardmeet. He explained that this would be an annual presentation but that five years would have to elapse before the same people could be awarded this trophy again.

Ken then also welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending.

Ian's Treasurer and Membership Report was detailed and a summary follows. (Full report is available.)

Subscription are now £7 and the Circle has 68 members - three have resigned over the last year but we have gained five new members. Not all subscriptions have been paid yet. The total subscriptions are £348, the newsletter for July 2000 - April 2001 £266. The Gongoozler in April cost £50 - Trevor had some sundries therefore the cost tends to vary. We have £250 in our Giro Account. We had a large outgoing of £58 to the Leprosy Mission - Avril collects postage stamps for them and they in return collect Waterways Postcards and then sell them to us.

The circle website has been developed by Ray, who updates it regularly, Sheila offered to include our Website information into the Shardlow Website and asked if the circle would include Shardlow on our site.

David Moore designed some display boards for the Postcard Fair in London last year - it was a very good day and some cards were bought.

Chairman's Report. Ken thanked Trevor and Avril for publicity and Martin for keeping the list of old cards. He also thanked Alan for arranging the card meet. Ken went on to say that he would like to retire as Chairman and pass it over to someone younger and he stated that he had enjoyed his years as Chairman.

David Moore thanked him for all his hard work and contribution to the circle.

Election of Officers: Anne Hartley, Trevor Ellis, Martin Thompson and Ian were prepared to stand again and were voted back by a show of hands; proposed by Ray and seconded by Sheila.

Ian said that Jo had volunteered to be Minutes Secretary. Proposed by Ian and seconded by Ken.

Avril will continue to stand as Vice Chairman.

Ken was asked about the role of the Chairman and he explained that he writes "The Chairman's Mumblings" in the news letter, also chairs the Annual General Meeting. He helps the other officers and deals with queries from members and others. He also writes to those who leave the circle and to all who have not paid their subscriptions.

Sheila expressed an interest in standing as chairman sometime in the future but her health is not good. Ken said that he would stand for a further year with Sheila shadowing him. She hopes to take over in 2002.

Any Other Business: Martin said that he had several postcards of the Anderson Lift which were not on sale yet, but members of the circle could obtain them earlier if anyone was interested, and that the information would go into the October Newsletter.

Tony Beer has an exchange card scheme, if we send him 20 cards he will send 20 in return. He also said that he would make available a list of cards for Card Fairs, a copy of this list would be available on demand.

Sheila has a supply of London cards for display and sale.

John Reeves has a selection of Waterways World in binders, if anyone is interested.

Ray discussed the setting up of the website and gave a summary of the colours used - any combination could be tried, members mentioned that the colours used in current use are fine. He asked for E Mail addresses and stated that Alan's walk is on the site, he explained that favourite cards could be displayed on the site and asked members whether they would like to use the facility.

Alan asked for suggestions for the 2002 Cardmeet and possible places of interest were the Wey and Arun, Oxford and the Stourbridge Area but we have no volunteers as yet. Ken will make enquires.

The meeting closed at 11 AM and Ken thanked everyone for attending.