2018 AGM

An AGM is ostensibly a formal meeting and, whilst it may not be the most exciting way to spend a morning, it is a constitutional requirement. It was therefore pleasing to note that a fair proportion of the membership had made the effort to attend however, for those of you who presumably couldn’t be bothered, it was your loss because, our Chairman and his committee made a huge effort to ‘spice’ things up for us this year. Whilst the main business on the agenda is a necessary chore, it was undertaken with relative speed and bonhomie so no, it wasn’t boring and tedious but informative and affable.

We are extremely lucky to have a Chair who takes his role very seriously yet conducts our monthly meetings with wit and humour so, this AGM was also relaxed, light-hearted and uncomplicated. His report was informative without going too deeply into detail and gave an optimistic look at organisational activities and initiatives which included examples of our successes and achievements over the year. This was followed by the treasurer’s report which confirmed the accounts are in order and meet all necessary requirements. The members voted to agree to retain our existing object clause and the election of the committee was accepted. Steve singled out a number of members for special praise and presented gifts to the three retiring committee members; and so the official business was concluded swiftly and professionally.

Under the leadership of our competent Chair Steve McCarthy, we have a lively, effective and motivated committee with a good sense of humour and, to reward us for sitting through the obligatory AGM agenda, they organised a communal activity afterwards. This proved to be an excellent way for members to widen their social circle and get the ‘old grey matter’ working as tables of six or less put their heads together to work out a picture puzzle and answer a general knowledge quiz. Unbelievably, three teams recorded identical scores so, to decide the winner, a tie breaking question revealed the victorious table who were each given a gift voucher. This was an extremely novel way to close an AGM and a most enjoyable one so well done everybody.

Although by necessity, Annual General Meetings are formal affairs where Is need to be dotted and Ts crossed, our meeting today was friendly, relaxed and actually fun so, for those of you who failed to attend your U3A AGM this year because you thought it would be ‘boring, dull and/or a waste of time, think again and support your branch by turning up next year.