| Mid Kent Group of Advanced Motorists |
| |
| MINUTES of AGM - 21st May 2013 |
| |
| The AGM was held at the Grove Green Community Centre Maidstone and was Chaired by Linda Davies |
| The meeting formally opened at 8.05pm |
| There were 46 people present |
| |
1 | Welcome to Guests |
| Linda welcomed Mark Trimmer (Regional Operations Manager) and also Superintendent Andrea Bishop |
| Fire exits noted |
| Apologies for Absence |
| Daren Bubb, Helen Cranfield, Mick Cranfield, Colin Draper, Dee Goodwin, David Hill, Elsa Newman-Draper, |
| Roger Philips, Margaret Robertson, Richard Thomas and Roger Vickery. |
| |
| Proxy Votes |
| None |
| |
2 | Minutes of previous AGM |
| Treasurer's report line 4 the word profit was changed to surplus |
| Minutes approved |
| |
3 | Chairman's Report by Linda Davies |
| There are no scheduled fire drills this evening so in the unlikely event of a fire please leave the |
| building calmly and quickly by the exits previously indicated and assemble in the rear car park. |
| |
| During the last year we have been working closely with Chiswick in the planning of the new Modular |
| Training. Several meetings have taken place down in Horsham which has resulted in this training |
| now being available. So for example if anyone has a problem with say driving on the Motorways they |
| can now just do that module for £45.00 without having to do the whole Skill for Life. As yet there have |
| not been many takers but it is early days |
| |
| Val, Max and I have attended 2 South East Forum meetings this year as well as the Annual Conference |
| last October held at Warwick University. Once again we were kindly invited by our friends at East Kent |
| to attend their AGM which Val & Max accepted on behalf of the Group. |
| At last Saturday's Forum meeting we learned that of the 92,000 IAM members only 20,000 belong to |
| any Group. So I am pleased to advise you that Mid Kent continues to maintain a healthy membership. |
| At the moment we have 509 Members comprising 468 Full Members and 41 Associates. |
| Our grateful thanks to Richard Thomas who does an outstanding job as Membership Secretary. |
| If you are a tax payer and have not yet signed up for Gift Aid please do so - there are forms at the |
| back of the Hall |
| |
| Our promise to update the antiquated Lecture Team equipment and DVD's continues. A new Laptop |
| has now been purchased and for your information three weeks ago a new Projector was bought too. |
| This item does not form part of this years accounts. |
| The work on DVD 1 was unfortunately delayed due to the appalling weather and a new driver needed |
| to be recruited. I am pleased to confirm that this is now underway again and should be in use later |
| this year. |
| For those who are not aware members of the Lecture Team also give up their free time to go out to |
| other organisations as speakers helping to attract new associates. |
| I would like also to formally welcome the latest Lecture Team member Pam Medlock and on behalf of |
| the Group thank the entire Team for the Professional lectures that we now enjoy on Sunday mornings. |
| |
| |
| In an effort to increase Associate numbers the Committee agreed to fund as an experiment a price |
| reduction on the cost of a Skill for Life package. 22 new Associates took advantage of this offer which |
| we may consider offering again later this year |
| |
| Test results since the last AGM including the Alternative Course:- |
| 63 Associates have started, 3 dropped out, 28 are still in training, and 4 are awaiting their test. Of the |
| 28 that have taken the test 24 have passed and 4 have failed. This gives us a pass rate of 86% which |
| I'm pleased to say is a 4% improvement on last year and is now higher than the National average. |
| We also now have 4 F1rst's in the group - congratulations to those members. I am advised that this |
| is the IAM equivalent of a ROSPA Gold |
| |
| On April 6th we again hosted an Observer Training Day which was attended by The Regional Training |
| Team. A special thanks as always to Christine for the all day refreshments she served and really |
| excellent lunch which was enjoyed by all. |
| |
| I should like to thank the SO team, Training Officers and all Observer's for their outstanding efforts this |
| past year. Apart from the Sunday runs they have given up their free time to conduct OOH's runs which |
| total in excess of 200 extra hours. On behalf of all the Associates thank you |
| |
| I would also like to thank Terry Nunn our Associate Co-ordinator for all the hard work he puts in 7 days |
| a week organising the Associates. He is effectively the voice of the Group usually being the first point |
| of contact. Thank you Terry |
| |
| Thanks also to Neil Regan at the signing in desk and Tony Willson for conducting the eye sight tests. |
| Both these gentlemen help to ensure the safety of our Observers on the road. |
| |
| Our outside Events Team continue to promote Mid Kent at every opportunity and so far have attended:- |
| Kaslers Highways to Hell Seminar |
| Kent County Show despite the worst muddiest conditions ever |
| Maidstone Hospital Fete |
| Maidstone Mela Day |
| Sittingbourne Dog Track |
| Bearsted Green Classic Car Event |
| Gravesend Fire & Rescue and Heritage Cars at the Detling Showground |
| Recruitment stands were also manned at both the Winter Driving and Defensive Driving evenings. |
| The letterboxes and Businesses of Maidstone continue to be targeted with copies of Advanced Driving |
| and Mid Kent leaflets. Doctors and Dentists surgeries, Hospitals and Physiotherapists also do not |
| escape the attentions of our intrepid team. |
| |
| Grateful thanks go to Phil Mason, Alan Rowe and all the team who have struggled against the elements |
| at many of those events - an excellent job well done - thank you all. |
| |
| Vauxhall's have been running a series of evening events for Ladies only so we now also have a team |
| which attends these. Thank you Val and Margaret. |
| |
| Mick Cranfield's boundless enthusiasm continues to keep a steady stream of applicants wanting to |
| undertake skid pan training - so far 7 sessions have taken place with another 3 already booked. |
| Thank you Mick |
| |
| Our website and social networking sites are constantly updated Facebook has not been as successful |
| as we first hoped, only around 15 people are 'liking' our page. We advertised the Winter Driving |
| evening on there in an effort to attract young drivers and whilst it's unknown how successful this was |
| it's still worth shouting about who we are, what we do and where people can meet us. |
| The groups Tweets are a little more successful although there is no method to measure how many |
| people see them. |
| |
| What we can say is the Group has posted nearly 300 Tweets which has increased |
| our following to 160. If it wasn't for Twitter Chiswick wouldn't have heard about our Blog. |
| Regular posts have helped to increase hits on our Blog to around 30 a day. |
| An increase in interest on our Blog has undoubtedly been due to a number of postings by Neil Lakeland |
| who wrote about his experience whilst training to become a Group Observer. Neil also used Tweets to |
| Chiswick about his experience, resulting in them including a link to our Blog in their monthly email |
| newsletter. This generated hundreds of hits in just one day. In total Neil's first article has to date gained |
| more than 800 hits. Well done Neil |
| February saw the biggest number of people taking a look at our Blog entries - just over 1800. In total, |
| since the last AGM we've had 11075 hits. A cloud is now also in operation. |
| My thanks go to our Webmaster David Hill and Graham Aylard for their amazing efforts in keeping the |
| Mid Kent Group in the public eye. |
| |
| For your enjoyment Social Secretary Max Power has arranged some excellent speakers:- |
| We have had 3 hilarious evenings with IAM examiner Lester Parsons |
| An Driving Ergonomics evening with a presentation from Dr Diane Gyi a senior lecturer at |
| Loughborough University. |
| In August our own David Cooper held us all spellbound with tales of blood and gore from The Tower of |
| London. |
| In October we opened our doors to the public and held a Winter Driving Evening which proved |
| extremely popular. |
| We were honoured to welcome the Chief Constable of Kent Ian Learmonth in November along with |
| tonight's speaker Supt Andrea Bishop. |
| Our now famous Christmas quiz night was a great success and was attended by over 90 people. |
| Thanks go to Max our Quizmaster and his assistant Val for organising all the fun - an excellent way to |
| end 2012 Thank you Christine for the superb refreshments. |
| In January we were pleased that David Cooper was able to return and tell us all about the Crown |
| Jewels. |
| Sgt Miles Bishop from the Police Crash Investigation Unit gave us an insight into his career and what |
| happens at the scene of a crash. |
| Last month we again held a public open evening this time the topic was Defensive Driving. Another |
| is planned for later in the year. |
| |
| Max has also organised some excellent Outside Events. |
| In September the Group went to the Dogs - Greyhound Racing in Sittingbourne. We had our own room |
| with a balcony overlooking the track with a 2 course meal included. As Group Chairman I was asked |
| to present a Trophy to one of the winning owners. Some members even managed to beat the Tote. |
| We were delighted to support a Charles Dickens Charity Event held at The Central Theatre in Chatham |
| in aid of Great Ormond St Children's Hospital which raised in excess of £6000. Some members |
| joined in the fun by dressing in Dickensian costume. |
| Our Annual Dinner by popular demand again took place at The Hilltop. If you were not able to attend |
| you missed a great evening. Perhaps you'd like to join us this year? Max will be pleased to give you |
| details. |
| On the 21st of March a coach party of us went to the Tower of London to see the Famous Ceremony |
| of the Keys. We were also given a guided tour and invited into the Yeoman Warder's Club for a meal |
| and large quantities of alcohol. Many thanks to David Cooper for his part in an excellent evening out |
| despite the snow! |
| Max is busy organising still more outings and will tell you about these before we break for coffee. |
| |
| To last year's Committee I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support, it has |
| been a pleasure to work with you. |
| To Vice-Chairman Max and Secretary Val you have been excellent Ambassadors for the Group thank |
| you for all your help. |
| |
| Last but not least thanks to our dynamic Treasurer Daren for keeping a tight grip on our purse strings |
| and ensuring that the Group maintained our Charitable aims. Thank you Daren and alsoJohn Lover for |
| reviewing the accounts. |
| |
| Acceptance of Chairman's Report:- |
| Proposed David Ibbott and seconded by Trish Weston. |
| |
4 | Treasurer's Report |
| Daren Bubb sent a PowerPoint presentation with voice over as he was away on business. |
| The accounts showed a small surplus of £197.00. |
| Question raised:- what percentage of members have signed up for gift aid? |
| Answer:- 66% |
| Acceptance of accounts:- |
| proposed by Trish Weston and seconded by John Bowman - accepted. |
| |
5 | Elections |
| |
| CHAIRMAN PROPOSED SECONDED RESULT |
| Linda Davies Roch Moppett Bob Crossley Elected |
| |
| VICE-CHAIRMAN |
| Max Power David Ibbott Andy Houghton Elected |
| |
| TREASURER |
| Daren Bubb John Lover John Mills Elected |
| |
| SECRETARY |
| Val Power Lesley Blunden Neil Lakeland Elected |
| |
| Election of other Committee members was en block |
| |
| PROPOSED SECONDED RESULT |
| |
| Mick Cranfield Peter Bott Andy Houghton Elected |
| Mike Ingram SallyAnne Clark John Mills Elected |
| Bob Kiell Graham Aylard Trish Weston Elected |
| Phil Mason Trevor Bridges Roger Powell Elected |
| Terry Nunn SallyAnne Clarke Lesley Blunden Elected |
| Neil Regan Pam Medlock John Bowman Elected |
| Alan Rowe Charles Robert Bob Crossley Elected |
| Jill Taylor Linda Davies Val Power Elected |
| All officers and committee members were elected with no objections. |
| |
6 | Presentation of Awards :- |
| a) Stan Hawkins |
| Stan Hawkins Certificate of Merit presented to Max Power. |
| b) Chairman's Award |
| Chairman's Award presented to John Bowman & John Mills |
| c) Certificates of Appreciation for 25 years of Observing |
| Certificates of Appreciation for 25 years of Observing to David Hill, John Mills and Roger Vickery. |
| Only John Mills was present and gave a short acceptance speech thanking the group for their |
| appreciation of his long standing work. |
| |
7 | A.O.B |
| None |
| |
8 | Refreshments |
| Christine kindly served the refreshments with lovely home made cakes - thank you Christine. |
| |
9 | Guest Speaker |
| Superintendent Andrea Bishop spoke of her career in the Police Force and gave us an insight into |
| her present role in the Tactical Operations Unit at Coldharbour |
| |
| Linda Davies thanked everyone for attending and declared the AGM closed at 9.50 p.m. |