Orpington Astronomical Society
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held at St Francis of Assisi Church Hall, Petts Wood
on 28 February 2024
Present: 42 members
Apologies received from: Marie Alford; Dave Allen; Noel Clark; Raf Kaminski; Roy Peters; Sue Peters; Terry Wingfield
- The meeting was chaired by Andrew Ramsay, until Item 7.
Item 2: Minutes of the previous meeting
- Resolution: that the Minutes of the Society’s previous AGM held on 22 February 2023 be approved as a correct record. Proposed Andrew Ramsay, Seconded Hugh Alford.
Item 3: Chair’s Report on the OAS in 2023
- Andrew Ramsay presented his report, tabled in advance, highlighting the work of the Committee, and conveyed his thanks to the hard-working committee and supporting volunteers. He particularly emphasised the fact that, as a registered charity, the Society was involved in educating the public, emphasising the importance of Outreach.
Item 4: Report on Outreach
- Hugh Alford reported on 2023 Outreach programme. He had given the eight Outreach talks to local community groups, and organised successful Outreach visits where volunteer members were involved, including a Moon Watch at Lullingstone Park and another at Langley Boys School. The Society was also represented at the Lullingstone Open Day in the summer.
- Hugh explained how the Outreach programme operated and the opportunity for members to become involved as hosts or by introducing the public to visual observations.
Item 5: Report of the Treasurer
- Tom Meechan, as Hon Treasurer, presented the Society’s Accounts for 2023. The Accounts showed an apparent deficit on the year of £434.35 (compared to the 2022 surplus of £957.26). However, there were a number of factors which had increased costs, including continuing inflation in Hall rentals and the increased cost of speakers’ expenses. Payments for events scheduled in 2023 had been received and accounted for in 2022, and significant expense had been incurred in acquiring a gazebo for use in showcasing the work of the Society at public events.
- Tom noted that a serious review of the Society’s income and expenditure had resulted in agreement on the appropriate level of reserves, but also had established that our income in future years would not cover expenditure without an adjustment to subscriptions.
- Tom reported that preparation of the 2023 accounts had involved more work than usual, with the transfer of the bank account to an electronic account, and the increased difficulty of identifying the purpose of incoming bank transfers that had been incorrectly coded.
- Tom proposed the adoption of the accounts for 2023 (seconded Jim Worthington, approved unanimously).
Item 6: Membership Subscriptions for 2025
- Tom Meechan sought approval for a decision that 2025 subscriptions be raised as follows: £27 to £28 for members, £24 to £25 for concessionary memberships, and £40 to £42 for joint memberships. The junior membership would remain at £10 and the individual meeting fee at £3.
- The resolution to increase subscriptions was agreed. (Proposed Andrew Ramsay, Seconded Rick Summerfield.)
Item 7 Election of the Committee for 2023-24
- At this point the Committee retired. Greg Smye-Rumsby, President of the Society, spoke about his pride in being President of a large and growing Society. He said that we were fortunate in enjoying significant volunteers effort, mentioning in particular how much Doug Hopkins would be missed.
Item 8: Election of the Committee
- Greg acknowledged the work of retiring members of the Committee, Carole Pope and Roberto Botero, and introduced the proposed nominations for 2024/25 as follows:
Jim Worthington (Chair)
Hugh Alford (Vice-Chair)
Raf Kaminski (Observing Officer)
Andrew Ramsay (Hon Treasurer)
Tony Sizer (Programme Secretary)
Dave Allen
Elizabeth Goldsmith
Rose Hopkins
Tom Meechan
Chris Roberts
- Greg invited a proposer for the election of the complete list.
Proposed: Rick Summerfield. Seconded Mike Lodge. Agreed unanimously.Item 9: Other Business
- Jim Worthington took the Chair and acknowledged the work of Andrew Ramsay and the support he had also received from past chair Roy Peters. He welcomed new committee members Liz Goldsmith and Dave Allen. He looked forward to further developing services for a vibrant Society, taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge in the OAS.
- Jim made presentations to Rose Hopkins, Carole Pope and Ruth Ramsay to acknowledge in particular their hard work for the Society during 2023 and their willingness to support the Society’s work in 2024.
- At this point the formal AGM proceedings were closed.
Andrew Ramsay/tim/290224