Minutes of the meeting held at Barton Village Hall 9 September 2023 beginning at 2.15pm
Present: C.Griffiths (Chair/Trafford PS); P. Kirk (Treasurer/Macclesfield and Prestbury PS); D. Sigee (Presdient/Trafford PS); D. Rothery (Kendal PS); G. Cook (Poynton PS); B. Evans (Burnley and District PS); K. Knight (Rochdale PS); G. Naden (Macclesfield and Prestbury PS); A. Jones (Vice-President/Lostock PS)
Apologies: E. Dunn (Bolton PS); S. Parkin (Stockport PS)
Before the meeting began the Chair presented NW Federation 75th Anniversary Competition Winners Medals to Garrie Naden and Dave Rothery for their winning entries in the 2023 One-Page Competition. (See Matter arising 2, below.) He reported that he had also sent a medal to Brandon Allison (Burnley and District PS) for his winning entry (First Place and Gold Award) in the same competition. He had already presented a medal to David Sigee for his winning entry in the 2023 Inter-society Rose Bowl Competition at a recent meeting of Trafford PS.
Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held at Barton Village Hall on 10/09/22 had been circulated previously, approved, and posted on the Federation website (https://nwfedps.uk/index.php/annual-general-meeting-2022/
Matters arising: (1) The Chair reported that no one had expressed any interest in participating in a seminar to train new judges. (2) It had not been possible to organise a substantive celebration of the Federation’s 75th Anniversary. The Executive committee had, however, approved the suggestion that in this anniversary year all competition winners (first, second and third places) would receive a special engraved 75thAnniversary medal.
Reports
- Chair
The Chair reported that many societies continued to struggle to return to the same level of membership and attendances as before the pandemic and that unfortunately, as far as he knew, at least one other society (Oldham PS) had closed this year. On a more up-beat note, however, it seemed that new initiatives such as the Zoom meetings held by Stockport PS were flourishing and there were reports of new members at some societies, albeit in small numbers.
- Treasurer
The Treasurer presented the accounts for the Year 1 September 2022 to 1 September 2023. Although income both from subscriptions and the Packet was down, expenditure in that period had been low, with the result the total funds currently held in the bank had increased slightly to £9258.05.
As Packet Superintendent, Peter reported that both the number of societies currently taking the Packet and the purchases made from the individual packets continued to decline. At present only 7 societies participated and total sales for the current circulation were likely to be at least 50% less that the previous circulation in 2022.
He also gave notice that it was his intention to resign from this role at the next AGM.
A discussion followed and it was agreed: (1) that a request for a volunteer to take on this role would be circulated, and (2) that notwithstanding that the Packet circulation would have to be wound up, if no one could be found to take it on, there would be an effort to ‘drum up custom’ for the Packet amongst societies.
- Webmaster
The webmaster reminded members that in order to keep the information on the website accurate and up-to-date he needed to be informed of changes by local societies. He clarified that his circulation list to local societies usually went to TWO recipients and that it was their responsibility to share the information more widely within their local society.
- Competitions
The Competitions Organiser (Dave Rothery) reported that One-Page Competition had attracted a good number of entries on a very varied range of themes. (These were on display in the hall.) It was noted that this year the Rose Bowl Inter-society Competition had only had two entries.
After discussion, it was decided that there should be a circulation to societies clarifying (a) that the entry in a given year should be from the last society competition, even if that was from the previous year; (b) that it should ‘normally’, but not ‘necessarily’ be the winning entry from that competition; (c) that a society, even if it did not organise a competition of its own, could submit a single agreed entry for the Rose Bowl Competition.
Dave was thanked for his work in running the competitions for the Federation.
- Speakers List
Dave Rothery was thanked for maintaining the List. He said that he would be conducting his annual review of the list in due course. It was agreed that the attention of Programme Secretaries should be drawn to the existence of the List, and it was also noted that a national Speakers list is available from ABPS.
Paul Gaywood Lecture
This year’s lecture was given by our President David Sigee at an event hosted by Rochdale PS to celebrate its 80th Anniversary. David had given an interesting and well-researched display on the University Mails of Oxford and Cambridge which had been illustrated by some exceptional material.
The timing, location and topic of the next lecture was discussed. A suggestion was made that the well-known stamp dealer Bill Barrell should be approached. The chair undertook to do this.
[NOTE: Lynda Gaywood had been present at the start of the meeting and had thanked the Federation for continuing to commemorate her late husband by this series of lectures.]
Election of Officers
All serving officers had come to the end of their terms of office. Nominations for the posts of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer had been invited prior to the meeting, but none had been received. The Chair and Treasurer expressed their willingness to serve another term and were elected unanimously by the meeting. The post of Secretary remains unfilled.
AOB
The role and future of the Federation was discussed.
It was suggested that contact should be made with other nearby Federations, both to find out what initiatives they might be pursuing that the NW Fed was not, and also to explore in what ways we might promote our hobby through co-operating in the organisation of supra-regional events. It was noted that some societies already have informal links with others outside the Northwest.
It was also suggested that the Federation might approach Stockport PS to see how the Federation might support and promote such meetings involving members from as many constituent societies as possible and even. Perhaps, reaching out to philatelists in the region who are not members of a local society.
The Chair thanked all present for their attendance and contributions to the business of the meeting which concluded at 3.10pm
NOTE The Chair had earlier received a request from the organiser of the Preston Stamp Fair, at which the AGM was taking place, for the use of ‘secure’ display boards. He had been unable to source any such boards at short notice. It was clarified after conclusion of the meeting that the Federation no longer owns such boards, having passed them to ABPS. The Chair will contact ABPS to learn how in the future such boards might be obtained/hired in case such a request was forthcoming again.