Kelvin Probus – 29th Annual General Meeting
The outcome of the elections for Session 2018-19 was as follows :-
President Angus Murchison
Vice-President To be co-opted by Committee in due course
Hon. Secretary David Moir
Hon. Treasurer Vivian Clement
Social Convener Gordon Barclay.
Welfare Officer Alastair Macfarlane, Immediate Past President
Committee members for session 2018/19 are :
John Allan, Arthur Allison, John MacFadyen, Robbie Mitchell & Shaun Digges.
Appointment of Examiners. David Allen and Robin Hutchison
The President observed that the position of Vice President remained unfilled. A number of worthy candidates had been approached without success. The search goes on and the matter is receiving the full attention of the Committee. Angus asked members to pass on suggestions for a suitable candidate. A brief summary of the general AGM discussion follows below :
The outgoing President’s report will probably prove to be unique. Given Alastair’s thespian instincts, he expressed his gratitude in verse to his Committee members and John Walls for his blogs on the website. Stewart Roy, while not attempting to trump Alastair’s rhyming iambic pentameter, did manage to put a pithy verse together in response and raised a laugh from the members. Quite a tour de force for an AGM.
Ken our departing Hon Treasurer, gave his usual measured explanation of the accounts. He explained that while membership fee income had hardly varied from the previous year, the losses made on the Christmas Lunch and the coach for the Pitlochry Theatre visit resulted in a minor deficit for the year. In addition, he observed a new item in the account for the President’s expenses to cover the costs of gifts to a number of the guest speakers.
This additional expenditure had been discussed at length in the Committee and the fact that it has not been a regular feature in previous years. Generally, to date, the Club had only paid traveling expenses to speakers from outside Glasgow or, in some cases, at the request of the speaker, given a cheque made out to their charity related to their talk. Alastair, who has experienced receiving tokens of gratitude after giving talks to other Clubs had suggested Kelvin Probus should consider following suit. These gifts often took the form of a bottle or a cheque made out to a charity nominated by him. The Committee, after discussion, had agreed that it would be appropriate for the Club to adopt this custom.
Towards this end, it was recognized that this additional expense should be accommodated in a rise in the annual membership subscriptions from £25 to £30. This would allow future speakers to be given a gift voucher or a cheque to a nominated charity in appreciation of their efforts. Nonetheless, the scale of the proposed increase was consistent with previous increases. Ken noted it was normal for such step increases to stand still for 3 or 4 years. Members were given an opportunity to vote on the increase which was carried unanimously.
There was also a full discussion on the motion on the agenda with respect to relocating the annual Christmas lunch to Douglas Park Golf Club, with Café Source Two being the alternative option. The new venue had been proposed on the basis of cost and quality. It was also noted that there was plenty of car parking at the venue, the golf club could be reached by public transport from Hillfoot Station and the clubhouse, by next Christmas, would have no accessibility issues for those with a mobility impairment. This proposal also went to a vote and was carried by a convincing majority.
Finally, under AOCB, John McIndoe raised the issue of the Annual Syllabus being a deterrent to younger members taking up the mantle of the Vice President. Stewart Roy said that the Committee had recognized this issue and formed a sub committee of the President, Vice President and Secretary to assist in the search for speakers and preparing the syllabus for the following session. In the meantime suggestions from the members would be welcome.