Embedded Files
Minutes of the 61st AGM of the York Philatelic Society
Held at the Priory Street Centre, York
On the 10th November 2009 at 7.30pm.
Present: Members were recorded in the attendance book.
Apologies: David Nixon, Mike Turner,
1. The minutes of the 60th AGM were tabled, accepted and signed.
2. Matters arising
One matter of accuracy – the annual accounts were not tabled at the meeting but were presented to the Hon Secretary post AGM and a signed and audited copy is on record.
There were no matters arising.
President's Report
Several problems had to be resolved this year with the most serious being the missing packet circuit books belonging to Mr. Greg Fish that went astray. This problem was sorted out to the satisfaction of both parties and the York Philatelic Society must thank Tony Ward, Joe Kotek, Robert Jack and Peter Byrne for their efforts in trying to track down the missing books, trying to find out if we had grounds for an insurance claim and for all the correspondence between ourselves and Mr. Fish. I am pleased to say that after the York Philatelic Society made Mr. Greg several offers of compensation we were able to settle reasonably.
Another problem, which arose during the year, was the management of the Priory Street Centre wanting to alter the use of the storage cupboard where our display boards and library were housed. Unfortunately, as a result of this, we had to dispose of our library and sincere thanks must go to Mike Lewis and his long suffering wife for storing the books at his home and arranging an auction to dispose of the library stock. A very successful auction was held with most of the books finding new homes. The remaining books, I understand, are to be offered to Stephen Holder with disposal of any remaining to be decided upon in the near future.
The display boards created another problem due mainly to their weight and space the occupied. In view of this it was decided to make up a set of lighter boards. Robert Jack had seen a suitable set used by another society and was able to track down the supplier and order us a set of light plastic squares, which were converted into display boards by fixing three strips of tile edging to each board to support the sheets during displays. Many thanks to Trevor Collins for his help with these boards and for arranging storage for the old boards. The new display boards were loaned to the Egyptian Study Circle and they were kind enough to donate thirty pounds to the York Society for the use of the boards. It is hoped that we will be able to arrange storage for the new set of boards at Priory Street once they complete the series of improvements and alterations they have planned.
Another situation that gave cause for concern was the disappearance of two lots during the auction viewing before the Mini Auction on the 22nd September. Both lots belonged to David Antill and in view of this loss more security is to be brought into operation on auction evenings. This loss was reported to the police and management at Priory Street but nothing came of this. Enquiries as to a claim on insurance were unsuccessful. I leave it with the Committee to approve a donation from The York Philatelic Society funds to compensate David for his loss.
Janet Bygate has given us a new set of rules for competition entries and I would like to thank her most warmly for her enthusiastic help with the competitions. I hope, by way of appreciating her efforts, more people will prepare entries for the 2010 Annual Competition as it is not an easy role she has got when people fail to respond to her efforts.
As my role as President of the York Philatelic Society comes to an end at the end of the year when I shall hand over to Peter Byrne I would like to thanks all concerned for their help and support throughout my term of office and to wish Peter all the very best for his presidency.
I would like to mention that a joint meeting of the York Philatelic Society and the National Philatelic Society has been arranged for the 23rd January 2010. This is a Saturday and we will all be meeting in the Denham Room from 1230 to 1700. A programme of events and displays is yet to be agreed but it is hoped that some interesting displays will be forthcoming from both societies.
4. Secretary's Report.
This calendar year saw 3 visiting speakers. In May, Ken Walker displayed “American Early History up to independence”. In July, Val Beeken displayed “40th Anniversary of the first Concorde flight” and at the October meeting Malcolm Stockhill displayed “Poland, ever decreasing circles”. I hope the Society enjoyed these talks and I would like to thank all the speakers for their excellent displays. At our January and April meetings we saw some very good displays from our own members and I would like to take the opportunity of formally thanking them again for their displays.
During the year both Scarborough and Harrogate Philatelic Societies visited us and gave excellent sets of talks.
Society membership – We have seen a trickle of members joining our Society last year although, as always, we should be vigilant for additional members.
I am pleased to say that the Greg Fish incident has now been closed to the satisfaction of both parties.
A programme of events has been submitted to YPA for the first half of 2010, the second half of the year is currently being planned. In the new programme the mini-auctions continue to feature in the programme as do the regular events of the Competition and AGM.
Annual competition – this year we only had 4 entries to our Annual Competition. The winning entries were:
Major Eric Farrant Postal History Cup to Robert Jack for his silver standard entry “The censor marks of Peshwar”
The Mawer Philatelic Trophy to Capt Phil Hyde for his silver standard entry “Memel – Lithuanian occupation. Errors and varieties.”
No overall winner was awarded this year as all the entries were all very close in marks awarded.
Well done to the winners and let us all try and make an effort this coming year to put an entry or two in,
Thanks – I would like to record my thanks to Trevor Collins for continuing to run the bourse every meeting. I would also like to thank, on behalf of the Committee, the work of Susan Kotek as auditor and Captain Philip Hyde for his work in publicising the activities of the Society which he has done exceptionally well over the past year.
This is the last year of Philip Hyde’s term as President I would like to formally thank him on behalf of the Society for his sound steerage of the Society ship over the past three years.
5. Treasurer's Report
The annual accounts were tabled and key points outlined. Mike Lewis asked about the meeting room rent. It did not increase between 2007 and 2008 but there is an increase that will show in the 2009 accounts.
6. Exchange Packet Secretary's Report
The number of members receiving The Packet has fallen to 45.
Sales from The Packet continue to grow and the sales for the year were £3720 which was up from the previous years total of £3141 and the profit from the sales in 2008 amounted to £678.
The routes have been updated to take in the reduction in members and if members have any ideas or suggestions for improvements to the routes please contact Trevor Collins or Joe Kotek.
Trevor and Joe would like to thank all the members for supporting the packet and look forward to their continued support in 2009.
Comments:
Ralph asked for a clear statement to be made to vendors to make it clear whether the price is above or below the stamp for sale.
Action Trevor to review and ask vendors to comply with the rules, which clearly state where the price should be shown relative to the item for sale.
Ralph also has observed that a number of booklets on circulation that have clearly been circulated in other Society’s before reaching us, and are circulated with a low percentage of stamps. No solution was offered to this problem.
7. Publicity Officer’s Report
The publicity profile of the York Philatelic Society has been enhanced by the introduction of our website thanks to the efforts of Tony Ward who has created an interesting and comprehensive site and our thanks must go out to him for his efforts in this. The site has been brought to the attention of all the leading philatelic magazines as well as the local press and evidence has come out quite frequently that the site is being used to good effect. It is hoped that new members will be attracted by the site.
Our programme has been passed on to Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Stamp Magazine, Coin and Stamp Mart and ABPS news as well as the Press, Yorkshire Post, Northern Echo, Gazette and Herald. Other local publications such as the Handy Magazine have been sent information.
Each meeting of the society is reported to the local press and to Radio York and Minster FM. The Press did not respond too well to the information sent but after a complaint or two they seem to be doing a better job of reporting the meetings.
Yortime website has been advised of the programme and information sent their has been updated as required. As this site is based at York Library the present refurbishment there may affect this site for the next few months.
Comments:
Philip Weir commented that he rarely sees YPS in any magazine because, being Y it comes late in the alphabet and suffers from cropping of items.
8. Librarian’s Report
The Priory Street Centre has withdrawn storage and a decision was taken by the Society Committee to dispose of the library. A postal auction of books was undertaken and approximately half of the library was sold. The remainder has been offered to Stephen Holder and will be auctioned at Scarborough in January. £656 was raised from the sale of the books.
Comment: Ralph commented on the presentation book to Jim , which is currently held by Ralph Peacock.
9. Y.P.A. Report
YPA Convention was in Sheffield this year and hired Sheffield Wednesday football ground for the venue. A large number of dealers and specialist societies were invited to attend but were split between two rooms which was not considered desirable and should be avoided in the future.
The YPA website is now up and running.
A meeting of regional competition judges is being held in the near future and will include an update in the new National judging rules. YPA Management have decided to introduce revenue and Social Philately classes to their competition and to change their marking of competitions to bring them more into line with National judging practices. There are differences of opinion on the rules for Yorkshire. The rules will remain unchanged over the coming year but may change in the subsequent year.
Peter Byrne and Mike Lewis both echoed the problems of having dealers in split locations as there was also dissatisfaction from the dealers and buyers.
10. Election of Officers
The following proposal for the committee was made:
The proposal to accept the above was made by Tony Ward and seconded by Philip Hyde. The proposal was unanimously accepted.
11. 2010 Events Programme
Events programme for 2010 was tabled.
12. YPS Competition Proposal
Janet Bygate tabled a proposal for changes to the Society Competition rules to bring them into alignment with those of the YPA. The proposal included changes and clarification of the marking scheme for awards. In addition, the proposal notes that YPS now lacks competition classes for four types of displays: Aero Philately, Cinderalla Material, Revenue Material and Social Philately. It was proposed that should members wish to enter the YPA competition in any of the first three categories they should submit their 16 page entry at the same time as our annual competition for assessment by judges who would be mark it as it would be marked at Yorkshire and to comment on them. For the fourth category it was proposed a pilot competition class of Social Philately be established for 2010 with a small initial prize.
Tony Ward stated that the Committee had discussed this proposal at the annual committee meeting and agreed Janet’s proposal. It is therefore proposed for approval by the Society.
Simon Blore asked for more information on what Social Philately is. Janet Bygate agreed to show a few examples at the December meeting, there is also a display planned for next year on the subject. Social Philately displays will be 16 sheets that fit into current frame format.
The proposal was unanimously approved.
13. Proposal to move the AGM and Annual Competition dates
On behalf of the Committee, Tony Ward proposed a change to the date of the AGM to bring our programme and general calendar into line with that of the YPA.
14. Other Business
Disposal of the old style sets of Society display boards was discussed and the Society unanimously accepted Janet Bygate’s kind offer to store them for future use.
Trevor Collins requested that the Society’s online application form be updated to reflect the new members collecting interests form. Action Tony Ward (Completed 11/11/09)
Peter Byrne announced that the York Library have moved all the reference stamp catalogues to Acomb library until the current refurbishments are complete. This fact is to be added to the Society website. Action Tony Ward (Completed 10/11/09)
There were no other items of business. The President closed the meeting at 8.25pm.
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