Good evening everyone.

This year Club membership is running at 465, versus 484 last year. 

During the year we have had 5 new members, 2 resignations and 16 deaths.   However, although we still continue to attract some new members, year on year we continue to see an overall decline in our membership – Adrian intends to talk to you about this issue later in this meeting.

We still continue to lose a small number of members along the way, some of who choose not to continue with their payments once they leave the company.  In these cases we write to the members inviting them to set up direct debits from their pensions, but some choose not to.

We also had a small number of the 2019 programmes returned to us, indicating that members have either moved away or passed away. In these cases we have to rely on the Pensions department helping us.  Unfortunately due to Data Privacy regulations, the Pensions department cannot pass personal details to us, so we have to ask the Pensions department to write to the member (if they are still alive), asking them to contact us with their new contact details.

Now, I would now like to remind you to turn off your phones if you haven’t already done so, as it’s time for me to call upon all present to observe a minute’s silence in memory of those members who have passed away since the last AGM: 

Silence

E N Clarke

Bernard Miles

Ali Kassam Kirbanali

George Bradshaw

Mervyn Montgomery

Roger Rumbelow

Roy Moore

Barry Thain

James Crowson

F Jinks

D R Turner

Brian Martin

Patrick Gent

Keith Simpson

Ted Ellis

John Moore

Silence ends 

We have attracted 5 new members this year, compared to 8 new members last year, and they are:

Michael Rust

Stephen Gilbert

Peter Killingsworth

Steve Jacobs

Giancarlo Meneghini – Giancarlo used to run the Motori Perkins office in Como, Italy before it closed.   We are pleased to welcome Giancarlo into the Club, particularly as he plans to travel over from Italy for this year’s annual dinner in May. 

I have also been given a list of those employees achieving 25 years service this year, and 1994 must have been a very good year as there are quite a few employees coming up for recognition compared to recent years.   However, just because these people are eligible to join the Club, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will do.   I do write to employees after their anniversary date inviting them to join the Club, some do, but more often than not people choose not to join. 

So, remember we rely on you to let us know when a member passes away – we are no longer notified by the Company, and we need to keep our records up to date.   Also, if we are advised of a member’s passing in good time, we try to have a Committee member attend the funeral, and where possible we will make a donation to charity from the Club in memory of the deceased. 

That’s all for now, unless there are any questions?

Beverley Spridgeon