Minutes
Perkins Long Service Club, 62nd Annual General Meeting
Held on Wednesday 20th March 2024
at Paston and Gunthorpe Community Centre, Peterborough
Present: 10 PLSC Committee Members (Adrian Talbot, Garth Perry, Bob Gregory-Smith, Nigel Burroughs, Anna Errico, Alan Wells, Michelle Wyld, Cliff Gillis, Bill Guest and Beverley Spridgeon)
Plus 16 Members
1. Safety Briefing:
The meeting was opened at 7.30 pm by Garth Perry giving a safety briefing.
2. Apologies for Absence:
David Foster
Laurence Dobney
Jill Afford
3. Minutes of the 61st AGM:
The minutes from the 61st AGM were circulated as read, and proposed by John Skeels, seconded by John Jacklin, and were accepted unanimously by the members with no matters arising.
4. Matter arising from the 61st AGM:
None.
5. Membership Report (Anna Errico):
A full list of the members who had passed away since the last AGM were read out by Anna Errico and a minute’s silence was observed. The members were:
C P Sansby
Bob Seaton
Sandy Sands
A Robertson
R Overson
Alan Wood
A E Drew
Gerald Darby
Ray Wright
Robin Wyld
Gill Johnstone
Gordon Popple
Rony Hilliam
Valerio Francesco
Geoffrey Carter
H T Broughton
D Cooper
B C Dalhousie
W J Roan
The current membership is 488 which is higher than last year.
The full membership report can be found on the PLSC website.
6. President’s Report (Garth Perry)
The President said that Committee have had a busy year. We continue to modify the programme to try and capture members who are still employed., as well as existing retired members. We have had two recruitment events so far this year, but our membership numbers haven’t really moved overall. The project set up by Bill Guest is becoming vital for the continuation of the Club.
One of the areas we are going to change, is how we communicate with our members. Our website is very user friendly and is the quickest way for us to communicate any change.
The President thanked the Committee for their continued support.
7. Treasurer’s Report (Nigel Burroughs)
The financial policy of the club is to break even on trips with an expected number of guests (usually about 30). Any profit from the trips is then used to offset the club’s main cost which is the subsidy on the annual dinner. The subscriptions are then used to cover the administration costs.
In 2023 the policy was successfully implemented (with only a small loss of £409 compared to last year’s loss of £3,202 (mainly due to the costs of the special celebration 60th Dinner).
Nigel explained that as a result the club’s reserves fell from £16,427 to £16,018 – which is not of concern. We expect the current year (2024) to show a similar result.
Nigel thanked our auditor, Laurence Dobney, who could not be at the AGM but has expressed his willingness to audit the accounts again next year.
The 2023 accounts were proposed as accepted by Nigel Burroughs and seconded by Bob Gregory-Smith.
Garth added that the annual income from membership subscriptions is approx. £900 per year, and this will change as our membership declines.
8. Conservation Report (Garth Perry)
The conservation group have continued to support Swaddywell Pit and Deeping Lakes monthly between September 2023 and March 2024, and there is a session on 21st at Swaddywell Pit.
The work has to be done before the growing season and when the birds go into nest.
Garth thanked the 5/6 regular volunteers and welcomed Neil Thompson. One person who expressed an interest at last year’s AGM did not take up the offer to be a volunteer.
All volunteers are welcome and Garth’s contact details are in the programme if anyone is interested in volunteered. The full Conservation report can be found on the PLSC website.
9. Webmaster’s Report (read by Adrian Talbot on behalf of David Foster)
David explained that the new website launched in 2021 continues to work well.
There are two new additions to the website this year, Firstly, it is now possible to easily view the latest version of the Perkins Power News magazine, which contains the latest and interesting information about the Company’s products, people, customers and distributors. Secondly, we have introduced a new ABOUT US section. Here, website visitors can read a compact overview of what the Club is about, particularly useful for new members and those considering becoming members.
David is pleased that Bob Gregory-Smith continues to be on board as co-webmaster. Bob has the capability to alter, add or delete anything on the website just the same as David. Most importantly his website presence provides security and continuity.
The new monitoring system by Google shows us on average our website has about 12 to 15 hits per day, and not always the same people. We can see what they’ve viewed, and where they’re viewing from, but not who they are. The most reviewed pages are the events each year and interestingly the Deceased members pages
The full Webmaster’s report can be found on the PLSC website.
10. Report on the Events Programme (Bob Gregory-Smith)
Bob Gregory-Smith read out the events programme.
We had a full programme last year, but we had to cancel two events due to the Dancing on Ice tour not going ahead, and the other due to lack of support.
The annual dinner was very well attended, but the Christmas social was not well attended and this will be under review this year, particularly with the costs of refreshments.
We are this year trying to hold events over the weekend to attract some of our newer members with families. Perhaps new members are not interested in attending trips at this time, but will be when they are older.
Bob welcomed Michelle Wyld to the Entertainments group, and thanked Garth for all of his help.
Cliff Gillis went on to say that at the moment we are still seeking speakers to at the Business Updates event and dates are being finalised, hopefully the first event will be next month. These will be evening events and will be held on the Perkins site in the Forum, the updates will also be available virtually too and people can dial into them.
The full Events report can be found on the PLSC website.
11. Election of Officers
Garth Perry proposed that the following positions are accepted in a block, rather than to vote on each one separately.
11.1 Vice-President – Bill Guest
11.2 General Secretary – Beverley Spridgeon
11.3 Membership Secretary – Anna Errico
11.4 Treasurer – Nigel Burroughs
11.5 Entertainment and Activity Group – Bob Gregory-Smith
11.6 Webmaster – David Foster
11.7 Conservation Secretary – Garth Perry
11.8 Past President – Garth Perry
The election of the above was proposed by Martin Garfield and seconded by Peter Spridgeon, and all members were in favour.
12. Election of Executive Committee:
Michelle Wyld, Cliff Gillis and Alan Wells and Eric King has expressed an interest to join the committee. These appointments were proposed by Peter Spridgeon by seconded by John Jacklin and all members were in favour.
13. Appointment of Auditor:
It was proposed by Garth Perry and all members were in favour of Laurence Dobney remaining as the Club’s Auditor, this was proposed by John Skeels and seconded by Peter Spridgeon and all members were in favour.
14. Appointment of New President:
It was proposed by that Adrian Talbot assumes this position for 12 months only, and Garth presented Adrian with the Chain of Office.
15. Address by New President:
Adrian said that he had previously served as President mainly during Covid when there wasn’t too much activity. Adrian thanked Garth for serving as President for the last 2 and a half years. As well as being President, Garth has done a tremendous amount of work and asked the members to show their appreciation for Garth’s hard work during his presidency.
Adrian’s time as President comes at a time when we are looking at the strategy of the Club and this is an exciting time, which Bill Guest will speak about later.
Adrian said he looks forward to serving as the Club’s President for the next 12 months.
16. Report on the Strategy Project – Bill Guest
Bill explained that we are fully supported by our Patron (David Goldspink) and in the company today there are a number of resource Groups who also rely on sponsorship by the company.
Bill explained that his strategy project performed a survey across various areas of the company, asking if people were members etc. and the largest theme that came out of the survey was communications, how we need to be more active in this area. The second largest piece of feedback was the length of service being 15 years and not below, and then the next largest piece of feedback was about the type of trips/activities we offer, which are not necessarily attractive to working members.
There are three sub projects running at the moment as a result of the feedback.
Does the constitution of this club have what we need to make the change? Also, the change of name is being looked at as members with at least 25 years have only ever worked for Caterpillar and not Perkins.
Martin Garfield said that since he retired the workforce seems to have increased, and asked how many current employees are eligible to join the club? Alan Wells responded by saying that the average length of service in one company is now 6 years, whereas it used to be 30 years. One of the reasons attributing to this is the fact that pensions have changed, and now the defined benefit pensions have been phased out.
Peter Spridgeon said that also the shopfloor workforce are not paid as well as other companies now, so people leave to go seek higher salaries.
Bill Guest told the members that the Club will always strive to improve, and by the end of Adrian’s tenure we should start to see some change resulting from the strategy project.
Howard suggested that perhaps one of the business updates could be focussed on the Strategy Project, to give a wider group an overview of what is being worked on etc.
17. AOB
Wally Moss said that he will be 100 in two years’ time and hopes that the Club is still going at that time!! The meeting ended at 8.38pm and was followed by a light buffet.
Issued by: Beverley Spridgeon
20th March 2024