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| EVENT - 2007 AGM Notes | ||||
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| REPORT ON THE OVERSTONE ASSOCIATION AGM SATURDAY 12 MAY 2007 Prepared by Louise Eddington - Association Editor The AGM took place at the Reunion held at Highgate House in Creaton, a change of venue from Overstone, which proved a great success. Following on from the previous reunion meeting in 2005 when we decided that a meeting every 2 years was the best thing as we move further and further away from our school days, I started looking for an attractive venue in Northamptonshire and came across Highgate which seemed to meet all our requirements. I knew the Overstone connection (family home of the Chudleys) already, and after my visit last year with Pam Knight to check it out, we decided it was the perfect location for us. Response to the invitations was fairly slow but the usual last-minute rush found us with about 50 old girls and staff congregating in the Drawing Room for coffee and non-stop chatter, which subsided only briefly at around 12.15 for us to talk about our finances and what we were going to do next! After welcoming everyone to our reunion, a big “thank you” was given to Pam who was responsible for organising the finer details of our event with Highgate staff over the preceding month. Following printing of the Newsletter 2006, I received notification of the deaths of Kathleen Jones (aged 85), Kathleen Taylor (aged 87) as well as Ann Bensted and Moon Cortis during 2006. I also had emails, calls or messages from the following with apologies for absence: Sarah Dixon, Susan Santos, Priscilla Jackson, Margaret Bates, Deirdre Morris, Rosemary Keunen, Jennifer Llewellin, Sue Bates, Roberta Tooke, Jane Whiteley, Deirdre Armitage, Gillian Melville, Sue Caple, Annette Phillips, Nicky Savory, and Nikki Pollock. We currently have 165 paid up members and another 50+ invitations were sent to non-members whose addresses I still have, although none of them responded to the invitation. Adele then gave the financial report (copies were distributed around the room) to year-end 2006. (The 2005 accounts were printed in the Newsletter 2006). Our outgoings consist of admin and printing costs for the Newsletter, the deposit and costs for the Reunion day and the annual charges for upkeep of the website. The balance at year-end was close to £3,000. Adele reiterated the decision we made two years ago, to take subscriptions only up to 2010 when the subscription and membership issues would be reviewed. We do not want to retain too large a balance in the account and we have more than enough to cover the costs of several more Newsletters and Reunions. Adele then said that she had several bills from Host It who maintain the website for us, which included the forthcoming annual fee for the domain name and we needed to decide whether or not we wanted to continue with the site and pay these bills. We discussed the website, which had not been kept up to date and I believed presented a very negative outlook to the Association for anyone new looking at the site. Several years ago, I put a notice on the message board of Friends Reunited regarding the OA and thought that a more likely place someone would search for Overstone School although again, I have not received any message or note from an old girl via this source. Very few people present had looked at our website but it didn’t tell members anything they didn’t already know. The majority felt that even though the annual costs were not so high, it was a complete waste of money if it wasn’t even kept up to date. Rebecca Boulos Hanna was keen to see an updated version, with a board where messages and pictures could be posted. I pointed out that Jo Johnson was always going to do this but it never happened. Josephine Peel and several others were also keen for it not to be closed. A vote was taken as to whether we should a) close the site completely or b) retain it but try and re-vamp it. The vast majority were in favour of closing it but we agreed to give Rebecca and Josephine a short time to get in touch with Jo and see if they could realistically do something with the site. Adele said she could only wait a couple of weeks to hear from them before making a decision on the outstanding bills from Host It. I then mentioned that Adele, who had been Treasurer for 5 or 6 years, wanted to stand down but that her sister Alyson (Pink) had agreed to take over. In fact Alyson had already co-ordinated the numbers for today and they had also made arrangements for the bank account mandate to include Alyson as signatory (Adele would remain on it as back up). I thanked Adele for all her hard work over the years and presented her with some wine in appreciation of her services. The next communication will be my “Request for News” letter to all members in the New Year for editing and printing of the next Newsletter in May 2008. Our next Reunion is scheduled for May 2009 and as we all enjoyed Highgate House, it was very likely we would arrange it there again. The restaurant manager was eager for us then to move into the Baronial Hall so the meeting was closed but not before Lorraine also gave a vote of thanks to me, which was very much appreciated, thank you. |