Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at 18th October 2009 at approximately 5.20pm at Wribbenhall Parish Room, Bewdley

Present: Rachel Greenwood in the chair, Hazel Davis, Pat Hibbs, Bob Thomas, Janet Thomas.

Apologies: Margaret Campbell, Mary Cohen, Gillian Sunderland.

Minutes: The minutes of the AGM held on 12th October 2008 at Harborough Bank were agreed and signed as a true record.

Matters Arising: Margaret had hosted a committee meeting on 14th November, 2008 to plan the ESTAWM programme of events for the coming year. Janet agreed to write up her notes of the meeting as a record.

Report of the Chair: Rachel Greenwood thanked the Committee for its work during the year, and  reported on events and activities since the last AGM with special reference to the following:

  • Angela’s death on 11th February had been a great shock. A memorial concert would be held on 28th November.
  • The two ESTAWM events planned for the year so far – a pupil’s concert on 29th March and a house meeting on 28th June – had both been cancelled because of lack of uptake. There was a suggestion that late June might be a difficult time and a house meeting in February might be more likely to succeed.
  • She had been among those of our members who had attended the ESTA national AGM in Birmingham on 17th May, which was combined with the National Forum (Regional Reps meeting).
  • The ESTA Summer School in Cheltenham had been another successful event, which a few of our members had attended either full or part time.

Report of the Treasurer: Janet Thomas tabled the accounts, which were adopted unanimously.

  • ESTA GB did not give us a grant this year, and it seemed that the system of funding support for Regionally organised events was changing. Janet would speak to Philip Aird about how the system would work in future.

Election of Officers: The present officers were nominated en bloc and all elected for a further year unanimously.

  • Chairperson: Rachel Greenwood.
  • Secretary: Bob Thomas.
  • Treasurer: Janet Thomas,.
  • Committee members: Margaret Campbell, Hazel Davis and Pat Hibbs.
  • National Forum Representative: Rachel Greenwood, or her appointee should she be unable to attend.

Other Business: Janet drew attention to forthcoming events of interest.

  • The ESTA GB National Forum and AGM on 8th November at the Menuhin School.
  • The 2010 International Conference in Bruges, 30th April to 4th May.
  • The ESTA GB National Forum in Birmingham in May.
  • The ESTA 2013 International Conference organised by ESTA GB, which was now expected to be in Oxford in late August.

Date of Next AGM: Sunday 17th October 2010 was the most likely date. A committee meeting would be convened after the position on grants for Regional events had been clarified.

The meeting closed at 5.42pm.

END