AGM MINUTES

The Annual General Meeting of the ASSOCIATION OF BOLTON ALLOTMENT SOCIETIES was held on 17^th November 2014. It was attended by 20 individuals representing 12 different sites. All votes were taken by show of hands.

 The meeting was opened by the retiring Chair, Richard Heyes, who then agreed to take the Chair for the rest of the meeting

 The Assistant Secretary (D Jackson) then gave a brief account of the current position of Abas. As follows:-

We now have 16 site societies in membership – covering 671 of the (approx) 980 plots in Bolton.

·        We have 502 signed up members.

·        We have held monthly meetings through the year

·        We have been accepted by Bolton Council as their prime means of contact with the Allotment Community

·        In this capacity we’ve raised a number of issues with the Council with varying degrees of success

·        We attend meetings of the NWCAA (as and when they are held).

·        We are trying to improve communications with the NAS / NSALG

·        We operated the Borough-wide Allotments Competitions in 2014

The Treasurer (T Farrell) then presented his Statement of Abas’ Annual Accounts

 

ASSOCIATION OF BOLTON ALLOTMENTS SOCIETIES
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2013/2014
OPENING BALANCE (BANK ACCOUNTS)				£1,236.75
INCOME
CVS  (initial payment)		£1,000.00
Members' Subscriptions		£426.00
Bank Interest		£0.27
Cash Transfer		£100.00
			£1,526.27
EXPENSES
Subs to NSALG		£175.50
Secretary's Honararium and Expenses (2013)		£114.00
National Vegetable Society		£19.00
Prize Money Allotments Competitions		£90.00
Engraving Trophies		£45.00
Postage		£7.96
Asst Secretary's Expenses		£25.00
CVS Grant expedniture (to date)		£956.19
			£1,432.65
NETT FLOW				£93.62
Expected Balance				£1,330.37
CURRENT ACCOUNT		£269.75
RESERVE ACCOUNT		£1,035.37
CASH IN HAND		£23.95
			£1,329.07
Actual Balance				£1,329.07
BALANCING ITEM				-£1.30

The Accounts were accepted.

 Proposed Amendments to the Abas Constitution

 The Assistant Secretary explained that the amendments previously posted on this blogsite were intended to clarify the position of individual members of Abas and to clarify the voting regulations.

The amendments were unanimously accepted.

 

ELECTIONS OF OFFICERS AND MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Hon. President Richard Heyes (Tonge Moor)

Hon. Vice-President George Wild (Tonge Moor)

Chair Jeff Gibson (Tonge Fold)

Secretary Dave Jackson (Harpers Lane)

Treasurer Terry Farrell (Tonge Fold)

 

Management Committee – Anne Craven (Settle Street), Theresa Morris (Tonge Fold)

 Subscriptions 2016

 The Treasurer confirmed that subscriptions for 2016 may be paid during the period June 2015 to the AGM in November 2015.

 The 2014 Committee had proposed that the fee per individual member be raised from £0.50p to £1.00. The Committee felt that this would provide the funds necessary to run the Annual Competitions and fund the series of talks / lectures planned for 2015, Members were invited to consult with their members both about the proposed increase and about alternative ways of funding the Competitions and the Talks.

 BOLTON ALLOTMENTS COMPETITIONS 2015

The Association will again be running the Fairhurst, Greenhalgh, New Entrant and Rose Bowl Competitions. Details will be sent to Society Secretaries in the New Year

 The Onion and Leek Show 2015

The Association will be re-introducing the Bolton Onion and Leek Show in September 2015

We are still looking for sponsorship for individual classes and for the show as a whole.

 Programme of Events 2015

The Association intends (barring any emergency events e.g. any new announcements by Bolton Council in response to new budgetary cuts) to restart the monthly meetings in March 2015.

The Association aims to present a series of talks and lectures on topics of interest to plot-holders in the New Year. Suggestions for topics and your views on whether there should be a charge for these talks are invited.

 

 

Abas Talks 2015

Following requests and feed back from our Abas meetings the following provisional list of presentation/talks have been selected from talks given to other Gardening and allotment Societies in the past couple of years

Vegetables My Way, by David Metcalfe

Make Your Greenhouse Work for You

Composting and Worm Composting

Dahlias for the Garden and Show

Bee Keeping

 

If you have any further suggestions please email us at

 

boltonallotments2014@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

AGM Agenda

The Abas AGM takes place on Monday 17th November at Astley Bridge Cricket Club (7.30 p.m. for an 8.00 p.m. start)

The Agenda as present stands as

1. Proposed Amendments to Abas Constitution (see earlier post)

2. Treasurer's Report / Accounts of the Association

3. Election of Officers and Committee

1. Chair - proposed Richard Heyes (Toneg Moor)
2. Secretary - proposed David Jackson (Harpers Lane)
3. Treasurer - proposed Terry Farrell (Tonge Fold)
4. Hon President - proposed George Wilde (Tonge Moor)

     Executive Committee - proposed Ann Craven (Settle Street), Jeff Gibson (Tonge Fold)

     Other nominations may be made via boltonallotments2014@yahoo.co.uk

4.  Setting Subscriptions for 2016 (these subscriptions become payabel from June / July 2015)

5. Bolton Allotment Competitions 2015

6. Onion and Leek Show 2015

7.  Programme of Events 2015

8. Any other business - motions may be submitted via boltonallotments2014@yahoo.co.uk

Amendments to the ABAS Constitution proposed for the AGM 17-11-2014

AMENDMENTS TO ABAS CONSTITUTION

Amend section 2.1 to read

2.1 To promote the interests of all members in their allotment activities, including co-operating with other Associations and Federations, Regional bodies (including the North West Counties Allotments Association) and National bodies (including the National Allotment Society).

 

Amend section 3 to read:-

3. Membership

3.1          Membership of the Association shall be open to all plot-holders on sites that are located within the Bolton area. There are three routes to membership.

a) Group membership – open to all Site Societies that are located in the Bolton area

b) (Discretionary) Group membership – open to any other societies at the discretion of the Committee

c) Individual membership – which is open to any plot-holder who is on a site within the boundaries of Bolton but which does not have a Site Society or where that Site Society has chosen not to become a Group member of the Association.

d) Records and details of membership shall be maintained by the Association Treasurer.           

 

Amend section 7 to read:-

7. Voting

7.1 Each Society in Group membership shall have up to two votes at any general meeting subject to there being at least two members of that Society present at the meeting who are authorised to represent that Society.

7.2 Up to two votes can be cast on behalf of any site where there is no group membership, provided that the equivalent number of individual members from that site are present at the meeting. If there are more than two individual members present they must agree how votes will be cast.

7.3 The Chair of the meeting shall have a casting vote in the event of equal numbers of votes bong cast both ‘for’ and ‘against’ the motion under consideration.

 

Amend section 12 by adding 12.3

12.3 Subscriptions to be paid by individual members are equal to the rate per society member charged to group members.