East Wessex MCC - Committee Meeting Minutes

 

EAST WESSEX GROUP

THE MOTOR CARAVANNERS CLUB

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Minutes of the 47th Annual General Meeting of the East Wessex Group of the Motor Caravanners' Club held at Easebourne Primary School, Wheelbarrow Castle, Easebourne, West Sussex, GU299AG on Sunday 14 November 2021

 

 

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SECRETARY'S REPORT

Our group was unable to hold an AGM last year due to the pandemic so membership figures given covered the 2 year period between October 2019 and November 2021.

Over that period approximately 68 new members joined the group whilst 78 left.  The reasons for leaving were often unknown, but included illness or death, or sale of the van but many new members did not attend any of our rallies and did not renew at renewal time.

At the date of the meeting, the group had 175 paid up members, continuing the decline in membership.

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FINANCIAL REPORT

The Secretary reported that a further consequence of the failure to hold the AGM was that despite the accounts for the year 2019 – 2020 having been prepared, they were not examined by the qualified financial person. Since October 2019, the group had had three different treasurers, the most recent being Damian who took over in April 2021 until he passed away. The records had only recently been retrieved from his family and accounts for 2020 – 2021 had not been finished.

 

Unfortunately this resulted in the committee not being able to place the accounts for the years 2019 – 2020 and 2020 – 2021 before members at the AGM, and it would be necessary to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting at a later date to do so. Kate confirmed that the Council of Management had been kept aware of this state of affairs.

 

The financial details for the year 2019 – 2020 attached to the agenda were therefore draft only. At the end of July 2019 the group had £5011 cash in the bank; by the end of July 2020 this was down to £3895 and by the end of July 2021 there was £3649. These figures did not give a complete picture, though, as bills were still outstanding along with other commitments.

 

The Secretary explained that the cost of a rally to members in 2020 was worked out on the assumption that 18 vans would attend. As the average number of vans fell to 16, prices had to go up to reflect declining numbers.  Latterly the average attendance had been only 12 per rally. 

 

At the same time, venues had increased their charges to recover some of their pandemic losses, and we needed to make a surplus at summer rallies to subsidise winter rallies using halls.  However, the committee had felt it fair to reduce the cost to singles in a van by £2 a night when using a hall and/or providing food and entertainment, though not if venues made a fixed charge per van.

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