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Westonbirt Association

GCM 2006 - minutes

(Note that this is the web version of the minutes. Names of the living have been avoided by occasional slight changes in wording. The true minutes are held by the Hon. Secretary)

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General Committee Meeting of the Westonbirt Association

held at Westonbirt School on Sunday 8 October 2006 at 12:15

Present: President in the Chair, Vice-Chair, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer, News Editor, News Finance, Headmistress, 13 other Section Reps (representing sections 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 33, 36, 38, 38, 39, 43, 46, 47, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 62, Current Staff)

  1. Apologies for Absence were received from the representative to the Governors and 12 section representatives (representing sections 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 27, 31, 32, 34, 48, 60, 63, Staff)

  2. Minutes of the previous meeting held on Saturday 1 October 2005 were approved by those present and signed by the President.

  3. Matters arising from previous meeting

    1. The position of the current News Finance Officer was confirmed, her second 5-year term having started in 2005.

    2. The dates used for News collection in 2005 had worked well, and would be continued. The Editor said when the timings were impossible for a representative, she should be informed as soon as possible before the deadline of the end of February; specific arrangements for a few reports were possible.

    3. Email reminders, both to members before their own news was due, and to section representatives when it was time to send in collated reports, had worked well and should be continued. Such “chasers” were needed.

  4. Section Representatives’ Business and Reports

    1. Section representative changes would be reported to the AGM

    2. Labels for mailing were considered excellent. It was agreed that return address labels (to a central address) would also be useful. For ease of production, all would get them. Those that didn’t need them could return them at some convenient point.

    3. A number of section representatives requested that no mailing should be so large as to need large or thick envelopes. Asking the printers to fold the Amaryllian into 3 (for DL envelope) rather than 2 (C5 envelope) would make the envelope thicker, and C5 envelopes were letter rather than large letter rate. Section representatives might need reminding of the change in postage rates. The Association News was being printed on thinner paper to reduce its thickness.

    4. It was suggested that the School might email the Amaryllian. Because of the high turnover of email addresses, this would not be practicable, but Amaryllian issues were downloadable from the School web site as pdf files.

  5. Honorary Members and Vice-Presidency It was agreed that the past Head of Security and the past IT Manager, left 2005, who had retired after over 34 years each, would be offered Honorary Membership of the Association.

    It was agreed with enthusiasm that the previous President should be offered a Vice-Presidency, after her excellent service as President.

  6. Election of Secretary A member of section 46 had agreed to stand. She worked for Motorola, and had a son at Querns. She was elected unopposed.

  7. Any Other Business

    1. The President explained that the Archive Cupboard had been sorted in the summer by the retiring Secretary, who was thanked. One thing that had been found was an old Association badge. This had been put on a maroon ribbon, and would be used as a Presidential badge of office.

    2. The Archives (and, in particular, regular publications such as the School magazines) formed the history of the School. Evidence had been found that the Old Girls’ Club, which became the Association, had started in 1930 rather than 1932, the earliest year for which there existed AGM minutes and Rules.

      The Association was 2 years older than thought - the 75th anniversary should have been in 2005. There would not be a 75th celebration and garden party in 2007, but plans would be made for 2010.

      The Executive were given authority to plan the 2007 GCM and AGM and Reunion Day.

    3. The News Finance Officer was given authority to pass to the Memorial Bursary any magazine subscriptions that remained when a member cancelled her order, or died. The fact this would happen would be added to the subscription form. Currently she held £136 of such monies.

The meeting ended at 12:50.

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page last updated 13 March 2007