Minutes of the Hadlow Down Variety Club Annual General Meeting
Monday 13th March 2023 at 7:55pm
at Hadlow Down Village Hall
Present: Ann Zenka (Chairperson), Julie Twigg (Treasurer and Secretary), Dwayne Zenka (committee), Glenys Lake (committee), Jeannette Boswell (committee), Ellis Boswell (minutes), Bob Lake, Janet Tourell, Wendy Coleman, Claire Rivers, Sandi Houlahan, Joan Wiltshire, Jo Dummer, Brenda Johnson, Kathy Cracknell, Clara Thompson
Apologies: John Thompson, John Rivers, Owen Coleman, Peter Smyth, Roberta Smyth
Chairperson welcomes everyone
Meeting begins 7:55pm
• AGM minutes dated 14th March 2022 are read, accepted and seconded by Bob and Janet.
• Ann gives her report as Chairperson, detailing the work done by the committee over the previous three years, as well as the work from those club members who have gone above and beyond. A warm thanks is given to Jo for always being such a generous host.
• Julie gives her report as Treasurer, showing the entire club a summary of all income and expenses over the previous three years. A warm thanks is given to Julie for her dedication. The report is read, accepted and seconded by Jeannette and Bob.
• The Chairperson’s report, Treasurer’s report and the club constitution is made available to all members to look at during the break.
• Julie reveals that she received a highly critical email from an ex-member of the club, showing the hypocrisy of the lack of involvement.
The Ballots
• Bob asks who will make decisions for the club’s belongings if all the committee members step down.
o The current committee would hold an extra-ordinary meeting to deal with everything before stepping down, should no one else step in, as according to the club’s constitution.
o Claire points out that a new group of people being the committee for the first time wouldn’t know what they were doing.
• The club is made aware that at least four of the present committee members would be intending to stepping down
• Bob brings up the costs of the new village hall and the plans to build a stage in the hopes that there would either be the existing club to use it or a new club following the closure of the current one. He asks about the future of the money currently held in the club’s account, should the club fold.
o The constitution states that money held in the account at time of closing should be donated to projects furthering dramatic arts in and around the community.
• The contents of the village hall belonging to the Variety Club is bought up. Julie and Ann assures everyone that they have been catalogued for insurance purposes, so will be easy enough to deal with should the club fold.
Break for tea and the ballots is held at 8:45pm
• Votes are counted and verified three times, with a miscount due to a misunderstanding between the two separate slips.
• The vote results are announced 9:17pm. 9 votes for keeping the club running, 9 against. Without a clear result for closing, the club stays open.
• 3 people put their names down for committee: Claire, Jeannette, and Ellis.
o Claire stands for Chairperson.
o Julie says that she will approach those that couldn’t make the evening to see if they would like to join the committee.
o Ann, Dwayne, Julie and Glenys express their desire to stay on the committee in interim roles, with Glenys only wanting to stay as long as it will take to ease the transition between the old committee and the new.
o Jo asks what will happen if no one steps forward for either Treasurer or Secretary. Julie assures everyone that she will stay as an interim until a new Treasurer can be found, but is concerned that she will be stuck in the position.
• Claire suggests changing the role of the club to a more social format and dropping future performances.
• Ann recommends that the account be put on hold until the future of the club is clearer.
• Joan gives a speech about her pride in the club, the people that have been lost and sadly missed along the way, and the amount that the club has helped the community over the years. She gives her thanks to the current committee and those that have previously served.
o Janet suggests that the speech (or something similar) could be posted in the Parish Magazine and Facebook to bring awareness to the club.
Meeting is closed at 9:40pm
Claire and the committee stay behind to discuss the next steps
• Claire offers to work on the club’s social media profile to draw more awareness.
• Bob tells the committee that the HDCC will be distributing surveys door-to-door and offers to post flyers for the Variety Club with them, if we wanted to make some up.
Committee leaves at 9:50pm