IBM RETIREES CLUB – MIDLANDS 2008 AGM

IBM RETIREES CLUB - MIDLANDS

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 16TH MARCH 2009

FALCON INN

BIRMINGHAM ROAD, HATTON

Present: Ken Hope [Chair]

Phil Dalton [Treasurer]

Tony Mancell [Membership Sec]

Brian Wilson [Editor]

Simon Barratt

Alan Palmer

Barry Wiggins

Alan Bridgman

Carole Robertson [Sec]

Apologies: Dave Compton

Brian Chilver

Tony Wild

Tim Lloyd

John & Olive Stanley

John & Julie Rickman

Ron & July Barber

Richard Williams & Marie Parietti

Ken opened the meeting at 10.30 and thanked everyone [48] for attending. In particular Ken extended a warm welcome to our new retirees. Ken explained why we had moved the AGM to the Falcon and how difficult security arrangements at IBM Warwick had become.

Review and approve last years minutes. Tony Mancell proposed acceptance and Simon Barratt seconded. A copy will be emailed to Pensions.

Treasurer's Report

Phil Dalton presented the audited accounts for 2008 and a copy of Phil's report is attached to these minutes. John Smith proposed acceptance and Dave Dagley seconded.

Chairman's Report

In his report Ken expressed his thanks to the Committee of ten whom, with the assistance of Club members had run a full programme. Jean Eysenck and Ron Barber are sadly no longer on the committee but helped run successful events in 2008. Our thanks were also extended to Andy Smith as Chair of the IBM Club Warwick for his help and assistance on security matters at the Warwick site, plus encouraging our close relationship with the Theatre Group together with cross subsidies. Members who should be mentioned for their help and assistance in running events in 2008 were David Williams, Ron Barber and Rick Paslawski.

The Harry Green PC Group continues to attract a good following under the Chairmanship of Alan Bridgman and Roger Goodman.

The Chairman's report is attached to these minutes; the following is an extract as the very existence of this Club depends on the outcome of these discussions'

You will remember that Jonathan Ferrar, Director of HR, would like to bring the operation of the employee and retiree's clubs closer together. The chairs of the five English retiree clubs all have similar views on how far this should go and negotiations are still going on with HR. I will mention a few of the key points that have been agreed in principle, some of which are in place. For example as I have said before, we are able to remain autonomous - however we are now participants in the National IBM Club meetings and can watch out for things that might affect us.

We have done our bit towards HR's request to set up a single constitution for all clubs. Alan Bridgman took the lead in Stage 1 and has produced one that all the retiree clubs agree to. Getting any five groups of older people to agree to anything is a challenge but if you knew some of the characters involved you would understand what an enormous task that was; so I must congratulate Alan on his success! His next stage, of working towards a constitution that is acceptable to retirees and employees may take somewhat longer.

Another agreement was that retired IBMers who paid £25 pa to become associate members in the past have now been accepted as full members and therefore no longer have to pay. However, closely related to funding, is that in future retirees will be able to choose whether they wish to be affiliated to a retiree club or a location club and their grant will go to that club. They will still be allowed to attend events run by any club.

The annual IBM grant for retirees will continue as before but there is a concern that we might be 'offered' a different accounting process. The Retiree clubs have always used accurate but simple accounting processes but there has been more than a hint that we might be expected to use the bureaucratic and very labour intensive employee club process. The retiree chairs and treasurers now all understand what this entails and have made it clear that we are not prepared to accept this valueless amount of 'un-necessary work'. So - watch this space!!

Matters Arising

John Calladene asked for a vote of thanks for Ken, resigning this year as our Chairman. Fred Noble also asked for a vote of thanks for the communication skills of our Editor Brian Wilson.

Election of Committee

Peter Barnes was proposed by Ken Hope and seconded by Carole Robertson. Alan Palmer has volunteered to take on the chair for 2009 and spoke briefly at the meeting to introduce him to new members. A disappointing response from our membership as new committee members always brings something new to the programme. Thankfully the remaining members of the Committee have stood again and are: Tony Mancell as Membership Secretary, Phil Dalton as Treasurer, Brian Wilson as Editor, Simon Barratt, Alan Bridgman, Barry Wiggins, Dave Compton and Carole Robertson as Secretary.

AOB

Alan Bridgman on behalf of the Committee spoke to thank Ken for all his hard work during the past two years. Not the easiest year for any Chairman. Alan paid Ken many compliments gathered from the committee e.g. great courtesy and kindness to everyone with whom he dealt, eye for detail and tenacity and willingness to negotiate with his follow Retiree Club Chairpersons. Ken's guidance to the group will be sorely missed.

Joan Suckling asked if we could include a trip to Longleat House, Wiltshire in our new programme and Janet Taylor asked if we could repeat a theatre visit to one of our day trips, not unlike our Evesham event this year organised by Ken and Anne Hope. Dave Dagley requested a Barn Dance for 2010.

This year sadly missed the lively banter, which we have come to expect from the assembled membership PERHAPS WE ARE ALL FEELING A LITTE JADED BY THE "CREDIT CRUNCH".

Consequently the meeting closed just after 11.15 and we were left to catch up with friends rarely seen, while we waited for the buffet luncheon to be served.

Committee for 2009

Alan Palmer [Chair]

Brian Wilson [Editor]

Phil Dalton [Treasurer]

Tony Mancell [Membership]

Dave Compton

Simon Barratt

Alan Bridgman

Barry Wiggins

Carole Robertson [Sec]

Attached to these minutes: Chairman's Report, Treasurer's Report, and Vote of thanks for Ken Hope

Chairman's Report 2009

It seems no time since I was giving my first report and here we are at the AGM again.

Having twelve committee members at the start of last year meant we could run a very full programme of events. Jean Eysenck and Ron Barber were sadly not able to continue for the full year for different reasons but they both ran very successful events during their time with us. On behalf of you all I would like to record our thanks for their work.

Members have continued to take advantage of the IBM Club Warwick sub-sections such as Theatre Plus and the Ramblers and they have continued to subsidise us at their events. I would like to thank them for this and hope this close relationship will be maintained in the future.

Once again some events were organised by members not on the committee, backed up by a committee member to organise the budget etc. I would like to thank them all - Richard Williams, David Williams, Dick Smith and Rick Pawslawski amongst others. If any member thinks of a potential event which would have appeal to members and which they would be prepared to run with us please tell us in time for the August planning session.

It was also another successful year for the Harry Green PC and Technology Group ably run by Roger Goodman (when he was in the country) and by Alan Bridgman (when Roger was not) Remember it is not just for the techy whiz kids - some of the discussions can be very useful to us ordinary folk so please don't be afraid to attend - they are always prepared to explain things to people like me when asked!!

You will remember that Jonathan Ferrar, Director of HR, would like to bring the operation of the employee's and retiree's clubs closer together. The chairs of the five English retiree clubs all have similar views on how far this should go and negotiations are still going on with HR. I will mention a few of the key points that have been agreed in principle, some of which are in place. For example as I have said before, we are able to remain autonomous - however we are now participants in the National IBM Club meetings and can watch out for things that might affect us.

Another agreement was that retired IBMers who paid £25 pa to became associate members in the past have now been accepted as full members and therefore no longer have to pay. However, closely related to funding, is that in future retirees will be able to chose whether they wish to be affiliated to a retiree club or a location club and their grant will go to that club. They will still be allowed to attend events run by any club.

Late last year I discovered that the IBM HR system does not pass on any joining information to new members of the Midland Retirees' Club. Since that time I have tried to welcome new members by phone. Alan Palmer and I have already started to compose a welcoming letter for future retirees with guidance how they can keep in touch with what we do. I believe that this lack of information has been happening for many years and, with the help of HR, I hope I will be allowed to trace these people and make them aware of the things we do and encourage them to participate in the club.

Now it is time to say my particular thanks. Firstly to the committee for their support during the year. In particular I must thank Carole for yet again doing a magnificent job of Secretary so efficiently - and appearing to enjoy it - as well as running at least her share of events. Furthermore, this year Carole has had to deal with the additional hassle of access to the IBM building! Secondly my thanks to Phil who has taken on the role of treasurer very effectively - he has introduced some new controls, - to which naturally we all object on principle - but they have enabled him to get our spend into line in case we should be forced to go to the IBM Club way of accounting. Both Phil and Alan Bridgman have also been a tremendous help in my dealings with HR. I must also thank Brian Wilson for keeping us all so well informed with his very well composed monthly newsletter and with the interim items as well.

Finally as this is my last meeting in the chair I would like to thank all Retiree members for their support during my two years. It didn't turn out quite as I expected two years ago, when I thought I would just have to blow the whistle during the monthly committee meetings. Strangely I really enjoyed the challenge of going back to working with Personnel, as we used to know them. It was like a second chance of life - and rewarding when things were improved as the result.

Thank you very much.

Treasurer's 2008 Report

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Phil Dalton. I somehow became treasurer last year and therefore this my first attempt at undertaking this onerous task. So let's see how it goes!

My thanks go to my predecessor, Barry Wiggins, for leaving the accounts in such a clean state. So much so, in fact, that when I created the files for the accounts in the accounting package that I decided to use, the accounts reconciled exactly with the figures provide by Barry. That was a great relief to me. My major concern from then on would be whether the accounts would reconcile at year end.

Apart from the reconciliation concern, there was also the matter of bringing the club's finances into line with the requirements of the new relationship with the employee clubs. Our chairman, Ken Hope, will expand on this further in his chairman's report. Unbeknown to me at the time the planned implementation date of this new relationship of Jan 1 2009 in typical IBM style has not been met and it is unclear at the present time as to when, if at all, it will happen.

The major implication of the new relationship was the amount of money we would be able to carry over into the following year. As our YE 2007 bank balance was in excess of the understood maximum, the later 2008 events have enjoyed a one-off exercise of higher than typical normal subsidy intended to bring us into line.

Turning to the handouts that have been distributed, let us review the 2008 finances.

The first two pages show the audited accounts having a YE bank balance of just over £2200, which is a decrease of just under £4000 from that at the start of the year, for the new relationship requirement stated above. The second page also shows that as a club we have a turnover of just under £59,000 against an IBM grant of just under £14,000.

The third page of the handout gives a more detailed breakdown of the events' finances. Probably the most significant figures being the average subsidy per event being just over 24% and a total of 572 people attended the events.

The fourth page of the handout shows the member attendance frequency. Out of an average membership of just under 450, 90 of our members attended 1 or more of the events. The most events attended by any member were 13. Mentioning no names as to whom this person is, let me just say that he is the first to see the newsletter. I am certain he would have attended the other 6 events as well, if he had not been on vacation.

Turning to the future, the committee really needs your assistance by you coming up with ideas for future events. Perhaps we can return to this in AOB.

Thank you.

---Ooo00ooO---

Alan Bridgman proposed a vote of thanks to Ken Hope at the Midlands Retirees AGM on 16th March 2009 when Ken stood down as Chairman.

The text of Alan's address is as follows:-

"Although I have known Ken Hope for many years, I am a new boy on the Committee, so I canvassed the opinions of my Committee colleagues.

The replies came back immediately and were full of praise for Ken's chairmanship and event organising ability. Expressions like 'great eye for detail', 'excellent Chairman', 'his guidance to the group will be sorely missed', 'meticulous planning for events', and ' his great courtesy and kindness to everyone with whom he dealt'.

His great challenge last year was to take on the might of IBM Human Resources (to say nothing of the other Retiree Club Chairpersons!!!) to get the eligibility criteria for membership of Retiree Clubs clearly defined and to remove several long-standing anomalies. In this he has succeeded magnificently!

My involvement with Ken last year was to get a nationally agreed Retirees Club Constitution produced. Without Ken's tenacity and willingness to negotiate with his fellow Retiree Club Chairpersons, I would not have succeeded in that task.

To end on a lighter note, I received a story about one of Ken's event adventures, of which there are probably many. On a rambling weekend in Keswick, Ken found his way to some back street pub in Whitehaven. When he asked if there was any food to be had, he was told "yes, help yourselves, but you will have to take part in the Karaoke as payment". They helped themselves to the food, and Ken still managed to talk his way out of the Karaoke. It takes a special kind of IBMer to do that!