IBM RETIREES CLUB - MIDLANDS
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 28TH MARCH 2011
ROYAL BRITISH LEGION - KNOWLE
Present: Alan Bridgman [Acting Chair]
Phil Dalton [Treasurer]
Brian Wilson [Editor]
Tony Mancell
Simon Barratt
Dave Dagley
Barry Wiggins
Mike Fabianski
Carole Robertson [Sec]
Apologies: Dave Compton
Peter Barnes
Jon Tanner
Ian Ridpath
John Hurst
Richard Williams
Pete Wood
Alan B opened the meeting and thanked everyone [47] for making the effort to attend our AGM. This attendance was encouraging compared to 2010.
Chris Wynne, Location Services Manager at Warwick gave us an extremely informative presentation on the Warwick site. The changes that have taken place both physical and from a business point of view, were to those of us who had worked at Warwick
"a-m-a-z-i-n-g"…….
CR asked for approval of the 2010 minutes and Barry Wiggins proposed approval and Simon Barratt seconded. These minutes have now been forwarded to Pensions.
Chairman's Report - Alan B's report is attached to these minutes for accuracy. During his report AB asked those present to fill in our newly created Questionnaire - asking for suggestions on events for 2011. This questionnaire will be distributed at each event between now and August when we hold our Planning meeting for 2012.
Phil Dalton Treasurer gave us a comprehensive review of our finances, as always, and demonstrated, again, how well he keeps tabs on our spending.
In response to PD's request for continued use of our Auditor and Nat West Bank Andy Botherway proposed approval with Fred Noble as second.
Ken Hope asked for a vote of thanks for the work achieved by Alan Palmer as Chairman. Of note the time consuming work he carried out to update the electronic addresses held for our membership. The Google distribution list created as a result of this effort is used each month to alert our membership to the most recent newsletter.
CR requested that the Chairman's position be ratified and John Milton proposed with Gary Wooding as second. As the existing committee all elected to stand again for 2011 Alan Palmer proposed acceptance with Ken Hope as second.
Our Chairman AB introduced the second speaker Evan Grant [UKI Transformation Programme Manager]. Many members commented on the style and content of the presentation which we found fascinating [or mind blowing - to use AB's accurate description] - bringing us all up to date with IBM's current thinking.
The meeting went on longer than planned with many questions from the floor, which indicated to the Committee that IBM speakers are always of interest to our membership - our thanks again to AB for arranging both speakers.
Attached a list of attendees and Chairman's report.
1. Alan & Gill Bridgman
2. Phil Dalton
3. Tony & Kath Mancell
4. Brian & Margaret Wilson
5. Barry and Rosie Wiggins
6. Simon and Sheila Barratt
7. Dave and Molly Dagley
8. Carole Robertson & Clive Raybould
9. Mike Fabianski
10. Terry King
11. Ken and Anne Hope
12. Ray and Ann Yule
13. Sandra Hassall
14. John Calladene
15. Fred and Pat Noble
16. Andy Botherway
17. Mike and Meryl Davies
18. Joan Suckling
19. Mike Wood
20. Brian Chilver
21. John Milton
22. Harry and Maggie Covington
23. Alan Palmer
24. Adrian and Jan Mills
25. Brian Rainbow
26. Dick and Diane Hodges
27. Marlise Cohen
28. Bill Cook
29. Derek Gregory
30. Ron and Janet Taylor
31. Gary and Sheila Wooding
1. Avril Cowley n/s
IBM Retirees Club (Midlands)
Acting Chairman's Report to the AGM - 28th March 2011
Firstly, welcome to the 2011 Annual General Meeting of the Midlands IBM Retirees Club. My view of AGMs is that they are the least exciting events in our Calendar. So my thanks to everyone here who has made the effort to attend. And I make no apology for the various "nagging" messages that have appeared recently - we do need a minimum number of members to attend to make the meeting "quorate" - and you have made this possible today.
The club's membership currently stands at 472 - this is 11 more members than last year. There is always movement in and out of the membership lists on a regular basis for a variety of reasons. But our general trend is up! This is in sharp contrast with the IBM Employee Clubs, all of which are seeing a general decline in membership. On the same topic, may I say a big thank-you to two Membership Secretaries this year? Tony Mancell stood down, having done an excellent job for us since 2007, and the job was taken over by Dave Compton. Dave, unfortunately, is not able to be with us because he was taken seriously ill a few weeks ago. CURRENT STATUS. We wish him all the best and that he makes a speedy recovery.
We welcomed two new Committee members last year - David Dagley and Mike Fabianski. They have now cut their teeth with organising events, and will obviously be raring to take on more work, so that the rest of us can sit back and take it easy. We have heard from Ken Hope about Alan Palmer's resignation as Chairman, which was the biggest change on the Committee. We have to thank Alan Palmer for his hard work in transferring the email addresses of members from the unmanageable Yahoo Groups to the new Google Groups distribution. As usual, we are keen to have new Committee members and I hope that we may have some nominations today. It's not so much fresh blood that we are after; it's new ideas.
I must thank the whole Committee who have worked very hard to give you a most impressive programme of 20 events in 2010. In particular, may I single out our two "unsung Heroes" - Carole Robertson, who keeps the whole Committee well organised and informed, and Brian Wilson, who keeps the whole club membership organised and informed. And, last, but certainly not least, Phil Dalton, our Treasurer, from whom you will hear in a few minutes. Phil managed our finances so well that we were able to add more events to the programme during the year.
The events we ran last year were well attended, but not many ran at full capacity. There has been a trend over the last 2 or 3 years for a slight decrease in event attendance. Whether this is due to the credit crunch or the wrong events, it is difficult to determine. As you know, we have a meeting in August every year to plan the next year's programme of events. To give us a wider perspective of what members would like to see, we often co-opt a few non-Committee members. This year we are asking as many members as possible to fill in the forms you will find on your seats / tables. We plan to give these forms out on every event between now and August. We need your contributions - however vague or imprecise!
Lastly, I am pleased to report that the relationship between the IBM Employee Clubs and the IBM Retiree Clubs seem to be very much better these days. There is still one representative from the Retirees Clubs at every National Club Committee meeting, but with very little to report now. I did learn one thing from the last meeting, however. HR does not have any way to identify or check the eligibility of IBM Associate Retiree Members. So if anyone knows of any IBM Defined Benefit pensioners who have retired from IBM after a minimum of 15 years' service but are not members of any IBM Retiree or Employee club, please let us know. We seem to have good relations with HR management, although a meeting between the new HR Director, Jean Marsh, and the IBM Retirees Clubs Chairs seem as far off as ever! We have now decided to "let sleeping dogs lie" and assume that Jean Marsh has no urgent concerns about Retirees.
This year all members of the Committee are prepared to stand again. My position needs to be formally ratified. And any other nominations will be very welcome.
My thanks to you, our members, for attending the AGM. You are the Club and without you this Committee would cease to exist.
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