British Community Association, Lille

Minutes of Annual General Meeting

Everyone was offered some refreshment on arrival by Simon Fletcher; the meeting was then opened at 19.20 hours by the chairman Carol Vorobieff in the presence of 16 members and 2 visitors. Carol welcomed all those present.

Chairman’s Opening Speech – Carol Vorobieff

Carol reported that 2009 had been a good year, with several new events. Namely the Interclub Quiz Night, the Douai visit and the Fish and Chip Supper all of which she relied on the secretary to report further.

Carol said that as our financial situation had been a fairly healthy one this year, the BCA subsidised in part the guided visit of Douai, so the participants in fact only paid for the cost of lunch.Carol went on to express thanks to Linda Sherman and Peter Rhodes-Dimmer for kindly giving us the use again this year of their beautiful garden at the Château de Bambecq for our annual Barbecue. She also thanked P&O Ferries for the two family Channel crossings given as First Prize for the Barbecue and Christmas Party raffles.

Carol reported that the 2009 Committee had been particularly active throughout the year. There were three new committee members: Cathy and John Silk and Nadia Wells. Carol said that she was grateful to John for volunteering to take on the job of Treasurer. Carol also felt that Sue had put a lot of hard work into carrying out the secretarial duties, and producing a new-style Newsletter, and thanked her for this. Thanks were also given to Cheryl, for the great Interclub Quiz Night, for assisting Father Christmas with the children’s gifts, and for organising games. Carol went on to thank other committee members, Alison who has taken good care of the BCA website, adding photos after each event. Judith Guyon for heading the catering team and all of the hard work that is involved with feeding such large numbers of people with discerning tastes. Anna, Cathy and Nadia had brought their useful and individual contributions to the success of BCA activities; and Carol, herself, had organised the regular hikes. Carol reiterated her thanks to everyone for their hard work and time taken to make the BCA a success.

Carol was sorry to report that the BCA had lost one of its longstanding members in the course of 2009 – Paula Huart, mother of Katherine, a past committee member.

Carol confirmed that after the reports of the Secretary and the Treasurer, the meeting would proceed to elect a Committee for 2010. As the membership had been made aware, by previous emails and letters the BCA committee were seeking to find a new Secretary for the coming year.

Following the election of the new Committee, any comments or proposals for future events would then be welcomed. Carol commented on the promising start, already made, to 2010 with a few members having been to a live transmission of "Carmen" the previous Saturday at the Lomme Kinepolis, and with two groups

already planned to attend the Piscine in Roubaix for the Bloomsbury Group Exhibition on the forthcoming Sunday afternoon. She went on to mention that our Annual Dinner will be taking place on Saturday 20 February at a Chinese restaurant in Lille and Carol expressed her pleasure at hoping to see everyone there.

Carol thanked everyone for their presence at the AGM and informed them that the minutes of the AGM held in February 2009 were available in the hall, together with a statement of the 2009 account.

Secretary’s Report – Sue Fletcher

Sue commented that the AGM last year saw the need to fill two important roles, namely that of Chairman and Treasurer. Carol Vorobieff stepped into the shoes of Chairman and John Silk became our Treasurer. The post of secretary continued unchanged and the remaining team comprised a further six hard working members.

April saw the introduction of a new format for the Newsletters for which there have been a few compliments.

improvement for 2010. There were lots of new things to try at the BBQ, such as splat the rat but the Tug-o-War proved to be ever popular. Just that people had to be careful not to fall in the lake due to some enthusiastic heaving on the rope.

Sue went on to remind the meeting that we are still searching for a suitable venue for a Bonfire Night. If anyone knows of anywhere that may be suitable please let the committee know.

The committee had met 7 times in 2009 and the members had received 5 Newsletters and a brief News Flash within that year.

TREASURER'S REPORT – John Silk

John reported that he had taken over as Treasurer after Carol Vorobieff filled in for 9 months in 2008 at the last AGM.

Copies of his report were available in the Hall for this AGM.

John said that the 2009 financial year began with a total in hand of 2346 Euros. During the year two events made a surplus: the Quiz Night 188.25 Euros and the Christmas Party 241.56 Euros although 140 Euros will have to come out of the 2010 account to pay the balance of the cost of the hall hire.

The Fish and Chip Supper and the New Year Dinner broke even.

 It was decided to subsidise the Douai visit by 193 Euros as a benefit to members so that the event made a loss of this amount. 

We also made a 100 Euro donation to a cancer charity from the proceeds of the Quiz Night.

The Summer Barbecue made a loss of 301.92 Euros even though takings of 1272.90 Euros were a substantial increase over those for 2008, explained largely by overprovision of food. 

The Piscine/Bloomsbury and the Carmen Film visits take place during the 2010 financial year.

The Treasurer’s cashbox was closed and the balance of 96.55 Euros transferred to the main account.

General expenditure i.e. for stamps and office supplies (paper, photocopies, printer cartridges etc), and for affiliation fees and other services amounted to 666.97 Euros.

We obtained a partial refund of bank changes in 2008 of 38.38 Euros and are negotiating again with respect to commission of 179.40 Euros levied in 2009.

Membership income was 1029 Euros.

John was pleased to report that the BCA’s financial situation was and is healthy at the end of 2009. The bank balance is 2346.78 Euros the Secretary’s cash box balance 14.25 Euros making a grand total of 2408.58 Euros. With two unpresented cheques to the value of 121.35 Euros this gives the actual amount in hand as 2287.23 Euros. This is 59.55 Euros less than last year’s closing figure.

Anyone wishing to see the accounts, who was not present at the meeting may do so. Please contact John about it.

Election of Committee Members

In keeping with BCA tradition, all the outgoing committee members stood down. All of the outgoing committee were happy to be re-elected with the exception of Sue Fletcher who was happy to stand for membership of the committee but would not be available to hold any office.

Members who volunteered for the committee were:

Carol Vorobieff, Cheryl Fox, Sue Fletcher, John Silk, Alison Shaw, Judith Guyon, Catherine Silk, Nadia

Wells , Anna Gastaldi and Richard Irwin.

All were duly elected, being proposed by Helen Aschkanazy and seconded by Janet Jarczak.

Immediately following the AGM, the new committee would gather to determine roles and responsibilities for the ensuing year.

Open Forum

The Haiti disaster – A member of the International Singers, with connections to the Haitian community, has e mailed us asking if we would like to contribute to their appeal fund. Following discussion, it was agreed that we would like to donate 300€, but to a French recognised disaster fund the Fondation de France. Our Treasurer and Chairman will action this.

Peter Hawkins requested that we advertise, in our Newsletters, when films in VO were to be shown in the cinemas. This was felt to be impractical as the films come and go so quickly that we would not be able to keep up with the flow of information. The cinemas, themselves, cannot always tell us when such films will be available. It was suggested that anyone wanting this information could join the CCB and become part of their cinema club.

There was a general call to have Bonfire night again, but until anyone can find a new venue it is on hold.

There was a question about a trip to the Kent Show. There are no plans at present to organise such a trip. If people want to go to the UK for this event a trip could be organised but it was felt that as Lille is so near the UK it is probably easier for individuals to plan their own trips.

The meeting finally closed at 20h10 and 6 members dined together in a local restaurant.

The CCB now has moved to brighter and more spacious rooms 3 rue Jean Bart, Lille (just round the corner from our old building!)   We have a full programme of activities and a lots of new books and DVDs.