Newport Pagnell and Olney Lions Club

Newport Pagnell and Olney Lions Club Minutes of the Business Meeting held on 3rd July 2017 at the Swan Revived.

Present: Richard Hillier, Trevor Aldred, Derek Seymour, Tony Triggle, Rod Wayland, Bob Benbow, John Ferris, Tony Higgs, Martin Ward.

Apologies: Karen Thorpe Morgan, Dave Simmons, Kim Smith, Tina Byford, Russell DeVille

Welcome Guests: The meeting welcomed Maureen and Hannah. They had responded to John’s article in the Phonebox and had come along to find out more about the club with a view to helping us out and maybe joining. They also had ideas about recruitment.

Handover: The Club thanked John for his presidency over the last year, recognizing that recruitment and retention have again become a challenge, limiting the abilities of the club to respond as we would like. Despite this the Club has done well, and Trevor pointed out that headlines for the end of year report due next month include £16.5K income and donations in excess of £10K. John handed presidency over to Trevor – Well done again Trevor!

Minutes of the last meeting & matters arising: The minutes of the last meeting were agreed. Actions would be picked up in the meeting. There were no matters arising.

Treasurer’s Report:  Charity Account stands at £5104.02. Future receivables were £150.00 for the film hire deposit. Payables included £640.00 for library shelves, £500 for Centennial Trees project, £146.25 for MS Group room hire, £300.00 for the Grenfell Tower appeal, £152 ($200) for Maddie Brasier sponsorship and £10 for a gift for the electrician, a total of £1,748.25.  Receipts were £117.00 Easter Egg monies, £154.50 Cherry Fair (most of which came from the Collecting cans for Grenfell Tower appeal) and £65.54 Riverfest, mostly from DVD and book sales. The total receipts were £337.04.  Payments were zero.  Donations: A donation of £250.00 was made to the Manchester Appeal.  Amin Account stands at £459.52 with future receivables of £30.00 Outstanding subs and payables of £90.00 President’s Honorarium.

Service Committee  Library Shelves. Ousedale School is having ongoing problems with the supplier. Another set of new shelves were delivered and returned because they were of the wrong dimensions.  209 Centennial Trees. Martin reported that OTC was enthusiastic about his proposal to plant an avenue of trees on the recreation ground with the Lions making a donation towards this of £500.00. The suppliers (Acorn Nurseries) may also be prepared to support this through discount. Each tree with a stake and compost would cost about £50.00 and there was a suggestion that the planting could be undertaken by people performing community service. Planting out in autumn should ensure adequate ground moisture, especially given it’s proximity to the river. NP do not own any land but it was thought that if an appropriate plot of community land could be identified there would be a chance of planting this out in Phase 2. AP MW ongoing.

223 Maddie Brasier - Maddie has been selected to join a Women’s Leadership Expedition to Antarctica in 2018. A donation of $200.00 has now been which will provide our banner and the South Pole. In addition Bob and Kim would look at opportunities through Ousedale to use Maddie to engage students particularly women, in science. AP BB KS  226 Manchester Attack Appeal – A donation of £250.00 has now been made. AP discharged.  227 Grenfell Tower fire appeal – It was agreed to double the amount collected at Cherry Fair and a donation of £300 has now been made. John pointed out that, in anticipation of the amount of help that may be needed in the future to resettle so many families, the DG is setting up a list of names of people who may be prepared to spend some time directly helping the many victims of the fire. This is a longer term project, but please let John know if you would like to become involved and he will arrange to have your details included on the list. AP ALL.  Nepal Freedom Kit Bags – Given the apparently high costs involved it was agreed not to support this project. Item Discharged.  Lenny’s mobility car scheme – This family are caring for a child suffering multi-disabilities brought about by hydrocephalus. A key issue for them is travelling to and from Oxford regularly to access treatment, and the need for a reliable vehicle. The club fully agreed that they would like to help in principle, subject to getting a better understanding of the need and how it could best be supported by us. AP KS Fund Raising  Calendars 2018. The intention is still to produce 2 calendars, one for each town. John said that he has 30 or so pictures from previous competitions he could use for the Olney Calendar. If anyone knows of other people who have pictures or would be happy to take some, please let John know. In the meantime, Tom had taken some great pictures of Newport and would be happy to take some more, so that we could have enough to produce a calendar. We would need to confirm calendar size and advert space so that when we enter discussions with potential sponsors we can have this critical information available. AP TA Ongoing.  Psychic entertainment Evenings - Depending on her availability, Tina will continue to plan for these events despite having decided to resign for personal reasons. (See membership).  Cherry Fair. – We had a presence at Cherry Fair, and as well as talking to members of the community, we raised £154, mostly in the collecting tins, for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. Item discharged.  Riverfest – This was another opportunity to have a presence and sell some books. We sold £65 worth of DVD’s and books.  Dickens – On track. Awaiting Karen’s update. Social  The Jazz Night Boat Cruise is on course for 5th October.  Greyhound – still awaiting an opportunity.  The Cock at N Crawley – Now booked for Monday 18th September. Please let Trevor know if you are coming.  Soapbox Derby – Silver St, NP Sunday 6th July.  Proms in the Park, NP, 18th August.  Black Adder, Stantonbury Theatre 2nd September,

Membership  It is with great regret that we heard the news of Tina’s resignation. Tina has served the Lions well, especially with organization of the Psychic nights, and great sense of humour together with her fantastic Tail Twister interludes will be sadly missed. Tina has decided that she needs more time to herself, especially with such daunting work hours. We fully understand this but we are sorry to see her go and we will miss her loads! We hope that you will still keep in touch Tina, and you will always be welcome to join up with us in less formal ways in the future!  There was some discussion about membership, with Maureen and Hannah both making the point that the community need to know what they will lose if we fail to sustain a healthy core number of people. Bob had been in touch with Ousedale School concerning the opportunity for D of E students to use Lions activities to gain Volunteering experience. John suggested that we could offer the chance for students to work in partnership with us in extending their media studies. Bob would include this in the action plan for increasing membership. AP KS & BB OG  John’s articles in the Phonebox had prompted interest from Maureen and Hannah and also some people in NP.  The Incoming Officers Forum at Elstree on 11th June was interesting and looked at what makes a good leader. There were also some alarming statements made on behalf of the multi-district concerning the need for all clubs to apply for charitable status, statements which were not thought to be true and were at the very least highly misleading.

Correspondence

As circulated.

Any Other Business  Rod mentioned that we are down to 6 club bannerettes.  Printer Cartridges and Spectacles – Derek reminded the meeting that he was still collecting these.

Next Meeting: 7th August at 7.30 p.m. at the Two Brewers.