2019 at 7.00 Pm at St Catherine’S Argyle Church, Grange Road, (Hall Open from 6.30Pm)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Scottish Charity No. SC025491 FORTIETH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Tuesday 5th March 2019 at 7.00 pm at St Catherine’s Argyle Church, Grange Road, (Hall open from 6.30pm) AGENDA 1 Welcome 2 Apologies 3 Adoption of Thirty-ninth AGM minutes 4 Matters arising 5 Reports: Chair Planning 6 Honorary Treasurer’s report and adoption of accounts 7 Adoption of membership fees for 2020 8 Election of office bearers and committee members 9 Appointment of Independent Examiner 10 Question time 11 Conclusion (The Hall will be open from 6.30pm for teas and coffee, and to renew membership or to join the Association. There is a sheet with the AGM documents to sign up for events over the summer.) After the AGM there will be a talk by Roger Kellett and Alan Farningham on “Astley Ainslie: the route from past to future”. Minutes of the Grange Association Thirty-ninth Annual General Meeting Held at St Catherine’s Argyle Church, Grange Road, Edinburgh On Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 7.00pm Present: Committee: Sue Tritton (Chair), Roger Kellett (Vice Chair), Adam Rennie (Secretary), Joan Forehand (Treasurer), Nigel Ayton, Richard Brown, Jenny Dawe, John Duncan, Peter Pitkin Members (about 45 present including): Christine Ayton, Lorna Bain Andy Bell, Jean Calder, John and Gwyneth Chalmers, Kirstie Colam, Kate and Marshall Deas, Mike Falchikov, Betty Findlay, D W Forbes, Olga and Tony Franks, Jane and Walter Hallyburton, Betty Hudson, Moira Hutchison, Hazel Kennedy, Robert Ker, Jean Long, Molly Ludlam, Anne Marie MacLaren, Neil Mackenzie, David Main, Ian Moffat, Edythe Murie, Irene and Andrew Murray, Ken and Ruth Orr, Jan Rae, Ros Razzell, Morag Reid, Pat Rodgers, Dorothy Ryle, Peter Stevenson, Pat Storey, Anne and Derek Taylor, Margaret Thomson, Peter Whelpdale, Sandy Young Guests: Alan McKinney Apologies: Ian Murray MP, Daniel Johnson MSP, Dr Ronald Macarthur (Craigmillar Park Association), Janet Sidaway (Grange Prestonfield Community Council), Mary Corsar, Jo Doake, Moyra Forrest, Jennifer Gibb, Ivor Klayman, Sofia Leonard, John and Jacqui Longstaff, Isobel Miller, Lucy Richardson, Martin Sinclair, Joan Steven, Joan Weir Public: B Emson 1. Welcome The Chair, Sue Tritton, welcomed everyone to the meeting. She thanked them all for managing to come despite the last-minute postponement from 1 March caused by the extremely bad weather that night. 2. Apologies There were 17 apologies, as above. The Chair reported with sadness to the meeting that John Leonard, husband of former Association Chair Sofia, had died just the previous day. 3. Adoption of Thirty-eighth AGM minutes The minutes were adopted by the meeting. Proposed: Andy Bell Seconded: Roger Kellett 4. Matters arising There were none. 5. Chair’s report A report had been circulated. The Chair mentioned in particular:- • Two former Chairs of the Association had died in the past year – Robbie Bartholomew and Jon Oberlander. • The Association had changed the venue for its regular meetings and for the AGM. The main church at Marchmont St Giles had proved to be not suitable for the Association’s purposes. The Association had been fortunate to be able to move to St Catherine’s Argyle. The Committee had stuck to the advertised Thursday dates for the talks programme, but that would be reviewed for the coming year. The Chair invited members to e-mail her or another Committee member to express their preferred day of the week. • There had again been a successful programme of talks. • The 2017 Grange Fair had been very ably organised by Corrine Kirk at relatively short notice and had been very successful. It was planned to hold the 2018 Fair on 12 May; it was being organised by Anna Kulhavy, who needed volunteers to help her. • The Garden Group, led by Edythe Murie, had had a successful outing to Netherbyres Garden and Stobshiel Garden in June. The 2018 visit would be to Kirklands and Kilbryde Castle on 27 June. • The Chair thanked Roger Kellett very warmly for all his work on planning over the last four years. He was now standing down. The Committee was fortunate that Nigel Ayton had volunteered to take on the role of leading the Committee’s small Planning Group. • The Association continues to get requests from people for information about relatives buried in the Grange Cemetery. The Association had ordered from the Council a bench in memory of Robbie Bartholomew, to be installed in the cemetery. It should be in place within three months. • The Chair thanked all the members of the Committee – her three fellow Office Bearers and the elected and co-opted members. She also thanked those who had left during the year, in particular Dorothy Ryle, who had served the Association in one way or another for over 30 years. 6. Planning Report A report had been circulated. The Vice Chair said that there was a group of 4 Committee members who looked at all planning applications to consider whether the Association should object or comment. Of the cases that had arisen during the year the Vice Chair drew attention to:- • The proposal for sheltered housing on the site of the former Blackford Hill railway station had been refused on appeal. • The Association had opposed an application to convert a small garage on Whitehouse Terrace into a house. The application had eventually been withdrawn. • A new house was proposed on Hope Terrace, to be built in the long back garden of a house on Strathearn Road. The Association was content with this in principle but had concerns about the specific design for which permission had recently been sought. • A new house was proposed on a double plot on Grange Road. After an unsuitable first proposal the plans now proposed were acceptable. • There was now a two year delay in taking plans forward at the Astley Ainslie site. Following the previous AGM there had been much interest in the site, and about 450 people had been on the guided walks held in the spring. More walks were being organised. • Peter Pitkin had been looking very assiduously at all proposals for work on trees. Peter reported to the meeting that a new Tree Preservation Order was being proposed by the Council, for the first time that anyone on the Committee could recall. 7. Honorary Treasurer’s report and adoption of accounts The Treasurer thanked Richard Brown for his careful stewardship of the membership records. In presenting the accounts for 2017 she noted in particular:- • The year saw a surplus of £1,826, significantly more than normal. This arose because the Association had made fewer donations than in previous years. However, during the year the Association had committed to £1,800 for the Robbie Bartholomew memorial bench, which would fall due in the 2018 financial year. • Subscription income had crept up to just over £5,000 as a result of the paid-up membership increasing from 361 to 371. About 250 members now paid their subscription by standing order, which was very helpful. • The main expenditure had been the production of the Newsletter. The Treasurer said that the Association was indebted to Jenny Dawe for her excellent editorship of the Newsletter. • The Grange Fair was free-standing but was underwritten by the Association. Every year so far it had made a profit; in 2017 that had been £950. £750 of that had been used to buy equipment and material for the Library, and £200 had been donated to the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. • The Treasurer expressed her thanks to Ken Robertson, who had again acted as the Independent Examiner of the Association’s accounts. The accounts were adopted by the meeting. Proposed: Alison Bramley Seconded: Edythe Murie 8. Adoption of membership fees for 2018 Fees had stood at £10/£15 since 2012. It had been agreed then to keep fees at that level for 5 years. No change was proposed for 2019. This was agreed by the meeting. Proposed: Nigel Ayton Seconded: Pat Storey 9. Election of office bearers and committee members The list of the outgoing Committee was shown to the meeting. The Chair noted that Dorothy Ryle (co-opted member) and Neil Davidson (elected member) had stood down in the course of the year, and that Doreen Allerton had served as a co-opted member for the year. Nigel Ayton and Martin Sinclair had kindly agreed to be co-opted onto the Committee during the year, and both were willing to stand for election for the coming year. Proposals for the 2018/19 committee were then shown to the meeting. These were as follows, with the year of first election shown in brackets:- Office Bearers (serve for up to 4 years) Chairman: Sue Tritton (2015) Vice chair: Jenny Dawe (2018) Hon Secretary: Adam Rennie (2015) Hon Treasurer: Joan Forehand (2015) There were no further nominations from the floor for any of the Office Bearer position. Committee (8) (serve for up to 4 years) Nigel Ayton (2018) Richard Brown (2015) Jo Doake (2015) John Duncan (2015) Peter Pitkin (2017) Martin Sinclair (2018) There were two additional vacancies for elected members. The Chair asked for any volunteers. She was looking in particular for someone to organise the autumn/winter talks programme, which position had been vacant for a year following Hilary Watkinson’s retiral from the Committee. There were no volunteers. She then asked for anyone interested to contact any committee member at any time. The election for all the above was taken together. Proposed: Andy Bell Seconded: Mike Falchikov The meeting elected the Office Bearers and Committee for 2018/19 as shown above. 10. Appointment of Independent Examiner Ken Robertson had been examining the Association’s accounts since 2009. He had kindly agreed to continue.