AGM Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Park Hall Hotel, Preston, Lancashire on Saturday 1 May 2010
Present: Chair Barry Stickings Vice Chair Phil McEvilly Secretary Lynda Rhodes Treasurer Gary Murphy Acting Assistant Secretary Jenny Lupton
Ambassador Robbie Crow Observer Debby Clark Observer Gavin Waugh
Members: Mrs A Ajmal, Mr & Mrs S Andrews, Mr & Mrs J Atkinson, Mr & Mrs C Bates, Mr & Mrs R Bird, Mr & Mrs C Bould, Mrs S Brister, Mrs D Bruce, Mrs M Carberry, Mr & Mrs G Clark, Mr & Mrs G Clive, Mr & Mrs G Cook, Mr M Cook & Ms T Bryan, Mr & Mrs Croft, Mr & Mrs R Crow, Mr & Mrs J Davis, Mr & Mrs W Day, Mr & Mrs J Delaney, Mr & Mrs M Dennison, Mr & Mrs M Eccles, Mr & Mrs D Eggins, Mr & Mrs C Folder, Mr M Food and Ms C Holmes, Mr & Mrs A Gardiner, Mr & Mrs M Gordon, Mr & Mrs M Griffin, Mr & Mrs K Guha, Mr P Hale & Ms S Lacey, Mr & Mrs C Hall, Mr & Mrs A Hamriding, Ms S Hiley, Mr & Mrs R Hornbrook, Mr B Hornby, Mr M Horspool, Mr R Inaba & Mrs D Demomo, Ms S Jessop, Mrs T Karvaski, Mr & Mrs A King, Mr & Mrs D Lamin, Mr C Lear & Ms P Jones, Mr T Lupton, Mr & Mrs M Machin, Mr & Mrs S May, Mrs M McEvilly, Ms M McMenamin, Mr & Mrs N Morgan, Ms C Morris, Mr J Murphy & Ms C Dunstan, Mrs R Murphy, Mr & Mrs A Newton,
Mr & Mrs C Nicklin, Mrs K Ott, Mr & Mrs J Paterson, Mr & Mrs D Paul, Mr & Mrs M Potter, Mr & Mrs P Pouncey, Mr & Mrs J Preston, Ms S Price, Mr & Mrs J Reynolds, Mr I Rhodes, Mr & Mrs D Rojas-Al-Varez, Mr & Mrs J Ronnback, Mr & Mrs W Rose, Mr & Mrs D Sharp, Mrs D Sloan, Mr & Mrs J Steven, Mr & Mrs M Stevens, Mr & Mrs J Sumner, Mr & Mrs L Tilley, Mr & Mrs S Thompson, Ms L Thomson, Mr & Mrs A Thorne, Mr & Mrs N Tidcombe, Mr & Mrs T Walkden, Mr & Mrs A Walker, Mrs S Waugh, Mr & Mrs G Wilkes, Mr & Mrs K Wilson, Mr & Mrs M Wilson, Mr & Mrs P Wolstenholme.
Introduction
Barry Stickings introduced himself. He welcomed all families especially the 20 new families and introduced a special guest the new mascot for MACS, MACS the Monkey. Barry explained to everyone the agenda for the meeting.
Apologies for Absence
None were received.
Minutes of the AGM held on 2 May 2008
Minutes of the AGM held on 2 May 2008 were accepted as true and correct.
Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
Chairs Report (Barry Stickings)
Barry went through the activities that will be taking place over the weekend, including the dinners, today the music workshop being held after lunch MACS and has got talent show this evening.
The Team – Barry introduced all of the current committee to the families.
Gala Ball – Barry went over that MACS held a Gala Ball at the end of 2002, this raised the profile of MACS and around £20,000.
6th November this year we will be holding another Gala Ball which is to be a black tie event in London. We are aiming for corporate companies to come along, Barry asked families to let any large companies know about this event to help to raise the profile of MACS.
David Blunkett and Jodie Prenger will be attending.
Toy – Barry showed everyone a toy which was the idea behind
the balloons to become the Logo for MACS 17 years ago.
Treasurer’s Report (Gary Murphy)
Gary informed everyone that the year end has now been changed from April to December, MACS has also changed Bank Account from NatWest to a CAF Account.
There is a new payments procedure this is now all done online, Lynda the Secretary enters the payments, Gary the Treasurer checks all payments are entered correctly then Barry the Chair or Phil the Vice Chair approves them.
Gary went over the accounts the income was around ÂŁ from the Marathon.
The costs in 2009 have increased these were on the AGM (due to providing inflatable activities and new families), providing more grants, there is a governance cost of 1% which is for holding meetings, none of the Trustees are paid this cost is to cover mileages and rooms for the meetings.
MACS has separate accounts which are for events/items such as the AGM, Gala Ball and Caravans, the money in these accounts can only be spent on that event/item.
80% of the income to MACS comes from the Marathon, 21%
costs is for the Marathon, 33% costs goes towards holding the AGM and Regional Events. Events in 2010 we did not have as many runners for this year for the Marathon, we are hoping to reach ÂŁ170,000 and by holding the Gala Ball this will lower the % on fundraising so therefore our main fundraising not being through the Marathon alone.
Gary asked if anyone has any questions to please see him after the meeting.
After the income and expenditures of the year MACS is in a finically healthy situation with the current Balance being ÂŁ
Barry informed families that if they have a request for help to please send the application to Lynda or someone on the committee, this will then be discussed and as soon as a decision has been made we will let the families know.
Achievement Awards – Barry explained that as none of the winners of this years Achievement Awards were staying all the prizes have been sent out, Barry read out the winners:-
Kier Wilson
Aiden Preston
Olivia Kavanagh
Marathon 2010 – Barry thanked some of the MACS Dad’s that were attending the Weekend that ran this years Marathon, he also showed a small clip of photos of some of the runners.
New Website – This is being set up at the moment and will be ready to go live in the next few weeks, it will have video access, be a good layout and colour scheme, also Barry informed everyone that MACS is on Facebook, if anyone has any other ideas for the new website to please see Barry over the Weekend.
Talk in the USA – Barry went over to the USA last July for a conference to give a talk on MACS, they could not believe the amount of work we do and that we provide families with grants towards equipment.
Sailing Trip – This year was the 2nd trip that MACS funded, for a MACS child and a buddy to take part in, this will be happening again next year, we have already had interest from 6 MACS children, the trip is open to children over the age of 12, Barry informed everyone that there is a stand at the back of the room about the trip, Robbie will be available to answer any questions.
MACS Caravan (Phil McEvilly)
Phil went over, that after lots of discussions within the committee in meetings and via email re the caravan in Scotland. Up to the end of March this year we only had one family who was booked into that Caravan (the only reason they had booked that caravan was that they couldn’t get into the caravan that they wanted to) we had to make the decision as last year we lost over £7,000 on this caravan alone.
Phil had stayed at Mullion Park in Cornwall which was a great site. Prices were looked into the purchase of a new caravan. This cost would have been around £42,000.
As the caravan in Scotland is in really good condition we looked into moving it to the site in Cornwall, the cost for this was around £10,000, we also had a rebate of just under £1,900. The caravan has now been moved and will be ready to use from the week after the Whitsun Holiday, bookings will be open from Saturday 8th May for this season. Priority will be given to families that have not yet stayed at any of the caravans.
There will be a new booking system set in place for 2011 season.
Phil said if any families have any questions to please see him over the Weekend.
Regional Supporters (Debby Clark)
Debby Clark told us about how the Regional Supporters
started in 1999 the aim for this was to have a person in each county that families could talk to and put them in contact with other families, to try to hold an event each year to get families in counties to meet up, in 2000 there were 7 Regional Supporters a year later there were 20.
Last year we re-launched the Regional Supporters and had 23 new supporters covering 29 regions. Over the last 12 months there has been 13 events held in different regions with a total of 265 people attending them. Ben, who is an Adult with a MACS condition, has joined as an Adult Supporter to help with the older MACS Children and we also have a Grandparent Supporter.
Debby thanked all the Regional Supporters for all the work they have put in over the last 12 months and asked parents if any of them would become a Regional Supporter/Contact and possibly to hold an event, Debby would be around during the weekend for parents to talk to her about this.
Debby also invited all the Regional Supporters and anyone interested to find out anymore about helping, to come along to the meeting this afternoon being held at Ilford Suite at 4.30pm.
Junior Sub Committee – Matthew Horspool
Matthew went over how the Junior Sub Committee will run, trying to get MACS children involved in giving ideas to the main committee on what they would like to see happen within MACS, Children over the age of 12 are more than welcome to attend a meeting being held this afternoon in the Ilford Suite
at 2.30pm.
Constitution Changes
All the changes were emailed to all families on the MACS email database, we had 53 votes back. Barry explained that anyone who voted online can’t vote again during the meeting.
Debby went through the changes (copy of which is attached to these minutes) to the following clauses:-
D Powers
Amend (x), there were no objections to the changes
Add (xi), there were no objections to the changes
G Executive Committee
Amend (c), there were no objections to the changes
J Meetings and proceedings of the Executive Committee
Amend (5), there were no objections to the changes
P Annual General Meeting
Amend (1) there were no objections to the changes
Q Special General Meeting
Amend there were no objections to the changes
V Arrangements until first General Meeting
Remove and replace with the new Grievance Procedure, there were no objections to the changes.
Guest Speaker – Tracie Tappenden VICTA
Tracie thanked everyone for the invitation to join us over our Family Weekend. She expressed the feeling of warmth that she has received from everyone, both Charities work hard together for the London Marathon.
Tracie read some of the stories of Children from VICTA.
In 2009 VICTA runners raised over £400,000, with this money they help with individual grants – like MACS do. In 2009 they provided grants of £20,000, a family weekend last year at Centre Parcs with MACS and LOOK, this year a weekend to be held in the Isle of Wight, 18-25 gap year, blind in business – filling in gaps, support other Charities with different conditions.
Tracie went over her story about her son Max.
Refreshments Break for 15 minutes.
Proposal for Spending Limits:-
As it stands the Committee do not have any restrictions on the amount of money that can be spent on any one item, this is how the Committee feel it needs to stay as we will be very restricted to purchase large items, organise events such as the London Marathon, the MACS AGM/Family Weekend and the Sailing Trips.
It was explained that the Trustees are liable for all the monies that MACS have in the accounts, so therefore if the Trustees misspent the money they would be liable for it, the monies in the separate accounts for example AGM, Gala Ball, Caravan can not be spent on anything else other than what it is designated for.
There were 2 objections from the floor, families wanting us to
have a set limit on monies we can spend without holding a Special General Meeting.
After a discussion it was decided by raise of hand vote for the Constitution to remain as it is at present giving the Committee the power to spend the monies on items needed, this to be reviewed each year at the AGM.
Election of Trustees
Under our constitution the following nominations had been received at least 14 days prior to the AGM.
The following Trustees were elected.
Chair Barry Stickings Nominated by Rab Crow, Seconded by Andrea Machin Vice Chair Phil McEvilly, Nominated by Patsy Sharp, Seconded by Mike Eccles Secretary Lynda Rhodes, Nominated by Gillian Gardiner, Seconded by Paula Andrews
Treasurer & Gary Murphy, Nominated by Gordon Cook, Marathon Seconded by James Sumner Assistant Secretary Jenny Lupton, Nominated by Karen Cook, Seconded by Fay Sumner
Observer Gavin Waugh, Nominated by Tim Walkden Seconded by Mel Gordon Observer & Regional Debby Clark, Nominated by Suzanne Hiley Supporter coordinator Seconded by Julie Wilson
Gifts - Fay Sumner & Robbie Crow received a gift from Barry & Lynda on behalf of everyone from MACS as a thank you for all the hard work they have put into the running of MACS.
Lunch – Barry informed everyone that after the AGM there would be sandwiches in the Park Suite for the families to be served from 1.45pm.
TV Clip - Barry showed a TV clip shown on London Tonight in January when some MACS families went to meet Jodie Prenger.
Speaker (Mark Potter MACS Dad)
Mark gave a very emotional and heartfelt talk about his experiences of being a MACS Dad and the story of his 8 year old Son Nathan, with the feelings felt by the family and Hospital visits.
How Nathan had inspired him to the run the London Marathon and the thought of him kept him going through that day. Guest Speaker (Jim Dixon Benefits)
Jim thanked us for inviting him back to our AGM. He explained the work he does for Welfare Rights for Lancashire County Council and now an Advisor to MACS families via the website.
He gave a brief chat on the talk that he gave 2 years ago. There is now a link on the Website. Families can email him with any questions. He will then get in contact with the family.
Questions and Answers
A Question and answers session between many of the parents present took place.
Questions were asked and answered on a variety of topics. Main points to arise were:
1.
Golden Bonds for the London Marathon, how do they work –Gary explained the cost for each Golden Bond to MACS is £300, the minimum each runner is to raise who has a Golden Bond is £1,150, this does outweigh the cost of purchasing the Golden Bond.
1.
One of the Families Son’s is leaving School he has unilateral Anophthalmia and was wanting to be a mechanic how hard would it be – Ben used to work as an engineer, now does mechanical work at home, not being able to see out of one eye has not stopped him just the need to take extra precautions.
1.
Education – there were a few families that were having problems with schools/schooling for children, such as private education, scholarship won to attend grammar schools even though child has a 1-1 statement the independent schools not always providing the extra help needed. Another family a child being attending Nursery doing really well at the annual review the family were informed that the child would have to attend a special school – VICTA said they would help to try to find out some more information also another family suggested to contact KIDZ for help and advise.
1.
A child is coming up to the age of 19 and has will be unable to work due to disabilities, how do they start to claim Employment Support – Jim suggested the family email the details over to him, he will have a look and then ring them with the advise.
1.
Emigrating – a family told us that they were wanting to Emigrate they passed everything ok, until the got to the final stage and failed on medical grounds as their Son was Registered Blind.
Barry thanked the Guest Speakers for attending and the meeting was closed.