Minutes of the CHHS AGM 2024 

Present:

Oliver Perceval, Sarah Perceval, Emma Richardson, Steve De Vriendt, Anne Kisbee, Julie Anthony, Frank Dean, Denise Holland, Steve Price, Eve James, Malcolm Boyland, Maureen Boyland.

1. Apologies 

Apologies had been received from Sheila van Maurik.

2. Minutes from last AGM

These were approved.

3. Election of officers and new committee members

Frank Dean, Denise Holland and Steve Price were unanimously re-elected as Chair, Treasurer and Secretary respectively. The Society was then delighted to have a new member of the team, Malcolm Boyland, proposed, seconded and then voted-in by everyone present. Frank thanked him for the  excellent work he had already undertaken before becoming a committee member. Malcolm’s sterling work with the raffle was recognised by everyone.

4. Chair’s report

Frank thanked the committee and its many supporters and volunteers for their work over the year. He explained that the Open Gardens event had been a tremendous success and had raised a substantial amount of money. Next year’s Open Gardens would be held on May 31^st and June 1^st. He gave a summary of the Autumn Show’s successes and areas where we would aim to further develop it in 2025. The event will be held earlier (August 30^th), whilst not clashing with the Hartfield event. Dates for both events had been chosen after careful consideration of other local groups’ work, in order to minimise impact on each other’s activities.

Frank thanked Denise for her work with organising The Townplace Garden event, Malcolm for the raffle and Sarah for her Telephone Box project. He thanked Steve for his work as Secretary.

5. Show Secretary’s report

Oliver described how the Open Gardens and Autumn Show had been a success and that we had improved publicity and generated more interest. He agreed to take on both events again for 2025 and everyone supported this.  To everyone’s delight, Oliver reinforced how important the Society’s work is in strengthening links between everyone in the locale.

6. Presentation of Accounts

Denise gave a summary report of the accounts for 2024 which was accompanied by the financial reports. She explained that the Society had made profits on the Open Gardens and also on the Autumn Show but that there had been a lot of expenditure. Nevertheless, the accounts were very healthy, enabling us to donate £500 each to our two chosen charities. Denise described how she is looking to develop a number of events involving local gardens. The accounts were agreed and signed-off.

7. The Year Ahead

Sarah outlined how the telephone box project was moving forward. There had been a planning meeting and a strategy is now in place for the work which will be done in the coming months.

Malcolm explained suggestions for how a members’ group for the Society would be beneficial to both the committee as well as to the community. There was support from everyone for this idea but some members suggested we do have a more in-depth discussion. Frank suggested we take this idea to the committee and begin moving forward with the proposal as soon as possible.

There was a suggestion from Betty Dowling, that we call our ‘Autumn Show’ the Colemans Hatch Show. This would help solve the issue of it being neither a Summer Show nor an Autumn Show. There was support for this idea and Frank suggested this was ratified at the first meeting of the committee in January.   

8. Presentation of CHHS donations to our nominated charities 

Suzi Mitchell from Taylor Made Dreams and Anna Richardson and Jen Beaufoy from Children’s Forest had accepted our invitation to attend the meeting. Frank presented each charity with a cheque for £500 and thanked them for their work. Each of the two charities presented summaries of their work and they both expressed how grateful they were to have received our kind donations. Everyone was delighted with their presentations and we all agreed to continue to maintain our links.

9. AOB

There was no other business.

The meeting closed at 8.30pm

Next Meeting:

Committee Meeting, Wednesday January 15^th at 7.30pm, venue tbc.