1. Roll Call

Harry Mason, Chair
Shirley Grant, Vice Chair/Vice Treasurer
John Wells, Treasurer
Amanda Burt, Secretary
Mark Tyler, Webmaster
Tony Bowers, Events Coordinator
Michelle Collins, Executive Officer

Alison Richissin,, Dennis Bowden, Greg Hamilton, Jacqui Glyn, Janet Mortimer, John Wilsher, Linda Tyler, Martin Foden, Maurice Pothecary, Ned Benton, Paul Mathews, Peter Halam, Roma Creech, Sal Pitts, Stephen Evans, Steve Palett, Sue Pallett

2. Apologies

Ann Saunders, Gladys Taylor, Miriam Raymond, Michelle Routledge, Stephen Hassall.

3. Annual Report

First of all, Harry explained that, in a moment, we will start the playing of the annual report which Mark will do. All he wants to say at this stage is that he is very pleased that we have safely negotiated another year In TAFN bearing in mind the posission we were in last March. We are pretty healthy now compared to that and it’s down to all kinds of people that we are in that state and Harry would like to thank everyone from the Chair at this stage of the AGM for all the hard work that’s gone on, not only within the Exec but all over the place, a lot of people have given many hours of their time to ensure that this organisation has moved forward from the very near crash which happened last year. Mark then played the report to the members.

Download AGM 2015 in text format

4. Annual Awards

The annual report was stopped at the part where the awards were presented as this was done live. Harry then explained that various members of the Executive Committee will be announcing different awards. He then apologised as there were a few technical problems in respect of the annual report. Some of the reports were cut shorter than they should have been but people will be able to read these reports on the web site.

The first award to be presented was the consistent participant award. John Wels presented this award. John said he considered this person to be a friend. he is always seen in rooms and attends events on TAFN. This person is also very popular. John was very pleased to say that the award goes to Ned Benton. Sal Pitts and Ann Saunders were also worthy of a mention. As they always attend events and they are an asset to TAFN. Ned thanked everyone. He has enjoyed being a part of TAFN and he loves to be supportive as much as he can. The members all congratulated Ned, Sal and Ann.

The next award was the Committee volunteer award. Harry said that, when we have committees, we do have great responsibility as Committee members to do a good job in order that the benefits will go to the members. It is important that we do have good people on the Committee. Two people need to be mentioned in this particular contents and they are Michelle Collins and Sal Pitts who work tirelessly for the good of the membership in all sorts of different ways. The award this year goes to a person who has indeed gone the extra mile as a Committee member. Harry doubts that when this person joined the Executive Committee that the person felt that they would have to do so much running around all over the country on behalf of the charity. Due to the circumstances which we found ourselves in she had to do this. Harry is extremely proud to have the opportunity to present the award for the Committee volunteer to his Vice Chair and our Vice Treasurer MRS Shirley Grant. Harry said Well done and thanked her for all the work she has done this year. Shirley then thanked Harry and the rest of the Executive Committee for voting for her. Whatever Shirley does for TAFN, she classes it as a pleasure. She would go anywhere and do anything because she really enjoys not only TAFN but the people in it. The members then congratulated Shirley, Michel and Sal

The third award was presented by Mark. It’s the tec support award. Mark hasen’t ever heard this person complain He just gets on helping members and goes above and beyond the call of duty. So the tec support award goes to Greg Hamilton. Also worthy of a mention for all their tech help were Mark Tyler and John Wels. Greg said that he feels that he doesn’t do that much in all honesty. The fact that people think he does is very gratifying. Greg is happy to help members, it’s not always easy but he’s happy to do it. Everyone congratulated Greg, Mark and John.

The next award to be presented was the new member award. This was presented by Amanda. She said that it’s a shame that the person wasn’t there. The person to receive this award was Kimmy P. As soon as she joined TAFN she has always been enthusiastic in regards to TAFN. She loved the auction and always attended events. Other people worthy for a mention were Carron S and Sharron M. Amanda congratulated Kimmy so she’ll know. Everyone congratulated Kimmy for receiving this award. Sharron and Caron were also congratulated by the members.

The next award to be presented was the long standing member. Tony presented this award. He said that this is always the difficult one but we had Katie Mires and Shirley Grant but the person who came out on top is a long standing member. He has a good hart and he’s the epiphany of TAFN. He’s quiet he’s pleasant and well mannered. He welcomes anybody and everybody and there’s nothing he won’t do to help. It might not be technical but at least he’s there for a pat on the back. It therefore gives Tony grate pleasure to present this award to Steve Pallett. Steve said that it’s very kind of everyone. He has been around for a while. Everyone congratulated Steve for receiving this award.

The next award to be presented was the event host of the year. This award was presented by Michelle. She said that this award goes to someone who is very special and who works really hard on TAFN when it comes to events. Before presenting this, Michelle said that Greg H and Jacqui G were worthy of mentions. The award goes to Tony Bowers. Tony thanked his team. He said that this is becoming a regular thing. He said he doesn’t do the job for the awards but it’s nice to be appreciated. You can’t be appreciated without a good team. Everyone then congratulated Tony, Greg and Jacqui

The next award to be presented was the event of the year. This was presented by Mark. He said that this was a hard decision. The person puts 100 percent in to every event he does so the event of the year goes to team challenge. Brain ache and crosswords are worth mentioning. Tony said that a quiz is only as good as the people who attend it. If they don’t like it and it doesn’t work then it’s not the job. Tony does his best but he really appreciates this more than the host of the year because it means that the 4 years of hard work has been worthwhile. Everyone then congratulated Tony, Greg and Chrissie.

The next award to be presented was the behind the Scenes award which was presented by Tony. He explained that this award Is given to someone who works behind the Scenes that not everyone sees. Tony feels that this is an award which should go out to more people as there are so many people who do so much for TAFN. People who are worthy of a mention are
Sharron Bowel and Shirley Grant but in respect of the person who will receive this award, Tony said that this guy deserves this award. He’s always in there slogging. You don’t hear him very much but he gives it a good go and, without him Tony doesn’t feel we would have had our patron so this award goes to Stephen Evans. Stephen thanked everyone for this award. Stephen, Sharron and Shirley were all congratulated by the members.

The last star award to be presented was the spreading the word award which was presented by Shirley. Shirley said that this goes to a person who never tires of spreading the TAFN word, what we do and how we’re moving forward. He’s constantly giving the word of TAFN around everywhere. Before Shirley presented this award, she said that 2 people worthy of a mention for spreading the word were Elisabeth Stanton and carl McGee. The person who stands out above everyone else for spreading the word of TAFN is Stephen Evans. Stephen then thanked everyone for this award. The members congratulated Stephen, Elisabeth and Carl.

Harry then explained that this was the end of the presenting of the star awards. He congratulated everyone who have won awards and all those who have been runners up in every one who takes part in anything on TAFN to keep things moving and to keep the organisation the way we want it to be. The last thing to do in respect of awards is we need to come now to the member of the year which is voted for by the members. Harry has been Chair of various organisations over the years and he’s had to make various speeches over the years as well. Some of them he’s enjoyed and some he hasn’t. This one Harry is thoroughly enjoying. This award this year means a great deal to him personally because the person who will receive this award, Harry counts as a real friend as well as a colleague on TAFN. When the person joined the administration on TAFN we were in a bad state. This person has brought TAFN forward and got it back on the even footing that it is now. Harry was over the moon with delight when he gladly announced to everyone that the member of the year award goes to none other than our Treasurer himself John Wels. Harry then thanked John for his efforts on behalf of the charity. John said that he was staggered to receive this award and he thanked everyone who voted for him. John said that it was quite a task to start with getting the financial situation under control but working in a bank did help. It was a challenge and we’re through it all now. Everyone congratulated John for winning this award and thought it was well deserved.

Harry then explained that this was now the end of the awards and the second part of the annual report was played by Mark.

After the second part of the annual report was played, Mark apologised for chopping off the end of Harry’s report. Mark thinks that everyone else’s were fine. Before closing the meeting, Harry thanked the Exec who did parts of the recordings. He thanked Michelle for recording all the numbers of the different reports. Harry then thanked Mark for the great job he did editing the report. He then gave members the opportunity to speak before closing the meeting. Steve said that he is very proud of TAFN and we’re all doing a great job and we’ll all keep going on and on getting better and better and it’s thanks to everybody that we’re the organisation that we are. Ned said that he is thankful for TAFN. He has been a member of the other site for 7 years and he hasn’t enjoyed that as much as the time he has spent on TAFN. This has been much more of a family atmosphere and people who have a desire to make it a good place to be. Ned appreciates everyone. People then congratulated the Exec for the excellent work they did in regards to the annual report. Roma said that things are getting better. When you think of how things were last year things are going to get much better in the next year and the year after.
Harry then closed the meeting