MINUTES OF COWBRIDGE U3A HISTORY GROUP AGM

Thursday, 17th February 2022

Lesser Hall, Town Hall, Cowbridge

1. The meeting was opened at 10.03am by Group Leader Steve Monaghan, who welcomed everyone.

2. Apologies

Tim and Mags Buchalik, Alun and Jan Lewis, Lyn James, Helen Thomas, Maria Williams and Gail

Ralph.

3. Report on 2021 Annual Consultation

There had been no live AGM in 2021 as a result of Covid restrictions. Instead, an e-mail Consultation had been circulated, with a facility for on-line voting for the proposals. 55% of the Group’s members had voted. The consequent Report on this Consultation had been circulated among members by e-mail almost a year ago, had been on the Group’s webpage since that time, and had been re-circulated by e-mail recently. It was therefore not deemed necessary to display it or read it at this meeting.

There were no questions on this Report.

It was proposed by Anna Andrew and seconded by Hywel Davies that the Report be accepted as true and valid in lieu of a live AGM, with no abstentions and no one against.

4. Group Leader’s Report

Steve stated that indoor meetings after the Covid pandemic had re-started in August 2021. An indoor talk had taken place every month since then, and Steve gave a brief summary of each talk.

August 2021: “Reluctant Warriors; Memories of National Service” by Malcolm Cowper (with 17 attendees)

September 2021: “Poisoned” by Ted Richards

October 2021: “The South Wales Tornado of 1913” by Keith Jones

November 2021: two short talks by members; “A Brief History of Christmas Traditions” by Valerie Monaghan and “Sayings from Times Gone By” compiled by Thelma Jeeves

December 2021 (a change of speaker at short notice): Pilgrimage in Wales; Then and Now” by Professor Madeleine Gray

January 2022: “The King’s DNA; from Car Park to Cathedral” by Dr Rhian Morgan

He pointed out that since re-starting, the average attendance had been 25, whereas prior to the pandemic it had been 37.

He said that a full programme of talks had been planned for the next year, including 4 main talks to be given by our own Group members.

Steve then thanked Hywel Davies for his 5 years of service as Treasurer.

5. Record of Accounts, presented by Treasurer Hywel Davies

These accounts had already been circulated by e-mail. Some paper copies were made available, and Hywel also showed them on a slide.

He explained that it had been a difficult year, and that Steve had done well to keep costs for outside speakers down to £100.

Our other main expenditure had been for room hire for the meetings, and as our attendance figures are down, it effectively means the same room hire is being paid for by fewer people, working out on average approximately £1 per member per meeting.

No new funds were taken in 2021 as we were unable to meet early in the year; the subscriptions of those who had paid in 2020 had been carried over.

Hywel pointed out that the cost for the Christmas victuals did not amount to much, and suggested that next December we could allow ourselves to drink much more!

Despite not taking new subscriptions in 2021, the bank account currently showed a healthy balance: £779-75p.

However, Hywel reminded us that our subscriptions are the Group’s only source of income, and that we should always retain a ‘cushion’ allowing us to deal with contingencies, such as increases for the room rent.

He proposed that we should keep our annual subscription as £10 for 2022 to 2023, with the expectation that it would have to increase in 2023, by which time the balance held would have been considerably reduced.

There were a number of questions, comments, and related points of discussion on the accounts and proposed subscription as follows:

- Support for keeping the subscription at £10 per annum as raising it may be off-putting to

new members

- If we had more in-house speakers it would keep our costs down

- Speakers from other U3As are not allowed to charge a fee, so we could try to recruit from

that source

- But speakers from other U3As are allowed to charge travelling expenses

- We need to have a recruitment drive

- The Cowbridge U3A Open Day, held in 2019, and previous Group Fairs had not resulted in

significant new members for our group

- We should distribute our Newsletters more widely to non-members to encourage recruitment

- The Groups are not up to date in our Newsletter

- Some people who have not studied History could be put off from joining, perceiving that they

may need some knowledge of the subject instead of just an enquiring mind

- Perhaps we should have a questionnaire to gain the opinions of our members

- A recent cast member in ‘Coronation Street’ was supposed to be a U3A member, but a

completely false impression of U3A was being given

- Were visitors still allowed to attend and what was the cost (Answer: Yes, for a fee of £2

each)

- Paying £10 for 12 meetings a year was incredibly good value at under £1 a meeting

- It would be easy to consume more than £10 worth of wine provided at the Christmas buffet; a

gin and tonic in London can now cost over £12!

- In the past we have had trips which have been subsidised (Post AGM Comment: not in the

time they have been run by either Valerie or Steve Monaghan!)

- It’s necessary to have a healthy bank balance, but the idea is not to accumulate money

- The last 2 years with the Covid lockdowns have not been at all typical.

Steve eventually brought the discussion to a close and asked for a proposal that we accept the Accounts.

Their acceptance was proposed by Gwerfyl Gardner and seconded by Anna Andrew.

There were no abstentions and no one against.

6. Subscription Rate for 2022 - 2023

Steve asked for a vote that the subscription for the year 2022 to 2023 remain at £10 each. This was accepted unanimously.

7. Election of Group Leader and Group Treasurer

Steve stated that there had been no new nominees to take on either of these positions, but

that both he and Hywel were willing to continue in these roles. There were comments

of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, and both were elected unopposed.

8. Any Other Business

Steve had previously asked by e-mail for points of Any Other Business to be sent in, but none

had been received.

Gavin Davies suggested that now parking at the Town Hall was less of a problem, perhaps we

could consider starting meetings at 10.30am rather than 10.00am. Other members quickly

voiced disagreement with this proposal.

9. Closure of Meeting

The formal meeting closed at 10.25am.

Valerie Monaghan

Acting as Minutes’ Secretary

N.B. Although no one in the meeting thanked Steve for his sterling work as Group Leader for the last 4 years, I feel that this was an omission, and we should have done.

The formal meeting was followed, as is now customary, by an interesting ‘Show and Tell’ session.