Minutes of Cowbridge u3a History Group AGM, 16th February 2023
Steve Monaghan, Group Leader, opened the meeting at 10.08am in the Lesser Hall.
Apologies: Violet Salter and a message was received later from Jennifer Newton.
Minutes of 2022 AGM: Steve pointed out that these Minutes had been circulated last year, had been on the History Group web page for nearly a year, and had been circulated again recently. He therefore did not propose that they should be read out, but asked for any comments. There were none. The Minutes were approved, the motion being proposed by Gwerfyl Gardner and seconded by Frances Rees.
Group Leaders’ Report: Steve gave a summary of the Group’s activities for the last year. He reminded members of the talks which had taken place as follows:
February 2022: The AGM was followed by 3 ‘Show and Tells’ by Jean Carter, John Andrew and Norma Roberts.
March 2022: ‘My Grandfather was a London Milk Courier’ by Gwerfyl Gardner.
April 2022: ‘The Great Stink of London’ by guest speaker Keith Jones.
May 2022: ‘The Neath Abbey: the story of a Steam Ship from Construction to Destruction’ by Allan Sutcliffe.
June 2022: ‘A History of Maritime Navigation’ by Rob Cumbes.
July 2022: ‘The Short Life of Harold Owen Owen, Chain Store Heir (killed in a train crash aged 25)’ by Gavin Davies.
August 2022: ‘The Forgotten Conscripts: the Bevin Boys’ by guest speaker Jaye Swift.
August was also the month when a party of 32 had visited Westonbirt House in Gloucestershire.
September 2022: ‘What did the Romans do for us?’ by guest speaker Liz Mayor.
October 2022: ‘Victorian Parks in Cardiff’ by guest speaker Rosie James.
November 2022: Scheduled to be 3 short talks by members, but circumstances reduced this to a single presentation: ‘A Certaine School’ by Gwerfyl Gardner.
December 2022: Brian Davies, the scheduled speaker, was unable to get to the meeting as his car broke down on the way. Gwerfyl Gardner gave a short impromptu talk, and Martin Jeeves, husband of member Thelma, led a discussion about memories of school days, which went down very well.
January 2023: ‘DNA, Forensics and Crime’ by guest speaker Dr Rhian Morgan.
Steve stated that 5 months had seen presentations by our own group members, 6 if you include ‘Show and Tells’. The average attendance per meeting had been 37 (exactly the same as pre-pandemic in 2028 - 2019). The best attendance of 45 had been for ‘The Bevin Boys’ in August, and 5 meetings had attracted an audience of 40+.
A full programme is planned for the coming year, with possibly 3 or 4 talks to be given by our own group members, and 2 others to be by u3a members, one from Cowbridge and one from Bridgend.
Steve then thanked Hywel Davies, the Treasurer for the past 6 years.
Treasurer’s Report: The Accounts had already been circulated and Hywel provided some printed copies on the day.
He stated that the previous year had been very successful in terms of our expenditure, as we had had a good number of our own speakers.
Another source of income had been receipt of £40 from visitors who pay £2 each.
This means that despite our net loss of just over £44 for the year (the previous year it had been about £200), we still had a healthy bank balance of £735-50p.
Hywel therefore concluded that we could keep this coming year’s subscription at £10, and hoped this would be accepted, as he had already been taking such at the door!
He explained the difficulty these days about bank closures and paying in cheques.
Acceptance of the Accounts was put to the members, with Rob Cumbes proposing and Gavin Davies seconding.
Subscriptions: Keeping the subscription to £10 per annum was put to the members, with a unanimous vote to do so.
Election of Officers: Steve stated that there had been no nominations and asked for any volunteers to come forward. No one did. He said that both he and Hywel were happy to continue in their respective roles, to which there were cheers!
Hywel proposed a vote of thanks to Steve for his hard work.
Gwerfyl proposed a vote of thanks to Valerie Monaghan for organising last year’s trip with another one planned for this year.
Steve pointed out a letter written by Gavin and published in the recent ‘TAM’ magazine, in which, with reference to this actual History Group, Gavin had written that the leadership might be best to change every 3 years. Steve said he wished he’d known that when he took on the role!
A.O.B. Steve had asked for any items to be sent in, but none had been received. Valerie Monaghan made a brief announcement about the planned trip to Bowood House on September 8th, for which a good number of members had signed up and paid a deposit before the meeting had started.
There being no other business, the formal meeting closed at 10.23am, and was followed by 3 contributions at the customary ‘Show and Tell’ session.
Valerie Monaghan
Acting as Minutes’ Secretary