2024 Annual General Meeting

The 42nd AGM was held at the White Hart Hotel, Salisbury, on the 18th July 2024.

This years AGM was very well attended – the membership is to be commended for taking an interest in the formal matters of the club and supporting the committee – thank you.

Brian Sharpe bid a warm welcome to all. It was established that we had a quorum to hold the meeting as most of the committee were in attendance (three being the minimum) as well as a large number of the membership. Brian said that he would be ‘winging’ it today as he had inadvertently left his carefully prepared notes at home.

Presidents Report: Brian said that it had been a good year for the Club with membership slowly increasing. He was sorry that medical issues had forced him to miss many Club meetings but that he had found those that he was able to attend to be jolly occasions. He thanked Steve Mayall for being his ‘right hand man’ and went on to say that being President of the Club was both a challenge and a privilege and he thanked everyone for their support.

Treasurers Report: Bob Burrows gave a short “PowerPoint” presentation explaining the Club’s financial position and provided an audited set of accounts.  The accounts were unanimously approved with no abstentions or comments.

The Social Secretary’s Report  was presented by Steve Mayall in the absence on holiday of Derek Armitage. During the year various members had enjoyed visits to Salisbury Cathedral (including the Stone Masons yard), Fort Nelson and the Museum of Army Flying. Two more visits are planned for this year, the first to the D Day War Rooms at Southwick House and the last to Romsey Abbey & King John’s House.

The Webmaster’s Report: Ian Preece presented a short verbal report. He started by saying how nice it was to see so many people attending the AGM and went on to assure us that the Probus website had not been effected by the Microsoft outage. Ian said that people around the world visited our website, so it was important to keep it interesting and topical, he urged members to submit articles/tidbits etc. for possible inclusion on the website. Ian thanked Godfrey Ball for shadowing him during the year and for making himself conversant with the workings of the website.

The Almoner’s  Report: John Newsome reported that he had attended the funerals of four members so far this year and was relieved to be standing down from his role as assistant to ‘the grim reaper.’  Members stood for a minute of silent reflection to remember those members who had passed away since the last AGM.

The Election of the New President: The proposal that Godfrey Ball be elected as President for the coming year was approved unanimously with no abstentions or comments. On behalf of the membership, Derek Pawson thanked the outgoing President and the Committee for their hard work during the year.

The new President thanked all the members for their continuing support.

The Election of other officers and Committee Members for the coming year.

As in previous years, it was proposed that other officers and Committee Members be elected en bloc as set out below:

Vice President and Assistant Secretary – vacant post

Secretary – Ernie Bohm (New Appointment from January 2025)

Minutes Secretary – John Turnham continuing in office

Treasurer – Alan Stapley (new Appointment from April 2025)

Assistant Treasurer – Brian Howard continuing in office

White Hart Lunch Secretary – Bob Burrows continuing in office

Programme Secretary – Dr Mike Pointer continuing in office

Social Secretary – Derek Armitage continuing in office

Webmaster – Ian Preece continuing in office

Committee Member – John Heath continuing in office

Almoner – Brian Sharpe (New Appointment from July 2024)

Independent Examiner – John Turnham continuing in office

The above appointments were unanimously approved with no abstentions or comments.

The meeting closed at 12.07

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