CENTRAL LONDON HUMANIST GROUP

Transcription

1 CENTRAL LONDON HUMANIST GROUP MINUTES OF THE 6TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held on 21 January 2015 at Conway Hall 1. Welcome The total number of attendees was 43, of whom 37 were voting members of CLHG. Josh Kutchinsky (Membership Organiser) conveyed greetings from Sonia Eggerickx, Chair of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and read out a message from Pierre Galand, President of the European Humanist Federation. Pierre stressed the need for Humanists to keep working for a tolerant Europe in the context of recent terrorist outrages and the growth of support for divisive populist parties in recent elections across Europe. 2. Apologies for absence Apologies were received from Terence Freedman, Asad Abbas, Christy Avraam, Steve Isle, Derek Lennard, David Miller, Paula Palmer and Ashley Porciuncula. 3. Minutes of the 2014 AGM The minutes of the previous year s AGM had been circulated to members in advance. A question was raised regarding the reference under Item 4 of the minutes to approval of the 2013 accounts being subject to the completion of audit. Alan Palmer (Treasurer) explained that the 2013 accounts had not in the end been audited, but the audit of the 2014 accounts had examined income and expenditure for 2013 as well as for Helen Palmer asked why the discussion of ideas for future group activities that had taken place during the 2014 AGM was noted only in brackets at the end of Item 8 of the minutes: it had been a very valuable part of the meeting. Alan Palmer explained that the discussion stood outside the formal business of the AGM and, since the minutes sometimes have to be shown to outside parties

2 such as banks, the Committee had agreed that the detail of the discussion should be excluded. The Committee had found the ideas generated by the discussion extremely helpful and had given them detailed consideration. A note of the Committee s conclusions could be made available to members who were interested. The minutes were approved. 4. Matters arising No matters were raised. 5. Chair s Address Helen Palmer announced her decision to stand down as Chair of CLHG and from membership of the Committee. She thanked members of the Committee who had voluntarily devoted a huge amount of time and energy to the success of CLHG, particularly Dave Miller who was also standing down having moved away from London. Dave deserved huge appreciation for his work as Committee Secretary and walks organiser, and for having played a key role in planning the Ancestor s Trail event in Epping Forest in August. 6. Stand Up for Darwin Funds It was announced that 3,476 raised by the Stand Up for Darwin event organised by the Committee in 2013 had been donated to the British Humanist Association for its faith schools campaign. A follow-up event was being planned for Financial Report Alan Palmer, Treasurer, presented the Accounts and Auditor s Statement for 2014, which had been made available to attendees at the start of the meeting. He thanked CLHG member Adam Leadbetter, FCCA, for agreeing to be Honorary Auditor and noted that he had raised no issues of concern. Alan said that the Committee was concerned that income taken from monthly talks had been less in 2014 than in the previous year. This was due in part to lower attendances at the talks, and in part to a reduction in donations per head by those attending. Talks generated less per attendee than other activities. The Committee was considering whether this problem might be addressed by charging an entrance fee at the beginning of talks rather than, as at present, requesting voluntary donations from people only on their way out. Josh Kutchinsky suggested that new ways of raising funds might also be considered by the Committee.

3 A number of requests were made from the floor for clarification of particular details of the Accounts, which Alan addressed to the satisfaction of members. The meeting approved the Accounts. 8. News about our membership Josh Kutchinsky (Membership Organiser) noted that his detailed report for 2014 had been circulated to members. During 2014, membership of the CLHG (people who had provided the Secretary with their full name and contact details) increased from 169 to 246. Voting membership (members who are also members of the British Humanist Association) increased from 162 to 193 over the year. People who are not members but have joined one of CLHG s online presences (Meetup, Facebook and an independent mailing list) are recognised as being supporters of CLHG. During 2014 Josh had approved 510 requests to join CLHG s Meetup group, while he estimated that 197 people had left it. This compared with 596 people joining and 231 leaving in The total number of Meetup members now stood at 2,060. Facebook membership had risen from 590 to 775 over the year, and the number of people who had clicked like on CLHG s Facebook page had increased from 420 to 541. Meanwhile, the number of people on the independent mailing list, which was no longer being promoted, had reduced from 482 to 457. Taking account of the likely degree of overlap between these categories, Josh had calculated that the total number of individual supporters was now 3,252, compared with 2,620 a year ago. A few of the people who had left CLHG s Meetup group had volunteered a reason for doing so. These included no longer living in London, having too little time to participate, re-joining under their real name, and being unattracted by Humanism. At the end of 2014, a total of 66 people, including Committee members, had volunteered to help run CLHG activities, compared with 54 a year ago. 9. Report about our programme and events Helen Palmer reported that CLHG had enjoyed another very successful year during which a great many events had been organised. These included the regular monthly talks in Conway Hall, pub socials, Sunday lunches, newcomers welcoming evenings, walks, and a book group. CLHG had also been involved in several important one-off events including: an International Women s Day Conference on the Oppression and Resilience of Women in March; a panel discussion on Common Ground: How can Humanists & Muslims work together in 21st Century London?, jointly organised with other London Humanist Groups in November; and the Mythmas Interval Quiz at UCL in December, which had raised money for an African charity. CLHG s annual Yuletide & Mythmas Party had very successfully taken place in a new, wheelchair-accessible, venue. At the end of the meeting, Mary Grove presented a photo-montage of the year s activities.

4 10. Affiliations to the IHEU and EHF Josh Kutchinsky reported on activities related to CLHG s affiliations to the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF). CLHG had been represented at the EHF General Assembly in Brussels in May by David Pollock, a CLHG member as well as a trustee of the BHA and a past President of the EHF. Josh extended the Committee s thanks to David for having taken on this task. Josh himself had represented CLHG at the General Assembly of the IHEU, which had taken place in Oxford in August alongside the World Humanist Congress. As well as attending the main business of the Assembly and Congress, Josh had been able to meet many other delegates from around the world to exchange views and explain the work of CLHG. The Congress had been a great success, and its theme, Freedom of Thought and Expression: Forging a 21 st Century Enlightenment had been particularly appropriate and prescient. The next World Humanist Congress would take place in Brazil in In response to a question from the floor, Josh noted that funding for participation by a CLHG delegate would clearly be difficult, but the BHA may well be represented. 11. Resolutions received Three resolutions for changes to the Constitution had been proposed. Resolution #1 (proposed by Alan Palmer and seconded by Josh Kutchinsky) That Section 5.1 of the Constitution which currently reads as follows: "The organising committee shall consist of a Chair, a Secretary, a Treasurer and up to ten further members." be replaced as follows: "The organising committee shall consist of a Chair, a Vice Chair, a Secretary, a Treasurer and up to ten further members. The term of office of the Chair shall be limited to a maximum of two annual terms. A Vice Chair shall also be elected to succeed the incumbent Chair, such election taking place at the Annual General Meeting one year prior to that succession. Any past Chair may stand again for election as Vice Chair with a view to having a further term of office as Chair, but no earlier than one year after stepping down as Chair." Resolution #2 (proposed by Helen Palmer and seconded by Phil Walder) That Section 5.1 of the Constitution which currently reads as follows: "The organising committee shall consist of a Chair, a Secretary, a Treasurer and up to ten further members." be replaced as follows:

5 "The organising committee shall consist of a chair, secretary and treasurer and up to 8 further members." Plus additional points: "1a. The chair, secretary and treasurer shall serve no longer than 3 years in these roles. In exceptional circumstances the role could be extended for a further term by the consent of the group members at the AGM. 1b. No member shall serve longer than 6 consecutive years on the committee unless it is deemed by a majority of voting members at the AGM that the service of that member is of unique benefit to the group." Resolution #3 (proposed by Phil Walder and seconded by Lucy Wainwright) That 'Section 5 - Organising Committee' of the Constitution be amended by the addition of two subsections 5.6 and 5.7 as below: "5.6 Monthly Organising Committee meetings shall be held in each month except December. Attendance at which can be made via phone or an internet application such as Skype if physical attendance is not possible If a member of the Organising Committee fails to attend at least 4 monthly meetings in a calendar year, then they will be barred from re-election in the following year. " As the current CLHG Chair, Helen Palmer had proposed one of the resolutions, Baptiste Bourgougnon took the chair for this item of business. He suggested that since proposals #1 and #2 were mutually inconsistent and only one of them could be approved, they should be discussed together and then voted on in sequence. Proposal #3 should be considered subsequently. He noted that resolutions for constitutional amendments required the approval of two thirds of voting members present. Steve Clapman and Mary Grove acted as tellers. The number of voting members present was established as 37. Alan Palmer introduced proposal #1 and Helen Palmer introduced proposal #2. There followed a number of comments from the floor. In voting, proposal #1 received 18 votes in favour and proposal #2 received 6 votes in favour. Neither therefore was approved. Phil Walder introduced proposal #3, and a number of observations were made from the floor. In voting, the proposal received 2 votes in favour and therefore was not approved.

6 12. Election of Committee Members Since the number of candidates was fewer than the number of vacancies, it was proposed that the Committee be elected en bloc. No objections were raised. The new Committee will be: Chair: Baptiste Bourgougnon Treasurer: Alan Palmer Secretary: Ian Symons Other members: Susan Alam, Clive Aruede, Christy Avraam, Damian Belson, Steve Clapman, Stells Dessoy, Mary Grove, Josh Kutchinsky, and Rumit Somaiya. 13. Any other business The incoming Chair, Baptiste Bourgougnon, expressed on behalf of CLHG a huge and heartfelt thanks to Helen Palmer for the massive contribution that she had made to the work of the Group during her time on the Committee and as its Chair. January 2015