DINKY TOY COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION Annual General Meeting held at The Hallmark-Midland Inn on Saturday 25th June 2016 at 2.00pm MEETING MINUTES
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Dinky Toy Collectors Association (DTCA) opened just after 2.00pm on Saturday 25th June 2016 at The Hallmark-Midland Inn, Derby. Item 1: President s Address The opening address was made by the Life President David Cooke, who welcomed the members present to the AGM. In his welcome he acknowledged the presence of Jim Gamble a committee member of the Hornby Railway Collectors Association (HRCA), Hans Neus with whom he had been corresponding for many years but never met before this meeting, Peter Mckie who had come all the way from Australia to be at the AGM and finally Jan Werner from The Netherlands who is the Honorary Life Vice President. A separate thanks was paid to Nelson Twells who had been the Honorary Secretary for many years but stood down due to ill health. It was stated that Cala Hopkinson [member number four] a friend of Jim Gamble and Grand Daughter of Frank Hornby had died recently, her death being notified by her family. Thanks were expressed to Al Keeling for re-launching the DTCA Forum and it was noted that a prominent French member Jacques Dujardin No. 100 was unable to come this year because he had been ill in hospital for nine weeks. Finally the President indicated that the current membership being 372. Item 2: Chairman s Address The Chairman Michael Driver stated that it s another year and another DTCA AGM. Over the year we have had four excellent Journals with more details on unusual Dinky Toys and their history. Auction houses are still finding Dinky Toys and the interest continues through toy fairs and magazine articles in Model Collector, Diecast Collector and the Collectors Gazette. It does seem that Collecting Dinky Toys is alive and well and I hope that the DTCA is helping with this collecting of the models and information about them. The Committee Once again the Committee has been very helpful and supportive to me and we have continued with our successful Committee meetings in Peterborough. Our Vice Chairman, Jim Hurley is stepping down due to family commitments so thank you to Jim for his assistance over the past year. I am pleased to announce that his replacement is Bob Burnett who will, I hope, be accepted by you when we vote for the Committee for 2016/17. 2
As always please remember that the Committee are all volunteers therefore sometimes you may not get an immediate response to a query. Please also take into account that they may be away and that they also have other commitments etc. Now some brief notes from me before the reports from Committee members. The Website The new website is up and running and despite a number of glitches now seems to have settled down. Our thanks go to Dave Kaun and Al Keeling for their work on the site. There is a new home page and it is now easier for new members to join via a new join button. The Forum has continued and material is also available in the Journal. Thanks for this progress to John Beugels, David Busfield and Jan Werner. The Journal The Journal continues to provide a good read and has plenty of interesting subjects included thank you to Mike Forbes for this - but do remember that our Editor still needs more articles from you the members. Every contribution helps to fill the pages! Publicity Magazines have been sent news items when appropriate it just depends on what space they have available. We now have the new DTCA brochures and these have been distributed at Toy Fairs [Sandown, Windsor, Kempton, etc.] and generally handed out. Also Keith Barnard takes them to all the fairs he visits. If you can take some when you visit a Toy Fair that would also help. We still have a table at the Windsor Toy Fair thanks to the MSMC. And thanks to Tony Murphy who runs this he even recruits new members! Thanks also to Ken Cowdry - the Midland and Northern Toy Fairs are seeing our display banner promoting the DTCA and of course the brochures. Finally Again our biggest challenge is to recruit more members, especially young ones. Providing you are happy with me I am prepared to stand for a further year. Item 3: Minutes of the AGM for 2015 These will be posted on the website. 3
Item 4: Matters Arising There were no matters arising Item 5: Apologies for Absence There were four apologies for absence as follows: Keith Barnard No. 10, John Procter No. 280, Alan Hunter No. 425 and Heather MacMillan No.536. Item 6: Financial Report and Accounts Barry Townend, Honorary Treasurer delivered the following Financial Report and Accounts for 2015/2016 as follows: "The Accounts for the year show the Surplus at 976 down by 1,170 (55%) from the 2014 surplus of 2,146". Due to an additional number of pages in the Journal this year there has been an increase of 300.00 in printing costs and an increase in postal charges of 200.00. The cost of the Committee Meeting and AGM is 500.00 but the current subscription cost will be held. The Honorary Treasurer expressed his thanks to the following: To Brian Goodall & Vicky Weall of Vectis Auctions for their continued generous support covering a substancial part of the printing costs of The Journal a sum of 2,420 pa. Members who paid their subscriptions in advance before the end of 2015. Members who gave donations over and above their Subscription Fee and also those members who paid by PayPal who sent an extra 1.00 or so to cover the PayPal costs. Our Auditor & Member Andrew Francis, who gives his time freely, and audits these annual figures for a very nominal sum - free DTCA membership. AN APOLOGY To Overseas Members who tried to pay their subscritions via PayPal last year using the e-mail address on the Renewal Notice. I had been told that the.org site was not to be used anymore & that everthing should be sent to membership@dtcawebsite.com. That was incorrect so the 2016 Renewal Notices will now quote the.org site as of old. The complete Financial Report is a separate document and can be made available by sending a SAE to the Honorary Secretary, the address being in the Journal. 4
Item 7: Honorary Secretary s Report As a result of taking over the position on David Cooke s recommendation from Nelson Twells and attending this years Committee Meeting in Peterborough, Robin Narborough thanked other members of the committee for helping him to get familiarised with the workings of the DTCA. A list of attendees was produced and the number of DTCA members was 24 plus two guests. Item 8: Membership Report Thanks was paid to Peter Carpenter who has now taken over as Membership Secretary from Barry Townend. Peter then introduced himself to the members and indicated that so far this year there has been a net gain of 19 members. Item 9: Journal Distribution This task is very successfully handled by Frank Davis and thanks to setting up a Drop and Go account, the post office process the envelopes which saves him sticking stamps on every envelope. Item 10: Journal Report Mike Forbes thanked the members for their contribution in sending in articles for publication.there were enjoyable thoughts plus nostalgic thoughts on collecting from Peter Mogg plus rebuilding activities of models. He could be contacted if necessary. Item 11 Website Report: A report was submitted by Dave Kaun regarding the development of the new website this year which was transferred from the old website when it was hacked. It was noted by Jan Werner that since 14th June 2016 there has been the following activity: Number of hits to websiite: 50,000 Number of watchers: 1,000 Number of registered DTCA members visiting: 102 The following data held on the website: Pre-war catalogues: 68 Post-war catalogues: 93 Old drawings: 104 A member Hans Neus asked the question: What about being on Facebook? It was felt that currently the stabilization of the new website should be the main priority, perhaps in the future that idea could be considered. 5
Item 11 Website Report: (continued) 6
Item 12 Marketing/Publicity Report: It was felt by Ken Cowdry who is in charge of publicity that the best way forward is via flyers being placed at swopmeats, contacting sister organisations like the Meccano and Bayko Societies. There will be a DTCA stall at the HRCA event in 2019. Some members present had seen Ken on the television with the presenter Kate Bliss on a programme called Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Item 13 Election of Officers: There was a list of members prepared to stand for the various positions on the committee a copy of which was available to every member present, an extra nomination was that of Bob Burnett who had agreed to take up the position of Vice Chairman. Prior to the meeting the Secretary had received 22 Proxy Voting papers from members not attending the AGM so with them and the members present there was a unanimous vote for all members standing for positions on the committee as follows: OFFICERS for 2016/2017 Chairman: Vice Chairman: Hon. Secretary: Hon. Treasurer: Journal Editor: Auditor: Webmaster and IT: Marketing Organiser: Membership Secretary: London Representitive: Journal Distribution: Committee Members: Michael Driver Bob Burnett Robin Narborough Barry Townend Mike Forbes Andrew Francis Dave Kaun Ken Cowdry Peter Carpenter Tony Murphy Frank Davis Keith Barnard Brian Hooper [Sales & Wants] David Cooke (President) [NB. David Cooke s Position is a Lifetime Appointment] 7
Item14 Any Other Business: There was a reminder by Tony Murphy that there was an event organised by the collectors of Lone Star models at White Webbs near Enfield on 25th September 2016. There being no other business, the Chairman Michael Driver closed the AGM at 3.40pm. 8