Omibus Society

2014 AGM Minutes

2014 AGM Minutes

THE OMNIBUS SOCIETY

(Registered in England no. 3081365; Charity No. 1048887)

MINUTES of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held at London Transport Museum Depot at Acton, Museum Way, 118-120 Gunnersbury Lane, London W3 9BQ at 1400hrs on 14th June 2014

Present: 31 members of the Society, plus the Chairman (Harry Barker), Secretary (Tony Francis) and Treasurer (Robert Williams)

Apologies: were received from Duncan McKay, Pat Russell, G W Price, Julian Peddle, Charles Gill, Tony Hall and Tony Newman.

The Chairman thanked the staff and guides at Acton for organising the pre- meeting tour of the Depot collection.

Introduction:

The individual Directors who were present were each asked to give a short resume of their responsibilities within the Society.

  • Harry Barker (Chairman) stated that the long-term strategy was for Archive activities (principally through photographic and other sales) to be self- funding which would give the opportunity to significantly reduce the basic membership fee. We were also pursuing links with other societies to see where we could be of mutual benefit to each other.
  • Don Akrigg is responsible for a number of Branches within the Society and a principal member of the Photographic Sub-Committee
  • Ralph Barker (Membership) advised that the Society is currently attracting a significant number of new members. The present total is 932; 77 joined in 2014 with 50% of these under 60. This additional interest is mainly due our website and electronic membership form.
  • Gavin Booth (Publications & Marketing) announced the successful  ‘re-launch’ of the Omnibus Magazine and new publications during the year. All of these were making more people aware of the Society.
  • Kenny Barclay (IT) stated that the new website was attracting 3,000 new visitors per month . Further modifications will be made later in the year to incorporate ‘feed-back’ from users and accommodate photographic sales.
  • Geoff Lusher introduced himself as being responsible for Branches and PHRG.
  • Alan Mills (Archivist) listed all the premises currently used: Walsall (Main Library & Archive), Long Eaton (photographs), Acton (London Library), Lathalmond (Scottish duplicates), Tickets and Coalbrookdale. He co-ordinates these through regular meetings and reports to Council. For those wishing to determine what is held, a search facility is available via the website.
  • Ian Barlex (Health & Safety) is responsible for insurance and risk management in respect of all the properties & their OS content (per above) as well as setting out guidelines for tours, meetings etc. He personally visits each site once a year.
  • John Howie is currently ‘without portfolio’ hence is available should any of the other Directors need assistance. He has previously been ‘Membership Secretary and ‘Distribution Officer’ and organises the Council meetings and minutes.

New activities (eg sale of surplus material via Amazon & e-bay) are the responsibility of Julian Peddle and Stephen Morris arranges for the speakers at the London meetings.

 

Minutes of previous AGM held at National Express Training Academy, Birmingham on 15th June 2013 were formally approved. Proposed by Don Akrigg; seconded by Geoff Lusher.

Accounts for 2013:

The Draft Balance Sheet and revenue Account were included in the notification of the AGM, The Treasurer advised that these had now been examined by the Barker Partnership and a signed copy was available for inspection. He advised that, in future years, the intention is to split the accounts to show trading activities separately. This will be done once sales have increased to a significant level.

It was noted that the Legacy should refer to G Budd (not C Budd as printed)

Adoption of the accounts was proposed by John Hart; seconded by Kenny Barclay and carried.

Secretary’s Report: This had previously been circulated with the notification of the AGM. Two issues merited special emphasis: the valuable contribution made by Lisa Carty to the operation of the Society and the high quality of publications published during the year.

The report was proposed for approval by Gavin Booth, seconded by Derek Persson and accepted unanimously by those present.

Re-appointment of Directors:

(a)    Kenneth Barclay was re-appointed as a Director. Proposed by Robert Williams and seconded by Alan Mills.

(b)   Harry Barker  was re-appointed as a Director. Proposed by Geoff Lusher and seconded by Don Akrigg.

(c)    Ralph Barker was re-appointed as a Director. Proposed by John Howie and seconded by Gavin Booth.

(d)   Tony Francis was re-appointed as a Director. Proposed by Julian Peddle and seconded by Ian Barlex.

(e)   The meeting gave unanimous approval to the re-appointment of Harry Barker as Chairman of the Omnibus Society with immediate effect.

(f)     The meeting gave unanimous approval to the re-appointment of Tony Francis as Secretary of the Omnibus Society with immediate effect.

(g)    The meeting gave unanimous approval to the re-appointment of Robert Williams as Treasurer of the Omnibus Society with immediate effect.

Re-appointment of Examining Accountants: The meeting approved the re-appointment of The Barker Partnership (Charles Gill partner) of Kirkgate, Ripon HG4 1PB as Examining Accountants until the next AGM.

Any Other Business:

  • A general plea was made to members to make the benefits of their research and records available to a ‘wider audience’ by lodging relevant documentation in the OS Archive.
  • Both Ken Swallow and David Domin reinforced the need to publish our activities and recruit members from within the ‘bus industry’. Gavin Booth undertook to endeavour to have reports of presentations to OS meetings published in the newsletters of major companies. It was noted that the ‘National Recording Day’ was currently increasing the profile of the Society within the industry.
  • The Chairman announced that it had been necessary to establish a procedure for dealing with abuse against Society officials. Full details are not yet available but John Howie is the primary contact for any instances that arise.
  • The Chairman updated the meeting re the sale of photographs via the internet. Once the system is operational, images will normally be offered electronically but prints will be available at an additional cost. We have currently digitised in excess of 80,000 images which are being catalogued by persons with the appropriate fleet knowledge.  If anyone wishes to help with this process they should contact Alan Mills. There are a few remaining financial, technical and legal problems to resolve but it is hoped the first selection of views will be available ‘in the not too distant future’
  • The Chairman thanked all the volunteers who act for the Society and reminded everyone that more were welcome!

There being no other business the meeting closed at 1500hrs

Back to News