Minutes of the letsbuzz AGM - 18 April 2015

Present: Annabelle (182), Bob (117), Caroline (228), Dave (77), Di (165), Jane (118), Jean (82), Liz (76), Mary (114), Sean (18), Sue (256), William (252).

Apologies: Brian (70), Sonja (121) Christine (137), Joan (156)

Minutes taken: Jean (82)

Please note that where members have agreed to do something the action to be taken has been highlighted.

Matters arising from the minutes of the 2015 AGM

1. Caroline to check with Hemplets what system they use for buzzard transactions/reporting

- This was no longer necessary due to the decision to use the Cyclos system.

2. Sonja to check with the bank if people can transfer monies into the letsbuzz treasurer’s trust bank account.

- Sonja had checked with the bank and reported that BACS transfers are not possible with this type of account.

3. Seán to set up ‘newsletter editor’ email address.

Officers’ Reports

Membership secretary

Bob (117) reported that there are 50 members at present. One member has left, having moved away from the area. One new member has joined.

Bob had received a number of enquiries and had sent out membership application forms but so far none have been returned.

Sterling Treasurer

Sonja (121) had submitted a report stating that there was a balance of £383.05 in the letsbuzz account. It was noted that the accounts had not yet been audited.

Sonja to liaise with Dave (77) re the audit.

Newsletter editor

William (252) reported that he had not produced a newsletter this quarter as no articles had been submitted. He questioned whether a quarterly newsletter was necessary. The group agreed that it would be good to have a quarterly newsletter if possible but this could be reduced to 3 issues per annum when there was a shortage of material. It was suggested that future issues could include some more member profiles. The next two newsletters are due in May and September.

Buzzard Treasurer

Joan (156) had produced a report from Cyclos, covering trades from August 2015 (when the system went live) to December 2015. During this period there had been 159 trades recorded by 22 members.

Co-ordinator

Jane (118) reported that Open meetings had been well attended during the year.

There was also a good turn out for the post-xmas lunch and several members had suggested we should repeat the 'bring and share' format.

Jane had also organised a display in the library to publicise letsbuzz.

Subscriptions

1. Sterling subscription

Following some discussion it was agreed that we would suspend the sterling subscription for this year as there are sufficient funds in the account. We agreed to review this at the next AGM.

2. Buzzard subscription

We agreed that the buzzard subscription should be set at a rate that would cover all the buzzard costs of running letsbuzz (including payment to officers for time taken on letsbuzz work, payments to Open meeting hosts, etc). As officers have not always charged for their time there is no accurate record of running costs.

Last year the buzzard subscription was set at 20 buzzards. We agreed to reduce this to 12 buzzards for this year, to be deducted automatically from members accounts at the rate of 1 buzzard per month. (Cyclos has a facility to automate this which will reduce the work of the buzzard treasurer.)

The meeting agreed that officers should charge for their time by submitting claims to subsequent Open meetings for approval.

We should then have an accurate picture of the real costs of running letsbuzz and can then revise the buzzard subscription again at the next AGM, as necessary.

Transition from Yahoo group to Cyclos

Although Cyclos has been available to members since August 2015 not all members are using it as we still have the Yahoo group running in parallel. Sean explained that we need to close down the Yahoo group for several reasons; it takes a lot of time to maintain, people who change their email addresses can be 'lost', and it's not a secure system in that it can't be linked securely to the current membership list. There was some concern that members unfamiliar with Cyclos might just stop trading - it's a very different system and some members have had problems using it. We agreed to have a group of Cyclos 'helpers' to offer assistance to anyone having problems using this new system.

The following members agreed to be available to offer help: Sean (18), Caroline (228), Jane (118), Jean (82), William (252), Bob (117). We agreed that the Yahoo Group would be closed down on 31 May so from that date on all members should be using Cyclos.

Sean to email all members to advise them that the Yahoo group will be closed down on 31 May, and that helpers are available for anyone unsure about how to use Cyclos.

Jane/Sean (?) to ask Joan (156) if she would also be willing to help members with Cyclos.

Election of officers

No one came forward to volunteer for any of the posts and all the officers currently in posts agreed to continue:

Coordinator: Jane (118)

Buzzard Treasurer: Joan (156)

Sterling treasurer: Sonja (121)

Membership: Bob (117)

Newsletter editor: William (252)

Facebook officer: Sue (256)

Events co-ordinator: this post has been vacant for a number of years. Jane reminded members that anyone who is interested can organise a one-off event and will be paid in buzzards for their time.

The meeting was then closed and followed by trading and cream teas. (Scones, cream and home made jam provided by Liz (76)).

Sean and Caroline also offered some members present help and advice on how to use Cyclos.