Minutes of Letsbuzz AGM: Saturday 28th April 2018
PRESENT: Jane (118), Jean (82), Dave (77), Graham (259), Liz (76), Mary (264), Sue (255), Valerie (258)
APOLOGIES: Bob (117) Barbara (208) Di (165), Rosemary (115),Janet (108), Vikki (260), Judy (3)
1. Matters arising from 2018 minutes
a) Sterling subscriptions
Jean reported that the sterling balance is now £157.95, and that we still needed to pay for the hire of the hall for this meeting. After some discussion it was agreed that we would charge all members a £5.00 membership subscription this year but also advise anyone who wants to remain a member but would find this difficult, to just pay what they can.
Action :Bob
b) Newsletter format
For the last few years we have circulated print copies of the newsletter to all members apart from those who specifically requested an email copy. This is both time consuming for those who produce the newsletter and deliver it, and costly for the organisation (photocopying/printing costs). We agreed that we will email the newsletter to all members and will continue to post a copy on Cyclos. Print copies will still be available on request to those who would prefer this.
2. Officer’s reports
Joint Coordinators
We have had a number of social events this year. the quiz was particularly popular and we were pleased that some members of Hemplets and MK Lets were able to join us. In addition, we have had a shared meal; a plant and produce afternoon at Jean's; Valerie's garage sale and Jane's wreath making. Some Letsbuzz members also attended (and enjoyed) a Hemplets trading and social event.
Although Cyclos works well for buzzard banking, many members have had difficulty using it for advertising offers and wants. At last year's AGM we agreed to set up a new email group to make it easier for members to trade.
We contacted all members in June to find out who would like to be included in this group and 33 members agreed. We set up the email group in August this year and circulated it to all those members. Cyclos is still available for anyone who wants to use it but most members are now using the email group and we believe this is making trading much easier, as intended.
Membership
5 new members have joined this year and one member has left. We have 53 members in total.
Sterling treasurer
Jean circulated a copy of the accounts, audited by Dave. She also explained that the newsletter costs only covered two issues of the newsletter as claims had not been submitted for the other two issues.
Buzzard treasurer
Valerie circulated three reports: a summary of trading since the last open meeting; an overview of user balances and a report on the year.
We were pleased to see that there has been a substantial increase in trading compared to last year: Valerie reported there have been 276 Member to Member trades this year and a total of 3,529 Buzzards exchanged. In 2018 there were 208 Member to Member trades trades and 1,518 Buzzards exchanged.
Valerie requested 18 buzzards for work involved in producing these reports and this was agreed.
We agreed with Valerie's comment in her annual report that being in commitment doesn’t matter too much as long as people are trading and participating in Letsbuzz. However, if a member leaves letsbuzz with a substantial commitment this is a different matter. Valerie suggested that we could adopt the MKLets policy that in this situation we could ask the member to make a cash donation in lieu of their commitment. We agreed that although we could not enforce payment that it would be appropriate to make a polite request.
Copies of Valerie's report, and the sterling accounts are attached at the end of the minutes.
Social Media
Sue reported that our Facebook page has 34 followers. The page has been ‘liked’ both by people in Leighton Buzzard and some from further afield - one of our 34 followers being based in Glasgow. 15 people had read Sue's post about the AGM.
3. Election of Officers
Coordinator, (Jane and Jean); Membership (Bob); Buzzard Treasurer (Valerie); and Social media (Sue).
No new people have come forward to take on the above roles so all the above officers have agreed to carry on in post.
Sterling Treasurer
Jean is covering this role at present but we agreed that it should really be covered by someone who doesn't have any other officer role. We agreed that Jean would contact members again to seek a volunteer for this role, and that this could then be put forward for agreement at the next Open meeting. Jean to continue to cover the role in the interim.
Action: Jean
Publicity Officer
Although no-one at the meeting was willing to take on this role Jean had had an email from a member who said they might be able to help with this - she will contact them to follow up.
Action: Jean
Cyclos backup person
Sean (member 18) deals with any Cyclos queries but it would be useful to have someone to act as backup when Sean is not available. Graham said that he might be interested in taking on this role but would need to know more about what it would involve. He agreed to arrange to meet with Sean to find out more.
Action: Graham
Valerie queried whether our data on Cyclos is automatically backed up. Jean thought that this was the case and that Sean had confirmed this a while ago but agreed to check.
Action: Jean
4. Future events
At Sue's suggestion, Jean produced a list of possible future events. Those present indicated which events they would be interested in attending and also which events they would be happy to coordinate. We agreed to circulate the list to all members with the aim of sharing events coordination and to find out which events would be popular.
Action: Jean
5. Dates for next Open meeting, and next AGM
Next Open meeting: Tuesday 14 May, 8.00pm at Jane's house.
The next AGM will be 25 April 2020 (We agreed last year to hold all AGMs on the last Saturday in April).
6. AOB
Graham suggested that it would be useful to have more information on members' offers and that we could consider using the same system as Hemplets - a listing, updated every year, of member's ongoing offers. Graham offered to set up a similar listing for letsbuzz. He thought it might be possible to use Cyclos for this and agreed to check this when he meets with Sean. If not, then he could use the software used by Hemplets.
Action: Graham
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After the meeting we enjoyed a cream tea (thanks to Lizzie for scones, cream and delicious home made jam), and also had time for some trading.
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Buzzard Treasurer Report AGM 27/04/19
As usual I have produced a report for the period 02.03.19 to 23.04.19 which is from the last statement date, so nearly two months.
“Rather less trades this period with both the number of trades and the value of trades down (trades 151 to 84 and the value 547B to 375B, but this period was only a month whereas the last period was approximately 2 months.
Member to member trades also fell 32 to 26 with equivalent buzzards dropping 387B – 287B. Membership fees are slightly down (58 to 52).
Members expenses were higher this month 6 claims from 3 claims in the last period with 36B from 14B being claimed.
The overall deficit of Organisation Account has fallen from -7,093 B to -7074B.”
2019
I have also produced a list of member balances as requested, we have members balances ranging from a commitment of 1,012B to 987B in surplus. To my mind it really doesn’t matter too much as long as people are trading and participating in Letsbuzz. I think that makes 35 members in surplus and 17 in commitment, but we expect people to be in commitment sometimes especially when they have busy times, are ill, have a baby etc. I did notice that some members have not traded for several years and I wonder whether it would be worth approaching them to ensure that they still wish to be members and perhaps that we members should look to see what they are offering/requesting and try to instigate trading with them?
Interesting Facts:
Over the last year there have been 276 Member to Member trades and 3529B exchanged.
If we include the Organisation Account there have been a total of 956 transfers and 4531B exchanged.
For 2018 the figures were as follows:
Member to Member trades 208 trades and 1518B
Including Organisation Account 764 transfers and 2393B – so we can see that the group is working well!
|
|
2017-2018 |
2018-2019 |
|
Member to Member Trades |
208 |
276 |
|
Member to Member Buzzards |
1518 |
3529 |
|
All Trades inc. Organisation Account |
764 |
956 |
|
All Buzzards inc. Organisation Account |
2393 |
4531 |
Treasurers Report for Letsbuzz Open Meeting/AGM, 27.04.19
|
Description |
Period 08.01.19 to 01.03.19 |
Period 02.03.19 to 23.04.19 |
|
Total Number of Trades during periods shown |
151 |
84 |
|
Value of ALL Trades during periods shown |
547 Buzzards |
375 Buzzards |
|
|
|
|
|
Number of trades, non-membership / officer fees |
32 |
26 |
|
Value of non-membership / officer trades |
387 Buzzards |
287 Buzzards |
|
|
|
|
|
Value of membership fee transfers |
58 Buzzards |
52 Buzzards |
|
Number of trades for Facebook / Hosts / Minute Takers |
3 |
6 |
|
Value of trades for Facebook / Hosts / Minute Takers |
-14 Buzzards |
-36 Buzzards |
|
|
|
|
|
Balance of Organisation Account |
-7,093 Buzzards |
-7074 Buzzards |
Rather less trades this period with both the number of trades and the value of trades down (trades 151 to 84 and the value 547B to 375B, but this period was only a month whereas the last period was approximately 2 months.
Member to member trades also fell 32 to 26 with equivalent buzzards dropping 387B – 287B. Membership fees are slightly down (58 to 52).
Members expenses were higher this month 6 claims from 3 claims in the last period with 36B from 14B being claimed.
The overall deficit of Organisation Account has fallen from -7,093 B to -7074B.
User Balances as at 26/04/19
|
User |
Negative since |
Balance |
|
|
Julian Bond |
29-07-2015 |
B -1,012 |
|
|
Janet102 |
28-10-2018 |
B -766 |
|
|
Brian70 |
29-07-2015 |
B -554 |
|
|
Caroline Davies |
29-07-2015 |
B -117 |
|
|
Dorothea Conti |
29-07-2015 |
B -109 |
|
|
Katrina Grant |
30-09-2015 |
B -32 |
|
|
Sheila Chappell |
29-07-2015 |
B -29 |
|
|
Lisa Lisa |
30-09-2015 |
B -27 |
|
|
Emma Floyd |
01-04-2018 |
B -13 |
|
|
William262 |
13-05-2018 |
B -13 |
|
|
Sandra261 |
01-06-2018 |
B -11 |
|
|
Ken Barry |
01-09-2017 |
B -10 |
|
|
Vikki260 |
15-12-2018 |
B -9 |
|
|
Carmela263 |
01-08-2018 |
B -6 |
|
|
Bob117 |
20-01-2019 |
B -6 |
|
|
Frank Gesoff |
01-01-2019 |
B -4 |
|
|
Katharine265 |
01-04-2019 |
B -1 |
|
|
Anna269 |
|
B 0 |
|
|
Heather268 |
|
B 5 |
|
|
Pauline Roby |
|
B 14 |
|
|
Diana165 |
|
B 27 |
|
|
Edward267 |
|
B 30 |
|
|
Linda Rowlands |
|
B 41 |
|
|
Eva Eva |
|
B 54 |
|
|
Judy Frith |
|
B 67 |
|
|
Gill King |
|
B 73 |
|
|
Rachel Bond |
|
B 74 |
|
|
Annette Gesoff |
|
B 85 |
|
|
Andrew Turner |
|
B 89 |
|
|
Soulbury Millenium Green |
|
B 91 |
|
|
Jane Stringall |
|
B 96 |
|
|
Valerie258 |
|
B 97 |
|
|
Sonja121 |
|
B 126 |
|
|
Jean Harding |
|
B 130 |
|
|
Sheila Sheila |
|
B 137 |
|
|
William252 |
|
B 162 |
|
|
Rosemary Eggleton |
|
B 168 |
|
|
Susan Scott |
|
B 174 |
|
|
Doreen Morrisey |
|
B 204 |
|
|
Christine Walter |
|
B 206 |
|
|
Mary264 |
B 210 |
||
|
Lizzie Miller |
B 239 |
||
|
Nikki266 |
B 332 |
||
|
Sue255 |
B 346 |
||
|
Sean Kelly |
B 362 |
||
|
Paul94 |
B 398 |
||
|
Andrew King |
B 442 |
||
|
Andrew120 |
B 499 |
||
|
Barbara Barber |
B 630 |
||
|
Graham259 |
B 671 |
||
|
Joan Cooper |
B 700 |
||
|
Dave Miller |
B 812 |
||
|
Rory Morrisey |
B 987 |
||
 |
