93rd AGM Minutes (2010)

Glasgow HF Outdoor Club

Minutes of the 93rd Annual General Meeting held on 9th February 2010 at 7.30pm in Woodside Halls, Glenfarg Street, Glasgow.

1.0 Present:

Members: E Smith, H Paterson, R Paterson, E Watson, AG Kinnes, J Kennedy, A McCrae, A

Henderson, P Wright, W Lynch, S Paterson, M Greig, M Devine, J McLarnon, J Carson, S McCulloch, C McMillan, J Gibson, Jean Gibson, S McLeish, SC McLeish, A Mallon, G Hird, P Adam, D Docherty, A Mitchell, A Thorley, A Buchanan, P Wilson, LN Sprenger, M Brown, P Lee, B Wilson, P Wilson, F Alexander, J Moody, P McLaughlin, P Harrison, R Dunlop, M Dunlop, C McBride, R Mackay, N Smith, A Galletly, D Traynor, E Maclean, D Griffiths, H Dawson,

Apologies: S Swinson, M Keppie, J Kerr, B Dunlop, A Monaghan, J McGugan.

2.0 President’s Report: Tom Addie

Tom welcomed everyone to the meeting and paid tribute to David McCallum and Norrie Pearson

active past members who passed away during the year. In his report (circulated prior to the

meeting) Tom highlighted the development of putting on further afield walks on a Saturday with

earlier start times and that this will continue into the summer programme. The response to the

first Family Walk was very disappointing. However another one is due in March and we hope

that the turnout will be much better. The Lottery award of £4,952 has been fully spent on

courses covering navigation & map reading, group leader, winter skills and first aid and found to

be worthwhile by the members who attended. The club also purchased 3 sets of 2-way radios, a

laptop computer and mapping software. The club programme will be refined to give more detail

as to the grade and difficulty that can be expected on hill climbs.

Copies of the 92nd AGM minutes were posted on the website and circulated to members prior to

the meeting. Minutes were approved, proposed by John Moore & seconded by Keith Moody.

None.

Copies of the financial accounts were posted on the website and circulated to members prior to

the meeting. Willie pointed out that the club funds were not required to subsidise the buses as

they had operated at a profit and this had contributed to the club’s surplus.

It was queried why the recent purchase of equipment was not shown in the accounts. It was

explained that the club’s financial year ended on 30th November 2009 and that as those items

had been purchased after that date they will appear in next year’s accounts.

Secretary, Weekend, Goodwill, Saturday, Website and Publicity, Sunday and Saturday/Sunday

Buses secretaries reports were all circulated prior to the meeting.

John Moore as Sunday Secretary had asked members for comments on how best to organise

more distant walks; but to date he has had no response. A discussion ensued and it was agreed

that walks where members had to go and stay overnight or leave very early on the day of the

walk should notify the leader at least 2 weeks prior to the walk that they intend going on it. For

camping trips reminders should be posted on the website for at least 4 weeks prior to the walk

so that equipment sharing can be arranged along with travel arrangements. The committee will

put in place procedures to ensure that the above takes place and that the leaders contact

details are available and included in this summer’s programme. John also emphasised that due

to the lack of public transport Sunday walks cannot start before 8.30am. More distant munros

will be programmed for weekends and holiday weekends.

Committee members standing for re-election are: Stephen Thomson President; Jim Cassidy

Vice President; William Radziwonik Treasurer; Keith Moody Saturday Secretary; John Moore

Sunday Secretary; Stephen Thomson Bus Secretary; Margaret Alexander Goodwill Secretary;

Sue Swinson Programme Editor; Jim Cassidy Website Administrator/Publicity; Moya Taylor

Membership Secretary; Tom Addie Packchat Editor. The above committee members were

reappointed ‘en bloc’. The following vacancies were filled: Vice President John Moore; Secretary

Jim McLarnon; Weekend Secretary Tom Addie; Social Secretary David Griffiths and Andrew

Thorley Training Co-ordinator (new post). As there were no other nominations received all were

duly elected.

8.1 Changes to the Constitution. It was proposed by the Committee that 3.1 of the Constitution

be changed to read ‘Membership of the club shall be open to anyone aged 16 and over‘. After

considerable discussion the proposal went to a vote, 13 members voting for the change and 46

voting for the age to be 18 and over. The Constitution will be changed to read:

3 Membership and participation in Club Activities

Membership of the Club shall be open to anyone aged 18 and over regardless of sex, disability,

ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion or other beliefs. Participation in Club activities

will be at a level appropriate to personal fitness, ability and skills. Members are responsible for

themselves and their own actions when taking part in Club activities.

3.3 Prior to applying for membership, potential members will be allowed to attend a

maximum of two activities, excluding those designated as a Training or Practice Session.

13 Statement of Accounts

13.1 The Committee shall ensure that the Accounts are properly recorded and that the financial

year be from 1st January to 31st December each year. The Accounts must be examined prior to

the Annual General Meeting. The Treasurer shall prepare a Statement of Accounts covering the

9.1 The Committee proposed that the club ceases to affiliate to HF Holidays Ltd due to Rule 4:

On occasion your club/group may be requested (but no more than once a year) to provide all

the names and addresses of all its members to HF Holidays for promotional purposes. Only one

promotional mailing will be sent to club members within the year”. There followed a prolonged

discussion. The discussion veered off the actual proposal and centred on changing the name of

the Club which was proposal 9.2. The President reminded the members of the motion and read

it out again and then put the motion to a vote. 28 members voted for the motion to disaffiliate

and 39 members voted for the Club to remain affiliated. The motion was therefore defeated.

The President stated that the Club would write to HF Holidays informing them of the concerns of

many of the members and would ask whether members can opt out of the mailing list. The law

concerning Data Protection would have to be examined.

9.2 This motion was to change the name of the Club to “Glasgow Outdoor Club” and the

Constitution to be altered accordingly. The motion was proposed by Jim Cassidy and seconded

by David Griffiths. Jim Cassidy spoke for the Motion explaining that the HF letters in the club

name bore little relevant to what the club actually does and that potential members always ask

what HF stands for and when informed their next question is usually “Are you a religious

organisation?”. It can be a tedious exercise explaining the historical background to the initials.

Many of the older members spoke against the motion citing the importance of the history,

traditions and values of the Club. There was also a feeling that with the Club’s centenary

approaching in 2017 it would be appropriate to celebrate it with the original name. After a

lengthy discussion the motion was put to a vote which resulted in 38 members voting for the

motion and 38 voting against. The motion fell as it requires a two-thirds majority of members

present to change the name.

A member pointed out that it would be good if more members could be contacted through email

or texted on mobile phones. An article on this will be in the new edition of Packchat.

Tom closed the meeting by thanking the committee for their hard work throughout the year and

offered held and support to the incoming President, Stephen Thomson.

Stephen thanked Tom for his hard work throughout his 3 years as President; he then thanked

Margaret McLaughlin for serving 7 years as Weekend Secretary which she carried out efficiently

and effectively. He also thanked Maisie for her 4 years as Secretary and her contributions to the

committee. He then presented Margaret and Maisie with a token of thanks from the club.