ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday 18 May 2010, 7.30 pm
Lee Memorial Hall
Dear Resident,
The mission of the Residents’
Association
is to promote and safeguard the amenities of Lee and Lincombe and their
surroundings and to pursue matters of common interest to those who live
and
work in the village. Our aim is to maintain a strong and representative
voice
in the affairs of the village and to take action as necessary to try to
maintain and enhance the quality of life of all residents. I think we
can
justly claim that we are taken seriously as a spokesman for village
interests
by the local authorities and other public bodies in the area.
Such influence can only have
legitimacy,
however, if the Association’s membership includes a significant
proportion of
the residents. In the past year, our
paid-up membership has significantly declined, which inevitably
undermines our
position. Which is why I am writing to
invite you
- to come to our Annual General Meeting, in the Memorial
Hall, on
Tuesday 18 May at 7.30pm,
- to renew your membership
of the Association for 2010/11 or to
join if you are not currently a member, and
- to consider taking an
active part in the work of the
Association by standing for election as a Committee member
The Agenda for the AGM will
include the
Chairman’s and Treasurer’s reports, as well as a report from the
Japanese
Knotweed Sub-Committee. The meeting will
also elect a new Committee and set the membership subscription for the
coming
year 2010/11. You are also welcome to use
the opportunity to raise and discuss matters of concern to you; if you
have any
particular items which you would like to have included on the Agenda,
please
contact me or the Secretary.
The Committee has the task of
carrying out
the Association’s business on your behalf during the year, keeping tabs
on the
activities of local authorities and other public bodies, responding to
planning
applications and other developments where they concern the interests of
the
village as a whole, and responding on your behalf to public
consultations. We also provide practical services
for the
village, such as managing the Public Toilets and, most recently, trying
to
organise a local First-Aid capability. In
accordance with the Association’s Constitution, all the members of the
existing
Committee* retire at the AGM and not all of us will be standing again as
candidates for next year. Currently we
are very concentrated in ‘downtown’ Lee, with only one Lincombe member
and none
from the outlying farms and other homes. We really do, therefore, need
your
help and participation, if we are to be able to represent the interests
of the
village as a whole and put in the work needed to secure our fair share
of
public funds and services.
A nominee to the Committee must
have
resided in Lee and Lincombe for at least two years and been an
Association
member for the previous financial year and must have been proposed and
seconded
by current members. Nomination forms may be obtained from one of us or
may be
downloaded from the Association’s website using this link, http://www.leeandlincombe.org.uk/the-committee/joining Completed forms must be with the Secretary by 04 May
at the latest. In the event of there being more nominated candidatures
than the seven places on the Committee, a ballot can be held at the AGM.
The decline in our membership
has also
produced a decline in our funds. We are
not big spenders, but holding the subscription at £4 a year per
household for
several years has steadily eroded our reserves.
At the AGM, we will therefore be proposing an increase for
2010/11 to £5
– still a snip, we think. You will, as
usual, be invited to pay your subscription at the AGM, though the
website www.leeandlincombe.org.uk
lists
all the other ways in which you can pay (click on ‘Subscribe’ on the
left). Strictly speaking, of course,
there is no obligation to pay the £5 until and unless the AGM ratifies
it. But if you were willing to take a gamble on
the extra quid, it would probably simplify your life and ours! That said, I should emphasise that all
residents are welcome to the AGM, whether members or not.
Yours sincerely,
Sebastian
Birch
