AGM: 18 May 2010

Post date: Apr 28, 2010 2:21:46 PM

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