Secretary’s Report for AGM 2025
March 2024 to February 2025
Another busy and interesting year, our monthly members meeting seems to run itself! That’s down to our dream teams. Raffle Team, Diana and our Tea Team of Maureen, Brigitte, Zandra, and Beverly. Trish, the Centre Manager, has been very supportive throughout the year, particularly when our new Public Address system proved temperamental.
We welcomed 12 new members joining us throughout the year. Mostly down to word of mouth and Alan’s poster campaign throughout the community. Also, our two visits to Leigh Horticultural Show Events with our Community Boards proved very worthwhile. We also visited Westcliff. Leigh library and attended Shoebury Library Coffee morning in order to raise the profile of SDPC and to encourage new members.
We have a full programme of speakers again this year; our community is very generous in spending time with us and very rarely charges. I try to mix the serious with entertaining, and we have another full programme planned for this year.
The Open Forum in August was a good idea, which members enjoyed contributing their forceful thoughts on the new Labour Government removing the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners not in receipt of Pension Credit. Margaret spoke to her new MP, and Jill sent letters to the press meant that the MP for Southend East and the Portfolio holder for Social Services attended.
Our monthly Friendship lunches are proving very popular.
We have purchased a laptop for Committee Members to use, and Sue Stacey has taken over and is now the Minute Secretary…
During the year, our President has been suffering from ill health and, unfortunately, had to resign. We wish him and his family well. We are actively looking to find a suitable replacement.
We have been experiencing difficulties in getting Councillors to reply to emails, and the hope is that a new SAVS-led project will improve communication between groups such as ours and statutory bodies. Some training, such as Word Processing, may be paid for.
I stated at the last AGM in February 2024 that I wished to step down in my role as Hon. Secretary. I took on this role 14 years ago, and I now feel I can no longer manage all of those responsibilities in their entirety. The responsibilities of the role need to be spread more widely to people with the skills required.
A central point of contact is still crucial, and your committee recognised the skills gap within the existing committee and membership. I look forward to working with Roger Savage and Jamie Langstone, both of SAVS to work towards filling the skills gap in the near future. Roger Savage is working within the community and local college to find some support for our IT requirements, but is still remains the case that currently I am the only committee member using technology to communicate with members and speakers, plus monitoring incoming messages from our networking partners.
I am working with SAVS to improve our presence in the community and increase our membership in an attempt to appeal to those who have recently retired.
I am looking forward to another year working as a Committee Member and supporting the new Secretary and the rest of the committee with a gradual handover as we work together as the voice of older people within Southend and district.
This year we celebrate our 40th Anniversary on 15th October 2025.
Jean Howes
Hon. Secretary. January 2025