Vice-Chairman’s Report
President: Cllr David Norman MBE.
Vice-Chairman’s Report Annual General Meeting
20th February 2019
Our 33rd year has been a largely positive one with a number of improvements being made.
The loss of Ron Kennedy was a significant blow to us all, and he will be remembered for his great contribution to the Campaign’s Committee.
During the year, Margaret Haydon volunteered to be our Lottery Organiser and Jill Allen-King and Alan Grubb joined our Committee which gives us a stronger team. Ken Pitcher had to leave the Committee due to pressure of work. Members will be missing Ann and Martin Tweed, who used to do the teas and the raffle. Maureen Lawrence, Lorraine Blacker and, of course, Elsie Moore stepped into the breach. Martin is slowly recovering from ill health, we hope to see them both back with us very soon. And, of course, Iris is sorely missed after her fall during the summer of 2017. Jean, our secretary keeps in touch with Iris’s daughter.
Membership has remained stable, but should be growing more, considering the efforts we made to engage with the Community. We have had a stall in the “Royals Shopping Centre” twice and have also been to Southend Community Adult College talking to students who are also pensioners. We attended the OPA event “Active Ageing” in the Victoria Plaza on 3rd November, which did give us some more potential speakers.
The finances are in a stable position and should gradually improve as we manage to cut costs in the future. My thanks to David Stansfield for his work as Treasurer, and to Izzie Isaacs for taking on the audit.
I continue to attend the London Region Council meetings and find it useful to maintain our links with this very active group. If any member is interested in going to these quarterly meetings, please let me know.
Your Committee was planning to hold a public networking event in September this year, and our Secretary wrote to the co-operative bank for a grant. This was not successful, but there are other retailers who could be approached. We will be considering whether to proceed with this at our next committee meeting.
Big news is we have MOVED! From January this year we have moved our venue for Committee and Members meetings to the Balmoral Centre, Salisbury Avenue, Westcliff SS0 7AU. This gives us a more attractive place to meet, and also saves us money! We have purchased a new banner, and new application forms with updated details.
The Campaign really needs its members to consider volunteering to take a more active part in our future. We need a Chairman, and really someone to shadow our Treasurer who has held the post for over 10 years. Also, Jean our Secretary could use a shadow as she has been post for over 8 years.
Finally, my thanks to our President, Cllr David Norman MBE, for his continued support, together with our Committee and all of you members. We must continue to campaign for higher Old Age Pensions, Dignity for the elderly and disabled, and recognition for how much money we save Government by volunteering and caring for the old and young.
Happy New Year.
Robert Howes
Hon. Vice –Chairman