The Lighthouse Club - 51th AGM Minutes

53rd Annual General Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE 53rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE LIGHTHOUSE CLUB HELD AT THE RAF CLUB, 128 PICCADILLY ON MONDAY 15 JUNE 2009 AT 5.00 pm

IN THE CHAIR:          Mr K McNicholas

PRESENT:                 14 members of the National Council/Officers of the Club and 12 members.

1.    The President of the Club, Mr McNicholas, welcomed those attending including Herr Haller from Germany who had been invited by Mr Tidmarsh following their encounter at SED. Mr Barnett, the Chairman of the Council, read the Notice convening the Meeting.

MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
2.    The Minutes of the 52nd Annual General Meeting held on 16 June 2008 were taken as read and approved, proposed by Mr Cummings & seconded by Mr Tidmarsh.

MATTERS ARISING
3.        There were no Matters Arising not covered by the agenda.

COUNCIL CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
4.    Mr Barnett said that it was the first AGM which he had attended as Chairman of the Council, a responsibility he was honoured to discharge. He had earned his living in the construction industry & was pleased to have the opportunity to give something back. The Club had now been in existence for over 50 years during which its efforts had changed many lives for the better. Everyone was aware of the difficulties experienced by the industry in 2008 & the problems were ongoing. Raising funds was harder & requests for help were increasing. The Club would need to continue to find a way to balance the two during this difficult period.

5.    The Benevolent Fund had helped a record number of cases once again in 2008 & paid out a record amount of over £733,000.Grateful thanks were due not only from the beneficiaries but from the Club for the work done by Mr Everett, the trustees, administrator Mr Burns & the welfare officers for their achievements. Additionally the Fund was only able to function because of the work of the Branches, the generosity of donors through sponsorship & one-off donations & all the people who supported the Club events nationwide. Mr Barnett listed a number of different types of event held, all run by volunteers who put so much effort into organising them. He hoped the membership would continue to support the events as generously as in the past.

6.    There were now 22 Branches in the UK & Ireland since Scotland North had been formed. The South West Branch had been reinvigorated largely thanks to the efforts of Mr Green, Mrs Furse & Mr Bennett & there were moves to do the same for the North East & Yorkshire Branches. There had been a surge in new members overall at the beginning of 2009 & it was hoped that this could be repeated. There was a need to increase the membership - which proportionally did not reflect the numbers in the industry as a whole. This was no doubt 100,000 or more. The challenge for the Club was to make more of them members. There were no plans to increase the annual subscription from the current £20 a year which was within most people’s ability to pay.

7.    Members were able to keep up to date with the Club via the website - thanks to Mr Baldry who was continuing to maintain it until a successor could be found - & the newsletter which was mailed out to members 4 times a year. Thanks to Mr Corcoran of Speedy Hire, this was edited by a member of his staff, Mrs Peet, & Mr Barnett paid tribute to her for the excellent job she did for the Club.

8.    Mr Barnett was sure that the Club would continue with its work in spite of the difficult times because of the goodwill there was within it. One of its functions was to raise money for benevolence but it was also important not to forget the spirit in which it was founded by Eddie Ward over 50 years ago & the good fellowship which was so much part of its ethos. He expressed grateful thanks to all who helped to make its aims possible – the Council, Benevolent Fund, Branches & the membership for supporting its work. There was no doubt some need to find different inventive ways to raise money to meet increasing need & to evolve in constructive ways but he did not see that evolution should mean revolution. New ideas could be added to the basic qualities that made the Club what it was & need not supplant them.

TREASURER'S REPORT
9.    Mr Rodway presented the Annual Report and Accounts of the Lighthouse Club for the year ended 31 December 2008, as distributed in an abbreviated form in the newsletter. Copies of the Accounts in full and those of the Benevolent Fund, as required by current charity law, were available on request from the National Office. The adoption of the Lighthouse Club accounts was proposed by Mr S McNicholas and seconded by Mr Cummings.

BENEVOLENT FUND
10.    Chairman of the Trustees, Mr Everett, presented the Benevolent Fund report for the year ended 31 December 2008 & drew attention to the highlights. A total of £715,000 was given to families in need & £18,600 was spent on Vitalise or alternative respite holidays. The amount given away in total was another record for the Fund & over 13% higher than the previous record in 2007.Administrative costs were low at 6% of the funds given away & 94p in every pound raised went straight to people in need. A total of 448 families in the UK & Ireland had been helped.

11.    In the context of these figures, Mr Everett paid tribute to the welfare officers for their hours of voluntary help & the Branch committees for their organisation of so many fund raising events, to some of which he had been made so welcome, & the £429,000 those events had raised. He also thanked his fellow Council members for their continued support, particularly Mr Cockerton who was responsible for the area of corporate .sponsorship. Others he wanted to mention were Mr Burns, the Fund administrator, Mr Rodway , the Treasurer, Mr Walker & Mr Baldry for their promotion of the Club activities, Mr Tidmarsh for his work on respite holidays & not least his fellow Trustees who had dealt with so many individual cases throughout the year.

12.    Mr Everett stressed the importance of raising awareness of both the Club & the Benevolent Fund. Some successful steps had been taken in the past year to do this by presentations to the Health & Safety Executive & Police family liaison officers, both of whom were now distributing leaflets about the Fund. He firmly believed that the Fund was going from strength to strength & would continue to do so.

13.    Mr Rodway pointed to the effect on the Benevolent Fund of the economic conditions of the past year. The deficit for the year was £112,847 compared with a surplus in 2007 of £114,377. The £227,224 turnaround in position was due to a fall in donations from the Lighthouse Club Branches of £98,000 & in Dinner/Ball surpluses of £28,000 coupled with an increase in benevolence payments of £98,000 to a record level of £733,967. Bank balances at the year end were £563,667 with reserves totalling £665,982 which was just under the level of one year’s benevolence payments.

14.    Mr McNicholas thanked Mr Everett for his report & the success of the past year. The adoption of the Benevolent Fund accounts was proposed by Mr Tidmarsh & seconded by Mr Cockerton. Mr McNicholas also thanked Mr Rodway for his work as Treasurer during the year & for his preparation of the accounts for both the Lighthouse Club & the Benevolent Fund.

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
15.    Mr Cockerton was pleased to report that the number of sponsors supporting the Club & the Benevolent Fund was still rising and a total of £208,000 had been donated in the past year. He thanked all the sponsors for their support & asked people present to provide him with names of potential sponsors so that he could make contact. Mr McNicholas thanked Mr Cockerton for his success in increasing both the number of sponsors and their contributions.

REPORT ON THE CHARLES NEWMAN MEMORIAL FUND
16.    Chairman of the Fund, Mr McAlpine, had provided figures. The value of the Memorial Fund, as at 27 April 2009, was £630,000 which was an improvement on the value of £582,000 at 8 December 2008.

REPORT ON THE CHARLES CHINN AWARDS
17.    In the absence of Mr Chaundy, Mrs Lowry reported that the Scheme was supporting a candidate who was following a 6 year course in Architecture which started in September 2005.

ELECTION OF COUNCIL OFFICERS AND MEMBERS
18.    Mr McNicholas said that Council members Mr Clancy, Mr Corcoran & Mrs Gates were standing down. Mr Dennan, previously coopted, would become a full member of the Council. Mr Cockerton had been elected by the Council to serve as Vice Chairman. These arrangements were approved by the meeting, proposed by Mr Walker & seconded by Mr Tidmarsh.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS
19.    Mr Barnett asked for endorsement of the amendments to the Rules of the Club which had been prepared by Mr Walker & approved by the Council at their meeting in October 2008. This was given, proposed by Mr Walker & seconded by Mr Tidmarsh.

20.    Mr Baldry asked for a letter to be sent from the Council on behalf of the Lighthouse Club to thank Moffat Press for their help with the newsletter & the website. Mr Barnett agreed to put this in hand.

21.    Mr Leslie reminded the meeting that there were around 3,500 LHC members of Clubs abroad with the same objectives as the Club in the UK & Ireland. Growth in overseas Clubs continued to expand from the home base.

22.    As there was no other business to discuss, Mr McNicholas thanked those present for attending & closed the Meeting.