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LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2009
Minutes Of The Annual General Meeting of the LRFHS held at The Beauchamp College, Oadby on 8th March 2009 at 11.30am
Apologies Were Received From: Neville Easingwood, Michael & Joyce Billings and Dr. Kate Thompson
Minutes of the previous AGM were agreed as a true record. Proposed by Frank Over, seconded by Lyn Roffee
Chairman’s Report – Peter Cousins
Here we all are again in 2009 – another year has flown – is it just me or does time seem to speed up as you get older. Hope you have all had a fruitful year of searching for those elusive ancestors. I have personally done more research into my family this year already than I have for a long time – and have found a criminal past – not 1 but 3 ancestors transported to the colonies!
The advent of the 1911 Census seems to have kick started many of us, including me, in to picking up our research again, although as you will no doubt agree it is rather expensive to use at present.
2008 was a pretty calm year, without any major problems in the running of the Society. The Research Centre continues to have a stream of visitors old new and regular, and is run very efficiently by Joan Silvey and her team of volunteers. Several new members have mentioned to me during the course of the year that they have been very well received at the centre and the help they have received had been excellent.
Ancestry continues to be available for members at the Research Centre, and last year we also took out a subscription to Find My Past, although this on a single computer as they do not have a library licence like Ancestry. We are also looking at getting a high value access voucher for the 1911 Census so that members can pay a fee and download census pages and transcripts.
One problem we did have was with the online subscriptions and publication orders not being received. This was due partly to a problem with the servers at the hosting company we use, and partly with the on line page. All this has been rectified and all submissions are now received almost immediately. We are looking to make a change in the online payment system this year by using an online checkout system, so as you submit your payment it is processed straight away and you receive confirmation of this, and we receive your details and payment. This will cut out hours of processing the submissions by hand as it is done now.
During the year, given the current economic conditions, your committee have looked at ways of making cost savings, and have been successful in some areas.
The bills for electricity used at the Research Centre are very high, and by asking an expert to look at switching our supply we have been able to make savings of £130 per quarter in the charges.
As you will see in the accounts, the cost of providing your quarterly journal was £20,000 during the year. This equates to an average of around £7 per member per year. This cost includes the postage which is very high, and we have been able to make considerable savings in this cost by adopting a new contract system with the Post Office which the printers Parchment of Oxford have organised for us. This was achieved only after a lot of hard work by Liz Adams our Membership Secretary in organising and checking all the postcodes on the membership database.
The other significant cost saving that Brenda Sutherland our Treasurer has been able to make is with the rates at the Centre. We have now a special Charity status with the Council and pay a much reduced charge, and we received a refund for the charges already paid.
Thanks to all those concerned in making these savings with what after all is the Memberships money.
Many thanks to Toni Smith stepping back in to the breach to produce such an excellent journal for us – our hunt for a new Editor is harder than researching for those elusive ancestors of ours! Please if anyone if only thinking about taking on the task, or you know someone who may be interested, please contact Toni or myself for a chat
Toni has been become somewhat of an expert in making videos, especially of Leicestershire villages which she has uploaded to the Leicestershire Villages website.
One day when she was showing some of her productions, I casually mentioned that it would be a good idea to have one of the Research Centre for anyone who has not visited the Centre to be able to see. About a week later it was done – complete with commentary about the resources. A 5 minute excellent video tour of the centre. We uploaded this to Youtube.com and to date it has had over 600 viewers.
At the beginning of the video Toni put my picture and a greeting from the Chairman – recently I was outside the Centre and saw 2 ladies walking towards the building, obviously looking for the Society premises, when one exclaimed “that’s the man off the Internet” – glad to see that my picture didn’t put them off coming to join the Society.
Our group meetings held at Hinckley, Melton, Rutland, Loughborough, Leicester, Market Harborough and the Computer Group at Evington continue to provide a varied program of speakers and outside events which as members you are all entitled to attend – a total of 78 meetings per year.
The Market Harborough group found a new venue from the start of 2008 at the Roman Way Day Centre just behind the Museum in Harborough. A very nice comfortable venue with built-in projector facilities and the all important tea making facilities, and it has been well attended since their move.
The Leicester group meetings held at the Royce Institute in the city have been under threat for some time because of the proposed sale of the car park by the Council. In the latter half of the year we started to look for alternative premises which were eventually found outside of the City at Wigston in the Age Concern building in Paddock Street. We had our first meeting there in January with some trepidation as we did not know what sort attendances we would get. The average at the Royce for the whole of last year was 34 members and guests – The January meeting in Wigston attracted over 60 visitors, with the February meeting the same.
September 2009 will see the 35th Anniversary of the Society, and to recognise this we are holding an event at the Rothley Centre on Sunday 27th September. This will be similar to a family history fair with stands and local societies joining in. Details will be published in your Journal and on the website.
Lastly it is sad for me to report the loss on one of our Society stalwarts Les Hales who passed away recently. Les helped at the Centre for may years, and some of you may remember him attending these AGM and other events dressed in his canal boatman outfits along with his wife Freda. Only last year at this AGM although very unwell he attended complete with his canal history database, which Joan Rowbottom will testify to as it filled her car!
At is funeral in Thurmaston the Church was absolutely packed with his family and his canal society and family history society friends, a measure of how much he was respected by so many.
Publications Report
Last year saw a drop in sales of CD ROMs, due partly I would think to the use of the Internet, and also the amount of data now available from many sources.
Saying that this year already in just 2 months the turnover from CD sales has achieved a quarter of last years sales, due mainly to the new burials CD
In February we published the second part of the Rutland Parish Registers on CD ROM, containing 11 more parishes of Rutland.
In September we published a new Military Index CD Rom, containing over 10,000 records of enlistments and pensioners details. Many thanks to Sue Shore for providing most of the data for this CD.
In October we released the new version of our County Burials Index which contains over 420,000 burials in Leics & Rutland.
Membership Secretary’s Report – Liz Adams
Membership of the Society fell slightly during 2008. There were 3133 members at the end of December 2008 - 92 fewer than in December 2007, which was less of a decrease than in 2007. Thank you to all those who renewed in good time. It is a great help to me and also means that those who renew by the end of January will receive their March journal directly from the printers. Reminder letters will need to be sent to approximately 700 members who have not renewed on time, which involves extra expense for the Society. The numbers renewing as a result of being sent a reminder does make it a cost effective exercise. If you have no intention of renewing for 2010, please could you inform me so that a reminder is not sent to you.
The number of members paying twice has fallen quite considerably. As I write this in mid January – 22 members have paid twice, compared to over 60 in 2007. Many thanks for taking more care and checking your records. One or two members have complained that they get confused because we publish two renewal forms – in the September and December journals. I explained the reason for this in the December 2008 journal. With over 3,000 members, it enables me to spread the work over a longer period and ensures that more people renew by the end of the year. I process about 700 renewals between September and December. This is a great help in managing the workload and makes the job much easier.
One or two members have been anxious that we do not pass on their contact details to anyone else. Your membership details are stored on a computer. We have two copies of the membership database – one for myself and one for Mike Hutchinson who organises Surname Interests. The printers obviously have to have your address details in order to post out the journal and we have given them permission to use the names and addresses from our database. If you do not sign the Data Protection section of the application or renewal form your details will not be passed on to a third party. We are very strict about this and do not make exceptions, no matter how people plead with us to do so. So if you wish to share information with other members or have something published in the journal, you will need to sign the Data Protection section. I noticed this year that many people who pay by Standing Order have not signed.
I would like to make this coming year my last one as Membership Secretary. By March 2010 I will have been doing the job for nearly six years. If anyone would like to take on this roll, I would be very pleased to hear from you. It is not a difficult job. There are set procedures and once these have been learned the job is straightforward. The period April – August is always very quiet. I would of course give every assistance to anyone taking on the roll.
Journal Editor’s Report – Toni Smith
Little did I think that I would still be writing reports for this meeting, this being the second AGM since returning to the job as journal editor after a year’s break. Looking to the positive side, I enjoy putting the journal together each quarter, mainly due to the letters and articles that come from you, the members, which makes life easy for me. My problem is a good one, in that I have difficulty in keeping the journal to a reasonable length. That is not a complaint, so keep up the good work, your articles, comments and queries are all appreciated.
I hope you have enjoyed the high quality of the cover pictures recently. Alan Freestone has done a super job, and my thanks go to him, as it has been a job less for me to think about. He has certainly enhanced the look of the cover with his expert photography skills.
I have also been delighted with contributions from Mike Ratcliffe with his computer bits, Mick Rawle with his odds and ends (and some great articles) and Pat Grundy with Record Office updates, and the fact that they have always sent the contributions in time, and in an easy format to be added. Being able to rely on contributors, makes my life easier.
Other contributors that are perhaps ‘unsung’ are Liz Adams for providing the new members lists, and Mike Hutchinson who inputs all the member’s interests and provides me with the lists that appear in the journals. I know from correspondence that this is the first thing that is looked at, when the journal lands on the doormat!
Talking about the postman, we must also mention Parchment Printers, who do a great job printing and posting to everyone, using the addresses provided by the membership secretary. Gone are the days when it would take 6 people a whole day (sometimes longer) to envelope and stamp over three thousand journals.
My final ‘thank you’ is to John Angus. He works behind the scenes, as he proof reads my efforts before finally the journal is sent to the printers. He has made a terrific difference to the quality and accuracy of the scripts that go into the final journal. I know how long it takes to do this job, but John has made himself available at short notice, and returned the goods post haste.
So when you now read the journal please think of all the efforts from many people that have pulled together to make our little book the success that it is.
Research Centre Report – Joan Silvey
It has been a good year at the Centre, with many new members joining and so many visitors coming in. I want to thank every one who donated items that have now been given a number and put onto the shelves by Cis Taylor and also thank Pat Pashley who is keeping a check on the fiche to make sure they are all in the correct place and none are missing. I do not think anything has gone missing this past year.
I would like to thank all of the staff who give up their free time to keep the centre open and make sure it is running smoothly. New members that visit us are surprised at the holdings we have, as most of them think we only have Leicestershire & Rutland data.
Services Report – Mike Hutchinson
In 2008 I supplied over 1000 addresses a year, replying to over 1100 e mails, as well as a few postal requests, this total included 93 supplied whilst I was in Australia and New Zealand visiting relatives. There are however still a number of people who do not read the instructions on the web site, before contacting me. The level of use has not significantly changed since I took over the Interests. Top of the pops for the third year on addresses supplied is Paul Hunt in the U.K with 34. Colonel Hirst still tops the overseas Members list with 23.
There are now nearly 18,400 surnames listed on the web site. 730 Members are now listed as not accepting the DPA Statement, and their interests have been archived, this represents a total of 4260 surnames which do not appear on the web site. These can be restored at any time, should they change their minds, however they will not appear in the journal. Strays At present there are not enough additional strays to produce a supplement for 2008, however any that I have will be included in the next supplement, probably at the end of 2009. I have had no enquiries for stray information during the year, nor have I had any additional strays submitted by members.
ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 2008
The accounts were presented by our Treasurer Brenda Sutherland. These were accepted by the assembled membership. Proposed by Frank Over and seconded by Toni Smith
Anyone wishing a copy of the accounts may request one from our Treasurer Brenda Sutherland.
ELECTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Nominations were received for the following:
Proposed by Sheila Mileham, seconded by Lyn Roffee
Appointment Of Examiners – Hayles Farrar & Partners Proposed by Toni Smith, seconded by Mark Gamble
Membership Subscription Increase
A motion was announced to raise the membership subscription rates to £13 per single membership and £15 for family and overseas membership. Proposed by Cheryl Rawle and Seconded by Toni Smith
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Mick Rawle made a presentation of a life membership to John Savage for his exceptional indexing work undertaken on our behalf.
Dr. Margaret Bonney read a request that in future when publishing new CD ROMs we look at the possibility of including .pdf file versions of the files which can be accessed on computers with Apple Mac operating systems.
Brian Johnson, made an announcement that Michael Billings was to become the new President of the LRFHS in place of Dr. Kate Thompson. He read out a letter received by Kate, also a letter of acceptance from Michael Billings.
The AGM closed at 12.20pm
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