Last week we (finally!) held our AGM.

Held over a week, members were invited to register participation and raise questions by email, complete an online voting form and then join us for a Zoom meeting at the end of the week. We also had alternative postal options for those who don’t use email.

We were really impressed with the turnout for the electronic elements and, having met our quorum, were pleased to announce the new committee at the Zoom meeting. You can see who’s on the committee on our Meet the Committee webpage. No Officer roles have been assigned yet – they will be decided at the inaugural meeting of the new committee.

General Meetings are a great opportunity to look back over what we’ve achieved, but also a chance to hear from members and look forward to future projects. Two highlights of the Zoom meeting for me were:

1. Vote of Thanks
This was an opportunity for the Committee to thank all the members who have given some of their time and expertise to help run the allotment. These thanks included (but are by no means limited to):
– Joan Roche – for banking the shop takings and keeping good records.
– Daniel Archer – for always showing up for workdays and keeping the site secure with new fencing.
– Roz Cran – for organizing the Marina Allotments seed swap and inspiring the build of the community pizza oven.
– Maria O’Neill – for keeping the garden near the shop
– Val Honeyben – for all her advice on writing the new constitution
– Ian Greensmith – for running the Facebook page
– Louise Bell – for her hard work as Treasurer for the last 3/4 years (Louise stepped down from the committee this year).
– Rod Webb – for his hard work as Chair for the last 3.5 years (Rod is staying on the committee, but has stepped down as Chair).

2. Open Discussions

After closing the official business of the AGM, we moved on to talking about plans for the coming year and took ideas from the floor. It’s always great to hear the ideas from everyone who uses the allotments and there are so many good ones!

We talked about increasing water supply, getting electricity to the shop and opportunities for education and social events. There were some really great ideas – ordering seeds in bulk from reputable suppliers, increasing the scope of the seed swap, walk/talk events with various experts who can teach us more about the ecology we find on the site, making more use of the pizza oven, holding a Christmas Zoom Quiz and ways to get more people along to the social events to name a few.

Both of these sections of the meeting really highlighted how active the community we have at the allotments is and the need to get more members involved with some of these enterprises. If anyone is interested in helping with any of these ideas (or any other ideas you may have, or any of the other things we do like running the shop, maintaining tools, maintaining the toilet, organizing work days etc.), please do get in touch with us at committee@marinaallotments.org.uk. The committee can only do so much and we really need your help to keep the allotments the vibrant and interesting community it is.