Committee Roles

For those who weren’t able to be there, we had a successful and positive – if slightly chilly – AGM on 16th September, followed by a social round the pizza oven which didn’t wind up till about 10.30 – I think everyone enjoyed the chance to meet and chat in a relaxed way after such a long time. I’ll send the minutes out as soon as they are ready, but in the meantime I thought I’d report on the first meeting of the new committee where we agreed our roles, as follows:

Treasurer: Anja Thies
Secretary: Jill Kaye
Membership: Anja and Jill to share
Site Maintenance & work parties: Rod Webb
Managing the shop: Pamela Nathan Meyers
Organising social events, talks and courses: Ursula McLaughlin, supported by Gerry Doyle

The new committee has decided to alternate our monthly meetings between decision-making and discussion. Val Honyben has offered to chair the decision meetings, and at the discussion meetings members will take turns to chair.

You may notice one glaring omission: no one has volunteered to be the Chair of the Association. As you know, the Chair has always been the Go To Person for members, but this can impose an unfair burden on one person. Instead, we have decided to increase the ‘visibility’ of the rest of the committee members in various ways, so that members know who to approach with specific queries. Also one of the suggestions at the AGM was to have someone outside the committee who would liaise between members and committee over plot matters. More on this soon.

Plot Inspection

At the same meeting, we also agreed on a date for our next plot inspection – or should I call it a plot survey, which was suggested at the AGM? (The word inspection conjures up unpleasant visions of Ofsted visits for some, which is not the idea.) We’ll be sharing the task between us starting this coming weekend, focussing especially on the state of paths surrounding plots as these can be hazardous if they are not in good shape before the winter.