Our 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held at 2:00pm on Tuesday 24th June 2025 in the Townsend Hall
All papers relating to the meeting had been sent to members before the AGM and 60 members were present at the 2025 AGM.
Chair Richard Davies welcomed everyone to the meeting and commented on the progress made by the Shipston-on-Stour Area u3a in the last year. He then introduced each member of the 2024/25 Executive Committee, and he described the AGM process and voting arrangements. He also confirmed that in advance of the meeting, apologies for absence had been received from 27 members.
The meeting approved the Minutes of the 2024 AGM as a true record then Committee members gave their reports for 2024/25 - these were from the Chair; the Interest Group Co-ordinator; the Membership Secretary and the Secretary. These were followed by the Treasurer who presented and commented on the Annual Accounts for 2024/25. The meeting then approved those accounts.
A proposed minor change to the Constitution was described by the Secretary, who reminded the AGM that the existing Constitution had been adopted from a model from the UK central u3a body, the Third Age Trust, at the 2022 Annual general meeting. He explained that the existing Constitution under item 16(8) meant that no Executive Committee position may be held for a continuous period of ‘in excess of three years’. This means in practice that 5 of the existing 6 Committee members would need to stand down and as only one volunteer has been forthcoming from the membership, the Committee felt they had no other alternative but to alter the existing time limit from 3 years to 6 years. The Third Age Trust had confirmed that they are happy for us to propose this minor amendment to our Constitution. The members present resolved ‘This meeting changes clause 16(8) of our Constitution as follows: “No-one may hold any specific Officer position or be an Ordinary (Non-Officer) Trustee for a continuous period in excess of 6 years, without an interval of at least one year between the periods of service.”
Members of the new Executive Committee for 2025/26 comprising Richard Davies, Brenda Boyle, John Dunlop, John Keayes, Jonathan Lander, Jenny Shepperd and Richard Taylor were then voted in, then the Officers of the u3a were also voted in for the forthcoming year. Richard Davies will be Chair; Brenda Boyle, Vice Chair; John Dunlop, Treasurer and John Keayes, Secretary.
The Secretary pointed out that Notice letter to all members dated 24th April 2025 advertising this AGM had asked members for any motions for debate but none had been requested.
As there were no further questions nor matters raised, Richard Davies thanked everyone for attending the meeting which he then closed.
Following the formalities of the AGM members were invited to socialise with refreshments at Townsend Hall.
On Wednesday 2nd July 2025 the Secretary sent members a copy of the Draft Minutes of the AGM.