MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF OXTED & DISTRICT ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

HELD AT THE OXTED RBL CLUB, 42 CHURCH LANE, OXTED, SURREY, RH8 9LB

SUNDAY, 26^TH NOVEMBER 2023

The meeting opened with the entering of the Standards.

EXHORTATION The Exhortation was given by the Chairman:

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years  condemn

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We will remember them

In our silence were asked to remember all past members who had passed to higher service over the last 12 months.

Apologies for Absence:    None

Chairman’s Welcome:

Good morning.  It is good to see so many of you here for this year’s AGM – there are more of you here than I have ever seen at an AGM and I leave it to those more experienced members to decide if this is the best attended AGM in recent memory.

This year our President Jackie Wren resigned due to the pressures of her Council responsibilities.  We currently don’t have a President although we have identified a highly suitable candidate and my successor will take that forward for the Committee to appoint.

Those of you eligible to vote have been given a Voting Form.  I ask that you wait until deciding where to put your cross as I will ask the candidates for Chairman to speak later.

Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting – Approval and Any Matters Arising:

Proposed:    Jean Inker

Seconded:   Helen Burton

There were no matters arising.

Chairman’s Annual Report:

After five years as Chairman, I am standing down as Jackie and I are moving away from Oxted.  This has been a difficult time, with the two years of the pandemic having an adverse effect on Branch and Club activities.  This last year, as we sought to get back to normal, we have had to put in place all of the compliance that the RBL mandates – much of which is probably a little tedious to you, but it has directly contributed to this AGM being the most well-advertised and attended in recent memory.  We now know who all of our members are and regularly communicate with you all.  We have a Website to reach out more widely and have begun to invest in public advertising to further benefit our fundraising and remembrance efforts. 

Early on this year, we lost two members of the committee through resignations which left us with only seven committee members.  Seven is the bare minimum for the Branch to remain viable as a self-supporting entity and it reduced our ability to organize events and activities.  Should we ever go below seven committee members, then we would become what is known as a ‘County Supported Branch’, which would mean we lose control of our finances and lose access to our membership listings – therefore removing our ability to communicate with you all, including sending out newsletters and event updates.  So, I am really pleased to see that we have some new volunteers stepping forward this year to sit on the committee and this will give us the capacity to organize more events and activities next year and beyond. 

Next year, there may well be more committee places available, and I would encourage you all to consider stepping forward.  Even if you do not want to be a formal member of the committee, your help in organizing a specific event or activity would be very much appreciated.  We asked for such volunteers in August’s newsletter but only one person stepped up to the plate.  I ask you all to consider helping us to organize events and activities – if you want to offer some help - and any amount would be welcome, then please get in touch either in person today or using the email contacts in the newsletter or on the website. 

There are three things that a Branch should focus on – the Poppy Appeal, Remembrance and our Veterans. 

On the Poppy Appeal

I know that Helen will give you a full report shortly, but I just wanted to extend my personal thank you to all those who volunteered to help sell poppies this year.  The total raised is a fantastic amount and we should all be very proud of Oxted’s contribution to the Poppy Appeal. 

On Remembrance

We were invited into one of Oxted’s Care Homes and two of our Veterans went in to talk about Remembrance, which was well received.  We will do more next year and get into all of the local care homes and all of the local schools. 

This year we changed the order of events on Remembrance Sunday to move the 2-minute silence at the Memorial to 11 o’clock, as it should be.  Feedback received thus far has generally been positive about this, apart from a very few who fear change.  Overall, we started too early, and our timings need revising, next year we can all have an extra 45 minutes in bed!  Although the Secretary has written thank you letters to all those involved, I would like to personally mention two today. 

• To the Chairman and Members of the Club Committee, thank you: for opening early, allowing us to gather ourselves before marching to Church; for the loan of your PA system; and for executing the road closures.
• To the Women’s Section Branch, thank you for helping with the catering afterwards. As you saw, it was very well received, especially by the Scouts.

On Veterans

The purpose of the RBL states that “Membership exists so our Armed Forces family has friends and allies standing by them in every community”.  This is why, I know, you have all joined the RBL. 

This year we have reinstated the provision of ‘welfare’ support to the Veterans in and around Oxted, something we had lost our way with a bit.  As a veteran myself, I know that there is more we should be doing here.

We now have a growing group of veterans who meet regularly.  Personally, I look forward to remaining involved with the veterans’ group after I stand down as Chairman and joining them on an expanding programme of events and activities. 

Finally, on you, our Membership

This year, after a long time, we have had a dedicated Membership Secretary giving us full access to our membership information and she manages your membership from start to finish in an effort to make you feel more welcome and your membership valued.  All new members now receive a letter welcoming them to the Branch and this letter also encourages them to join the Club and to be active Club Members. 

Today we have 430 Branch Members and since the last AGM we have had 87 new joiners.  However, we have lost 84 members – be they sadly deceased, changed branch or cancelled their membership.  We have a retention problem. 

Since January, the Membership Secretary has been communicating with those who have allowed their membership to lapse.  Of the 109 she has written to, 33 have been converted back into being active Legion members.  Without this, the 84 we have lost would have been 117 members lost to both the Branch AND to the Club. 

And, finally, if you do cancel your membership or transfer to another branch, she will write and ask you why.  She has written to 63 leavers, receiving only 9 responses so our data on this is therefore limited at present.  Trying to gauge why members leave is difficult but we will publish our findings once we have more detail.

Next year we might send a short satisfaction survey to all members covering a variety of topics. 

As a Branch, our membership is less than 4% of the population of Oxted and Hurst Green, which we should be able to increase.  With that in mind, the Committee will focus on doing some recruitment events next year, maybe at the Oxted Car Boot Sale and the Love Oxted events.  The more members we have, the livelier and more fun the Club is, the more both the Branch and the Club will thrive and, ultimately, the greater the contribution we can make to the fantastic RBL charity.  We will look a little further afield than Oxted for new members as Godstone, Warlingham, Caterham, Woldingham and Lingfield have no RBL branches – Godstone’s, Warlingham’s and Caterham’s have recently folded. 

I am also delighted to launch today a new member initiative.  The most successful way of attracting new members to the Royal British Legion is “MEMBER GET MEMBER”.  As your out-going Chairman, I would like to encourage our current members to spread the word. 

As an incentive, any current member that gets the most newbies to join the Branch will receive a £100 voucher of their choice or a £100 credit behind the bar, here in the Club.  The winner will be announced at next year’s AGM.  More details of the initiative will be in next month’s newsletter.

Combining all of this and more, we have a plan to take the Branch forward.  It is the first time we have had one and we will publish it next year.  We will give you a say on it at next year’s AGM.

And finally, may I wish my successor – be it Helen or Rob – all the very best of luck as the Branch moves forwards. 

Thank you. 

Treasurer’s Annual Report – adoption of Annual Accounts to 30^th June 2023

Oxted & District Royal British Legion accounts 1sst July 2022 to 30^th June 2023

Balance at 1 July 2022                                                                                £4,357.60

Poppy Appeal Organiser’s Report:

Last year was full steam ahead. 

After having had the Memorial Plaque repaired, I was able to get the Cross repaired, this was repaired by the Blacksmiths in Tandridge Village for a cost of £85.00 which Branch paid.  The cross which is placed by the Oxted Memorial every year has been part of Poppy for over 35 years so here’s to the next 35 years.

We did no extra fundraising due to Covid, but we still managed to collect over £12,500 in 2022 which considering we did not have a full 2 weeks volunteering at Morrisons we still did amazingly well. 

This year we commissioned some paid for advertising in local magazines asking volunteers to help sell Poppies – through this we managed to get 9 new helpers.  More people responded to our own newsletter request for help, and we had much more support from our veterans this year.  All this meant that we had only 4 unfilled slots on our table at Morrisons, compared with 27 unfilled last year. 

Also, this year we had 2 collectors doing the early morning collections from 6am-8.30am at Oxted and Hurst Green stations, covering the morning rush hours, and this raised over £4,300.

At Morrisons we had 2 tables in the foyer which were manned by volunteers.  The volunteers manning the tables enjoyed themselves, often doing 2/3 sessions.  People made friends and connected with others that they had not seen for a little while.  Other volunteers gave up their entire weekends and evenings, we also had members of the Parish Council manning the tables.

We were given lots of compliments about the range of items that we were selling including homemade knitted poppies in the poppy red, but also in purple for the animals donated by a friend of Mark.

We had 2 contactless payment machines which have helped us to raise £26,796.23, this total includes £310 raffle and the £540 church collection.  £1,290.67 was collected from Poppy Boxes around town.  Which gives us an outstanding total of £28,086.90, and this figure will increase as there are donations to be collected from the Youth Organisations.  St Marys School bought a school’s pack to use as prizes for the students and will send a cheque when it is raised.

Morrisons had a Mannequin again which was very popular.  Mike and I are already into negotiations for next year and the Woodhouse Centre have agreed to make poppies both knitted and crocheted, we are also on the lookout for Camouflage netting for a display outside the Club.

Going forwards to next year I have a few ideas for fundraising one of these being a Poppy Ball at the Oxted Community Centre on 19^th October 2024.  Where we will be treated to a Rat Pack band, a 3 course sit down dinner, raffle and party games.  To enable me to get this started I would like to put together a sub-committee with members from the Women’s Section, The Club and the Branch, so if you would like to come along and find out more or if you would like to help with the idea and help it to grow into an event then into an event then please, please do let me know.

I would also like to find out more about a Cinema Licence so that we can look at Theme Nights, again if you have any ideas that we can use as a theme evening then please let me know.

On a different note, it was brought to my attention that on at least 4 occasions 2 young people were going around Oxted and Hurst knocking on doors collecting for poppy.  However, we do not do door to door collecting for poppy as it is not safe and many of my volunteers are over 80.  This was reported to the police.

Finally, back in August I met with a Ukrainian Refugee.  who has a passion for murals, and approached her with the view to doing a mural in the back bar.  My vision was to do a mural starting with WW1, WW2 and going up through the history of conflicts including Korea, Kosovo, Bosnia, Falklands and Afghanistan and conflicts in between.  However, the Club have not given permission yet as there are other things that are a priority which I fully respect.  Svitlana instead did a small mural inside the front door, of a Poppy Field and Tommys walking through it.  This was commissioned by the Branch, organised by the Poppy and paid for by my mother who sadly passed away before she could see it.

Thank you for your time.

Election of Branch Officers & Committee Members:

Appointment of voting Scrutineers. The Chairman appointed Robert Sayer and Ian Beagley as the voting scrutineers. 

Chairman Nominations. The Chairman invited both candidates, Helen Burton and Rob Cogan, to speak before votes were cast.  The results of the vote was:

(i) Helen Burton 12

(ii) Rob Cogan 34

Recruiting Officer – no nominations, therefore the post remains vacant.

General Committee Members – Confirmation of unopposed nominations:

• Jean Inker
• Creenagh Williamson
• Ryan Williamson
• Dave Witcombe

Charge of the Branch Standard:

1. Primary Standard Bearer – Ryan Williamson
2. Secondary Standard Bearer – Mark Wren

Presentations (if any) – None

Date of the Next Annual General Meeting – Sunday 24^th November 2024

New Committee – First Branch Committee Meeting: - Wednesday 13^th December 2023 at 19.30 hours and thereafter every 2^nd Wednesday in each month.

Any Other Business: Dave Witcombe brought up the subject of the Disabled entrance at the front of the building.

New Chairman’s short address

Firstly, thank you all for attending and participating.  I must pay tribute to Helen for her 10 years of sterling work for this Branch and the RBL, which deserves our thanks and gratitude.  Helen – I look forward to continue working with you as we move forwards. 

I’d like to say a warm welcome to your new Committee Members and I will undertake to on-board you all and look forward to integrating your different skill sets into the Committee’s work. 

To you, the Members - I’ll work to deliver the change that you want.  I’ll publish that Plan Mark spoke of – and would welcome your views on it.  Communications between me and my Committee and you are open – my email is in the newsletter as is the Secretary’s email too.  Please don’t be shy in getting in touch at any time. 

You can hold me to account at next AGM and give me your verdict on what we have achieved in 3 years time.  Thank you. 

Address by the Chairman of the Oxted Women’s Section Branch, Mrs Laura Hayworth

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On 18^th, 19^th and 29^th December Oxted Women’s Section will be displaying a Christmas Tree as part of the United Reform Church Christmas Tree Festival.  This will provide us with some free and much needed advertising about the welfare work of the Women’s Section.  With the current cost of living crisis, 1 in 4 claims for assistance from the RBL, is from a currently serving family.

The Women’s Section, in the last financial year, provided grants totalling just under £346,000 for items such as school uniforms, baby items, children’s bedroom furniture, food and fuel bills.  The Women’s Section also works closely with the MoD and last year donated a further £80,000 to help clothe, feed ad resettle families rescued from Afghanistan.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank my committee for their continued support, Barbara Snashfold as Treasurer, Marilyn Heathfield as Secretary, Patricia Grant, Helen Burton and also to welcome our newest committee member Jean Inker.  Those ladies did sterling work to help the Branch on Remembrance Sunday.  Jean is now on your RBL Branch committee thus further cementing our commitment to work together.

No doubt about it, we need more members.  We have plan to hold several events next year to put the fun back into fundraising and make up more attractive to new members.  Every member of the Women’s Section is here today! 

Thank you John Kemp for carrying our Women’s Section Standard on Remembrance Sunday as I was at the Cenotaph.

Thank you, Andrea Cogan, for including information about the Women’s Section in the regular monthly newsletter.  Rob Cogan ad I have recently discussed the content for a Women’s Section page on your new Branch website.  Many of you will have seen the recent article about the Women’s Section in the RH8 magazine.  Thank you Jean for using your Parish Council contacts to make that happen.  Oxted Branch and Women’s Section work well together when we support each other.  Telling the wider community about our activities and recruitment activities are top of our agenda for the coming year.  It’s one thing telling everyone about our history, but unless we put ion some very hard work, we will not have a future.

I like the idea of £100 bar tab for the most new members.

The Kohima Prayer was then recited by Mr Mark Wren.

The AGM closed at 12.15 hours