2020
AGM Report 2020
The 2020 AGM took place on the 7th March amid a growing
fear that a world wide pandemic was about to unfold that would shut down all
social gatherings and at the time of writing this report claim the lives of
more than ten thousand lives in Great Britain alone. Covid-19 commonly known as coronavirus began
in China during the later part of 2019 and by January this year it was realised
how easy this new virus would spread claiming the lives of millions. With foreign travel commonplace these days it
quickly spread to other nations Italy and Spain and then to the UK, there is
now scarcely a country which has escaped this killer disease. No doubt there will be a full account
recorded of the impact this made on the population of this and other countries
but suffice it to mention in this report we were all awaiting guidance from the
government on what actions to take.
We all expected social gatherings to be stopped which came about
ten days after the AGM took place but as it was considered at the time, as the
risk was low the meeting would go ahead. The attendance was down with only sixteen members attending seven of which
were officers and committee members.
The morning started
as usual with tables set up for trading and a
large number of superb brasses available also making
its debut was the NHBS special
Historical Brexit Brass and Blinker Studs. The Brexit debates
was a huge part of life in the UK last year but has
been now over-shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, this will have an impact on
the sales of the Brexit brass but it is hoped sales might come back later in
the year
.
There are many excellent
brasses for sale on eBay, some quite fancy
prices also, but there is a lot to be said for seeing a heap
of brasses on a
table at one of our meetings. Finding
just the right brass for your collection which metaphorically has take me home
written all over it is exhilarating and you find the prices are realistic also.
The formal part of the meeting took place during the afternoon
commencing at 2.00 pm. The meeting was
opened by a welcome from Chairman Ian Jones after which the following tribute
to NHBS former Chairman was read by Peter Ferguson.
IN MEMORIUM; BARRY MALTBY
We are sad to announce the death of our past Chairman, Barry Maltby on 22nd February 2020 and send our condolences to his son Stuart, daughters Kay and Susan and their families. Barry and his late wife Connie were early members of the Society and keen horse brass collectors. Barry joined the NHBS Committee in March 1982 taking on the role of Society Archivist, a job he held for twenty six years. He was joined on the committee by his wife Connie in March 1990 until 2004 where Connie brought much wisdom and stability to the committee meetings as did Barry. In March 2002 Barry succeeded Terry Keegan as Chairman serving for the next six years until 2008 when he retired from active participation in the life of the Society though he remained a member.
The list of apologies was then read out followed by the acceptance
of the minutes of previous meeting as circulated to the membership and duly
signed. This was followed by an address
from the Chairman, General and Membership Secretarial reports
Chairman’s Report
I would first
like to thank the committee members for their contribution to the
Society during the past year and
especially Sue Hart who has been working
towards taking on the role of Membership
Secretary. The committee meetings have been well
attended during the year and the autumn meeting seemed to fit in very well with
the Ipsden event but being an afternoon meeting it did mean that it
is not
always going to be possible to fit everything in with some items being carried
over making the January meeting very long. New ideas are needed to create more interest or to boost the attendance
of our meetings and wonder if combining them
on occasions with a visit to a
museum or foundry might be the answer. I
welcome the introduction
of our new Brexit brass and Blinker stud as our latest
special brasses but it is difficult choosing
just the design to make a
commercial success. Finally, I am
pleased to present my personal award for dedicated service to the NHBS this
year to Philip Blackiston.
Ian Jones 7.3.20
General/Membership Secretarial Report
As usual the AGM marks the end of the busiest time with regard to the general
secretarial work much of which for the past two years has centred around
membership renewals, and in addition to this, the agenda and minutes of the
January committee meeting, also preparation for the AGM. On the membership front, improvements to the
system that we put in place last year has resulted in less queries, and it is
pleasing to note that we only have twenty-five outstanding renewals to be made
this year. Many of you send
complimentary messages with your subscription renewals to the committee for
their work in the administration of the Society which I now formally record and
pass on to them. It is always a pleasure
to receive these messages but regret that I am not always able to respond due
to the huge amount of work at that time of year.
The rest of the membership information will be given by Sue Hart
after my report. Sue has been working
with me for the past eight months with a view to taking on the role of
Membership Secretary and has made such progress that I am recommending that Sue
be co-opted to the office of Membership Secretary with immediate effect which
will be confirmed by ballot at the 2021 AGM. If the committee agrees with my request it will give Sue the experience
of dealing with the remaining subs this year, leading up to the 2021 renewals
which usually starts after the October newsletter. A considerable benefit has been achieved in
that two of us now has a working knowledge of the database system.
Another area that we have needed to consider is that of credit,
postal, and packing charges. Legislation
was introduced a couple of years ago that credit charges (including PayPal) had
to be included in the advertised price of all products. At that time the committee considered that we
would absorb the cost in the price structure for special brasses etc, but have
now needed to increase these to maintain a profitable margin. These measures will hopefully maintain the
stability of the NHBS at least until we reach our 50th anniversary.
Jim Speed 7.3.20
MEMBERSHIP REPORT
I extend a warm welcome to any new members who may be present. At the close of 2019 we had a total
membership of 301, which included 6 Hon and 52 O/S members. There were 33 from
the U.S.A. 4 from Australia 4 from Canada, 2 from Ireland, and 1 each from
France, Spain, Sweden, Bermuda, S. Africa and New Zealand. 21 members did not
renew, 13 from the U.K, and 8 from O/S. Sadly 3 of our members have passed away and 2 have resigned, so our
current Membership as of March 2020 is 296. This includes 6 Hon and 45
o/s members, 29 from the U.S.A. 4 from Australia,5 from Canada,2 from
Ireland and 1 each from France and Spain, Sweden, Bermuda and S. Africa. 266 members have paid so far, with 24 still
to renew,19 from the UK and 5 from O/S. (+6 HON = 296) 135 members paid by cheque, 64 by Pay Pal, 67 by S.O. or
bank transfer. We welcome 4 new members
to the society this year so far, 2 from the UK (Jonathan Watts and Peter Tribe)
and 2 from O/S (Sandra Johnson U.S.A. and James Hymus from Canada). We hope you will enjoy your membership and
look forward to hearing from you or meeting you in the future.
Sue Hart 7.3.20
Brian O’Riordan then presented the Treasurers report which
indicated that the overall financial position was stable but the Society did make
a small trading loss last year. Membership income being down a bit will mean to maintain financial
stability a proposal to increase the NHBS subscriptions of £5 UK and £2
overseas for 2021 would be considered later in the agenda. The new subscription charges will be as
follows
UK Membership £30.00
UK Family Membership £37.00
Overseas Membership £45.00
Overseas Family Membership £53.00
The Journal Editors and Website Managers
Report
Looking at my report for last year, this
year’s report could easily be word for word the same! Journals 87 and 88 were
produced on time and cost of printing and mailing was the same as last year. Work
on journal 89 has started and some good articles are coming in. However, we
still need more to fill all the pages, so a plea to all members to send in
articles large or small and I am sure I also speak for Brian for the same for
the newsletter. Where appropriate we will decide between us which of our
society’s two publications your contributions would be best to appear in. Our
printers have advised us that a small paper cost increase will have to be made
in July but otherwise costs should remain the same. There has been feedback
from a few members that the envelopes have been damaged in transit and that the
blue colour on the inside of the envelope has rubbed off onto the journal
cover. I will take this up with our printers to hopefully resolve the problem
but we must be careful not to exceed the present limit for standard 2nd class
postage rate by increasing the envelope weight. Once again, my grateful thanks
to my wife Sheena for her computer skills, to our printers Stephen and Michelle
and to all those members who have sent in articles, without you there would be
no journal, so keep writing in!
Peter
Ferguson 7.3.20
The website continues to be an important aid to the publicity of the NHBS, it
is our shop window and without doubt beneficial to anyone starting out in the
hobby of collecting horse brasses. I
have recently obtained an analytical report from our providers which states
that a staggering 9,979 visits were made to the website during last year. Included in that was a figure of 49% bounce
rate which means brief unintended visits of short duration was recorded but
even taking this into consideration it is still just under 5000 meaningful
website visits with 41,174-page views. The figure for the last month amounted to just over 400 which would have
included membership renewals etc.
During the last twelve months a section has been added to the
journal page listing all of the article titles in alphabetical order of
journals 1 – 70. I am pleased that a few
weeks ago one of our members sent a request for information on a particular
subject quoting the journal and page numbers, I was able to scan these articles
from copies held in the archive and email the results to him. This facility will in the future assist those
who are researching types of brasses or the many subjects covered by the
journal.
I have also added a page on the history of the NHBS award brass
leading down to the list of shows that we are supporting with award brasses
this year. The next thing I intend to add
to the AGM page is the minutes of the inaugural meeting beautifully hand
written by our founder Terry Keegan. I
now have them in a format that can be included and I have brought couple of
copies along with me today for your interest.
Editing the website is a very lonely life, I would be pleased to
receive ideas for improvements or articles of interest from any of our members.
Jim Speed 7.3.20
Newsletter Editors Report
I have nothing new to report this year like Peter Ferguson I am always looking
for material. I would particularly like material from members about their own
collections, places to visit where horse brasses are on show, horse related
topics, good websites, books or TV programmes. The newsletter does not just happen it depends on NHBS members sending
items of interest as they might on Facebook.
Brian O’Riordan 7.3.20
Award Brass Report
George Willett was unable to attend the meeting, no official report was given
but the full list of shows being supported this year are displayed on the
website, the award brasses for the year have been cast and will be posted to
George for distribution. This year’s
rosettes have also been sourced and are also ready for distribution.
Report on Brass and Book Sales
Sale of books and especially brasses have been very low this year which is
reflected in the accounts. We did not
have a new brass last year, the Brexit brass was in the pipeline but had to be
delayed until the event actually took place, we seem to have good designs but
lack the ability to market them well and need to find ways of addressing this
problem.
Mick Mullens 7.3.20
Election of Officers
The nominations were Chairman Ian Jones,
General/Membership Secretary Jim Speed, Treasurer Brian O’ Riordan, no other
nominations having been received it was proposed and seconded that the officers should be elected on block, this was put to the
meeting and carried unanimously.
Election of the Committee
The nominations were Rolf Augustin, Stan Benton, Peter Ferguson, Sue Hart, Mick
Mullens, George Willett. No new nominations had been submitted so the committee members were re-elected on block
To consider a rise of subscription charges of £5.00 UK and £2.00 Overseas for 2021
It
was explained that our membership is currently suffering a falling trend and
that the fixed costs of the Society are constantly rising. It was proposed and seconded that the new subscription charges be adopted, a vote in favour was carried by those present
To Announce the Winner of the 2020 Membership Brass Competition
48 Votes had been cast this year and the winning design was No 4
submitted by Peter Ferguson.
The information in this
report was extracted from the minutes of the meeting, the full minutes will be
circulated to the membership with the 2021 AGM calling papers.
AGM Report 2020
