Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Lyme Regis Branch held on 27th August 2015 at The Nag’s Head, Lyme Regis, commencing 19:00

Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Lyme Regis Branch held on 27th August 2015 at The Nag’s Head, Lyme Regis, commencing 19:00

VJ Commemoration Weekend Update and Support

Present:

Mr D Manners, Mr M Jones, Mrs A Driver, Mrs A Manners, Mrs S Marler, Mr. A. Smith, Mrs Jacqui Ward.

1. Exhortation:
2. Chairman’s Opening Remarks:

David welcomed those present and expressed his concern that tickets for the VJ dance were not going well in spite of broad publicity and encouraged everyone, even if they were unable to be there on the night, to try to get the seats filled. More posters were distributed to enable this.

Jacqui was going to urge also County to send bunting etc to the Chairman’s address for use in the hall.

The drummer for the parade was organised.

A Risk Assessment needed to be done a.s.a.p. Martin agreed to speak to the Parade Marshall.

The County chairman had agreed to attend and give the Exhortation.

The slide show loop of vintage photos of VJ day was completed.

Sadly, no news from the Mayor or Commodore Miller RN regarding a ship visit.

The TIC was well briefed as to the Saturday Dance.

Everyone was encouraged to provide more raffle prizes for the night.

The Town crier would be asked to publicise both events. David.

A further meeting with LRTC is to take place on Tuesday 010915.

David had still not seen the order of service of hymn sheet being provided by the Rev. Skinner. He will pursue this.

David concluded by thanking everyone for their time in helping to organise these events and wished those away for family or holiday reasons a good weekend themselves.

The meeting concluded at 1925.

Minutes Of The General Meeting Of The Lyme Regis Branch. Held at The Woodmead Halls, Lyme Regis, Thursday the 2nd Of July 2015 At 19:00 Hours.

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE LYME REGIS BRANCH. HELD AT THE WOODMEAD HALLS, LYME REGIS, THURSDAY THE 2nd OF JULY 2015 AT 19:00 HOURS.

Exhortation:

The Chairman.

Present:	Mr David Manners	Chairman
	Mr Tony Smith	Honorary Secretary
	Mr Martin Jones	Honorary Treasurer
	Mrs Ania Driver	Welfare Representative
	Mrs Jacqueline Ward	Poppy Appeal Organiser
	Mr Jon Hunt	Standard Bearer
	Mrs Angela Manners.	Member
	Mrs Sylvia Marler	Member
	Mr Peter Ward	Member
Apologies:	Mr Cecil Quick	President
	Mr David Humphrey	Vice Chairman/Membership Secretary
Absent:	Mr Kevin Taylor	Parade Marshal

Minutes of the Last GM Meeting:

The Minutes of the last GM held on the 14th of May 2015 were agreed as a true record and signed by The Chairman.

Proposed: Sylvia Marler   Seconded: Ania Driver    Carried: Unanimously.

Matters Arising:

Chairman.

Well done for the Quiz. The Certificate and Plaque are up, as you can see.

Standard Bearer. I was unable to attend the parade in Weymouth due to work.

Minutes of the Last EGM Meeting:

The Minutes of the EGM on the 11th of June 2015 were agreed as a true record and signed by The Chairman.

Proposed: Angela Manners    Seconded: Ania Driver   Carried: Unanimously.

Matters Arising:

Chairman.

Are there any bunting, posters or boxes available from County? Jacqui will follow this up with Ian Jarvis.

It is confirmed that The TIC will sell tickets for us. Jacqui will format the tickets from The Poster design.

There will be an EGM on Thursday the 27th of August at 19:00 hours. Provisionally at The Nag’s Head. Agenda: VJ Day weekend.

Please pass details to family and friends; we need sixty odd people to cover the costs.

I will be meeting The Mayor and The Town Council about VJ Day this month.

Honorary Secretary.

A letter was sent on the 2nd of June inviting The Woodroffe CCF to join the parade. No answer has been received to date; an email was sent today requesting one.

Additions to the Agenda.

Honorary Secretary.

Welfare – County Caseworkers.

Chairman.

I attended The Civic Service on behalf of The Branch. I am glad I did as The RBL was the only outside organisation present.

County emails. Many of them are routine. The future system for cash paying members can be explained by our Membership Secretary at the next GM.

Thank you to Jacqui and Ania who intended to go on a management course but it was cancelled, which is very disappointing. I will be writing to County about this.

A new Form MS4 has been produced.

Branch President. There is a requirement for a new President due to the unfortunate ill health of Cecil Quick. Phillip Evans has been approached and was delighted to be considered and would be extremely happy to fill the position. This will be voted on at the next AGM. Prior to that he should be our President Elect and I would like The Committee to vote on this.

Proposed: Angela Manners   Seconded: Martin Jones.   Carried: Unanimously.

Vice Chairman.

[Written report via The Secretary.] I have not been asked to deputise for the Chairman since the last report so have nothing to report

Honorary Secretary.

The County Welfare representative, Jillian Hurst, sent a letter concerning the lack of caseworkers in Dorset. I have passed this to Ania and also prepared a poster which is now in The Town Notice Board.

Honorary Treasurer.

		Last Report	This Report
		11 Jun 2015	02 Jul 15
The Branch holds	Current Account	£389.95	£781.68
	Branch Funds at Head Office	£11,658.06	£11,658.06
Total		£12,048.01	£12,439.74

Notes:

Two bills for room hire and wreaths (total £34.50) are outstanding.

Last quarter's interest on our Head Office account has not been advised yet:-ca. £60.

As a result of the above movements our total banked assets are about £12,460.

Just before the meeting I received a letter from The NatWest explaining their new arrangements for banking around the area. I will make recommendations at our next meeting once I have had a chance to fully digest the implications of any changes.

The new 'Branch Management Fund' for money specifically for running the branch is now in place with a balance of £109.30.

I have spoken with Keith Jenkins, our auditor, and he sees no hold-ups in processing our annual accounts, which I am working to complete.

Welfare Representative.

Normal visits continue.

Poppy Appeal Organiser.

The draft for The Poster for The VJ night has been completed.

I have some raffle prizes and local businesses will be contacted for contributions. A team will be needed to run the event on the night.

Membership Secretary.

[Written report via The Secretary.] Membership, No change to the membership to my knowledge.[See below.] I have sent the membership affiliation fee (£1:00 as voted at the last AGM) notice to Haig House. This was posted first post Monday 29th of this month.

The membership now stands at 156:

113 Members pay by Direct Debit;

39 Pay by the Cash method;

2 are Youth members;

2 are Life Members.

Parade Marshal.

Absent.

Standard Bearer.

I attended the training at Crewkerne on the22nd of May. Thanks to Kevin’s previous tuition, I found I had little to learn about drill movements. What was most useful from Mr Gollop, was points about turnout and presentation.

I will attend the training on the 4th of October and the competition on the 10th.

Jon volunteered to attend The VJ Night with The Standard.

Future Meetings:

The next meeting will be an EGM on Thursday 27th  August. Provisionally at The Nag’s Head at 19:00 hours. Agenda VJ Day.

Next GM:

Thursday the 3rd of September 2015, Woodmead Halls, 19:00 hours.

Meeting Closed: at 19:45 hours.

Minutes of The Extraordinary General Meeting of The Lyme Regis Branch. Held at The Nag’s Head, Lyme Regis, Thursday the 11th of June 2015 at 18:00 Hours.

MINUTES OF THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF THE LYME REGIS BRANCH. HELD AT THE NAG’S HEAD, LYME REGIS,
THURSDAY THE 11th OF JUNE 2015 AT 18:00 HOURS.

Exhortation:

The Chairman.

Present:
	Mr David Manners	Chairman
	Mr David Humphrey	Vice Chairman/Membership Secretary
	Mr Tony Smith	Honorary Secretary
	Mrs Ania Driver	Welfare Representative
	Mrs Angela Manners.	Member
	Mrs Sylvia Marler	Member
Apologies:
	Mr Cecil Quick	President
	Mr Martin Jones	Honorary Treasurer
	Mrs Jacqueline Ward	Poppy Appeal Organiser
	Mr Kevin Taylor	Parade Marshal
	Mr Peter Ward	Member
Absent:
	Mr Jon Hunt	Standard Bearer

Agenda.

VJ DAY 2015

Chairman.

The point of this meeting is to update plans for the VJ Day weekend of the 5/6 of September 2015. [Historical note to outside enquiries: This Branch has always been of  the opinion that it is more appropriate to commemorate the end of WWII completely rather than VE Day within Europe.]

At the last GM there were concerns about a clash of dates with Guitars On The Beach on Saturday the 5th. The idea now is to go ahead with a concert in The Woodmead Halls on the Saturday night and hold a parade on Sunday the 6th, as per D Day.

Unfortunately, The Land Girls are not available for the concert on Saturday but I have booked The Three Counties Swing Band. The combined cost of the Halls and this band is £307.50. This means that 60 odd tickets, at £5 per head, would cover the cost.

The TIC was used to sell tickets for the D Day Concert and, although they take a percentage, I think we should use them again for this event.

Proposed:	Ania Driver
Seconded:	Dave Humphrey
Passed:	Unanimously.

There might be a response from our application for funds from County.

There will be a small injection of funds from The Quiz Night.

SAT 5 SEP.

Timings:

18:00 hours	Bar opens.
	Band sets up.
19:00 hours	Entertainment. 3 Counties Swing Band.
20:00 hours	Break.
20:15 hours	Raffle.
21:30 hours	Entertainment. 3 Counties Swing Band.
22:30 hours	Last Dance.
23:00 hours	Carriages to the door.

Dave Humphrey thought that bunting, posters and boxes might be available from County. Ania will check with Jacqui.

There is a need for raffle prizes. Maybe donations from local businesses.

David Manners will organise the Projected Image Loop.

At the next meeting there will be a fistful of posters for people to distribute.

SUN 6 SEP.

Mark Hix has a fish festival on this weekend and The Council are explaining the situation regarding VJ Day. The plan is a parade similar to D Day, from Gun Cliff to The Shelters. So there are no road closures involved. A risk assessment will need to be completed.

Timings:
13:30 Hrs	Muster on Gun Cliff.
13:45 Hrs	March along the Marine Parade to The Shelters.

Parade composition as per Remembrance Day.

Woodroffe CCF have been invited.

Warren Jones to beat The Drum.

Mayor and Town Council, as it is a full Civic Occasion.

Town Band.

The County Chairman and County Standards will be invited.

14:00 Hrs	Short service and Mayoral Address.
14:[?] Hrs	Fall out.

The Mayor is in communication with Commodore Miller who is endeavouring to arrange for a warship to visit Lyme Regis. It would be nice to have some of the ship’s company on parade.

The Chairman will invite The County Chairman. This should ensure the presence of The County Standard Bearer and pave the way for other Branch Standard Bearers to attend. A room above The Shelters might be an appropriate setting to entertain the County representatives and Standard Bearers after The Parade.

The Press will be approached once it is known if a ship will visit.

The Chairman knows someone who can produce a poster.

The Vice Chairman suggested placing flyers, well in advance, to Nursing Homes.

The Chairman summarised by saying it is a case of every available body mucking in and spreading the word.

He will work on The Legion Face Book Page and promote it as an event.

Future Meetings:

Next GM:

Thursday the 2nd of July, Woodmead Halls, 19:00 hours.

Meeting Closed: at

18:37 hours.

Minutes of The General Meeting of The Lyme Regis Branch. Held at The Woodmead Halls, Lyme Regis, Thursday The 14th Of May 2015 at 19:00 Hours.

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE LYME REGIS BRANCH.HELD AT THE WOODMEAD HALLS, LYME REGIS,

THURSDAY THE 14th OF MAY 2015 AT 19:00 HOURS.

Exhortation:

The Chairman.

Present:
	Mr David Manners	Chairman
	Mr David Humphrey	Vice Chairman/Membership Secretary
	Mr Tony Smith	Honorary Secretary
	Mr Martin Jones	Honorary Treasurer
	Mrs Ania Driver	Welfare Representative
	Mr Kevin Taylor	Parade Marshal
	Mr Jon Hunt	Standard Bearer
	Mrs Angela Manners.	Member
Apologies:
	Mr Cecil Quick	President
	Mrs Jacqueline Ward	Poppy Appeal Organiser
	Mrs Sylvia Marler	Member
	Mr Peter Ward	Member

Minutes of the Last Meeting:

The Minutes of the last Meeting held on the 5th of March 2015 were agreed as a true record and signed by The Chairman; [who also signed The Minutes of the GM of the 8th of January, passed at the last GM].

Proposed: Kevin Taylor

Seconded: Ania Driver

Carried: Unanimously.

Matters Arising:

None.

Additions to the Agenda.

None.

Chairman.

• A very big thank you to our Vice Chairman for his hard work in organising the Dinner at The Golf Club. It was a really good evening. A letter of thanks has been sent to The Chairman of The Club. Next year’s Dinner will be held, again at The Golf Club, on Saturday the 23 April.
• Thank you to those of you who turned out for The Blessing of The Boats last Sunday and in particular to Jon, our Standard Bearer. Keeping ourselves in the public eye is so important. There are some good photographs in today’s View From Lyme.
• The Quiz: is next Wednesday evening, the 20th at The Nag’s head. Everything is in hand. Raffle prizes would be welcome from those attending. I have posters here for distribution; it is not advertised in The Lyme News but is in The View From Lyme.
• The Fun Run: It was decided that The Fun Run, planned for Armed Forces Day, would be postponed until next year. In future, for any large event, especially those involving outside organisations and agencies, a Sub-Committee would be formed to share responsibilities throughout The Committee.
• Armed Forces Day. Nothing else is planned for Armed Forces Day.
• VJ Day. After some discussion, a provisional programme was agreed for Sat 5 Sep 15
• ·         14:00 hours   Parade along the Marine Parade to The Shelters.
• ·         Parade composition as per Remembrance Day.
• ·         14:10 hours   Short service and Mayoral Address.
• ·         15:30 hours   Tea and Buns in Woodmead Halls.
• ·         17:00 hours   Bands set up.
• ·         18:00 hours   Entertainment.
• Flags and collection boxes may be available from VE Day.
• County Funding for £500 will be requested.
• Facebook. 106 people are followers. The Quiz is advertised on there as is every event we do.
• The Plaque and Certificate: will be mounted on the wall here tomorrow.
• News from County. 43 emails have been received. Important topics:
• A new Membership Database; many emails about County involvement with VE Day; our County has been awarded The Certificate of Merit as runner-up in The Downing Shield, (for recruitment and membership), at The RBL National Conference and The County Chairman will receive it this weekend: we should thank our Vice Chairman for his contribution to this award; new MS4 Forms for membership Applications have been issued; training events for this year,(Ania and Jacqui are attending The BM Course in July, and Jon is doing Standard Bearer training); various messages about Branch Association Fees; two examples of Branch Newsletters – but these only work by email so cannot be done by us.
• New Branch President. A nomination could not be made by our current President due to ill health. The Vice Chairman was concerned that the current Vice President was also in poor health, but felt he should be involved in the procedure out of courtesy. 
• No specific candidates will be discussed by The Committee until protocol has been observed.

Vice Chairman.

NTR.

Honorary Secretary.

When I received apologies from Jacqui and Sylvia they mentioned that the raffle at The Dinner had raised £200.

Honorary Treasurer.

		Last Report 05 Mar 2015	This Report 14 May 2015
The Branch holds	Current Account	£389.95	£672.38
	Branch Funds at Head Office	£11,658.06	£11,715.13
	Total	£12,048.01	£12,387.51

Notes:

Following e-mails from County suggesting that branches had not made proper arrangements for the payment of annual subscriptions to head office, I sought to explain that this branch had been fully compliant with all the procedures.

Prior to this meeting, I had circulated to The Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary, copies of HO instructions, our signed mandate and the letter of apology from The Deputy Director General of the Legion, John Graham.

Our enduring mandate has been in place since April 2010 and it was merely a glitch in HO Membership Department procedures that caused a problem in 2013; all is now under control.

Welfare Representative.

Visits continue. I have Report Forms in a new format which I do not understand. David is going through them with me after this meeting.

Poppy Appeal Organiser. 

Not present.

Membership Secretary.

The membership now stands at 156, an increase of three from my last report on membership in March.

·         113 Members pay by Direct Debit.

·         39 Pay by the Cash method.

·         2 are Youth members, a one off payment of £5:00.

·         2 are Life Members.

The cash paying side of the membership is slowly dropping in accordance with RBL policy. In fact, the latest membership application form MS4/0415 no longer has any mention of receiving cash from a prospective member. The only methods of payment now are by Direct Debit, Cheque, or postal order.

Parade Marshal. 

On the 21st of June there will be a Weymouth Veterans’ Parade. This is not a RBL parade but standards, including ours, will take part.

County Standard Bearer training will be held in The Memorial Hall, Bovington on Sundays the 6th of September and the 4th of October. County Competition on the 10th of October.

Standard Bearer.

Training with The County Standard Bearer at Crewkerne on the 22nd and 29th of May.

Future Meetings:

The next meeting will be an EGM concerning VJ Day on Thursday the 11th of June 2015. Venue and timings to follow.

Next GM:

Thursday the 2nd of July, Woodmead Halls, 19:00 hours.

Meeting Closed: at

20:15 hours.

Minutes of The General Meeting of The Lyme Regis Branch. Held at The Woodmead Halls, Lyme Regis, Thursday the 5th of March 2015 at 19:00 Hours.

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE LYME REGIS BRANCH.HELD AT THE WOODMEAD HALLS, LYME REGIS,THURSDAY THE 5th OF MARCH 2015 AT 19:00 HOURS.

Exhortation:

The Chairman.

Present:
Mr David Manners	Chairman
Mr David Humphrey	Vice Chairman/Membership Secretary
Mr Martin Jones	Honorary Treasurer
Mrs Ania Driver	Welfare Representative
Mrs Jacqueline Ward	Poppy Appeal Organiser
Mr Jon Hunt	Member
Mrs Sylvia Marler	Member
Mr Kevin Taylor	Member
Mr Peter Ward	Member
Apologies:
Mr Cecil Quick	President
Mr Tony Smith	Honorary Secretary
Mrs Angela Manners	Member

Minutes of the Last Meeting:

The Minutes of the last Meeting held on the 8th of January  2015 were agreed as a true record.

Proposed:	Jacqui Ward
Seconded:	Sylvia Marler
Carried:	unanimously.

Matters Arising:

It was confirmed that letters of appreciation had been sent to the former Chairman and to Ross Bennett. The HMS Vivid plaque will be fixed into position on the return of the hall chairman from holiday. AGM guests to be discussed at this meeting.

Additions to the Agenda.

None.

Chairman.

Much correspondence from Head Quarters was briefly noted. These included information regarding membership arrangements, VE Day 2015, County Newsletter, standard bearers attending event at Arnhem. Afghan Veterans parade in London, committee expenses and the comradeship and almonisation project.

The Branch now has its own facebook page to assist in communicating with our members. It has attracted much interest.

The chairman apologised for any confusions occurring from the visitors at our last Annual General Meeting. It was agreed that at our September meeting, any proposed visitors for the 2015 AGM would be agreed by vote.

The Royal British Legion are planning many events to commemorate VE Day on 8-10th May.  The committee agreed that with such short notice we continue with our plans to commemorate VJ Day instead.  This weekend also coincides with the RNLI’s Blessing of the Boats Service.

Efforts continue to arrange a meeting with the other five branches in West Group, but two branches still remain disinterested hindering our progress.

Vice Chairman.

Information from Welfare: £28,035:00 has been spent on cases in Dorset between July

and October 2014.

The Vice Chairman asked about the future of the Presidents position within the branch, due to the fact that Cecil is no longer functioning as the President, and it was agreed that it would be discussed at the next meeting in May.

Honorary Secretary.

Application Forms  for The Branch Management Course in Shaftesbury, on the 11th and 12th  of July 2015, for Ania and Jacqui, were completed and sent to Bob at County, who submitted them to HQ.

Honorary Treasurer.

		Last Report 08 Jan 2015	This Report 05 Mar 2015
The Branch holds	Current Account	£366.95	£389.95
	Branch Funds at Head Office	£10,772.26	£11,658.06
	Total	£11,139.21	£12,048.01

Notes: Three donations have been received, via Wakelys:

In memory of Edgar Hillyard	£23.00(included in the above figures).
In memory of Violet Gosling	£140.00 (yet to clear).
In memory of Beatrice Hill	£186.15 (yet to clear).

Welfare Representative.

Four home visits have been achieved. Ania now has paperwork for CRN checking for Caseworkers and visitors.

Ania is in contact with a further two members requiring assistance.

Poppy Appeal Organiser.

The handover to Jacqui from Sylvia has not fully been completed.  Sylvia announced it would be done soon.

The Vice Chairman announced that our branch had won the Isle of Purbeck Medium Branch Certificate 2012-13 at the County AGM which was presented to Sylvia by the Chairman This too will be on display at the Woodmead Hall.

Membership Secretary.

We have lost four members since the last meeting in January, I have however managed to recruit two new members to The Branch.

The Membership stands at: 153 members:

111 Pay by Direct Debit, an increase of one from May.

38 Pay by Cash,

2 are Life Members.

2 are Youth Members.

From the 150 paying members 95 have chosen to use the gift age option, in accordance with the Branch Three Year Plan. I hope to increase this amount over time. (There are members of The Committee who need to address this).

As you are aware I issued MS4 membership application forms to all committee members at the January meeting. Well done Kev for using the form to good use and recruiting a member, I will process him this evening.

All letters and menu's have been sent out to the membership regarding The Branch meal on April 25th at The Golf Club.

Parade Marshal.

Thought that we should do something for VE Day, but it was agreed again to be impractical.

Standard Bearer.

Jon will attend an Armed Forces Day Service at 11.00 in Weymouth on 21st June.  This service will be led by the Royal British Legion.

Members.

NTR.

Future Meetings:

The next General Committee Meeting will be held at 19:00hours, in The Woodmead Halls, on the Thursday the 14th of May 2015. [SECOND Thursday due to Elections].

Meeting Closed: at

19:58 Hours.