Annual General Meeting of West Dorset Branch of CAMRA
Held at
The Queen’s Hotel, Weymouth on 12th September 2006
NB. THESE ARE DRAFT MINUTES AND ARE LIKELY TO CHANGE
1 Apologies for Absence
23 members attended the meeting. Apologies were received from: Peter Hicks, Tony Egerton, Alan Swannell and Richard Gabe
2 Minutes of last AGM
Due to the unforeseen absence of the Secretary, Minutes of the last AGM were not available. The Chairman asked the meeting if they were prepared for him to accept minutes and sign them off when produced. The meeting agreed.
3 Matters Arising
None in the absence of the minutes.
4 Election of Officers
The following officers were returned:
Richard Bates - Chairman
Tony Egerton - Secretary/Membership/Pubs Officer
Alex Bardswell - Campaigns/Press Officer/Cider Rep
Alastair Tillotson - Treasurer
David Harris - Webmaster
Richard Gabe - Social Secretary
Peter Hammond - Tastiing Panel Chairman
Charlotte Newton - Branch Young Persons Representative
Phil Livesey - Committee
Frank Younghusband - Committee
Michel Hooper-Immins - Committee
5 Chairman’s Report
A year of variety – an item close to home was the destruction by fire in May of Richard’s local pub – the Wise Man at West Stafford. Whilst a rebuild is expected, there is as yet no activity on the ground.
We successfully ran the Weymouth Octoberfest last year from our own resources, proving that with appropriate advertising it is a viable event. Some £1500 had been contributed to HQ as a result. Work for this year’s event was well in hand – we plan to have 50 beers this year. Our costs will be higher – we need to buy glasses and beer costs this year will be closer to commercial rates than the very favourable rates offered by SIBA last year. We have increased the ticket price to offset some of this cost.
Beerex in Dorchester followed it’s well established pattern (19th year) and again was profitable – providing good sums for local charities through the Round Table. We get 50% of the profit in exchange for our efforts. (We then return half to them as a donation so we end up with 25%)
Brewery trips. A new type of trip for the branch occurred in March when an extended series of six Brewery visits were undertaken in Cornwall including two nights away. This was a resounding success, with all 16 on the trip thoroughly enjoying it despite the coach breaking down at the first brewery!!
The annual visit to Newton Abbot beer festival was a good trip with the usual full coach and a waiting list.
Branch members attended the GBBF on different days this year – there seemed to be some minor “teething troubles” at the new venue.
Recently in August a Beer Tasting had been held at the Majestic Wine Warehouse in Dorchester, sponsored and attended by O’Hanlons Brewery. Over the event about 25 members attended and enjoyed the brews. St Austell Brewery was now interested in having a similar event there. Members will be kept informed as this develops.
An email about Octoberfest Staffing will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.
6 Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer circulated his report for examination by the membership. Branch income was healthy – Octoberfest had generated some £1700 of which £1500 had been contributed to HQ. We had received a letter of thanks – not something which had occurred regularly before! Branch has £5800 in hand.
Acceptance of Accounts proposed: Dave Harris, seconded: Adrian Wood – Accounts Accepted without objection.
7 Wessex Region Report
In the absence of the Secretary, Michel Hooper-Immins reported that a change in Regional Director was imminent – voting had been completed but the administrative hand-over would be in October. The new RD would be John Buckley – several members present at the meeting spoke highly of John. A new system of “Cabinet” responsibilities was to be tried where a team of 6 people would each have specific roles within the region, thus lessening the workload on the single point of contact. Michel said that as a result of the changes he was looking forward to the region working better in the future.
8 Sub-Branch Report
No report had been received from Heart of Wessex.
9 Social Activities
The Social Secretary is planning brewery trips to Hobden’s Wessex Brewery on 11 November. This clashes with next regional meeting, so Chairman will see if date can be moved (by 1 week).
A trip is being proposed for March 2007 possibly to visit the Wye Valley area – no more details yet.
Alex Bardswell drew attention to the 29th September re-opening event at the New Inn at Shipton Gorge. The formal event was to be at 10.30 am, but there were to be celebrations all day – she planned to go in the evening.
The Beer Tasting event at the Smugglers at Osmington hosted by Hall & Woodhouse will be on 13th October – please let Alex or Dave Harris know if you are attending so numbers can be guesstimated.
11 Any Other Business
Alex Bardswell had been pursuing the process of getting our local brewery’s (DBC) products to be included in the GBBF. It seems that the Beer Tasting Cards sent to HQ feature in the process somewhere – so if tasting cards are not received it is less likely that a beer will be included. The complete process was still somewhat obscure and seemed to put small breweries in big regions at a disadvantage. RB would write to HQ expressing our dissatisfaction.
Frank Younghusband had worked at the recent Bridport Round Table event and had observed bad practice where beers were “re-labelled” on the stillage with incorrect names. RB agreed to take this up with the Round Table.
There being no other business, the Chairman expressed thanks to everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 8.35 pm