WREXHAM ALLOTMENT and LEISURE GARDENERS ASSOCIATION (WALGA)
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
Held Thursday 18 November 2021
Apologies:- None
Present:- Terry Pound (Chair), Gill Tizzard (Secretary),Gareth Davies (Victoria Road site rep), Wyn Rowlands ( Show Secretary),Derek Griffiths (Tanyfron site rep),Bruce Tizzard, Tracey Pound, Kate Bunning, Mike Jarvis, Wayne Eccleston,
Apologies received from: Pete Brown (Treasurer), Steve Davies (Prices’ Lane Rep), Mark Fleet (Prices’ Lane Rep), Janet Ford (Erddig Rep), Helen Powell (Victoria Road Rep).
1.Minutes of last AGM held 21st November 2019. Proposed as a true record – Gareth Davies; seconded – Derek Griffiths
2.Matters Arising:- none
3.Report of Chair
2020 and 2021 have been tough times with COVID-19, the chairman hoped all members had been ‘allotmenting well’. The Chairman thanked all the committee members for their continued support, with a special thanks to Gill Tizzard, our retiring secretary for all her hard work over what has been a trying time. Thanks should also go to Nicola Ellis for all her efforts over the past 2 years.
There is not a lot to report as we have not been able to open the shop after March in 2020 until May of 2021, and have been unable to hold our show for the last 2 years due to COVID-19 restrictions.
There are a couple of recurring problems however at Prices Lane – Gates being left open and contamination of Waste Areas. If the gates continue to be left open at Prices Lane council have suggested putting in a wicket style gate, which would only allow pedestrian access. This would mean there would be no access for vehicles. Can everyone please ensure the gate is kept locked, if open when you arrive please lock it behind you. The Waste area is a conversation with Nicola, the bays are now for compostable green waste only, this includes small branches. Plot holders continue to put items that are no longer allowed and are not compostable in these bays. If this continues the council will withdraw the service completely.
On a lighter note we are look forward to holding our Annual Show this year, venue has yet to be agreed, it will be good to get back to some normality.
I have received information from Nicola with regards to current position of empty plots and waiting lists:
Prices Lane – 116 on the waiting list with 23 vacant plots
Erddig - 67 on the waiting list with 11 vacant plots
Victoria Road – 50 on the waiting list with 9 vacant plots
TanyFron – 95 on the waiting list with an unknown amount of vacant plots (this is due to Carla who is now assisting Nikki not in work until Friday to get figures).
Total currently on waiting list is 328, which is down from the last total we have on 11 August of 349.
Nicola states the allocation of empty plots is taking time to organise as she must phone people on the list and give them a week to return her call, which sometimes they do not. She then arranges times for them to view plots, at which point they fail to turn up.
Finally, 2 items I wish to mention, Flooding at Erddig – Nicola will be meeting with Wild Banks Conservation on Friday 19th November 2021 to discuss ways to prevent the recurring problem, and the notice board for Prices Lane is on order, but may take time to arrive as the supplier is currently snowed under with orders.
4. Report of Treasurer
Pete was unable to attend tonight but has provided the figures:
Main Account - £2,466.05 Membership Account - £743.48 Cash in Hand - £180.00
5. Membership Secretary Report
In 2020 only 42 members paid subs due to COVID-19 restrictions which meant we had to close the shop. As we did not know how long the restrictions would be place, we paid for all our 2019 members, so they would be covered for Public Liability during 2020. In February 2021 we were still not able to open the shop but put processes in place so that plot holders and gardeners were able to join the Association and buy stock from the shop via a click and collect Allotment style process. This proved to be popular with our members. In 2020 we had 140 members made up as follows: Erddig 26, Prices Lane 67, Tanyfron 2, Victoria Road 17, Other sites 4 and 24 Gardening Members.
Newsletters have been sent out on a more regular basis and Facebook posts have been more regular to try and generate more interaction. We need to keep the momentum going and keep communicating with our members.
6. Appointment of Officers
The following posts have been publicised as vacant: - Vice-Chair, Secretary, second site-representatives for Erddig, representative for Leisure Gardeners.
We have received an offer of help from Elaine Jennings, who said she would try to attend the AGM.
No other nominations had been received to date or from the floor tonight and the other posts therefore remain vacant.
Current officers continuing in post:-
Chair
Treasurer and Shop Buyer Assistant shop-buyer
Show Secretary
Membership Secretary Web-site/Social Media Advisor Site rep for Erddig
Site reps for Price’s Lane
Site rep for Tanyfron
Site rep for Victoria Road
Terry Pound Pete Brown Gareth Davies Wynn Rowlands Gill Tizzard
Gill Tizzard
Janet Ford
Steve Davies and Mark Fleet Derek Griffiths
Gareth Davies and Helen Powell
Mike Jarvis moved that the Committee should try and fill the vacant positions. Agreed Unanimously.
7. Change to Constitution – section 4 – (Proposer – Gill Tizzard, Membership Secretary, Seconded Peter Brown, Treasurer) - Membership and Subscriptions – paragraph 3 & 4.
Currently states – Members will be required to pay an annual subscription, as set at the Annual General Meeting, on the recommendation of the Treasurer, with that recommendation being included in the agenda papers convening the meeting. This will become payable on or after first Saturday in February (the day on which the Association’s shop re-opens) and all memberships will be assumed to have lapsed, until such time as they have been renewed.
Members joining the Association on or after the 1st September will pay just 50% of the annual subscription.
Change to: - Members will be required to pay an annual subscription, as set at the Annual General Meeting, on the recommendation of the Treasurer, with that recommendation being included in the agenda papers convening the meeting. This will become payable on the anniversary of the member joining date, after which the membership will be assumed to have lapsed, until such time as it is renewed. Delete this line (Members joining the Association on or after the 1st September will pay just 50% of the annual)
Justification: - The membership Secretary has to update the National Association on a monthly basis with monthly membership numbers and details. The Association has to pay the additional membership regardless of what time of the year the member joins, plus members are now able to request goods from the shop by email at any time of the year. The membership card will be updated to show the date the
member joined and it will be the members responsibility to renew their membership annually.
This motion was carried unanimously.
Open Discussion
Gill Tizzard seconded by Steve Davies (who sends his apologies) suggests that Committee Meetings should be held in the evening (e.g., 7pm) so that people who work would be able to take an active role in Association decisions.
Following a discussion by the Meeting, as a time of 7pm in the evening enables younger members who work take an active part in the Association, the above suggestion was formalised and voted for unanimously.
WREXHAM ALLOTMENT and LEISURE GARDENERS ASSOCIATION (WALGA)
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
Held Thursday 21 November 2019
Apologies:- Wyn Rowlands, Mike Jarvis, Janet Ford, Mark Fleet, Steve Davies
Present:- Terry Pound (Chair), Pete Brown (Treasurer), Kate Bunning (Secretary), Nev Pate (Asst. Shop Buyer), Gareth Davies (Victoria Road site rep), Helen Powell (Victoria Road site rep), Monty Crowe (Prices Lane site rep), Derek Griffiths (Tanyfron site rep), Gill Tizzard, (Erddig site rep.), Tracey Pound, Dave Roberts, Mike Horsefall, Josie Dean.
1.Minutes of last AGM held 15 November 2018. Proposed as a true record – Monty Crowe, seconded – Gareth Davies
2.Matters Arising not included in Chair’s report or agenda:- none 3.Report of Chair
Terry welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave his report for the year:-
i) Thanks - Terry thanked the committee members for their efforts throughout the last year to ensure the continued success of WALGA, Nicola Ellis for her continued support on behalf of the council and lastly the allotment holders, congratulating everyone on keeping up the battle and maintaining their plots, despite issues with badgers, vandalism and rough sleepers.
ii) Annual Show - The annual show was a success as always and Terry gave special thanks to Wynn Rowlands, Show Secretary, for his efforts. Although there was a good turnout more entries are always welcomed, as is support for the event.
iii) Lottery Application - we were unsuccessful in the application for two new garages to house the shop stock, despite the submission of the very supportive results of a questionnaire filled in by everyone visiting the shop. Feedback from the Lottery Fund included insufficient evidence that the community needed another grant for the shop.
iv) Best Kept Allotment competition – judged this year by Craig Youens from Wrexham cbc in Martin Howarth’s absence and won jointly by Gill and Bruce Tizzard and Bob and Sandra Townend, both of Erddig site.
v) NGS Open Day at Erddig allotments – this was held in August and raised £350 for charity. The chair thanked Gill Tizzard as site rep and everyone else who helped make it a success. He expressed the hope that we will run another Open Day at one of the sites again soon – we have missed the deadline to open in 2020, as applications have to be in to the NGS in the August of the year prior to any opening, but the committee should consider supporting a site to open in 2021.
vi) Membership – figures provided by Gill Tizzard, with previous years given for comparison:-
2017 2018 2019 Total members 171 168 135
New members Aprox.50 Aprox.45 26 Non-renewals 39 48 55
Erddig 23 21 17 Prices Lane 96 86 82 Tanyfron 1 3 2 Victoria 14 16 11 Gardener Members 37 42 23
4. Report of Treasurer
Pete produced copies of the accounts, which show income and expenditure to be lower this year, but with satisfactory balances in hand.
5. Appointment of WALGA Committee Officers for 2020
Monty Crowe and Nev Pate are both standing down from the committee as site representatives for Price’s Lane and the chair thanked them for all the work they have put in over the years. The posts of Vice-Chair, 1 site representative for Erddig, 2 site-representatives for Price’s Lane, 2 representatives for Leisure Gardeners and a Web-site/social media advisor have all been publicised as vacant.
Janet Ford from Erddig site and Mike Fleet and Steve Davies from Price’s Lane site have volunteered as site reps., although had to send apologies for this AGM. All were formally approved tonight. Committee Officers for 2020 are therefore:-
Chair –Terry Pound to continue
Vice-Chair – continuing vacant
Secretary - Kate Bunning to continue
Treasurer (also Shop Buyer) - Peter Brown to continue. Membership Secretary – Gill Tizzard to continue
Show Secretary – Wyn Rowlands to continue
Website/Social Media Advisor – continuing vacant
Site Reps. for Erddig – Gill Tizzard to continue plus Janet Ford
Site Reps. for Prices Lane – Mike Fleet and Steve Davies
Site Rep. for Tanyfron Allotments - Derek Griffiths to continue
Site Reps for Victoria Road - Gareth Davies and Helen Powell to continue Leisure Gardener Reps. – continuing vacant
Assistant Shop Buyer - Neville Pate is willing to continue
6. Shop opening hours for 2020
Sales at the shop are satisfactory but there are periods when there have been insufficient custom to warrant the two volunteers turning out. The committee has recently been discussing the opening hours of the shop in the light of this and tonight put to the floor two proposals for change – a) that we do not open the shop on Wednesdays any more and b) that we reduce the opening hours on Saturdays. After some discussion it was decided that:-
a) the shop will no longer open on a Wednesday evening
b) the shop hours for Saturdays remain 11am – 1pm for this year, but be reviewed again at the end of the next season.
To help in the advertising of the shop, Gareth volunteered to set up a spreadsheet of shop items and prices to go onto the web-site. Dave will also put on a map of where the shop is and advertise the revised shop-opening hours.
OPEN DISCUSSION
What emerged from open discussion throughout the meeting was an agreement on the main activities for the committee this coming year, which will be:-
the regular one of the Annual show
researching and applying to different sources for money for the necessary
new shop buildings
addressing how to increase membership and participation through publicity
and advertising.
putting together the basic expectations that plot-holders expect from their
landlord, the council, together with proposals for meeting these.
It was further agreed that it was unreasonable to leave any of the above activities to be the responsibility of one sole committee member, as has tended to happen up to now. In the future, small time-limited task groups should be set up for each activity. In addition to one or more committee members, other people should be recruited to join in these small sub-groups through advertising to all WALGA members. Non- committee members who were present tonight indicated their willingness to join such individual task-and-finish groups, rather than commit themselves to a year’s worth of monthly full committee meetings.
When the committee re-convenes in January, a priority will therefore be to set up task-and-finish groups for each of the agreed activities.
The Chair thanked everyone for their participation, the meeting closing at 8.15 pm.
The next committee meeting will be on Tuesday 21 January 2020 at 4 pm
WREXHAM ALLOTMENT and LEISURE GARDENERS ASSOCIATION (WALGA)
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
Held Thursday 15 November 2018
Apologies:- None
Present:- Terry Pound (Chair), Pete Brown (Treasurer), Kate Bunning (Secretary), Mike Jarvis (Vice-chair), Nev Pate (Asst. Shop Buyer), Gareth Davies (Victoria Road site rep), Monty Crowe (Prices Lane site rep), Derek Griffiths (Tanyfron site rep), Gill Tizzard, (Erddig site rep.), Bruce Tizzard, Tracey Pound, Janet Ford, Dave Roberts, Heulwen Hughes, Mike Horsefall.
1.Minutes of last AGM held 16 November 2017. Proposed as a true record –Pete Brown; seconded – Monty Crowe
2.Matters Arising:- none 3.Report of Chair
2018 has been a year of some difficulties and changes....
The weather! .....two ‘Beasts from the East’, then a very long, hot drought
allotment plot rentals were raised by the council by 25% in April, which does
seem to have adversely affected membership
the changing personal circumstances of several Committee members meant that not all could be fully participating this year and there are vacancies on the Committee as a result, hopefully to be filled at this AGM.
The core activities of WALGA have continued to be carried out nonetheless:-
Annual Show in August – this was the first one run by the new Show Secretary Wyn Rowlands. It was very successful, with a good atmosphere and plenty of exhibits, although still not as many as hoped for from WALGA members – there is always a need for more entries and the children's section definitely could do with more entrants (so please encourage children/grandchildren!) ...having more entries all makes for a better competition.
Council liaison – The WALGA Committee has continued to provide at least one Site Representative for each of the council-run sites. The site reps have regularly accompanied the council officer Nicola Ellis on her site inspections and liaised with her by phone and e-mail on all kinds of site matters. These have included animal damage, un-worked plots, thefts and break-ins. We would make a particular plea to members to encourage everyone to use waste bays on site appropriately, only putting in the acceptable items and including filling from the back first please.
Best Kept Allotments competition. This was won by Gill and Bruce Tizzard at Erddig for the second year running. The competition was once again judged by Martin Howorth, Countryside manager at Wrexham cbc, who commented on the high standard particularly in the light of the difficult weather conditions
Opening under the NGS Open Gardens Scheme:- Erddig site rep Gill Tizzard has sounded people out on that site with regard to opening for the first time under the National Gardens Scheme next summer. Price’s Lane site has held successful open days several times under this scheme and raised several hundred pounds for the NGS’s beneficiary charities. Several Erddig plot holders expressed interest and the entry has therefore been written up and submitted to the NGS for an open afternoon on Sunday 6 August 2019. The entry will appear on the NGS website and in their ‘Yellow book’ and their regional yellow leaflets of open gardens to be published in February next year. The WALGA Committee will be working with Erddig plot-holders to be ready for that opening and all help will be gratefully received.
WALGA Shop The shop continued to open through the season until the end of September, staffed by a rota of volunteers, who are all to be thanked for their commitment. Although generally well-used on Saturdays, we did decide against opening the shop on Wednesday evenings in July this year, as it was so quiet the previous year. There has been further deterioration in the condition of the two containers at the shop site and replacement is becoming more urgent. We have been advised that for a Lottery grant (or in fact any grant), we need to provide evidence of agreement for this need from our ‘community’ ie. WALGA members. We therefore plan to devise a short questionnaire for people to fill in when they renew their membership next year and we hope you will provide this information for us so that we can apply for the grant and replace the containers, probably with two small garages.
Membership of WALGA. This is up from some past years, although there has been a slight fall from last year, possibly because of the rent increase?
Total members New members Non-renewals
Erddig
Prices Lane Tanyfron
Victoria
Gardener Members
2016 2017 154 171
45 Approx. 50 55 39
22 23 80 96 2 1
5 14 45 37
2018 168
Approx 45 48
21 86 3 16 42
The Chair thanked committee members for all their work over the past year and in particular the two committee members who are leaving the committee after several years of dedicated and professional input – Mike Jarvis and Dave Roberts.
Thanks also go to Nicky Ellis of the Wrexham cbc . We need to remember that the time allocated to her for allotments continues to be cut back, so are grateful for what she achieves for us
4. Report of Treasurer
Pete produced copies of the accounts, which show income and expenditure to be lower this year, with balances in hand very similar to 2017.
Shop - Pete reported that we have been promised that stock costs for the shop this year will be the same as last and also assured that despite news reports on the scarcity of seed potatoes, our supplier apparently has no problem. Pete did announce however, that he will not be ordering winter onions or garlic this year as hardly any were sold this last year. Also, based on low customer numbers, there will be reduced opening hours for the shop next year,– no Wednesday evening opening in July and no opening in September (ie. February–July only) - will be on web-site.
NB. Pete wished to give notice that he intends that this will be his last year as Treasurer and as Buyer for the shop. The Chair noted this and thanked Pete for his work in keeping the funds balanced and the shop well-stocked.
5. Change of time for Committee’s monthly meeting
It has been suggested that changing the monthly meeting time for the committee from 4.30 pm to later would enable more people to attend, particularly those in work and 7pm or 7.30 pm has been suggested. Tonight’s attendees agreed in principle, but it was pointed out that for workers, this potentially makes for a long day and 5.30 or 6 pm was suggested as an alternative. It was pointed out that the Tesco’s Community room may not be available at other times on our usual third Tuesday.
Agreed that the committee meet as per the current pattern for the first meeting of the coming year ie. 4.30 pm on the third Tuesday 15 January, to which we will invite the Tesco’s officer and decide together on a suitable time and trial that through 2019.
6. Appointment of Officers
The following posts have been publicised as vacant:- Vice-Chair, Membership Secretary, second site-representatives for Erddig and Victoria Road, representative for Leisure Gardeners.
Gill Tizzard has volunteered to act as Membership Secretary. No other nominations had been received to date or from the floor tonight and the other posts therefore remain vacant.
Current officers continuing in post:-
Chair
Secretary
Treasurer and Shop Buyer Assistant shop-buyer
Show Secretary
Assistant Show Secretary Web-site/Social Media Advisor Site rep for Erddig
Site reps for Price’s Lane
Site rep for Tanyfron
Site rep for Victoria Road
7. Any Other Business
Terry Pound
Kate Bunning
Pete Brown
Nev Pate
Wynn Rowlands
Heulwen Hughes
Ceri Gauterin
Gill Tizzard
Monty Crowe and Nev Pate
Derek Griffiths
Gareth Davies
i) There was a discussion about the need to attract more people into WALGA as well as onto the Committee. This has been discussed by the committee at an earlier meeting, who have agreed that in addition to meeting at a different time (as discussed above), we should devise and run a publicity drive early next year.
Agreed to run a publicity drive, with all help gratefully received, please contact committee with ideas.
ii) The committee has already acknowledged that now a new chair is in post there is a need to hold a liaison meeting with officers from Wrexham cbc. Issues from the floor tonight for discussion with them are:-
a) Rubbish bays fill up rapidly, which seems partly to do with people not taking their rubbish right to the back, but also partly due to the bays not being emptied regularly enough.
b) Is there a need for a defibrillator on each site? If so, there are questions as to training in use, cost and where to be sited.
c) one firm that delivers bark to sites leaves it scattered on the track-way.
d) There have been problems arising from alcohol abuse on sites, so could sites
be made alcohol-free zones?
e) Some members would prefer verges on sites to be strimmed more regularly.
Agreed to arrange a meeting for the chair and secretary with Wrexham cbc representatives for early next year, with agenda items to include all the above. Please contact the committee with any other items.
The Chair thanked everyone for their participation and the meeting closed at 8pm.
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