Report of AGM held in November 2010
Never miss the annual meeting. I did last year and ended up as secretary. At the end of my first year as secretary I am just beginning to realise the amount of work that previous incarnations have done on our behalf. In particular thank you very much Trish.
Apart from the fact that our January Meeting had to be cancelled because of the snow I have managed to survive without any other major disasters. Our annual tea day in the Boathouse when we raised £554.50, our dinner at The Horse Shoes and our outing to Manderston have come and gone without any mishap. The cancer Coffee Morning was a great success and raised £672.18. This was split equally between hospices in Alnwick and Seahouses. The wonderful help and support of my fellow institute members has made this all possible.
I think the highlight of year has to have been the March meeting. This was new venture in that it was an open meeting held jointly with Howick WI in order to allow us to have a more expensive speaker. I think we were all agreed that Mark and Mandy French from the Falconry Centre near Wark were worth it. We will never forget the way the tawny owl enthusiastically accompanied the singing of Jerusalem and consistently reminded us of its presence until it had its turn to perform. All monies were split equally between Craster and Howick and contributions from visitors and the raffle meant the event was financially worthwhile and the whole evening was pronounced a resounding success.
The variety of our programme is illustrated by the fact that our speakers have also included a demonstration of ballroom dancing, a former engineer speaking about the work he does trying to get people to eat healthily, chocolate tasting and a musical evening provided by our local vicar.
Other innovations this year include more additional outings. These have included the chance to have afternoon tea at Doxford Hall, a Travelsure trip to Melrose as well as the addition of a family barbeque. The barbeque was such a success that we have already repeated it. Many thanks must go to our President Rosemary Gibbs for allowing us to hold it in the grounds of the Bogie. Our latest day out was a trip to Beamish museum in October. We particularly relished the opportunity to look behind the scenes.
I cannot end this report without mentioning our banner. I believe it looks even better in its new stand than it did before. With the support of the committee I am looking forward to the challenges of my second year in office. Craster WI may be small in numbers but we do like to make the most of opportunities presented to us.
Meeting Reports |
