Brentford Chamber AGM at Hock Cellar May 2010

There were over 40 members and guests present.

Peter Hughes, President, welcomed everybody to the Hock Cellar and thanked our two hostesses for providing warm Fuller’s hospitality and a well attended brewery tour.

Apologies were received from Mary Macleod, Andy Ward, Brian Burgess, Allan Cooper, Jennifer Corbin, Andrew Wright, Mary Spice, Janet McNamara, Denise Colliver, Lynn Scrivener and Leslie Feore.

Minutes of the AGM – 12th May 2009 were proposed by Donald Kerr, seconded by Tim Luckett and approved with the one amendment that while an increase in membership fees was discussed, it wasn’t voted on.

There were no Matters Arising from the Minutes.

President’s Report

Peter Hughes reminded us that the Chamber is very successful at the fun, social aspect of meetings, but we also need to have purpose to meetings so that business benefits directly from it as well.

Last year saw the following meetings:

• AGM at Fullers last year 12th May
• Watermans Arts Centre joint meeting with Brentford Community Council as strategy workshop looking at High Street, with Andrew Dakers speaking on behalf of High Street Steering Groups, thanks to Jan Lennox for hosting this
• Syon Park dig and picnic in July organised by Leslie Feore
• 6th September Brentford Festival tombola to raise funds for charity and to raise profile of Chamber. Leisure, tourism and sport have become a more significant part of Brentford’s economy and it is important that the business sector supports all the voluntary groups which bring people to town and raise the profile of Brentford. Congratulations to Linda Massey (and nice to see her here tonight) and Jan Jones for organising
• 13th Oct at Heidelberg was a pre-election debate with Ruth Cadbury standing in for Ann Keen, Andrew Dakers and Mary Macleod. Important to develop links with local politicians so that the Chamber can have a voice on planning issues as well as other matters. We need to help continue the momentum forward for Brentford. Thanks to Jennifer Corbin and Heidelberg for lavish spread of food and drink that was much appreciated by all.
• Carol concert very enjoyable but with disappointing turn out. This was partly due to poor publicity and a number of other Christmas events so either need to do better or join forces with another Christmas event. Please get in touch if you have views on this.
• 16th Feb at the Hive, Brentford FC with presentation by Community Sports Trust and guests from the world of leisure, sports and tourism, creating useful links.
• Holiday Inn on 30th March, a workshop that was a bit cerebral, looking at rebranding of Chamber including looking at website, raising profile. If 27,000 people work in Brentford we need to be bigger.
• In March we hosted the parliamentary hustings at St Paul Church, with over 200 people, with main PPC, except Ann Keen. A good and hopefully enlightening evening that served the community well.

Can we show our appreciation to Eileen Henderson for the 9 years she has worked for the Chamber and propose that we offer honorary membership of the Chamber, seconded by Donald Kerr and approved with much applause by all.

Peter then welcomed the new secretary, already known to many, and gave her flowers to thank her for first few months.
Peter thanked the outgoing Executive for working diligently throughout the year; thank the membership for ‘bums on seats’, having a healthy attendance is very important to vitality of organisation. Chamber has more of an open door policy in inviting visitors. Both so they can visit before joining, but also for networking opportunities..

The next year will see the following meetings:

• Hopefully we can get Mary Macleod to the next meeting at Audi, although it cannot be on a Tuesday due to the House sitting late. Golden Mile businesses will be invited.
• Picnic in July
• Sep Brentford Festival
• Oct GSK
• Nov Heidelberg
• Dec Carol Concert

If you wish to suggest a topics for Oct/Nov then please do.

Treasurer’s Report
Brian Johnson has submitted the Financial Statement to the auditors, which shows us having a net surplus of just under £1,600. He pointed out that we have reduced membership income compared to last year, and very few paying the small extra charge for live links on the website and encouraged people to join up for this and to do what we can to find new members. Our costs are kept to a minimum.

Peter Hughes proposed approval of the Statement, was seconded by Tim Luckett and approved by the members.

Secretary’s Report
Kath Richardson, Secretary said she was very happy to take up the role of Secretary and thanked her predecessor Eileen Henderson for her many years of commitment to the Chamber, both as Secretary and as an active member of the Executive. She also thanked the retiring executive Council and said she’d look forward to implementing the plans for the Chamber over the coming years with the new council. She thanked the members for the warm welcome.

All Council Executive Members retired

Nominations for Election to Executive Council: The following nominations had been received and were approved. The Officers elected are:

President – Peter Hughes
Vice-President – Andy Ward and Donald Kerr
Treasurer – Brian Johnson
Council Members – Suzie Betlem, Jennifer Corbin, Tim Luckett, Helen Martin, Julia Quilliam, Brian Sawyer, John Simnett, Will Tyler
Election of Auditor – Joe Bourke was re-elected
Election of Solicitors – Stephen Ingalls of Vickers & Co was re-elected

PH welcomed the three new members to the Executive: Will Tyler, Suzie Betlem and Helen Martin

Adoption of Charity: the choice between the Musical Museum (802011) on which Peter Hughes spoke and the Brentford School Charitable Trust (1100962). Julia Quilliam explained that the leader of this Trust, Marianne Gilbert was (another) one of Brentford’s unsung heroes who was currently organising a garden project with the students, growing vegetables, and looking at green issues involved.

Tim Luckett counted the vote which was 12 for the Musical Museum and 15 for the Brentford School Charitable Trust so the latter was selected as our charity for the year. Peter Hughes reminded us all that the tombola at the Brentford Festival was the main fundraising event so please could people supply prizes, preferably alcoholic.

Amendments to Rules
It is proposed that the fees be increased as below so that the standard membership includes what was formerly known as ‘enhanced listing’ on the website
Funds raised will go towards developing a new website and modernising the Chamber as per the attached document ‘modernising Chamber’ further to our workshop. It should be noted that this membership increase was agreed at last year’s AGM but not carried out.

23 for, none against – motion carried

It is proposed that the number of Honorary members according to the Rule 2(b) should be raised from 6 to 12 with current Honorary
Members being:
Sidney Atkins – past President Richard Hurst, Accountants at Work – past Treasurer Allan Cooper – website contribution Janet McNamara, Hounslow Heritage – historical contribution Jocelyn Tibbles – past Secretary Gerry Armitage – long term contribution to relationship with GSK Brian Wilson – past President Ken Solomons – past President
Eileen Henderson – past Secretary

Carried unanimously

It is proposed that a Definition of Free members to be included in the Rules as 2 (c) “Free members are those who receive annual membership in exchange for services rendered to the Chamber during the same year.”

It should be noted that Free members are: Joe Bourke – in exchange for audits Garth Buckle, Hounslow Education Business Partnership – in exchange for support Mary Spice, St Paul’s Church – in exchange for free meeting places Roy Branch, Brentford Business Watch – in exchange for Chamber membership of BBW (new) Stephen Browne, Brentford Community Council – in exchange for Chamber membership of BCC (new)

Carried unanimously

The following motion was not sent out with the AGM paperwork but follows on from the previous motions so if the membership is willing to vote on it:

It is proposed Rule 5 should be changed to reflect the above (with changes in italics) from “Prospective members (and honorary members) shall be proposed and seconded by two members and confirmed at a Council meeting.” to “Prospective members (and honorary or free members) shall be proposed and seconded by two members and confirmed at a Council meeting and then ratified by the members at the AGM.”

Carried unanimously

Any Other Business
Friday 21st Brentford TW8 meet up at Magpie with councillors past, present and unelected. All welcome

Saturday 22nd Brentford May Fayre in St Paul’s Rec 12-4pm Food, stalls etc. please come along.

Donald Kerr announced Community Mark award for Brentford FC. Business in the Community have introduced kite mark for community engagement, which has a very rigorous procedure to ensure that a company actually has the engagement it talks about. There are now only 35 companies who have the Community Mark, http://www.bitc.org.uk/community/communitymark/communitymark_companies/index.html 4 of whom are in Brentford, 3 members of the Chamber which shows how Brentford is blazing the trail for others to follow ( BFC, Octink, GSK and B SkyB ).
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New Members: Suzie Betlem, Jan Riley, Helen Martin, Stephen Browne, Roy Branch, Kim Gottlieb

Speakers: Ian McDonald of http://www.spa-ltd.co.uk/ His speech is summarised separately.