Hon.Sec & Treasurer Mr W J Bendyshe-Brown
Brambles, Skittle Green, Bledlow, Princes Risborough
Bucks HP27 9PJ Tel ~ 01844 275605
Notes of Action from
Risborough Area Business Group Annual General Meeting held at Princes
Risborough School on 13th October 2005 at 1900 Hrs
Attendees
Lance
Adlam – Hon Chairman
Bill
Bendyshe-Brown – Hon Sec & Treasurer
+
15 other members
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Item |
Topic |
Action |
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1 |
Chairman’s Opening
Remarks The
Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming everybody to this the first AGM
meeting of the RABG. |
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2 |
Apologies for Absence Apologies
had been received from Barry Clark, Paul and Richard Jeffries, Steve
Wilkinson, Ian & Jacqui Mackinson, Liz Wager, Edward Tadros, Simon
Barker, Olivia Finucane , Paul Leat, Francis Gomme, Mike and Pam Pitcher |
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3 |
Minutes of the meeting
held on 13th July 2005 (previously circulated) The Minutes were agreed as a true record. |
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4 |
Matters
arising from Minutes not already covered by the Agenda Item 4 – Links to Other External
Organisations. The Hon Sec had now reached agreement with
WDC, Bucks Economic Partnership, Chinnor & Princes Railway and Business
Link that they would join the RABG. Other organisations would be approached
in due course. Action complete Item 4 – CCTV. The Hon Sec advised the meeting that a
meeting was planned for 3rd November but that this had now been
cancelled due to sickness of the WDC officer. A new date had yet to be set. Action ongoing Item 4 – Electricity Supplies. The Chairman had made an approach the
local power supplier to improve the robustness of the power supplies to the
town and was still awaiting a response. However, |
Sec Chairman |
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5 |
Annual Statement from
Hon Chairman The
Hon Chairman gave the following statement: A little history. It had become increasingly obvious over the
last 10 years that the PR Chamber of Trade (PRCoT) had run its course, and
lack of enthusiasm from its dwindling membership to take on any Chamber jobs
left the organisation moribund. At the final meeting in April 2005, there were
3 members present, who agreed to the closure, and transfer of assets to the
new RABG. I was aware from all the planning and other
events that were going on that there was a need for a strong business voice
for the Town, to look after our interests, as well as those of the Town, and
in discussion with Bill, we decided to set up the RABG with a different focus
and mindset from the PRCoT. We had a preliminary meeting on 21st
September 2004 with a few invited guests, which demonstrated that there was
enough concern over future proposals, and enough interest to make the new
group viable, and hence we launched the RABG at our first meeting on 19th
April 2005. We have introduced a number of significant players
into our group, who are outside of our initial local businesses, but who can
provide support, and guidance in many different fields, for example : WDC,
BEP, Business From the need for a Business response voice to
outside agencies, we have also looked inward and taken account of the members
interests, with the presentations of local businesses, and the business to
business networking that is an essential part of the group dynamics, with
many businesses meeting others for the first time. So far, a busy and successful year. What of
the future? An organisation such as RABG needs a structure
and some modest funding. The amended 2nd draft of the
Constitution was circulated with the June meeting notes, and its adoption is
an agenda item today, and we will also be seeking for members to formally
make a commitment to joining, with completion of a bankers order for a modest
membership fee (see Item 8 below). If
you can please set up a bankers order with your bank for the RABG, it will
save our volunteer treasurer an enormous amount of time in chasing up
renewals. The development of our web site requires some
effort from all those who have yet to forward their details to Pam &
Mike. It is our ‘public face’ for anyone seeking to know who the members are,
or how to join. The members who do not have internet access can still have a
page on the site, with their contact details. Many of the future proposals for the Town are
now being dealt with by the new organisation : RACA on which we have
representatives on all committees, and the RACA chairman, John is a member of
RABG. Having achieved a more successful start to the
RABG than I had dared hoped for, I feel that I should now step aside and
allow the next generation of business men and women to pick up the baton, and
carry it forward. My grateful thanks to you all for helping to
realise the RABG vision, but especially to Bill for all his encouragement
help and hard work in getting the RABG up and running. A
Vote of thanks for the work the Hon Chairman had done in setting up the RABG
was proposed by Graham Wiles which was seconded by John Hughes and was
carried unanimously. |
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6 |
Annual Statement from
Hon Sec/Treasurer The
Hon Sec/Treasurer reported that the RABG had a database of 86 members which
had been produced with the great help from Business Link, in particular,
Julie Murdoch whom he would like to thank for all her help. Five meetings of
the Group had been held to-date with an additional social evening having been
held in August. The Hon Sec/Treasurer thanked the Princes Risborough Upper
School for the use of their facilities free of charge which helped the
balance sheet of the Group. RisBiz had been set up as a focal point for sole
and local traders in the town, on the initiative of Liz Wager. As both
organisations had similar objectives RisBiz had agreed to amalgamate with the
RABG but, on the proviso that 3 social evenings should be held each year in
lieu of formal RABG meetings. These had been agreed to be held in August,
December and April. The
Hon Sec/Treasurer also produced a balance sheet for the Group, a copy of
which is attached to these Minutes. He talked members through the figures. A
sum of £3,500 had been transferred from the defunct PRCoT account to RABG.
To-date £594.61 had been spent, most The
Hon Sec/Treasurers Report was proposed by Carl Etholen and seconded by Lance
Adlam and was unanimously accepted by the members. |
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7 |
Adoption of
Constitution The
Hon Chairman presented the draft RABG Constitution which had been through 2
iterations and now needed to be ratified by the AGM. Although there were some
minor amendments to be made, such as the number of officers, he emphasised
that it was a living document which would require review/amendment each year.
However, he was happy with it in its current form and recommended it to the
AGM for ratification. The
formal acceptance of the Constitution was proposed by Carl Etholen and
seconded by Julie Murdoch and was unanimously accepted by the members. |
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8 |
Agreement of
Membership Fee The
Chairman reported that there had been considerable discussion in advance of
the meeting over whether to charge a membership fee or not and, if so, at
what level to pitch it at. He had been in favour of charging an annual fee of
£20. However, the Hon Sec/Treasurer had felt that as there was sufficient
funds in the account, emphasis should be on gaining more membership and not
charging a membership for at least the first year. After
lengthy discussion it was proposed by Martyn Thomas and seconded by Peter
Keen that a membership fee of £10 should be charged. This was unanimously
accepted by members. |
All |
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9 |
Election of RABG
Officers The
following officers were elected for the forthcoming year: ·
President - Lance Adlam ·
Chairman - Graham Wiles ·
Secretary - Pam Pitcher ·
Treasurer - Bill Bendyshe-Brown ·
RACA
Members: o
Economic - Peter Keen o
Transport - Graham Wiles o
Community
& Housing - Heather Brown o
Environment - Youssef Safir ·
Social
Secretary - Heather Brown ·
PR
Member - Carl Etholen ·
Press
Officer - Paul Jeffries Nomination
forms duly proposed and seconded were held by the Hon Sec/Treasurer. |
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10 |
Business Update The Hon Sec/Treasurer advised the meeting that
consultants had now been appointed to undertake the Risborough 2035 study and
that they would be at the RACA public meeting on 19th October.
They were David Lock Associates who had undertaken a similar study for the
High Wycombe Town Master Plan. A Press Release had been put out for this AGM
and 3 members of the RABG had telephoned those members on the RABG database
to remind them of the meeting. In addition The Hon Sec/Treasurer had
distributed a flyer to most of the businesses in the Town to let them know of
the meeting. The general response was that they were pleased that the RABG
was going ahead but that they could not make this meeting but to keep them
informed of developments. The Chairman of RACA, John Hughes gave an
update of developments in his area. There was encouraging news on several
projects and he encouraged as many members as possible to attend the public
meeting on 19th October where important developments and the
forward programme would be discussed. Heather
Brown gave a briefing on the Tourism South East workshop evening held on 5th
October where some 11 RABG members and other community leaders had been present
with the aim of looking at the possibility of improving the economic vitality
of the town through tourism. The workshop was hosted by Peter Heath, and was
an exercise designed to find out if local businesses wanted to develop
visitor numbers and, if so, how the town could be marketed. The
Consultant felt that the tone of the meeting was considerably more positive
than many towns he has worked in even though Risborough did not have a
history of tourism nor a single “honey pot” attraction that made the marketing
strategy obvious. However,
the many attractions of the area were discussed; historical sites, beautiful
scenery, woodworking and furniture traditions and unique wildlife, including
of course the Red Kites. Francis Gomme’s proposal to “join up” the local
attractions into a cohesive visitor package that could be summarised as the
Chiltern Experience was well received by the meeting and a commitment was
made by many of the attendees to support a local action group. It was agreed
that much of the work would cross-cut into areas already being looked at by
existing RACA groups, so strong links with these groups would be needed to
prevent duplication of effort. The project would be presented for local
residents to have their say at the RACA public meeting on Wednesday 19th
October. |
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11 |
RACA Action Group
Reports: Economic. The first meeting was
planned for 16th November with Peter Keen as Chairman. The
preparations for this section of the RACA public meeting were being handled
by Francis Gomme.. Transport. Graham Wiles advised the meeting that much
Community
& Housing. Heather had attended her first meeting on
16th September where there were a lot of old issues being
discussed. They were lobbying for affordable housing and a youth council with
a youth strategy being developed. Full details would be provided at the RACA
public meeting on 19th October. Environment. Youssef Safir was not at the meeting so no
feedback was provided. |
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12 |
Web Page
Update The new web page was live and links had been
established with other web sites in the area – including organisations such
as Business Link and WDC. It was again emphasised by Carl Etholen that
members needed to complete their pages for input of their details onto the
site. |
All |
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13 |
Any Other The
Hon Chairman announced that the Christmas function would be held on 15th
December at the Bowls Club. It was agreed that partners would be invited and
that the meal should be a hotpot which would be provided by Heather Brown.
However, she required numbers and the Secretary was tasked with contacting
members to obtain this information. An
incident had occurred on the Tuesday prior to the AGM with several members of
the RABG who had attended a pre-meeting and were then confronted by local
youths in the Market Square. Other incidents were reported by members, one
being that local business guests had reported that they had felt intimidated
by groups of youths and had not felt safe to get out of their vehicles to go
to local restaurants. It was agreed that the new Chairman should write to the
Police to report the disquiet felt by the RABG and to call for some concerted
action to be undertaken. The
Secretary again announced that he had arranged for the November meeting a
presentation of recycling policy and requirements for businesses in the
Risborough area. WDC officers would be in attendance as would a member from
the Corporate Environmental Advisory Centre (CEAC) based in High
Wycombe, and Grundon’s the refuse collection company who was a leading
company in recycling. There
was concern expressed about the wheel clamping being undertaken in the George
and Dragon car park where some people had been fined over £350 to obtain
release. It was agreed to monitor the activity and to discuss the issue
further at the next RABG meeting. |
Sec Chairman Sec |
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14 |
Date for Next Meeting The next meeting would, therefore take
place on Thursday, 17th November at Princes Risborough School at 7
pm. |
All |
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19 October 2005
18
October 2005
W J
Bendyshe-Brown
Hon
Membership Sec & Treasurer RABG
Risborough
Area Business Club Balance Sheet – October 2005
|
Income |
£ |
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Expenditure |
£ |
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Transfer
from Chamber of Trade |
3,500.00 |
|
Hire
of Community Centre Hall |
21.00 |
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Web
Page |
111.63 |
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Drinks |
183.85 |
|
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Food |
278.13 |
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Total |
3,500.00 |
|
Total |
594.61 |
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Surplus/(Deficit) |
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2905.39 |
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13 October 2005
W J
Bendyshe-Brown
Hon
Membership Sec & Treasurer RABG