There was a good attendance at the AGM held on Saturday, 13 October at the Harry Jensen Centre, including Suzi who had just returned from Greece and Christena with her brand new knee. Sadly there was a list of apologies that almost matched the attendance in length! Two people were in culture mode and had tickets for a matinee at the Opera House and another was booked for Opera in the Vineyards in the Hunter Valley that evening. Unfortunately our Secretary Julia was ill and unable to attend.
Chairperson Judith welcomed everyone, apologies were noted and past minutes approved and signed. Judith summed up the past year in her report, and Treasurer Judy then presented her annual report. Kevin read Julia’s report, thanking her fellow committee members for their work during the year, all members and friends for their support and enthusiastic attendance at the conference in Mittagong – and requesting the help of more volunteers. Judy read Dorothea’s analysis of a very successful year with our website, thanking those who had contributed items (the usual suspects, plus welcome contributions from Sally Henshaw of the Midlands East Branch, Annette Carson and Barbara Gaskell Denvil).
The current committee stood down and Electoral Officer Margaret Shaw declared all positions vacant, and the election proceeded. There was discussion on finding more people to help with the many duties of the Secretary. Rosemary offered to be Social Secretary as well as Tea Convenor and the incoming committee would discuss other positions and personnel at their next meeting.
All those nominated and seconded were elected without dissent, and Margaret was thanked for her work and presented with a small gift.
Kevin Herbert was our speaker for the afternoon and provided us all with a great collection of notes to follow his well-researched talk on the Dukes of Norfolk who have played a considerable role in English history.
This was well received and after questions and answers, a member of the South Australia Branch who was an unexpected visitor, spoke to us about the AGM in the UK. She also wanted to let us know about the dig in Leicester in case we didn’t know about it. She must have been quite surprised to learn that we were already well informed, thanks to the general publicity in local and international media, Dorothea’s research and the numerous messages from our UK contacts and friends. In turn, we were quite surprised to learn that a member of another Australasian Branch with internet access hadn’t yet managed to find our increasingly popular website.
The meeting as usual ended with the raffle draw and afternoon tea and a reminder to look forward to our special December meeting when Judy was scheduled to tell us about the Triennial Conference in the UK, Isolde and Julia would entertain with something probably fairly disrespectfully Ricardian. As usual there would be a lighthearted test of our Medieval Historical knowedge (prizes!) before our Christmas tea.
As I was unable to attend, my special thanks go to Judith and Kevin, who provided the information for the above.
Tags: John Howard, NSW Branch, Richard III