The club has had a very good year of flowers and friendship over the past year and our membership has grown steadily, our demonstrators have as usual given us all great entertainment with their flowers and designs and humour.
The year was rounded off at our Open Evening with 120 people coming along to see the magic of Gill McGregor, and the Club did a wonderful buffet for everyone to have before the demonstration commenced.
At our AGM in February 38 members attended and we had a lovely meal which Fairways Catering of Littleport provided before the actual AGM commenced.
The President of the Club, Louise Richards, took this meeting and thanked everyone for attending. Louise went on to thank the Committee for their hard work and for her three years as President getting through difficult times. The Treasurer Helen Fordham gave her report and said what a good year we had had, and that she would not be asking for the membership fee to be increased this year, but would look at it again before the next AGM.
Carol Weyman the Chair, in her report, said that it had been a good year for everyone and she had enjoyed her first year as Chair, she thanked all of her Committee for their continued efforts and all members for their support. She thanked the President Louise for all her contributions over the past three years as President and all the support she had shown to her in her first year as Chair. Susan Taylor was stepping back from the Committee after 4 years of commitment to the Club and Carol thanked her also. Carol then gave Louise and Susan gift vouchers in appreciation of all that they had done.
The Committee were then voted on en bloc for the following year. Carol emphasised the need for more people to join the Committee and hoped that they would give some thought to this.
Due to the Coronavirus our May meeting with Tim Meakin was cancelled and the decision was made to cancel all meetings until June when it would be reviewed.
The Chair and Committee look forward to seeing all the members back at our meetings whenever this might be.
15th May Update
Since putting my previous report into the Magazine things have moved on considerably in regard to the Coronavirus and at a Zoom Committee Meeting last Friday on a majority vote it was decided with great regret to cancel all meetings until 2021.
This was a very difficult decision to make in view of all the changes happening at the present time by the Government. The Club made this decision with the health of all Club Members and Demonstrators uppermost in our decision. It would be very difficult to do social spacing at a normal Club evening, let alone the Open Evening, which as you know can bring in over 100 visitors. We had already taken the decision to cancel all Demonstrators up to October, and realised it was going to be very difficult to begin to organise an Open Evening. We all know how much hard work goes into this with Members helping to organise a wonderful Buffet. We must also take into consideration the fact that the Village Hall is closed indefinitely.
As we did not have the Membership night in March, we of course at the present time have no Members in place. We hope that when everything is opened up in the New Year that you will all be returning for another wonderful year of flowers and friendship. A full year’s Programme has already been arranged for 2021, with old favourites and new Demonstrations already under Contract to come.
Our Chair Carol Weyman will be putting out a letter to all Members in which she will explain our decision. Carol will also be asking for everyone’s vote on us having a Demonstrator in January, which is a month we do not normally meet, followed in February by our AGM. We are not sure whether there will be a meal with this at the present time for obvious reasons. March will be the start of our new year of Membership.
The Chair and Committee hope you will understand this decision and wish you all good health and please keep safe in these difficult times.