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OBAGS Annual General Meeting 29 November

The AGM is due to be held this coming Sunday but we have long known that this was not going to take place in person and now we know that there is a lockdown in place as well. In addition, we have already taken the decision to ‘hibernate’ until the end of March next year. The likelihood is that we won’t be able to re-open normally until sufficient of the population has been vaccinated to provide an appropriate level of herd immunity. In short, we are not currently in a position to plan or make any decisions about OBAGS shop or future activities.

Accordingly, we intend to call a Special General Meeting next year as soon as our future path becomes clear, to conduct essentially the second half of a normal AGM, including election/re-election of committee members.

For now we are restricting ourselves to the first half of our AGM comprising reports of this year’s activities, set out below.

Secretary/Membership Secretary Report


In this unusual year we have, from 17 March, had to cancel all our usual activities. We continue to be insured by the RHS and have our discount entry card to RHS gardens. We are also continuing to use the Suttons seeds discount scheme which has been a useful income stream this year. (see Treasurer’s Profit & Loss Account). The first allotment inspection of 2020 was during the first lockdown and was conducted by Stephen Richards, the Groundsman. I attended the Summer inspection but was unavailable for the last one in September. Covid restrictions have seriously affected OBAGS activities, but on the up-side I have never seen the allotments looking so good.

A total of 47 members joined or renewed for the 2020 season, including 6 who took advantage of our special deal and joined during September – December 2019. Reconciliation between the number of application forms filled in or updated and the number of membership cards issued showed no discrepancies. In October it was agreed that these 47 members would have their memberships extended until 31 December 2021. In addition, the 83 people on the membership group email list have been given the Suttons discount code which will be valid until the end of August 2021.


Chris Hall

Trading Report


Our trading period for this financial year extended from 3rd November 2019 until 15th March 2020, ending just before the first lockdown. This should have been 8 opening days, but one was lost due to gale force winds in February. During these 7 openings we managed to achieve a turnover of £387.80, yielding a gross profit of £72.10. Thank you to those volunteers who took part in these openings and also to all members who volunteered this year. If you refer to Les Orvis’ Profit & Loss Account you will see that there were only two purchases, our usual top-up in January to avoid price increases on 1st February and a purchase of Jack’s Magic A/P the previous October. Since there was little opportunity to sell much of this stock, the stocktake closing balance is unusually high this year. During the stocktake I am pleased to report that the stock remains safe and sound save for an open bag of Lawn Weed Feed/Moss that sustained water damage via a leak in the roof at the rear of the shop. This accounts for the £8.64 write off. All other stock in that area has been shifted out of the way. You will note that our income from Sutton’s seed discount was very good this year at £100.46 which has been a large contribution towards our net profit of £180.41 and was instrumental in the decision to provide the current code to the wider membership.


Tony Hall

Treasurer’s Report


I have prepared the final draft P&L account for the year ended the 31st October 2020.

Once we are allowed to meet together, I shall produce a set of accounts, Balance Sheet and P&L, which will cover the period from the 1/11/2019 to whatever date in 2021 we decide on, which could well be the 31/10/2021, ie a 2 year period.


Profit & Loss Account 2019/2020


Les Orvis

Minutes of AGM 24th November, 2019


The draft minutes of last year’s AGM for 2018/2019 can be found here:


AGM Minutes 2019