The meeting was opened by the Chairman at 10.30 a.m.

1 Present
Maurice Bates
Janet Cloke (Treasurer)
Chris Hall (Membership Secretary)
Tony Hall (WebMaster)
Patricia Moy
Janet Lucas
Les Orvis (Vice Chairman)
Russell Pollard
Jackie Tobin
Tony Stoney
Philip Ward (Plant Sales Co-ordinator)
Jenny West (Secretary)
Richard West (Chairman & Trading Secretary)

Apologies received from Tim Carr, Davis Back, Sally Friday

2 Minutes of the 2011 AGM
The minutes of the 2011 AGM were read and approved.

3 Matters Arising
Membership
The council are now giving OBAGS flyers out to all new allotment holders, Les will let us know if they need any more copies. Membership has increased this year so our vigilance on membership cards has paid off.

Publicity
Tony Stoney could not make the flyer holders for the gates due to personal circumstances. The portable poster for the end of Riley lane was never produced either. Patricia Moy offered to laminate an A3 sheet if one could be produced.

Trading Huts
The LHS trading hut has had new doors fitted and the shop has had a new front panel fitted.

Shop Stock
Non-standard items were purchased this year.

Basinga Web Site
The Basinga web-site information is now up to date.

Plant Sale
Any person now attending the Plant sale is classed as a member for that day and can buy from the shop.

Subscriptions
The subscription rate was increased for this year (from September 1st 2012) to £5.

4 Chairman’s Report
This is the end of my first year as Chairman of OBAGS.

We applied for several grants this year from Hampshire & Basingstoke councils. We were fortunate to be awarded a grant of £3,000 from Councillor Elaine Still’s Devolved Budget towards installing a toilet at the Allotment site.

Originally we planned to install either a Composting toilet or an Evaporating toilet. However, when we received quotes for these toilets the costs were around £6,000 plus VAT & groundwork etc. I have had discussions with Old Basing & Lychpit Council and they have obtained a quotation for a septic tank installation for £3,400 plus VAT.

We have subsequently discussed this with the contractor and have been told that this is the worst case costs and that he hopes that he can beat this price. Old Basing & Lychpit Council have been very helpful in this matter and we expect to be able to work with them to keep our costs to a minimum.

I would like to thank Les Orvis for his work with Old Basing & Lychpit Council on our behalf in respect of the toilet and other matters.

I have had contacts with Old Basing & Lychpit Council in respect of Allotment Inspections, site cleanliness & maintenance and site security. The feedback from Old Basing & Lychpit Council is very favourable with regard to the conditions of the allotment site – well done for all your hard work.

I have had contacts with the local Police in respect of shed burglaries etc.

I would like to thank all volunteers who helped in the shop and for all who helped with the shed tidy weekend. We had new doors fitted to the LHS shed early in the year.

Thanks also to all who donated plants and helped with the plant sale this year.

Thanks to all committee members who have worked together to keep the society and the shop running so smoothly. We are quite few and are always looking for new blood to help with organisation & ideas.

5 Secretary’s Report
Correspondence
Very little correspondence received again this year. All correspondence has been passed on to the relevant committee member as required. Much of the correspondence is by e-mail now.

Membership
A total of 73 members joined or renewed for the 2012 season, up 11 from the 2011 membership. The 73 members included 9 who took advantage of our special deal and joined during September – December 2011. (So far seven people have joined for the 2013 season since September 2012).

It is important that shop volunteers are reminded of the importance of checking that customers hold a current membership card before finalising sales. Application of this procedure during 2012 was one of the principal reasons for the increase in membership.

6 Trading Secretary’s Report
We have had another year with plenty of shop helpers, I would again like to thank all volunteers who have spent their Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings with either long queues or talking to each other. Again this year we will have around 30 helpers for the shop. There is a prospective shop helper’s schedule – please let me know if any dates are a problem for you.

The membership scheme has worked well this year with over 70 members registering. Thanks to all volunteers for their vigilance and to Tony & Chris for their hard work.

The seed orders & delivery went very smoothly again this year. Thanks to Phil for his time and organisation.

Thanks also to all who helped on this year’s shed tidy weekend. We had new doors and shed front panels fitted the week before the shed tidy so there was a lot of painting!

Prices have again been quite stable this year, again some items have reduced in price. We have again stocked organic compost & grow bags from a Cornish supplier.

If you have any products that you would like us to stock then please let me know and I will see if I can find a supplier. Also if you see any bargains – 2 for 1 or BOGOF on items that you think the shop could stock then please get them and present the receipt at the shop and get your money back.

The Social Sunday in July was rained off, unfortunately we could not find a weekend later in the year that fitted so this event was not held this year.

We had our fourth shop team ‘Harvest Home’ dinner at the Bolton Arms earlier this month. This went off very well and I think that everyone had a very pleasant evening.

7 Seed order
Philip reported that the seed order went very smoothly again this year,
The orders were again returned just in time for early November trading date.
36 members ordered seeds etc. Philip asked if more people in Old Basing could help distribution as he had to distribute all Old Basing seeds this year.
The seed order made £116.36 profit this year.

8 Publicity Report (including Website)
Publicity
Janet reported that we have again not been able to get regular entries in the Basinga. Les mentioned the council notice boards at the Recreation Ground & Lychpit Centre as possible advertisement points.

Website
The number of hits since January, 2008 has reached 4872, an increase of 1445 in the last 12 months (30% of the total).

Irene Allaway continues to send us copies of her monthly Gardening Notes and each submission is used to update the previous year’s corresponding month.

Classified Advertisement service to self-employed members: The number of businesses taking up the offer has increased to four.

There has been no movement in the recipe department.

The ability to send global emails to members without revealing third party addresses comes with our website hosting account. We are using this facility increasingly to keep members apprised of forthcoming events. It is important therefore to try and ensure that the email box on the member application form is filled in correctly, and to update any change in email address at renewal. In the current year 70% of the membership provided an email address.

9 Treasurers Report
The plant sale did extremely well and the society continues to benefit from this income. The society has insignificant interest from the bank accounts, amounting to a couple of pounds.

Membership revenue is up on the previous year and the cost of this is to rise from £4.00 to £5.00 in the forthcoming year. So it is irrelevant to comment further on this. Hopefully this rise in membership will not deter members!

The hut doors were repaired and the cost was kept to a minimum.

Saturday opening amounts for the days when the huts were open:






Overall a satisfactory year for the society as we only made a £76.45 loss after having the doors replaced.

10 Appointments of Officers
The following officers were appointed:

11 Any Other Business
2013 Plans.
Shed Inspection 24th March
Shed Tidy Weekend 13th & 14th April
Plant Sale 12th May
Social Sunday 14th July
Seed order final date 6th October
Harvest Home Dinner 1st November
2013 AGM 24th November

Society Insurance
Janet Cloke recommended that we reviewed our present insurance as the costs were increasing every year. Janet had obtained several quotes. Present insurance will be in excess of £400 Plus £150 membership.

Shield insurance will be £434 plus £150 membership.
£2.5M Public liability; £10K sheds, £500 cash

RHS as an affiliated society will be £242.
£5M Public liability; £10K sheds
Monthly RHS magazine
Annual visit to RHS garden
Advice from gardening experts
Monthly direct debit facility
And more !

The committee voted unanimously to change the insurance to RHS and to continue the subs to the NSALG for their legal protection and the seed order facility (this covers 60% of the subs anyway).

Parish Council Inspections
The parish council have asked if we could provide members to help with the allotment inspections to try to get a more balanced view of the allotment cultivation status. Maurice Bates, Tony Stoney & Jenny West volunteered.

Parish Council Partnership Evening
The Parish council has invited committee members to a cheese & wine event in the parish room on Tuesday 11th December 6:30 to 8:00 pm.

Allotment Toilet Plans
The plans for the Toilet are well advanced now. We have been unable to find a purpose built unit that did not require electricity.
The plan now is to use a metal shed (8’ * 6’) with transparent roof panels for ambient light and to fit the toilet suite inside.
The shed will cost around £300 and the toilet suite £100. General plumbing accessories possibly another hundred.
We should wait for better weather before organising the installation of the septic tank.
A pad lock with a combination code should be used.
Philip Ward suggested that as the subs had already increased by £1 and we had made savings on the insurance this year that the toilet should be included in the subs for this year until we can get a feel for the running costs.
The committee agreed that this should happen.
The shop staff should check the toilet condition each weekend and make sure that there are adequate supplies.
The pad lock combination code will be changed on the first of March each year and the combination number notified to all members.

Parish Council
Les is now a paid assistant to the council. Maurice recommended that Les should let the Chairman know of any meeting where he has a conflict of interest over allotment plans. If thought necessary the Chairman will nominate a committee member to attend the meeting.

Social Sunday
The last couple of years we have had a bar-B-Q at the allotment site. This year Jenny suggested that we have a picnic. This will save all the effort of transporting equipment to the huts. If everyone brings a different dish all dishes could be shared out like a buffet. The committee thought this a good idea and agreed to try this to see how it goes.

OBAGS Constitution
Maurice informed the committee that OBAGS constitution should be reviewed as it is possibly out of date with the current situation.

Bowls Club donation
The committee thanked Maurice Bates for arranging the venue of the Bowling Club for the AGM.

Maurice asked if a donation could be made to the Bowls Club to cover heating costs etc for the use of the club room. The committee was in full agreement and offered a £5.00 donation which was gratefully accepted.

Chairman
Vice Chairman

Treasurer
Publicity
Secretary
Membership Secretary
Trading Secretary
Asst Trading Sec
WebMaster
Seed Sale Organiser
Committee Member
Committee Member
Committee Member
Committee Member

Richard West agreed to continue as Chairman.
Les Orvis agreed to continue as Vice Chairman and council representative.
Janet Cloke agreed to stay on as Treasurer.
Janet Cloke will continue as Publicity Officer.
Jenny West will remain Secretary.
Chris Hall will continue as Membership Sec.
Richard West agreed to stay on as Trading Sec.
Tony Hall agreed to stay on as Asst Trading Sec.
Tony Hall agreed to stay on as WebMaster.
Philip Ward will continue as Seed Sale Org.
Maurice Bates
Janet Lucas
Patricia Moy
Russell Pollard